What a Timeshare Costs Over Ten Years: The Math the Sales Table Skips

What does a timeshare really cost over ten years?

On the industry’s own 2025 numbers, an average timeshare week bought for $24,740 and kept for ten years costs about $44,000 if you pay cash, and about $64,000 to $68,000 if you finance 90% at Travel + Leisure’s 14.6% average rate. That is before a single special assessment, and it assumes the week resells for nothing at the end, which the FTC warns can happen: it says it might be hard, if not impossible, to sell a timeshare. The maintenance fee is the cost that never stops, and it has gone up every year in the industry’s own data.

Those inputs come from the industry itself. ARDA, the developers’ trade group, commissioned its 2026 State of the Industry study from Ernst & Young. It puts the 2025 average transaction price at $24,740 and the average billed maintenance fee at $1,550 per weekly interval equivalent.

Year	Average maintenance fee	Change from prior year
2021	$1,120
2022	$1,170	+4.5%
2023	$1,260	+7.7%
2024	$1,480	+17.5%
2025	$1,550	+4.7%

Source: ARDA 2026 study, prepared by Ernst & Young. ARDA reports the 4.7% figure for 2025; the other yearly changes are our arithmetic from its averages.

That is a 38% increase in four years, about 8.5% a year compounded. Three caveats come from the study itself. The average includes reserve contributions but excludes taxes and special assessments. ARDA says its industry-wide figures can shift with the pool of resorts that report each year, and among resorts that reported in both 2024 and 2025, fees rose 4.2%. And it says the larger increases from 2022 to 2024 were likely due to overall inflation and rising insurance costs associated with recent natural disasters.

Bigger units cost more. ARDA’s 2025 averages run from $1,180 for a studio to $1,550 for a two-bedroom and $1,900 for three bedrooms or more.

The three costs, in order of how much they hurt

The maintenance fee. It comes every year you own, and it keeps climbing. The FTC’s buyer guidance says these fees “typically increase at rates that equal or exceed inflation,” tells buyers to ask whether their plan has a fee cap, and says you’ll have to pay fees and taxes even if you don’t use your timeshare. The developers know what rising fees do to owners. Marriott Vacations Worldwide’s 10-K says it added $70 million to its sales reserve for loan losses in the second quarter of 2024, in part to reflect “year-over-year increases in maintenance fees for 2023 and 2024, which we believed were driving continued elevated delinquencies and default rates.”

The purchase loan. Most buyers at the big developers borrow from the developer. In 2025, 57% of Marriott Vacations Worldwide’s sales, 67% of Hilton Grand Vacations’ and 68% of Travel + Leisure’s were financed, the last figure before loans paid off within 60 days. Their 2025 annual reports show what that money costs.

Developer (fiscal 2025 10-K)	Weighted average rate on owner loans	Typical term
Marriott Vacations Worldwide	12.9% on originated notes	Generally 10 to 15 years
Travel + Leisure Co. (Club Wyndham, WorldMark)	14.6%	Up to 10 years
Hilton Grand Vacations	14.7%	Generally 10 years

For comparison, Travel + Leisure’s own weighted average rate on its non-recourse vacation ownership debt was 6.6% in 2025. The company borrows against its owners’ loans at less than half the rate it charges them.

Special assessments. These are one-off bills on top of the annual fee, and no industry average includes them. They get their own section below.

The worked ten-year total

Sourced inputs: the 2025 average price of $24,740 and the 2025 average fee of $1,550, both from the ARDA study. For the financed case, a 10% down payment and the rest borrowed over ten years at 14.6%. Travel + Leisure’s 10-K says it typically requires a minimum 10% down (its 2025 average was 22%), finances the balance for up to ten years, and charged a 14.6% weighted average rate in 2025.

Stated assumptions, because no data set covers them: two fee paths, one rising 4.7% a year (the 2025 increase) and one rising 8.5% a year (roughly the 2021 to 2025 pace). No special assessment. No exchange or club fees. You use the week every year. The week resells for $0 at year ten.

Year	Fee rising 4.7% a year	Fee rising 8.5% a year
1	$1,550	$1,550
2	$1,623	$1,682
3	$1,699	$1,825
4	$1,779	$1,980
5	$1,863	$2,148
6	$1,950	$2,331
7	$2,042	$2,529
8	$2,138	$2,744
9	$2,238	$2,977
10	$2,343	$3,230
Ten-year fees	$19,225	$22,994

Totals are calculated before each year is rounded.

