Yes, take the special offer to hear the pitch, and never buy.

Sat through a pitch. Their last ditch "Alright, I got special permission from my manager for this" price was like 1/4 their initial price, and even then just the additional maintenance fees alone was more expensive than just booking a room once a year.

They're that bad. Maybe there's a good one out there, but why risk it

It's heavily dependent on the specific contract, but if you like to Vacation at the same location every year or most years it can work out better than having the even greater cost of owning a full blown vacation home. You can also iirc rent out your slice of the time share if you don't or can't make it a specific year (Contract dependent, you really have to read the contract you sign if you even want a sliver of hope of getting a decent value out of it)

It generally isn't. The few that are worth it are places you will visit over and over again for the next generation.

Some people who are stuck with timeshares will book rentals and resell them just to recoup some losses.

I forget the site but there's one where you can basically sublet a rental. I've never done it cause it seems sketchy AF

I have two weeks at a good one I'm super happy with.

We use it to snow ski. The yearly maintenance fee for a weeks use is equivalent to a single night accommodations at the same time. Cost me $4k to buy. I've used it for a decade so far.

I bought into a thing that's kinda like timeshares, but it's through the company that runs most of the resorts. You get like 2 weeks a year for $300/week as long as you book within 45 days of the stay. Plus discounts on hotel rooms, flights, etc.

Basically it's where they rent rooms they're not likely to be able to on those days, so they're at least making some money.

So, if you like to travel in the off seasons, it works out really well.

It was only like $6k and $300 a year in maintenance fees.

It's pretty cheap to buy off of ebay.