Advantages and drawbacks of timeshare

From a social-economic point of view, timeshare offers various advantages:

1. many people dream of having their own holiday place, but are confronted by financial hurdles. Timeshare makes this dream accessible to many people;

2. fixed charges linked to secondary homes are shared among timeshare owners;

3. long term periods where holiday accommodations go unoccupied are avoided.

Timeshare itself is not a dangerous holiday option, but it is an area where many problems remain. These problems exist mainly because of the fact that in many European countries, sales representatives and developers are not subjected to any rules governing access the to the profession, contrary to the situation for travel agents, for instance. Belgium is, at the moment, the only country where sales representatives need to be officially registered. Here are a few examples of dubious sales practices:

1. some sales representatives do not hesitate to make misleading advertising, portraying timeshare as a financial investment opportunity or as providing full ownership rights;

2. sales practices are sometimes aggressive (telemarketing techniques linked to false contests, lotteries, or surveys; winning a trip; a sale following-on from a demonstration in a luxury hotel, or an on-site excursion; requiring large deposits etc.);

3. sales brochures are often very brief, and overlook the legal nature of the acquired rights, the fact that it is very difficult to verify the quality of the accommodation, additional annual expenses, transport or travelling expenses, the sales representative's inventory of possible accommodation and availability of weeks (for example in the form of points), etc.;

4. it may happen that exchanging or selling the timeshare is difficult, even impossible, because either the residence or the period are not very attractive;

5. the latest fraud consists of dishonest companies contacting the owners of a timeshare promising to find or claiming to have found a purchaser for the week that they have, sometimes while asking to acquire a new timeshare (a technique called: «buy-sell»). Some also promise to resell the timeshare at an unrealistic price. Generally, the promise is not held or the consumer is faced with a large financial loss.