Hotel and Motel Management recently ran a report on social media, a topic we feel strongly about at Sell My Timeshare NOW and The Timeshare Authority blog. (Apply marketing basics to social media to sell timeshare)

As they correctly observed, timeshares and social media are a logical match, with author Stephanie Ricca pointing out, “The timeshare industry is known for its marketing savvy, so it makes sense that this segment hit the ground running when it came to adopting social media strategies.”

Much of the report addresses what it defines as, “using social media outlets to strengthen the bond with the most critical mass—current timeshare owners.” This is a good observation and brings up the issue we made in a blog post this past Sunday (Social Media and the Timeshare Industry at the VOASA Conference)

Timeshares inherently have a special need for social media. Timeshare owners may buy timeshare from a developer who gives them plenty of attention, right up until they become a timeshare owner. After that, some timeshare owners feel they are “on their own” when it comes to gaining updates and general information about the opportunities of vacation ownership. This feeling of “aloneness” can be even greater for timeshare owners who bought timeshare as on the resale market. Who do they turn to with their questions? Where is their support system?

But as Howard Nusbaum, president and CEO of ARDA (the American Resort Development Association), explains, “We’re trying to educate our members that viral and word-of-mouth marketing now has a huge megaphone…This is an opportunity every day to ensure you’re igniting your fans and answering your detractors.”

Timeshare Owners Need a Voice…and a Listening Ear

Social media is often called “new media” for a reason. The old way the business world used to communicate with consumers has come to an end. No more one-sided conversations where advertising executives strategize the message, trying to shape the way consumers feel about the product.

Instead, social media has given consumers the voice they should have always had. Whether the product is timeshares, other travel and vacation products, or consumer goods and services, social media is providing the platforms for individuals to express and share their likes, dislikes, needs, and opinions. New media is one of the best directions business has taken in many years, even though it has left most industries—timeshare included—working hard to get up to steam with a presence in all the places its market wants to be heard.

The Timeshare Authority Blog and Sell My Timeshare NOW hope you will follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jasontremblay_ and http://twitter.com/vacationhotdeal

With the Fractional Summit USA underway in Miami today, it is great time to also mention a new book by David Disick: Fractional Vacation Homes: Marketing and Sales in Challenging Times.

David Disick’s book is designed to help timeshare and fractional developers, marketers, and sales agents attract more buyers to the fractional market, while closing more sales and generating more profits. Launching early this month, you’ll find 14+ testimonials from industry leaders—people who know when they are getting straight talk about the fractional and timeshare sales process.

Disick is a former Wall Street attorney with Davis & Cox, and is highly experienced in raising capital and financial structuring. He developed the first private residence club in American, the Franz Klammer Lodge in Telluride, Colorado, with a business and sales model that paved the way for much of the private residence and fractional market in the US today.

Disick is a former Wall Street attorney with Davis & Cox, and is highly experienced in raising capital and financial structuring. He developed the first private residence club in American, the Franz Klammer Lodge in Telluride, Colorado, with a business and sales model that paved the way for much of the private residence and fractional market in the US today.

To learn more about the book, you can contact David Disick at ddisick@msn.com or by calling (001) 435-657-9722. To hear Dave Thackeray’s interview with David Disick for Fractional Focus and RCI Ventures (podcast) click here: Play in new window

I am very excited to have been part of an interview with Phil Watson, who is the managing director of Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket in the United Kingdom. We spoke with interviewer Dave Thackeray of RCI Ventures on the very critical topics of timeshare resales and the changing dynamic of timeshare sales. If you are interested in selling timeshare on the secondary market, you will definitely want to take a few minutes and catch this internet radio podcast.

I share a story you may never have heard—how I came to be part of the timeshare resale industry. This is a very candid interview, where you’ll hear me say, “the timeshare resale industry is wrought with fraud.”

Have I got your interest? Want to know how Sell My Timeshare NOW is working hard to change the face of timeshare resales?

