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Good afternoon everyone, I have to say that most of you here are just ignorant of the facts. Its pretty simple. If you are already vacationing 2 to 3 weeks a year, timeshares or ownership saves you a lot of money. I would bet that no one here that made a comment owns one. There are four types of timeshares, Hospitality, Silver, Gold, and Registry. Hospitality is the bottom and Registry the top. The reason why a lot of people hate their time share is one or all of three reasons. You buy a cheap Hospitality time share thinking is was a gold or registry. Meaning you will never get the quality and location of vacations that you want. You bought a time share that has maintenance fees and not VOA fees. You bought a time share that you don't use! Welk Resorts is a GOLD and REGISTRY level ownership and has VOA fees. Maintenance fees are used by 98% of the time share industry. Welk Resorts use VOA fees. The difference is maintenance fees are not regulated under state realtor laws. So, they can charge you what ever they want and raise them when ever they want. VOA ( vacation owners association ) is just like HOA. It must abide by the rules and the laws of the state realtors association. A VOA just like a HOA can not be used for profit. A VOA is only used for the maintenance of the property, activities, insurance, and improvements. Anyone that owns a home knows that HOA's go up when property taxes go up. The same is true with VOA's. I bought a Welk Resorts ownership 10 years ago for $7500, VOA fees of $664 a year. They are now 4 to 5 times more for the same amount of points. When I bought mine Welk Resorts did not have Cabo, Tahoe, Colorado, the Experiences Collection by Welk ( which includes 14 more locations like Maui and Disney world to name a few ), and a Platinum RCI program with free bonus weeks. I got it all for $0!!!! Cause I am already an owner. I go one 4 weeks of vacation a year all around the world at resorts that cost anywhere from $500 to $8000 a night. Two, three, four bedroom Villas. All it costs me is an exchange fee of $239 a week and a VOA of $108 a month. I also get a free bonus week from RCI for every exchange I do through them!!!!!!!!!!! Plus, when I die from vacationing everywhere I can "will it" to my kids. If you want to rent your vacations and pay $200 a night for a tiny room and $450 for the same tiny room 8 years from now, go ahead!