As the festivities of Super Bowl XLIII kick into high gear, football fans and partygoers by the thousands are descending on Tampa, St. Petersburg, all the surrounding “burgs” and even Orlando, which is some 70 miles away.

Tampa hotel rooms are sold out, although there are still some rooms available across the bay bridge on the beaches of St. Petersburg. If you can find a room in the Tampa area, expect to pay from $500 to $900 a night; if you opt for Orlando, the prices are about half that much this weekend. Of course, if you owned Florida timeshare, and had scheduled to use days during this week, you’d already have accommodations in the right place for taking in the hottest ticket in town.

A timeshare along Florida’s Gulf Coast would be especially convenient, but Tampa’s middle of the state location means that anywhere you own Florida timeshare, you would only be an easy half-day’s drive away from seeing the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Arizona Cardinals.

Here’s what you could be enjoying:

Music: Celine Dion; The Eagles; Rihana; Fall Out Boy; Lifehouse; the Latin-flavored Pepsi Musica concert; the annual Super Bowl Gospel Celebration; jazz greats playing at the SuperLX Live! daytime concert ; and at halftime–Faith Hill; John Legend; and of course, The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.

Other Entertainment: Comedian Dane Cook; a youth football game featuring the L.A. All-Stars coached by rapper Snoop Dogg and a Tampa area team coached by former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Mike Alstott; and of course parties; parties and more parties. Some of the biggest names hosting (or attending) pre and post Super Bowl parties this year include Nelly; T-Pain; Flo Rida; Sean “Diddy” Combs; Paris Hilton; Kim Kardashian; Leigh Steinberg; Donald Trump; and Paris Hilton.

Area Attractions: Busch Gardens; historic Ybor City; the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino; and miles and miles of great beaches, including Fort DeSoto Park and Caladesi Island.

Use Your Timeshare Interval and Don’t Miss the Next Big Event

Okay, enough couch time; there’s a future sporting event calling you. Get a calendar. Go to Google. Look up all those championships you wish you could see live, but never do. Find future dates and locations, and then plan to use your timeshare days accordingly. You bought that timeshare to really enjoy … and seeing the Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball championship, NASCAR races, or any other monumental championship in sports is a perfect way to get the most out of timeshare ownership.

Starwood Hotels and Starwood Timeshares have just released a report stating that their fourth quarter profits fell by 46 percent. According to a statement released by Starwood, net income fell from $146 million (74 cents per share) to $79 million (43 cents per share), year-over-year. CEO Frits van Paasschen has authorized job cuts, the closing of Starwood timeshares sales centers, restaurant closings, and has suspended share buybacks. Forbes.com states that fourth quarter earnings at Starwood Hotels and Starwood timeshares was hurt by severance costs and a writedown for two vacation ownership projects.

“At the current time, given significant uncertainty in the global economy, it is very difficult to provide any definitive guidance looking out four quarters,” the Starwood statement read.

As bad as all this sounds, shares of Starwood stock rose following the release of the report, because share values were higher than predicted by analysts. At the same time Starwood stocks were gaining, Marriott International fell 1.3 percent; Choice Hotels was down .6 percent, and Wyndham Worldwide dropped by 7 percent. (source: http://uk.reuters.com)

Starwood Hotels and Starwood Timeshares to Receive Tax Refund

Starwood Hotel and Timeshare company is due for an income tax refund from the federal government – a $200 million refund. For several years, Starwood has been in negotiations with the IRS, regarding the tax treatment of the sale of World Directories in 1998. Starwood and the IRS have finally reached an agreement, and the refund, scheduled to be received later this year – couldn’t come at a better time.

No Reason for Starwood Timeshare Owners to Panic

Starwood, like so many other timeshare companies, is feeling significant pain from the decline in consumer spending and the tight credit market. But in the vein of “what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger,” Starwood and other hoteliers and timeshare companies will likely emerge from the recession as stronger companies, with better internal checks and balances, fewer non-performing properties on their books, and a leaner, cleaner approach to doing business. Starwood is moving forward with expansion plans that include opening 100 new hotels this year; expanding its hotel network by more than 40 percent over the next five years; and reaching the significant milestone of opening its 100th resort later this year.

