Are Timeshares Worth It?

Whether a timeshare is worth it depends on how you travel and what you value. A timeshare can suit people who return to the same kind of resort vacation every year and use it reliably. It tends to be a poor financial deal for anyone who travels rarely, wants flexibility, or expects to resell it for what they paid.

Are timeshares worth it? Start with the honest financial math

To judge whether a timeshare is worth it, add up what it truly costs over the years you plan to own, not just the price on the contract. Begin with the average developer purchase price of $23,160 average timeshare purchase price in 2024. Then add the recurring cost that does the real damage to the math: the $1,480 average annual maintenance fee in 2024, up 17.5% in one year. At that average, twenty years of maintenance fees alone add more than $29,600, before any annual increases, special assessments, or financing interest. Combined with the purchase price, a timeshare can easily cost well over $50,000 across two decades of ownership, and usually more once the fees rise. The full breakdown is on our timeshare cost page, and the fee detail is in our maintenance fees guide.

Timeshare versus paying for hotels: a side-by-side

The most useful comparison is your all-in annual timeshare cost against simply booking the same trip as you go. Spread that example of more than $50,000 over twenty years and one week of use a year, and the timeshare works out to roughly $2,600 a year for that week, before fee increases. If a comparable week at a similar resort or hotel would cost you less than that to book directly, paying as you go is cheaper and keeps both your money and your flexibility. If it would cost more, and you are confident you will use the week every single year, the timeshare can pay off over a long enough horizon. Our full timeshare versus hotel comparison, and our look at the alternatives to a timeshare, work through this trade-off in more detail.

Two things tilt the comparison against the timeshare. First, its fees rise most years, while you can shop hotel prices fresh each trip. Second, a timeshare only saves money if you actually use it, so a week you skip is a fee paid for nothing. Resorts do report high use, with about 10 million U.S. households own a timeshare, in a market with $10.5 billion in 2024 sales, but that industry average says nothing about how often you personally will travel.

Who is a timeshare actually worth it for?

A timeshare tends to make the most sense for a specific kind of traveler:

• You vacation in the same style every year and will reliably use the time you own.
• You value predictable, resort-style space, such as a kitchen and multiple rooms, over hotel flexibility.
• You can pay cash, avoiding the high-interest developer financing that inflates the cost.
• You buy on the resale market, where the price is a fraction of the developer's, rather than at a sales presentation.

Who should avoid a timeshare?

It is usually not worth it if you travel infrequently or like to go somewhere new each time, if you would need developer financing to afford it, if a rising annual fee would strain your budget, or if you are counting on selling it later to recover your money. On that last point, be clear-eyed about resale: a timeshare typically resells for a resale price that is usually a small fraction of what the original buyer paid, and sometimes only a few dollars. Treat the purchase price as money spent on vacations, not an investment you will get back, which is also how the Federal Trade Commission frames it.

The resale-value reality

The single biggest miscalculation buyers make is treating a timeshare like real estate that holds its value. It generally does not. Because the developer price is padded with sales and marketing costs, and the resale market is flooded with owners trying to exit, most timeshares sell for a small fraction of the original price, and some change hands for almost nothing. If the ongoing cost no longer makes sense for you, the realistic options are laid out in our guide to getting out of a timeshare.

Sources

American Resort Development Association, State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry, 2025 edition (2024 data), for the average purchase price, average maintenance fee, and resort occupancy. U.S. Federal Trade Commission, consumer guidance on timeshares (consumer.ftc.gov), reviewed June 2026, for resale-value cautions and the lifestyle-not-investment framing. U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, guidance on high-cost consumer financing (consumerfinance.gov), for the effect of developer financing. Long-term totals are computed from the 2024 average maintenance fee and purchase price; actual fees rise most years. Last reviewed June 18, 2026.