Keep in mind before you buy a timeshare

Timeshare vacation plans have been around in the U.S. since 1969 — the first opened in Kauai, Hawaii — and they generated $8.6 billion in annual sales in 2015, up 9% from a year ago, according to the American Resort Development Association, or ARDA, which represents many timeshare developments.

For some people, timeshares are a good option, and about one out of every 12 Americans (7.9%) owned one in 2014, up from 7.2% in 2012, ARDA says. Timeshares can guarantee you vacation time since they often come with fixed annual dates for right-of-use. On top of that, timeshare resorts typically offer larger accommodations (often two bedrooms or more) and more in-room amenities, such as kitchens and washing machines, than a hotel room. Timeshare owners can also “exchange” their shares for accommodations at other resorts around the world.

ARDA says that the image of timeshare owners as elderly seniors playing shuffleboard has changed too, with timeshare owners becoming younger and more ethnically diverse with a median age of 39 for owners, and more than 40% of U.S. owners either African-American or Hispanic. Nearly three-quarters of owners have college degrees and 23% have graduate degrees, and have a median income of nearly $95,000, ARDA says.

Timeshares have also been huge profit centers for hotel companies. Before it agreed to be bought by Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott MAR, +0.83%  , Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide had sold more than $6 billion in vacation timeshare properties to more than 220,000 owners over the past 30 years.

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Shortly before the merger with Marriott, Starwood planned to spin off its timeshare business with more than $923 million in annual revenue as a separate company to be known as Vistana, but it was bought by Miami-based Interval Leisure Group US:IILG for $1.5 billion in October 2015. Interval Leisure Group said in the announcement it had more than 280,000 timeshare owners and annual revenue of more than $670 million.

But timeshares are also associated with high-pressure sales tactics that get mocked relentlessly in pop culture and they’re often sold at a loss when it comes time to unload one. Plus, they come with annual maintenance fees that can easily top several thousand dollars and which often increase each year whether you use the timeshare or not.

“You were told to close the deal and tell them whatever you had to tell them,” said Dana Micallef, a former timeshare salesman who spent a week in 2000 in Orlando selling before quitting in what he said was disgust at the process. “Dress it up (as an investment) and promise them world that they can resell it, when the chances of selling it are slim to none.”

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Micallef, 40, now runs a company called American Consumer Credit in Ormond Beach, Fla. which he started in 2004 to help people get out of their timeshare obligations. Now that he’s on the other side of the table, he “was finally able to tell (timeshare owners) the truth,” he said.

Here are some things experts say to keep in mind before you buy a timeshare:
Don’t pay full price

Like most real-estate transactions (even hotel stays), the price is usually negotiable. Timeshare initial prices typically average almost $16,000. The timeshare industry likes to point out that over a 20-year period, a family of four could save over $25,000 on accommodations by staying in a timeshare compared with what they would pay for hotel stays.

Nevertheless, considering how many options you have when it comes to vacations, you’ve got the leverage when it comes to price. As such, timeshare companies like to offer free gifts like dinners and show tickets, or free “try-it-out” rentals to prospective buyers.

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Andy Doran, a now 44 year-old scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. recalls taking a timeshare company up on its offer for a free Las Vegas vacation if he and his fiancée attended a presentation across the Bay from their Berkeley home in Burlingame, a San Francisco suburb. “It was a traumatic couple of hours of hard, hard, hard sell,” he said in an interview. “We managed to exit with the coupon and no timeshare but we never cashed it in,” he said.

Often the “hard-sell” approach from some timeshare companies is because they have so much competition and sales and marketing costs are so high, sometimes as high as 55%, says Gary Prado, director of marketing and business development for RedWeek.com, a timeshare sales and rental site. “The reason why timeshares continually get mocked is the way they get sold,” he said. “People don’t go out and say ‘I want to buy a timeshare today’, it’s sold as a heavy impulse buy,” he said.

Moreover, single site resorts have to spend more to attract buyers than name brands like Marriott (which recently bought the Starwood brands), Hyatt and Hilton. “We’re a sold good, not a sought good,” said Howard Nusbaum, the president of ARDA says. “People love the product but hate the (sales) process.”

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Micallef, however, disagrees, saying his experience is that about eight of every 10 clients he sees looking to unload their property have actually never used their timeshare.