I've been railing against timeshares for decades, in public as a newpaper editor and and magazine editor, and privately, not that it does any good -- timeshares work because there are suckers born every minute and because with so much cash in the deal timeshares can afford to spend a ton on sales commissions and marketing.
Sure, there are timeshares that make some sense, especially if you buy on the secondary market, just as there are whores with hearts of golds ... but most don't and most aren't. (For one of my editorials on timeshares in Belize, see
http://belizefirst.com/bfjan/timeshareshome.html which dates back to about 1998.)
The worst thing about timeshares is not that some poor fool gets suckered into spending a few thousand bucks. If it didn't happen with timeshares it would with something else.
The worst thing about timeshares is that what they do to a destination. The timeshare touts and the scum developers, who take a $1 million property and try to turn it into a $16 million property through multiple sales, turn off tourists and drive away quality tourism. It happened in parts of Hawaii, in Cozumel and elsewhere in Mexico, in areas of the Caribbean like St. Maarten, and elsewhere. Eventually government wises up and drives the scum away, but by then they've done a lot of damage. By then, though, the timeshare properties have owners spread throughout the world, and the timeshare properties deteriorate and eventually go into bankruptcy.
Happily, so far timeshares in Belize have been fairly benevolent. They are basically a way for hotel owners to get new revenue at the margins rather than as a central source of income. That may change as more sophisticated timeshare scum come to Belize.
--Lan Sluder
www.belizefirst.com
AmbergrisCaye.com 
