But not for me, for a friend of mine. This purchase just reinforces the value you can get by buying through Ebay on an auction versus the developer or other sites. My friend wanted to buy a week at Marriott Grande Vista in Orlando, FL. His wife is a school teacher and summer time is when they take their vacations. It was obvious that they needed a platinum week at Grande Vista, which includes week 1-36 on the timeshare calendar plus weeks 51-52. Not only does platinum season include the summer, it includes every vacation week in the year except for Thanksgiving.
I did my research by using the advance search feature in Ebay to find completed listings for Grande Vista and found recent sales went for $2500-$3000. I advised my friend to be willing to go up to $3k, which was probably 80%-90% less than the cost of Destination Club points to acquire the same type of week. I monitored the auction and sniped the bid at the eight second remaining in the auction mark and we walked away with the unit at a cost of about $2700. The maintenance fee is about $1000 per week compared to a $329/night price at marriott.com. So a 7 day rental would cost you over $2200 about $1000 more than owning . Payback is less than three years.
traveloften.travelcheaply 