Westgate Timeshares is one of two companies that have agreed to settle in a Federal Trade Commission (FTC investigation into some of the timeshare companies’ marketing practices.

The FTC had brought charges against Westgate Resorts timeshare, and against Accumen Management Services, Inc, and its subsidiary All-in-One vacation Club, LLC for violating the National Do Not Call list. Westgate timeshares will pay $900,000 in the settlement while Accumen will pay $275,000.

Both companies were charged with making telemarketing calls to consumers who had completed entry forms for a sweepstakes. Consumers entering the sweepstakes believed they would be eligible to win a vacation package. Westgate, according to the Orlando Sentinel argued that people who give out their personal information, including their phone number, expect to be contacted. They also blamed a third-party lead provider for the violations, and pointed out that they no longer do business with that company.

Westgate Timeshare Asked for Leniency

Asking for financial leniency due to the nationwide recession and credit crisis, Michael Marder, attorney for Westgate timeshares, says they receive a “disappointing response”.

An Associated Press article, states that more than 167 million phone numbers have been placed on the Do Not Call registry and that the FTC has received thousands of complaints against Westgate timeshare over this matter.

This is a tough time for Westgate timeshares, (who has already laid off thousands of employees) to have to pay this kind of money. But there is always good news in a situation like this; any time the government sends a message like this, it helps keep unethical business practices in check, across the board. On top of that, the $1.2 million collected will go in the US Treasury – and in the end, that benefits all of us.

Other recent The Timeshare Authority blog posts about Westgate timeshare:

• Orlando Timeshare Workers Face More Cutbacks
• Further Layoffs at Westgate Timeshare
• The Other Side to the Westgate Timeshare Lawsuit Story
• More Bad News for Westgate Timeshares, Hit with $1 Million Judgment

As part of our aggressive growth plan, Sell My Timeshare NOW has hired Jay Bade as our new Executive Director of Business Development. Jay comes to Sell My Timeshare NOW as a timeshare industry veteran with 20 years experience in timeshares. Previously he was Vice President, Eastern Region for Trading Places International.

At Trading Places International, a respected timeshare exchange company, Jay was responsible for business development in the eastern US, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. Before working for Trading Places International, Jay was the Director of Club Inventory Development for Bluegreen Resorts.

Starting in Timeshare Sales

Jay began at RCI on the call center sales floor. He advanced to key client management and business development for RCI Resort Services. Jay is an experienced timeshare executive with account management experience in working with resorts, exchange services, owners associations, and inventory acquisitions. He will play a key role in our growth and expansion at Sell My Timeshare NOW. Jay’s also an avid skier and we anticipate finding him on the slopes, when he is not on the job, hard at work.

Sell My Timeshare NOW welcomes Jay Bade!

Follow this link to read Sell Timeshare NOW’s official press announcement of the hiring of Jay Bade.

The Illinois Bureau of Tourism (IBT) has expanded its ongoing “Presidential Trails” campaign and launched a new component dedicated to the life of President Barack Obama. Stops for vacationers and tourists on the recently developed “Obama Trail” include the current Capitol in Springfield; the Old State Capitol; the University of Chicago Law School, where Obama taught constitutional law; and Grant Park in Chicago, where he gave his famous victory speech after the election.

The state of Illinois already has trails to honor Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Reagan, each of which is considered to be typically a three-day getaway to explore and follow in the footsteps of history. But the US is not the only country planning to profit from vacation and timeshare travel linked to the life of President Obama.

Somak Holidays is one of several tour companies to have launched tours honoring Barack’s African heritage. Already since the election, Somak Holidays has seen an 8 percent increase in bookings to Kenya in December alone. But visiting Chicago and Kenya, isn’t enough if you are intent on visiting all the places connected to Barack Obama.

