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Buster52's avatar
Buster52
Explorer
Jul 10, 2014

RV time shares

I was looking through Craigslist and noticed someone sell a time share membership at a RV park. I remember years ago all the invites I received after buying a RV. Haven't had a invite in years. I also remember back then visiting a parks that was selling memberships as they were informed the members at the park it was closing. No morals in these salesmen. They were pushing several memberships to a national club that allowed you to visit RV parks all over the country for a small charge. I remember people telling me stories of how they would be sold memberships to find they lost everything. Some told me their park was closed and their membership moved to a park that nobody wanted to visit. I was told by others they would call their park to see if there was any space, and was informed they were full. They would go to the park and find it only half full. The park wanted to keep the operation cost down. Are these still out there? Have they changed to the better? Do they still have the national and inter-national clubs?

2 Replies

  • The timeshare or membership RV park business has been changing. Some shrinkage as badly managed properties close, or get bought by someone not wanting to be in the membership business. Some policy changes also, with membership parks opening to the public, and on the other side, selling "zone" memberships in affiliates without park memberships. There has been an upside too, with some big growth in membership luxury resort communities, but that's not the same as memberships with affiliate privileges.

    If buying someone's membership, usually steeply discounted, you need to understand just what you are buying: quality of the park, conditions for using it, ongoing costs, affiliation costs and rules. I know one park in my area selling memberships for $200, but annual charges are several times that.
  • I don't know the answer to your question specifically, but I believe the whole time-share business is very slow now.

    Time-sharing is basically paying now and enjoying the benefit later. The vendor has little incentive to provide you with the benefits you thought you bought since they already have your money. I just think it took quite a while for many people to figure that out. When they did, the market for re-sale went down. I'm sure there are some parks that are well managed and the owners are happy. I suspect some of those owners will post their experiences here.

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