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[Egan_BW]

por que no los dos?

[dragdeler]

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[scriver]

I've never really understood what a timeshare is. Is it that you just rent a place for a week, except instead of just paying for the week you pay all year long?

[Reelya]

No, it's where multiple families buy a holiday home and they agree to specific weeks each year that they have it. So if you want access to the holiday home for 4 weeks each, then you split the cost of
buying the house 13 ways. Then later if you want out you can sell your timeshare to someone else.

That's the general concept. While there may also be rental arrangements referred to as timeshares, the general concept is of buying a share in a property that allows you to use it at predetermined times. This is generally more lucrative for the developers than having to manage a rental situation, since they're offloading the whole property and it's someone else's problem after that. Merely renting out individual timeshares from the developer's point of view would be a far riskier proposal, since then people could cancel their rental lease and they'd be stuck trying to find someone else to take it up, unlike the purchase situation, in which you are stuck with it, and need their help (i.e. they can charge you additional fees) to get rid of it.

[scriver]

That sounds dangerously akin to socialism, how did this ever get common in the US

Also I thought it was a fraudish thing to it?

[Reelya]

That sounds dangerously akin to socialism, how did this ever get common in the US

Also I thought it was a fraudish thing to it?

It's not socialist at all. It's a form of home ownership for money, nothing socialist about that. Splitting a bill or bulk-buying isn't socialist. It seems like there's kind of a thing here, where any time two or more people cooperate, that's automatically socialism, as if you can't have people cooperating in a way that saves them money under a capitalist system or something.

How do you mean fraudish? People know what they're buying into. You're not selling them the whole house, you're selling a share in a house, divided by time blocks. Sometimes people buy into a timeshare then decide they don't want to go on vacation there each year. But that's no more fraudulent to sell them the shares than selling gym memberships is, knowing that most people won't actually use their gym membership.

EDIT: looking into it, it started in England, and 4 families would buy a holiday house, and each family get 1 season per year of occupancy. The seasons would rotate each year so that each family would get an equal amount of the good seasons. There's nothing really socialist about the idea at all. When you have an under-utilized resource, the in the capitalist system they will find ways to divide it up so that you can sell smaller portions of the resource. Taxis or carpools effectively work the same way.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I know that companies who sell timeshares are seen as sleazy and perhaps scammers, or at least they were back in the late-90s early-00s days. But I don't know why exactly, I was too young to contextualize the jokes about it.

[dragdeler]

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[Reelya]

Nah, that's the original English model. The Americans took that and turned it into a thing where you buy 1 week per year at a beachside condo, and they charge you exorbitant maintenance fees on top of the purchase. They're sold in seminars which are similar in style to how pyramid schemes operate. What they don't tell you at the semnars is all the hidden costs, and they're hyped as something that is an "investment" you could sell later. Basically they're ripping people off.

It's a far cry from the older English model i described:

https://www.debt.org/real-estate/timeshares-investment-or-ripoff/

[scriver]

That sounds dangerously akin to socialism, how did this ever get common in the US

Also I thought it was a fraudish thing to it?

It's not socialist at all. It's a form of home ownership for money, nothing socialist about that. Splitting a bill or bulk-buying isn't socialist. It seems like there's kind of a thing here, where any time two or more people cooperate, that's automatically socialism, as if you can't have people cooperating in a way that saves them money under a capitalist system or something.

That is literally what socialism is, though. That's the whole basis of the socialist movement and philosophy. From each according to means, to each according needs.

I'm envisioning I'll probably get some kind of response in the vein of a dictionary definition of socialism to this, so let me just pre-empt anyone who thinks of doing that -- no u

How do you mean fraudish?

I know that companies who sell timeshares are seen as sleazy and perhaps scammers, or at least they were back in the late-90s early-00s days. But I don't know why exactly, I was too young to contextualize the jokes about it.

MSH's words were exactly what I meant by that. It's just an impression I've gotten from media, particularly of said period

[dragdeler]

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[Reelya]

It depends whether your talking the original English timeshares where you buy a chunk of a house directly vs the American model where a company slaps down some condos on the beach then sells you a just a time slice. It's explained in the link i provided. In one case, you own the property directly, and in the other case, the company maintains ownership and basically bilks you each year for fees, even after you "bought" it. They tell you that you could sell the timeshare but the problem is that they're busy slapping new condos down to keep expanding, so you're stuck with a share in a deteriorating building with an obligation to keep paying upkeep.

The real difference here is that in the English system, if you bought out all the other owners, it'd just be your house, whereas in the American system as described, if you bought out all the other owners, the company would still own the property and you'd be on the hook for about $50,000 a year in weekly "maintenance" fees.

[dragdeler]

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[scriver]

So it is just renting one week a year and paying for it the entire year

[dragdeler]

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