Timeshare Tip #4 – Avoid Disappointment With Resort Views

a map of a resort

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The view from a room can be a very big deal and people pay high premiums to get the view they want. You’d be surprised, however, how many people fail to do their due diligence on just what view they’re purchasing when buying or renting at a timeshare resort. The fact is that the names given to views are often not that helpful in telling you just how good your view is going to be.

Take a very common view that you’ll see on vacation rental postings – “Ocean View”. Sounds great doesn’t it? If you haven’t been around resorts for too long you could be forgiven for believing that ‘Ocean View’ is the best view you can book, until we tell you that where there are ‘Ocean Views’ there are almost always ‘Ocean Front’ views, too. Suddenly the premium you were prepared to pay to snag an ‘Ocean View’ unit may not seem quite so worth it.

Naturally this changes from resort to resort and this just adds to the confusion. There are resorts on Vacation Smarter where ‘Ocean View’ really is the best view at the property, and there are others where it isn’t even the second best view, so it’s always a good idea to do your homework before you commit to renting or buying a unit if the view is important to you.

Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club is a very good example of all of this. Here’s an illustration showing what views are assigned to which units at the resort:

You can see that a new view designation has been introduced: ‘Ocean Side’. ‘Ocean View’ sounds like it should be a better view than an ‘Ocean Side’ view but you can see from the illustration that this isn’t the case. Take a look at where the beach is (bottom left corner of the illustration) and now take a look at the location of the ‘Ocean View’ units (in blue). They’re not all particularly close to the water. They are still great units (we bought two!) and they do have a view of the ocean, but we’re not sure vacationers buying or renting these units (vacationers who failed to do their research) would be getting the view they conjured up in their minds when they first read the words ‘Ocean View’.

Lack of research and indistinct names are how confusion and disappointment can set in. There’s not much we as vacationers can do about the way resorts name their views but, if we make sure we do a little homework before committing to a rental or a purchase of a timeshare, we can definitely protect against disappointment down the line.

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  1. […] like Smarter Tip #4, which focuses on the differences in the types of view available at resorts, it’s important to do […]

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