There are some good timeshares - I've owned at the Royal Islander for over twenty years and never had any complaints. And you rarely hear any complaints about the RI. While it's true the maintenance fee increases every year (what doesn't?) I could never afford two weeks at a decent hotel for the price of my maintenance fees - twenty years of savings has worked well for me. But the industry itself has a well deserved shady reputation. A buyer needs to do extensive research and of course there's little legal protection outside the U.S. -