The financed case borrows $22,266. At 14.6% over 120 months, that is $353.79 a month and $20,189 in interest. At Marriott’s 12.9% the interest would be $17,471, and at Hilton’s 14.7% it would be $20,352.

Scenario	Ten-year cost	Per year	Per night of use
Paid in cash, fee rising 4.7%	$43,965	$4,397	$628
Paid in cash, fee rising 8.5%	$47,734	$4,773	$682
Financed at 14.6%, fee rising 4.7%	$64,154	$6,415	$916
Financed at 14.6%, fee rising 8.5%	$67,923	$6,792	$970

That per-night figure covers the room only. Flights, a rental car, and meals are extra. In year eleven the fee would be about $2,454 on the slower path and $3,505 on the faster one.

What does it cost per use, in real owner files?

Disclosure: Candid Yak works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it. We cite its published case data on this page where marked.

The table above assumes you use the week every year. Owners who skip years pay far more per stay. In an example Vacation Ownership Consultants published from its client files, an Idaho-based owner who bought in 2009 had paid more than $19,000 in maintenance fees by 2025 and had used the unit four times. VOC puts that at roughly $4,750 per visit, not counting the purchase price.

VOC’s 2026 industry guide runs a second example: a $720 monthly loan payment is $8,640 a year, and with a $1,480 fee the owner pays $10,120 a year. For one week of use, VOC calculates about $1,445 a night.

Can renting the week cover the fee?

In the examples VOC has published, rental income covered between about a quarter and just under half of the annual fee. VOC compared quoted rental payments with actual 2025 maintenance fees on three points-based ownerships from its files, and each owner lost money for the year.

Ownership (as VOC labels it)	Points	2025 fee	Rental payment	Net for the year
Diamond Resorts US Collection	5,500	$1,718.90	$440.00	Loss of $1,278.90
Bluegreen Vacations	8,000	$982.80	$332.00	Loss of $650.80
Hilton Grand Vacations	9,280	$2,153.42	$1,020.80	Loss of $1,132.62

Source: Vacation Ownership Consultants case data. These are anecdotes from an interested party.

VOC also notes that many developers restrict commercial rentals, so check your resort’s rules before you list anything.

Special assessments: the bill no average includes

A special assessment arrives when the resort decides the regular budget is not enough. Vacation Ownership Consultants reports three 2025 notices from client files:

• Sedona, Arizona. A $1,500 assessment per interval, due August 22, 2025, two years after a prior $975 assessment. With the $1,120 maintenance fee, that owner’s 2025 bill was $2,620. The association cited more than 179 foreclosed intervals returned to it, with 80 more in foreclosure proceedings, as a major shortfall.
• Incline Village and Lake Tahoe, Nevada. A $969.66 assessment on top of a $2,441 fee, for $3,410.66. The notice referenced a $3.5 million renovation.
• Honolulu, Hawaii. A $1,200 assessment per interval. One owner of two intervals was billed $2,400 on top of a $2,944 fee, $5,344 in all. The only explanation on the bill was “HOTEL INCOME SUPPLEMENTAL ASSESSMENT.”

The Sedona case shows how the cost moves. As VOC describes it, the association said the foreclosures created a gap in assessment income that was directly affecting its operating budget.

The developers see this coming at their older resorts. Travel + Leisure’s 2025 10-K says a portfolio review “identified 17 resorts requiring significant owner reinvestment,” and describes the goal of “mitigating the need for costly special assessments in the future” through court-supervised restructuring plans. Our pages on special assessments and legacy resorts cover what to do when the notice comes.

Why doesn’t the sales presentation show this total?

The presentation compares the purchase price against a decade of hotel bills, because that comparison flatters the product. The honest comparison puts the full total above against the same decade of hotel stays, at places you choose each year, with no bill in year eleven. The FTC’s guidance is that a timeshare’s value lies in using it for vacations, and that sales staff may tell you a timeshare is “a solid financial asset.”

The industry also sells mostly to people who already own, as the figures in the next section show. An upgrade is a bigger contract with a bigger fee, so if the resort offers to fix your costs with a new purchase, run this math on the new contract first. See the upgrade trap.

What should you do with this number?

