If you own a timeshare, you already know the purchase price was only the beginning. The bill that shows up every year, whether you use your week or not, is the maintenance fee — and it’s the cost that surprises owners most.
The average fee in 2025: $1,550 a year
According to the industry’s own numbers, the average timeshare maintenance fee hit $1,550 in 2025. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was $1,090. That’s a 42% jump in five years — and it keeps climbing while a lot of owners’ weeks sit unused.
To put that in perspective: if you haven’t used your timeshare in three years, you’ve paid roughly $4,500 in fees for vacations you never took.
What are you actually paying for?
Maintenance fees cover the real cost of running the resort: housekeeping and upkeep, front desk and staff, landscaping and pools, insurance, and a reserve fund for big repairs like roofs and renovations. The resort sets the fee, not you — and it goes up whether your unit’s value does or not.
That’s the part that catches people off guard. You bought the week. The fee is forever, and it rises on the resort’s schedule.
Why fees keep going up
A few things push fees higher every year: labor and housekeeping costs, insurance (especially at beach resorts), and reserve funds for aging buildings. Resorts are also fuller than ever — 79.9% occupancy in 2025, well ahead of hotels at 62.3% — which means more wear and tear, and more upkeep to pay for.
What can you do about it?
You’ve got three real options:
- Use it. If you love the resort and go every year, the fee is just the cost of the vacation — and it’s usually still cheaper than booking the same resort at hotel rates.
- Rent it out. A rented week can cover the fee and then some. Rental revenue across the industry hit $3.3 billion in 2025, so there’s real demand.
- Sell it. If you’re not using it, selling stops the yearly bill. Resale prices are a fraction of what developers charge — the average resale deal in 2025 was $24,740 — but getting out from under a fee you pay every year for nothing is the point.
There’s no fourth option where the fee just goes away on its own. It doesn’t.
The bottom line
Maintenance fees are the true cost of timeshare ownership, and at $1,550 a year and climbing 42% since 2020, they’re worth a hard look. If your week is working for you, great. If it’s just a bill in the mailbox every January, it’s time to run the numbers.
Want to know what your timeshare is realistically worth — and what it would take to sell it? Call for a free consultation: 414-982-5664, or visit resorttimesharenetwork.com.
Resort Timeshare Network — 20 years of timeshare resale experience.
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