The true cost of a timeshare
The sales pitch gives you a price and a monthly payment. This adds the interest, the fees that rise every year, and what the same weeks would cost to rent. It starts with US average figures. Replace them with the numbers on your offer.
The true cost of a timeshare
Over 20 years, using 1 week a year
$91,574
- Purchase price
- $24,740
- Loan interest
- $20,678
- Maintenance fees
- $46,156
- Exchange or club dues
- $0
- Resale value
- $0
- Cost per week used
- $4,579
- Renting the same weeks
- $48,367
Renting the same weeks costs $43,207 less.
Put that difference into investments earning 7% as you go, and after 20 years you would have $127,897.
Year by year
The running total of everything paid out, owning against renting. Owning starts high because of the down payment and loan, then keeps climbing with the fees.
Show the figures for every year
| Year | Owning, this year | Renting, this year | Owning, total so far | Renting, total so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,318 | $1,800 | $8,318 | $1,800 |
| 2 | $5,906 | $1,854 | $14,225 | $3,654 |
| 3 | $5,971 | $1,910 | $20,196 | $5,564 |
| 4 | $6,038 | $1,967 | $26,234 | $7,531 |
| 5 | $6,108 | $2,026 | $32,341 | $9,556 |
| 6 | $6,180 | $2,087 | $38,521 | $11,643 |
| 7 | $6,256 | $2,149 | $44,777 | $13,792 |
| 8 | $6,334 | $2,214 | $51,111 | $16,006 |
| 9 | $6,416 | $2,280 | $57,527 | $18,286 |
| 10 | $6,501 | $2,349 | $64,027 | $20,635 |
| 11 | $2,294 | $2,419 | $66,322 | $23,054 |
| 12 | $2,386 | $2,492 | $68,708 | $25,546 |
| 13 | $2,482 | $2,566 | $71,190 | $28,112 |
| 14 | $2,581 | $2,643 | $73,770 | $30,755 |
| 15 | $2,684 | $2,723 | $76,454 | $33,478 |
| 16 | $2,791 | $2,804 | $79,246 | $36,282 |
| 17 | $2,903 | $2,888 | $82,149 | $39,171 |
| 18 | $3,019 | $2,975 | $85,168 | $42,146 |
| 19 | $3,140 | $3,064 | $88,308 | $45,210 |
| 20 | $3,266 | $3,156 | $91,574 | $48,367 |
How this is worked out
What owning costs
- The purchase. Your down payment, then every loan payment. Interest is worked out monthly on the remaining balance, the way the lender does it. If you keep the timeshare for fewer years than the loan runs, the rest of the loan is paid off in your last year.
- The yearly bills. The maintenance fee and any exchange or club dues, each rising by the yearly increase you set.
- Resale. Whatever you could sell it for at the end is taken off the total.
What renting costs
The price of a similar week today, times the weeks you would really use, rising each year by the rental increase you set. Flights, food and everything else about the trip cost the same either way, so they are left out of both sides.
What “invested” means
Each year, the calculator takes the gap between what owning costs and what renting costs, and treats it as money you could have put into investments instead. It grows at the return you set. In years when renting costs more than owning, the gap is taken back out. The figure in the verdict is what that pot would hold at the end.
What is not counted
- Special assessments, which a resort can bill owners for major repairs.
- Closing costs, and fees for booking, exchanging or bringing guests.
- Tax on investment gains, and inflation. All figures are in the dollars of the year they are paid.
- Things with no price: a guaranteed week at a place you love on one side, and on the other the freedom to skip a year or go somewhere else without paying for it.
When a timeshare does come out ahead
Change the figures and the verdict changes with them. Owning tends to win when the purchase price is small, for example a resale bought from another owner; when the fee is low compared with what the resort charges renters; and when you really do use every week, every year. If that is your situation, the label will say so.
Where the starting figures come from
The purchase price ($24,740) and maintenance fee ($1,550) are the 2025 US averages reported in the timeshare industry’s own survey, the State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry, 2026 edition, prepared by EY for the American Resort Development Association.
The same survey shows the average fee rising from $1,120 in 2021 to $1,550 in 2025, about 8% a year, and 4.7% in 2025 alone. The calculator starts at 4% a year, which is kinder to the timeshare than the recent record.
The loan rate, rental price, rental increase and investment return are our starting assumptions, not published averages. The loan rate and the rental price change the answer most, so take the rate from your paperwork and look up what the resort charges people who simply book a week.