To begin with, the timeshare is a program in which a group of people shares use of a property by dividing among themselves the rights to use the property for specific time periods.  Although the property is usually a residential project such as a condominium, developers have applied the timesharing concept to other types of properties, such as houseboats, campgrounds, and recreational vehicle parks.  Virtually all timeshares are resort or vacation properties used by different real estate companies to save some additional money.  

To set up the timeshare, the developer (timeshare companies, as usual), “divides” occupancy of each of the units into time-based intervals.  The developer then sells these intervals to buyers (real estate companies), so each owner of an interval receives the right to use a specific unit for a specific time period corresponding to the interval they purchased.  Each timeshare owner thus “shares” the usage of the property along with all of the other owners.  Through this shared usage, the owners have guaranteed accommodations in the property, without carrying the financial and property management burdens associated with a conventional ownership of such a property.  

Timeshare intervals are normally one week long; a few timeshare projects, however, use other ownership fractions, such as one-tenth or one-quarter ownerships.  Since almost all timeshare projects are based on one-week intervals, the words “week” or “timeshare week” are generally used in the timesharing community to mean a one-week timeshare interval. This is both convenient to the timeshare companies and the real estate companies they work with.

In addition to the purchase price, timeshare owners also pay an annual fee for property upkeep and management.  Most timeshare projects also reserve one or two one weeks usage of each unit for maintenance and repairs.