Please listen in…

• I will tell you why Sell My Timeshare NOW is one of the fastest growing timeshare resales companies in the world today.
• You’ll hear me tell what it has been like to be an unwelcomed newcomer in the timeshare industry and what we’ve done to earn the respect of both timeshare developers and very importantly, the timeshare owner, timeshare buyer, renter, or timeshare seller.
• And I’ll take on the existing timeshare sales process and tell you what’s wrong with it—and how it can be made better for the benefit of timeshare buyers and timeshare owners and the health and vibrancy of the industry.

You have several ways to hear this podcast. You can click the link below to play now, catch us on iTunes or download the interview to hear later.

Play it via iTunes or subscribe at iTunes to Today’s Timeshare (and its sister show Fractional Focus).

Listen to today’s show now: Play in new window

Or save it and listen to it later: Download

Your Boston timeshare resale or Boston timeshare rental is a great place to spend the Labor Day Weekend holiday, enjoying the 26th Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival. Celebrated some 30 miles from Boston, in the charming nautical town of Gloucester, this event commemorates historic contributions of the fishing schooner and the seamen who sail them.

Gloucester is the oldest fishing port on the North American Atlantic coastline and its historic harbor will be filled with the billowing sails of more than fifty authentic schooners. There will be three sailing events (Traditional Small Craft Races; Parade of Sail; and the) Mayor’s Race) as well as a host of activities, good fun, and good food.

Go for the Friday night block party, featuring music, dancing, and cinema under the stars. Take the Saturday Walking Tour of Gloucester’s Working Waterfront, tour the US Coast Guard Station, and visit the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center. Saturday night features the Parade of Lights and fireworks over the harbor. Sunday, you’ll want to witness the Parade of Sail, where all of the participating schooners hoist their sails and take to the harbor with fanfare and pageantry you’ll never forget.

Massachusetts Timeshare Vacation, Leave Your Daily Demands Behind

Experiencing old New England at the 26th Annual Gloucester Schooner Festival provides you and your family a chance to step back in time, leave behind the demands of your daily schedule, and live a page out of America’s colorful past. With all the options available to rent Massachusetts timeshare or exchange timeshare you already own, you don’t have to miss out on special New England getaways and relaxing holidays that offer you the fun and the relaxation you both deserve and crave.

Interval International timeshare exchange welcomes Mai Khao, Phuket’s West Sands resort to its network of vacation ownership exchange properties. Rebranded as West Sands Vacation Club, the eco-friendly Phuket timeshare is expanding its offerings to timeshare owners and their guests, seeking to be more competitive through greater flexibility.

In order to make it easier for owners to enjoy vacations and holidays even when their schedules or budgets are limited, the resort is transitioning from timeshare interval ownership to a timeshare points based system. Additionally, West Sands Vacation Club has affiliated with Interval International timeshare exchange to provide its member-owners with expanded options in timeshare exchange.

An Eco-Friendly Timeshare Resort

West Sands Vacation Club is located in its own bit of paradise, on 48 lush acres with over 500 yards of private beachfront on Phuket’s popular west coast at Mai Khao Beach. The one-, two-, and three-bedroom timeshare units all feature kitchens and balconies overlooking the pool, the garden area, or the Andaman Sea. The entire property was designed to be low impact on the environment while offering guests and timeshare owners both the beauty of natural Phuket along with the fun of West Sands Water World, one of the largest water parks in Asia.

“We are very pleased to have added West Sands Phuket Beach Club to our exchange network,” says Interval International’s Asia Pacific Executive Director, Joe Hickman. He adds, “Along with its high design standards, the eco-friendly development will contribute to preserving the environment and to more enjoyable and economic living.”

SPI Software, providers of software for the timeshare industry, has announced that Matt Brosious, vice president of sales, is a speaker at this week’s Vacation Ownership Association of Southern Africa (VOASA) conference. The VOASA conference, (August 29-31) is being held in Durban, South Africa. Brosious will speak on the topic: Positioning Your Brand and Social Media.