If you signed in the last two weeks, every dollar above may still be reversible. Read the rescission guide and send the notice today.

Start by exploring your options with the resort, in writing. Ask the developer or the resort’s management company for its surrender, deed-back, or exit program by name, what it costs, and what it requires, and get the answer in writing. Then check what comparable weeks actually sell for on the resale market. The FTC tells owners exploring an exit to “start by contacting your timeshare company directly,” and Vacation Ownership Consultants’ own process starts the same way: its first step is “Contact your resort and check the resale market.” Some developers run programs, and they set the terms. Wyndham’s Certified Exit page lists voluntary surrender only under “If your loan is paid in full,” with processing estimated at about 20 weeks. Wyndham asks owners to make it their “first and only call” and says that working with anyone other than its Certified Exit Specialists may leave your options “limited or nonexistent,” so finish the Certified Exit conversation and get Wyndham’s answer in writing before you contact any outside firm. Holiday Inn Club Vacations collects a $1,200 processing fee per contract from owners who qualify for Horizons, and says owners forfeit Horizons if it detects a third-party exit company on the account. Apply to Horizons and wait for its written answer before contacting any exit firm, including for a free consultation. Westgate owners have a similar question to ask. According to Rebecca Tushnet’s law blog, an exit company suing Westgate alleged that Westgate has conditioned repossessions on an affidavit that the owner has not worked with “any timeshare exit company, lawyer or law firm.” Westgate disputes that the language covers all lawyers, and in a 2024 order the court called it “sweeping.” Ask the Legacy Program whether any such condition applies before you contact an exit firm.

Expect the call to turn into a sales pitch, and sign nothing. In ARDA’s study, 61% of 2025 sales volume went to existing owners. The developers’ 2025 10-Ks put sales to existing owners at about 70% of Marriott Vacations Worldwide’s contract sales and 74% of Hilton Grand Vacations’, and upgrade sales at 72% of Travel + Leisure’s net VOI (vacation ownership interest) sales. Whether the conversation happens on the phone or at an owner update meeting, don’t sign anything there. An upgrade is a bigger contract with a bigger fee, and it leaves you owning more. If an upgrade is the only answer you get, treat it as a no.

If the week has no resale value and the resort refuses, or quotes a price you can’t accept, get a free consultation and file review from an attorney-backed exit firm. At Vacation Ownership Consultants, you send your billing statements, purchase agreement, and deed, if there is one, through its eligibility form. VOC determines which options your ownership may qualify for and walks you through them in a free file review. Only then do you decide whether to enroll, for a one-time flat fee; VOC says it doesn’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify.” The review tells you which exit fits your ownership and whether anything said at the sale may support a claim. Then price the exit against the ten-year total. Vacation Ownership Consultants says owners who pay for professional exit help typically pay $2,000 to $6,000, depending on the loan balance, ownership type, and developer policy. In an example VOC published from its client files, a client paying $1,600 a year in maintenance fees exited for a one-time flat fee of $3,000; VOC projected that client would otherwise have paid $23,178.50 in fees over ten years, assuming an 8% yearly increase. Your fee, your loan, and your quote will differ, so put your own numbers into the exit cost calculator.

Other routes stay open. Your own attorney is the route if you have a documented claim about the sale. Resale through a licensed real estate broker is another, and the FTC says it is better to use a reseller that takes its fee after the sale. Our guide to getting out covers every route.

Whoever you hire, a firm worth paying reviews your documents before it quotes and quotes one flat fee in writing. It names the attorney who will represent you, and you can look that attorney up with the state bar. It tells you in writing what happens to your fee if the developer refuses. It never tells you to stop paying, never guarantees a result, never claims a connection to your developer, and tells you when a free route is still open. The full checklist is on the red flags page.

Price the loan separately. In the financed case above, the interest alone is about $20,000. Few lenders will refinance against the timeshare itself, because it has almost no resale value. If you qualify for a lower rate, a personal loan can replace the developer’s loan while you work on the ownership. Our loan payoff page covers what paying it off does and does not change.

Disclosure: Candid Yak works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it. This page’s author, Kira Fairbank, is a manager at Vacation Ownership Consultants. We cite its published case data on this page where marked.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice. The figures above are national averages and stated assumptions, and your fee, assessments, loan terms, and exit options are set by documents we cannot see. Have an attorney licensed in your state read the ones that govern you before you act on any of it.