Any Timeshare Owners here?

Yes

I used to work for a time share company, (for 11 years!) not sure if that is relevant?

Why?

Yes

Why why Nanaandgrampy - as I said, just interested/wondering. Perhaps a place to exchange info.
We own a week at Rutland Water and one in Tuscany. Always use the one in Tuscany so far, mostly exchange out UK week- these days mainly for spa stays in Switzerland- as this is where we get best value.
Been all over on exchanges, all the Canaries and Balearics, All over the UK, Europe and USA, Hawai Islands, South Africa- and more. Do you own in Scotland Jane 10?

phoenix, RCI, Dial an Exchange, or Interval International?

No jura we live in Scotland so no point in time share here. Ours is in Madeira which we're very fond of. We don't do exchanges but tend to roll up our week and have an extended break there every so often.

Thanks for the additional info Jura - it makes it clearer about what info you're looking for .

We have owned a kind of timeshare for 25 years - we're members of the Disney Vacation Club . We have a number of points which we can exchange for accommodation anywhere in the world from 1 night to however long you have points for.

You don't just have to stay at Disney accommodation but it has to be 5star + to meet the Disney criteria. We have it for another 20+ years and it can be passed to our children, or we can 'treat' friends or family or we can 'sell' the points each year via a number of websites.

Its proved very flexible , and as its backed and owned by Disney its about as rock solid as you can get in this day and age.

We owned at Langdale Cumbria for many years but the maintenance fees got so high it was as cheap to rent a cottage for a week.
The standards slowly deteriorated and the spa allows holiday cottage owners locally a membership.
On a wet day we were turned away from the pool as it was too full.
However people who had rented local holiday lets for less money than our annual maintenance were having a lovely time!!!
We sold and have not regretted it.

We had a Timeshare for many years on the Costa Del Sol. It was worth every penny for the time we had it. It was in a beautiful hotel. We never did an exchange. We sold it after probably 25 years.

We have 2 weeks at Loch Rannoch in Perthshire - one week in the middle of August and one the end of October, both chosen to coincide with school holidays. We've had them now for almost 40 years. It's a beautiful place, the lodges are in the process of being renovated to a high standard, and we can take our dogs. Even better, our grandchildren absolutely love it there even though they're now teenagers, so they go as often as possible. Never regretted buying them

Jane10 - we owned not far from where we lived, because it gave us free access to all facilities, pool, sauna/hammam, gym, tennis, squash, billiards, etc, etc, year round. Fabulous with family and later my language students- and as a GC resort, gave us really good exchange 'power'. Only exchanged once into Madeira and loved it- so enjoy.

We found out about the place in Tuscany when we did an exchange- and loved it so much we bought a week and always use it and take friends or family with us- picking them up at Florence, Milan or Pisa airport on the way down.

phoenix- one of our most memorable exchange was via ... Phoenix, Arizona- travelled on to Sedona which was amazing, then we took a week to drive up to Colorado for another exchange, and flew back from Denver. Another one was 2 exchanges, in Maui and Kaui/Hawai- with a few days in LA both sides.

Nowadays, we tend to exchange with Swiss spa resorts- as it is a short drive and due to exchange rate, best possible value.

Our friends had to pay to give back thier timeshare in Scotland . Nobody wanted to buy it and they were left with no option but to pay and get out of it . We also had friends who bought several of the most expensive weeks as an investment . Looking at the resale value it was a bad decision . DH says if he was 30 years younger he might buy a vastly discounted week of which there are a lot but we are too late for that now.

NanaandGrampy - We too were members of the Disney Vacation Club and bought into one of their first at Old Key West, Orlando. We had very happy family holidays there but sold our points some years ago due to work and family commitments.

Nope.

My friend gifted her two weeks of timeshare to me as she couldn't use it anymore due to ill health. It was a two bedroomed apartment in Ramla Bay, Malta. It was on a 25 year lease which had 10 years remaining. We had never been to Malta so it was with much trepidation that we visited for the first time.
We absolutely loved it and bought additional weeks as they became available. We ended up with six weeks in September/October and absoluetly couldn't wait to go back every year. Our lease finally expired two years ago and we miss it very much.

Thanks for all your interesting replies. Looking forward to our next Timeshare exchange in a spa in the Alps about 1.30 hours from us- and the next stay at our week in gorgeous Tuscany- and later a week in SW France, near Bergerac. All of them with dogs welcome, win win.