SPI Software, a Miami, Florida based company, has been providing software to the timeshare, vacation ownership, fractional, and private residence club industry since 1978. Their software is effective for both traditional timeshare and timeshare points based ownership programs. The proprietary timeshare software utilizes Microsoft .NET-based software either as an enterprise suite called Orange Systems, or in specific modules to handle sales, marketing, finance, property management, centralized reservations maintenance fee and receivables servicing, or Website access operations.

Why Social Media Matters When it Comes to Timeshares

Timeshares inherently have a special need for social media. Timeshare owners may buy timeshare from a developer who gives them plenty of attention, right up until they become a timeshare owner. After that, some timeshare owners feel they are “on their own” when it comes to gaining updates and general information about the opportunities of vacation ownership. This feeling of “aloneness” can be even greater for timeshare owners who bought timeshare as on the resale market. Who do they turn to with their questions? Where is their support system?

A strong network of connectivity through Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and other social media platforms can be a difference maker in the satisfaction level timeshare owners feel after their initial purchase. Matt Brosious will no doubt be reinforcing this message, offering insights to the VOASA conference attendees that will help everyone involved in the industry be more responsive to timeshare owners and their needs.

More news from The Timeshare Authority on the VOASA Conference:

South Africa Timeshare and the VOASA Conference 2010

This is Part II of our insider look at Disney timeshare in Hawaii. See yesterday’s The Timeshare Authority blog for “Sneak Peak at Disney Timeshare in Hawaii (Part I)”

COURTESY WALT DISNEY PARKS & RESORTS

Once again, our thanks to Mary Kraemer, blog writer at Mouse Planet, for her updates on the new Disney timeshare resort in Ko Olina, Hawaii, known as the Aulani.

Disney Finesse for this Hawaii Timeshare

As if just being on a beautiful Hawaii island isn’t enough, Disney has a lot of fun features underway at the Aulani Hawaii Disney timeshare.

Besides its location on a beautiful strip of beach, the twenty-plus acres of the Disney Aulani timeshare will offer a water play area of typical Disney-esque magnitude. There will be a slide, an adventure river and the Waikolohe Pool and Stream, which is positioned between two of the Disney Vacation Club buildings.

For the less adventurous, there’s the Wailana, which is a relaxing tranquility pool. And for children, there will be the Menehune Bridge and Trail water play area. Menehune means “little folk” in Hawaiian and references a legendary race of tiny people who were said to once inhabit the islands accomplishing remarkable feats and magical efforts.

But you can’t spend your entire Hawaii timeshare vacation in the water, no matter how entertaining the setting. The Aulani Resort will offer an 18,000 square-foot spa, an 8,000 square-foot convention center and a wedding lawn.

According to the linguists at Disney Vacation Club, the word, aulani means “the place that speaks for the great ones” or “the place that speaks with deep messages.” The message here seems to be clear: expect a lot from the Aulani Hawaii timeshare; Disney plans to deliver their best.

Updates from The Timeshare Authority Blog on Disney Hawaii Timeshare:

• Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Moving Forward with New Hawaii Timeshare
• Disney Timeshare in Hawaii, But Where’s Space Mountain?

Thanks to Mary Kraemer, blog writer at Mouse Planet, for this eyewitness update. Mary and her husband recently toured the model units for the new Disney timeshare resort in Ko Olina, Hawaii: the Aulani. As this will be Disney’s first Hawaii timeshare, excitement is already high and based on Mary’s description, there’s every reason it should be.

Describing the new Hawaii timeshare as “huge” Mary explains that it seems to dwarf the neighboring properties, with 359 hotel rooms, (16 of which are suites) and 460 Disney Vacation Club timeshare villas (with 21 oceanfront Grand Villas). Tomorrow’s The Timeshare Authority blog will look at the on-property features, but today, let’s look at what you will find inside your timeshare unit as a member of the Disney Vacation Club.

