The 3 Big Fears

Fear #1. People say, “Maintenance Fees are too high and keep going up.”

Reality: This might be true at other Timeshare properties but not at the Acadia Village Resort. The average Maintenance fee for Timeshares in the United States for 2024 was $1260 and went as high as $3500. As a homeowner’s association, we don’t have a big corporation with whom we need to share profits. Every dollar we make in maintenance fees gets spent at the resort. This allows us to keep Maintenance fees low. The Maintenance fees at the Acadia Village Resort are $589 for two-bedroom Townhouses, $619 for two-bedroom “lock-off” Villa units and $749 for three-bedroom lock-off Manor units.

Fear #2. People say, “Owners can’t get into the resort that they want.”

Reality: If you know how to use the systems you can get fantastic results. Planning and flexibility are key. Interval International partners with more than 3200 resorts worldwide; there are lots of options. The only time that people have real difficulty is when they need to be at a specific resort for a specific date and they wait too long to start looking for a unit.

Owners that focus on the time that they want to travel before they think about where they want to go have the best results. For example, I want to take a vacation in September. Rather than search through all the resorts and try to decide which one I’d like to stay at, I start my search by entering the date range that I can travel into the Interval International system. (September 1 – September 30) Then I ask the computer to tell me all the destinations that are available during that time. I review the options and decide which vacation sounds the best and then I reserve my spot.

Another way to improve your results is by using the “Request first” feature in the Interval International website. The way this system works is that you give Interval International a date range in which you can travel and a few properties that would work best for you. This puts you in the “que” for the next unit that becomes available at one of those properties. When your spot in the “que” arrives and a unit comes available, you will get an email from Interval International asking if you still want to make the reservation. If “yes”, then you book it.

Finally, Club Interval Gold and the Platinum Club are different ways to optimize your chances of getting reservations for specific locations. These programs cost a little more than the standard membership but offer several different advantages. They convert your week of ownership into points. These points can be spent for full weeks or partial weeks along with cruises and even activities. The way that they help owners get into specific resorts is by showing available inventory even if the cost (in points) is greater than what the owner has available or if the unit type that is available is different then the type of unit that the owner “deposited”. In other words, if I owned a 2-bedroom lock-off unit and traded ½ of it with Interval on the standard ownership program, they would show me 1-bedroom units and studio units that are available but wouldn’t show me any units with a value greater than mine. (2-bedroom, 3-bedroom) If I deposited ½ of my lock-off unit and I was a member of Club Interval Gold, I would see how many points I had and all the options for the resort that I wanted. If I didn’t have enough points, I could deposit the other half of my lock-off unit or purchase additional points from the Acadia Village Resort and make my reservation.

We’re here to help our owners get great results!

Fear #3: People say, “Owners can’t get out of their Timeshares.”

Reality: Nonsense. Scam companies push this narrative to drive vulnerable people into calling them. Any Acadia Village Resort owner who is current on their account can deed back their unit for the cost of 1 year’s Maintenance Fee plus $50. However, that isn’t usually necessary. Most times when owners want to get out of their Timeshare, we can sell them. In 2024 we sold over 150 owner-owned units. We charge $200 for this service (usually included in the sale price), which covers the preparation of a new deed and the Maine Realty Transfer Tax.

Let’s go back to an example used in “What is a Timeshare?” We gave an example of buying an off-season unit at a cost of $200, paying the maintenance fee of $619, paying for a standard Interval International Membership at $99, and paying Interval International an exchange fee of $229 to get a 7 day stay at the Marriott Grande Vista resort in a 2-bedroom suite. In that example, the value of the Marriott Grande Vista unit was $2882.00, and the cost of the Acadia Village Resort off-season unit and all the other fees came to $1147.00. We bring this up because, even if you decided, after just one vacation, that Timeshare ownership wasn’t for you and paid to get rid of your unit by paying one extra year’s maintenance fee + $50, you would still have spent $1816 and saved over $1000 on your vacation accommodation.

Timeshare ownership is a great way to save money on your vacation accommodation.

Acadia Village Resort is giving Timeshares a good name!