Vacation Travel Club: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

According to Project: Time Off, 40% of Americans don’t use all of their allotted vacation days. Many people don’t even think about their worldstravelonline options until they have made the decision to take time off and go somewhere. In many cases this is not very far in advance and can be stressful to plan.

There are so many ways to book travel today with hundreds of travel websites, travel clubs, and discount travel companies out there. Travel is something that everyone loves to do if done the right way. Planning travel and creating great experiences make travel so much more relaxing and allows for the recharge that everyone needs.

Let’s look at a couple travel options that many people have heard about: Travel Clubs and Timeshare Ownership. Both offer many different options when planning travel, but these are the two ways of traveling that are the most controversial. Many people love these options and many hate them.

Travel Clubs:

Travel clubs offer a unique traveling experience much like a timeshare; however you pay a fee to receive a specific number of points to use for travel within their network of resorts and destinations all over the world. This membership allows you and your family to use the points in a given time or accumulate those points over time to cash them in at a later date for travel with a larger group.

Other travel clubs offer discounted travel options where you pay a monthly membership fee and in turn you receive discounted rates for trips that are already planned out. All you do as a member is book the trip and pay. In some cases travel to the destination is on your own, but the information is outlined in each trip description.

With some travel clubs there are options for customers who are already members to make money and receive commissions for every person who signs up under them in the travel club program. This is a type of network marketing program where many people have made money or received free travel while others have made nothing and feel they have lost money. Network marketing is a legitimate form of business, but it is not for everyone. It is not a get rich quick program.

The perception of network marketing is that it is a “scam.” Many people have lost money in network marketing and many people have made a lot of money with network marketing. Those who have made a lot of money with network marketing have worked very hard to get where they are within the network marketing business. Yes, they talk about it like they enjoy it because they do enjoy their job, but they treat it as a job and work hard to recruit, sell and build their business.

Timeshare ownership:

This is another perceived “scam” or way for people to take your money according. Timeshare ownership is another legitimate way to travel to one destination every year or every other year depending on your purchased week. Timeshare owners receive a deed to their property that they own for a set amount of days or weeks throughout the year.

Where many people feel this is a scam is when maintenance and taxes come in. Everyone pays for maintenance and taxes on the property that they own, so why would a timeshare, be any different? It is a deeded piece of property much like a house. These fees help with upgrades to the property as well as fixing things that go wrong throughout the year. Refrigerators quit working and walls need to be painted periodically and every owner is required to help pay those costs.