Features of Disney’s New Aulani Hawaii Timeshare

The units themselves are similar in footprint to other Disney timeshare properties. Studio timeshares include a sink, small refrigerator, microwave and coffeemaker in the kitchenette and a queen bed and sleeper sofa in the sitting and sleeping areas. A flat panel television and DVD player is built into the dresser area and a table with chairs provides seating for two. These studio timeshare units are designed to accommodate up to four people comfortably.

One-bedroom timeshare units at the Aulani Disney timeshare will sleep up to five people or when used in combination with a studio unit, up to 9 people. One-bedroom units offer a living room with sleeper sofa that the author points out, (same sleeper in in all units) is uniquely comfortable because it lacks the mid-back metal bar usually found in pull-out couches.

The one-bedroom timeshare units also feature a Murphy-style bed, a full kitchen, dining area with banquette seating, and a stacked washer and dryer. The bedroom has a king bed, private bath with whirlpool tub, and a rainfall showerhead in the separate shower.

All of the new Aulani Hawaii timeshare units include a private balcony and an island-themed décor, complete with lots of “hidden Mickeys” (you know, those Mickey Mouse outlines that Disney carefully hides in unexpected places.)

Hawaii Welcomes Disney Timeshare

This new timeshare resort reflects both confidence in the Hawaii tourism market and Disney’s interest in building resorts and timeshares in venues that don’t include one of their theme parks. And although the Aulani won’t offer a full theme park, you can be certain that Disney has plenty of activities and entertainment planned for the resort. Check Saturday’s The Timeshare Authority blog, where we’ll look at what you can expect at this beautiful new resort.

More News from The Timeshare Authority Blog on Disney Hawaii Timeshare:

• Disney Hawaii Timeshare and What It Really Means
• Will You Be Spending Holidays at a Disney Hawaii Timeshare?
• Hawaii Timeshare Expansion Means Good News for the Local Economy
• Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Makes for Optimism in Ko Olina

NASA held its first Information Technology Summit last week, bringing together thought leaders from government and industry with the purpose of showcasing the best in private and public IT innovations. Of course, such a summit calls for representation from the Walt Disney Company.

At the summit, Jack Blitch, vice president of attractions and development for Walt Disney Imagineering shares some special insights into the fun we can all expect from Disney parks in the future and our upcoming Disney timeshare vacations.

The video clip below is from CSPAN, and gives you a rarely seen look at 3-D models of “Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid” and the entire Beauty and the Beast section. While it is 1 hour and 50+ minutes in length, there are many interesting points about the Disney process and development as well as some updates on Disney Vacation Club properties you will want to catch if you are a Disney timeshare owner, or even just a Disney aficionado.

Watch this video and:

• Learn how during the renovation of the Disney Tree Houses, the new units were actually dropped into place from above, to ensure that the tree canopy was undisturbed.
• Find out about the expansion of the world’s only water rollercoaster on the Disney Cruise lines.
• See how Disney has undertaken its largest single expansion project ever by doubling the size of Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.

RCI timeshare exchange offers an amazing number of benefits (see: 10 Things about RCI Timeshare Exchange You May Not Know – And Should!). One of their newest features — known as RCI SnapBook™ has been specifically created to help you make the most of your timeshare vacation experience, capturing and sharing special memories.

Using a downloadable iPhone app, (available at the iTunes App Store) you can use RCI SnapBook to capture photos, notes, videos, or audio files about your vacation. Once your files are saved online, you can revisit them at any time, and as often as you like, creating blogs, stories, and albums to preserve your timeshare vacation memories and for easy sharing with family and friends. You can even share your experiences as they happen using real-time updates.

When you use RCI SnapBook to capture the magic and memories of your timeshare vacation you can choose to create multiple albums, using as many themes as you like, and then make specific albums available to targeted lists. For example, you might have one album with images, videos, sights, and sounds you want to capture for your co-workers and office friends and a different album that targets your family members and the grandparents. And when your uploads apply to multiple categories, you can update them simultaneously, and sync them in one easy step.

You know that timeshare vacation travel log you always mean to keep, but never write in after the first day … RCI SnapBook makes it fun to do and so easy you can do it in ‘snap’.