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Author:
Holly Day

Owning a timeshare used to mean traveling to the same resort, at the same time, year after year. No more! That concept of timeshare is now outdated. Thankfully, timeshares are increasingly more hip to the needs of today's customers, who want more flexibility and variety from their vacations.
Whether you want to turn your vacation week into 2 or 3 trips, visit other resorts throughout the globe, go on boat cruises through the Caribbean or Alaska, take advantage of numerous vacation offerings or simply extend your vacation stay, today's timeshares can easily match your vacation style.
Many properties provide these benefits, so we'd like to share some of this information with you. Please look it over. The more informed you become, the better your vacation! Whether you're a seasoned timeshare owner or a prospective first-time buyer, here's a smattering of the types of timeshare benefits you can discover:
Vacation Points "Getaways" Fractional Timeshares Multiple Vacation Resorts Floating vs. Fixed Time
Vacation Points--- Instead of offering fixed one-week vacation increments, points programs such as RCI Points provide members increased flexibility and diversity. With vacation points, members have the added freedom of reserving partial weeks into several two, three or four night increments at different resorts throughout the club's network. RCI's Points program gives members access to more than 3,700 resorts worldwide.
The amount of points you use per vacation depends upon the resort, the size of the unit, the season and the number of nights you stay. Based upon the amount of points you own, you choose when you're going to travel, where you want to stay, how many rooms you'll need and for how long.
Locations can be anywhere in the world from Egypt, Morocco, Brazil, Costa Rica, France and Israel or right at your own backdoor. Resorts also vary from Colorado's breathtaking mountain views to Florida's sandy beaches, and many more luxurious and exotic places. With points, the variety of your vacations is endless. You can even use RCI points on anything from airline tickets and rental cars to theme park admission.
Getaways--- Maximize your vacations without even exchanging your existing timeshare weeks! Here's a nice feature of timeshare ownership! When you buy a resale timeshare you may already know that you're eligible to join exchange companies like RCI or Interval International (II), which allow you to deposit your home resort week for weeks at other resorts throughout the world. But did you know that these exchange companies also offer timeshare owners "getaway" deals throughout the year? You simply buy these getaways from the exchange companies without exchanging your week. If you're eager for some extra vacations, on a short-term notice, you might discover anything from a week at the Marriott's Grand Vista in Orlando for $199 to a three day getaway in the Poconos. II allows you to take up to 12 getaways a year and RCI has no limit.
Fractional Timeshares --- Extend your stay in paradise! Sometimes it's possible to purchase 12 weeks at a particular resort. The quarter rotates from year to year. As an owner, you can stay longer at a place you love, rent out any surplus weeks, bank the extra weeks with an exchange company to use for stays at other resorts, or do a combination of them all.
Multiple Vacation Resorts (Non-points)--- This type of ownership is like owning at 7 or more resorts and you can travel between them without the need of an exchange company! Or, if you like, you can use RCI or II and exchange to properties that aren't affiliated with your club! At any time, we have multiple vacation resorts within our inventory and each has its finer points. Perennial Vacation Club, or World Intl. Vacation Club are two such resorts.
Floating vs. Fixed Time --- To float or not to float... For those of you who can't or won't plan ahead each year, float time makes sense, since you can choose from the dates available within a particular season. You're not locked into a particular week, so you simply call and make a reservation. As a fixed week owner, you won't need to request a reservation, since you already know exactly where your week falls on the calendar. Need to travel during a specific time? Fixed weeks are the way to go. And, if you can't travel during your fixed time, you can always exchange your week for a different time of year, but you'll have to pay an exchange fee.
Trading your timeshare for comparable timeshares is a wonderful way to travel and see the world!
About the Author
Holly Day writes for the travel industry and the Holiday Group http://www.holidaygroup.com. For low cost vacation ownership abd more great information on timeshare exchanges see: http://www.holidaygroup.com/exchange.php

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A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Timeshares... In's And Out's Of Managing Your Timeshare Alright so that salesman on the free-trip got to you and you purchased that timeshare unit. So now what do you do with the unit, the salesman said that this would reduce my yearly expenses and pay for itself in the first five years of ownership. How do I make this new investment work for me to get the most out of it. You have several options at this point in your vacation club ownership. You could rent your Timeshare, as the week that you own belongs to you just as your home belongs to you. You could use your week as your yearly vacation destination. Or you could post your timeshare with one of the major trading companies (Interval International, or Red Week). Just what to do. If you enjoy the location of your timeshare, which you had better because you own it, the best thing to do at the start is to use this unit. You are evidently making payments on the unit and probably can't afford the additional expense if the unit should not rent as it was advertised to do, this will also give you the ability to talk with authority on the benefits of your chosen destination to later renters. Your second option should be to trade the timeshare into Interval International or one of the other major trade companies. By trading in your week you will be allowed to select other destinations to visit. This is an extensive listing of locations and will afford you a different view than your home resort. Visit http://www.travelblogger.info to see current destination trends and rebates. So you have now traded your week last year and are not really interested in going to your “Home Resort”. Your timeshare company only allows trades on alternating years. What can you do? exercise option number 3, renting your timeshare. Be aware that you only have about a 50% chance of the unit...