When you plan your vacation one of the main decisions is what kind of lodging you and your family will be using. Do you know the difference between timeshares, vs. hotels and vacation homes? Most people automatically think of hotels, but as you become more savvy as a traveler you’re learning that there are better options than a cramped, expensive room.
One is renting a vacation home. A vacation home is generally a second home owned by a private individual who uses it part of the year and then rents it out to vacationers when they are not in residence. The main advantage to renting a vacation home as opposed to staying in a hotel is that they offer much more living space, which is almost necessary if you are vacationing with your children. You’ll also have the kitchen which will help in feeding the family, both for convenience and cost savings.
All sounds good until you start to compare renting a vacation home with renting a timeshare. The advantages of renting a timeshare start out the same as for the vacation home – living space, fully-equipped kitchen. At this point the many advantages of a timeshare rental leave the vacation home in the dust.
First and foremost, the timeshare is attached to a resort. Every timeshare rental will have the resort’s amenities included. A vacation home rental might have a hot tub, maybe a swimming pool (although due to liability, insurance rates are high which precludes most vacation home rental owners from having even small swimming pools). Besides swimming pools that could even be called water parks, resorts can offer many more on-sight activities such as tennis, volleyball, golf, arcade game rooms, etc.
Remember that with a vacation home you are responsible for tidying up, including trash and garbage. One of the joys of staying somewhere on vacation is being pampered, including simple little things like having your trash emptied. And when you cook in your timeshare kitchen it’s nice to know that someone else will take out the garbage.
Also keep in mind that a vacation house rental has no on-sight manager. If something goes wrong with the plumbing, the television, the neighbors, or any number of other annoying problems, without immediate access to a manager help can be a long time coming, if ever. And remember – this is someone’s personal property – woe be it if one of your children breaks the owner’s personal possessions.
Renting a timeshare gives you living space, a kitchen, maid service, immediate access to an on-sight manager for all maintenance needs, concierge services, huge swimming pools, often a children’s playground and kiddie pool, and other wonderful advantages too numerous to list. Rent a timeshare – it’s a slam dunk!