The longest day of my life was when I was maybe 5 years old: the day my parents bought their timeshare. A few months ago I went with my father to a presentatio

The longest day of my life was when I was maybe 5 years old: the day my parents bought their timeshare. A few months ago I went with my father to a presentation by a company that helps people get rid of their timeshares. The presenter said buying a timeshare is like pre-paying for your next 30+ years of vacations. The annual maintenance fees pay the property taxes for the resorts, state governments like their property tax revenues, so they allow the racket to continue. The 'time share relief' presenter asked everyone how much their annual fees were, and pegged their company's fee to the annual fee charged by the timeshare company. Dad was all ready to sign up to pay $X,XXX to get rid of it. He's at the point where he doesn't have the energy to travel anymore, so he thinks the maintenance fees are just money wasted. I looked into the matter. Our state's law makes it relatively easy to get rid of timeshare fees, without having to pay for the services of a timeshare exit firm. Furthermore, many of the timeshares have programs for people like my father to get rid of their obligations: https://responsibleexit.com/who-we-are/diamond-resorts/ https://responsibleexit.com/who-we-are/diamond-resorts/ My brother ended up offering to split the fees with our father, as he likes to use it for his little trips. The properties do give preferential treatments to their 'owners', and the cost-per-night isn't so bad, as long as you use the nights you've paid for. My GF and I have used it twice this year, and have another trip coming up. I guesstimated the room's cost was about $50/night for a studio with refrigerator and cooktop. The same room was going for $150+/night on priceline & the other booking sites. The Timeshare Users Group is probably one of the best internet forums about timeshares: https://tugbbs.com/forums/ https://tugbbs.com/forums/ tl/dr: if you're thinking about buying, DON'T. But in our case, what mom & dad paid out 30+ years ago would cost $80,000+ today, so we might as well just keep paying the maintenance fees and try to use it for all our little trips. <shrug>.