An upside to timeshares too

“Time to Sell Your Share?” by Karen E. Klein, April 4, was excellent, but the overall picture seemed bleak. There are bargains to be had, as mentioned at the end of the piece.

When I retired in ‘86, I paid $15,000 to the developer for a four-week package in Palm Springs, which included unlimited bonus time there and in cabins near Lake Arrowhead, as well as places at Lake Tahoe and on Maui.

Although the price paid was too high, as a retiree with much travel time available, I’ve made good use of my ownership, in the U.S. as well as at lovely resorts worldwide. I rent out some of my weeks each year to pay most of the fees and still have some to trade, and also use bonus time.

When I remarried three years ago, my wife and her son bought another four-week package identical to mine for about one-fourth of what I had paid, so we now have enough for the entire family. We spent a week last October in a lovely three-bedroom villa at Lake Tahoe on bonus time for which we paid only a $35 cleaning fee, and we leave in a few days for a month in England, where we’ll spend a week at each of two timeshare resorts there for a $149-a-week trading fee.

Robert Crawford

Venice

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The article on timeshares and how their hype rarely lives up to reality really hit a chord with me. I have three of them and am continually frustrated by how difficult the exchange process is.

Suzanne Frey

Lake Forest

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I bought my unit in 1981. When I moved away from my home unit, I started exchanging. I’ve been to London, White Mountains of New Hampshire, New Orleans twice, the Lawrence Welk Resort Villas in Escondido, Hawaii twice and the California Coast six times. I never had an unsatisfactory unit.

I have enjoyed and used my timeshare for 22 years.

Alice Grabenstatter

Newhall

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