According to MSNBC, “… to see all the places connected to Obama’s life story, you’d have to visit three countries, six time zones, and six states. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, has roots in Kansas and Kenya, and went to school in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. He and his wife have raised their girls in Chicago, where tourists are already seeking out Obama haunts.”

So what about timeshare opportunities in all these places? Here are only a few of the possibilities:

• New York Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals
• South Africa Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals
• Honolulu Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals
• Illinois Timeshare resales and timeshare rentals

Orlando’s Channel 9 TV has been on the trail of a Nevada-based company using some interesting tactics to attract timeshare sellers. According to reporter Todd Ulrich, the timeshare company, Apex Professionals, sends post cards to timeshare owners leading them to believe the company wants to buy their timeshare and inviting them to a meeting to learn more. The post cards say, “Now making immediate offers to timeshare owners who want to sell.”

After a seminar held in an Orlando hotel, (which Action 9 investigators sat in on) the details of the meetings were shared with timeshare industry expert Lisa Ann Schreier. Here’s Ms. Schreier’s take: “These people (Apex Professionals) wanted 35 hundred dollars and your deed which is really unconscionable as far as I’m concerned.”

That’s right, those “immediate offers” being made to timeshare owners turned out to be an offer for the timeshare owner to pay Apex $3500, and then deed their timeshare over to Apex.

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

But it is highly possible that once you sat through the company’s persuasive seminar, listened to stories of how the timeshare industry is failing, how maintenance fees for timeshares are “soaring” and heard that it is impossible to resell your timeshare, you might have walked away believing that in the long run, paying someone to take your timeshare was actually a prudent thing to do.

Not so.

Sell My Timeshare NOW averages over a $1million per day in offers to buy or rent timeshares. Timeshare resales are sold or rented every day. But don’t just take our word for it; follow this link to the Channel 9 website. View their video and see where their investigative report tells you, “Consumer experts say timeshare owners can rent, or sell at a loss, and even that would be a better deal.”

If you no longer wish to own your timeshare, you do have options and none of them should ever involve a deal like this one.

After several blog posts about layoffs and changes at Bluegreen timeshare, it is good to be able to share some positive and very interesting news about this popular timeshare company.

While the media has been focusing on what appears to be a downturn at Bluegreen, it seems that the people at Bluegreen timeshare have been going about their business, doing what they do best, which is implementing innovative new ways to serve and to interact with their clients. In keeping with this, they have turned to Maverick Network Solutions, Inc, a company that provides merchant-issued debit cards and prepaid “credit” cards.

These are the types of card that have a prepaid and typically fixed line of credit, and that normally have nothing to do with your personal creditworthiness. Instead, you are most likely to receive such a card as a gift with purchase at a retailer, or as a bonus from a company who wants to reward your loyalty or spending.

The Lowes stores, for example, ran a large promotion in 2008 issuing prepaid credit cards as a way to reimburse delivery costs for consumers purchasing major appliances at their stores. The cards had a value roughly equal to Lowe’s normal delivery charges, and were sent to purchasers after the new washer and dryer or perhaps refrigerator was delivered. Rather than discounting the price of delivery, the company chose to issue these Visa logoed cards that could be used at any retailer. Customers have proven very receptive to this type of ‘perk’ or ‘thank-you’.

Now Bluegreen timeshares is looking to get in on this strategy for building client relationships and rewarding their timeshare buyers and potential buyers. Peter J. Quadagno, the president and chief operating officer for Maverick says that in the upcoming weeks, Bluegreen timeshare will launch a Visa-branded, non-reloadable prepaid card. Bluegreen timeshare plans to use this card as an incentive for potential timeshare buyers to hear presentations.

Exciting for Bluegreen Timeshare and the Timeshare Industry

What stands out about this new approach is that it shows first that Bluegreen, despite current challenges created by the economy, is a forward-thinking company – just what so many timeshare buyers and timeshare renters have known about them all along. But just as importantly, this is evidence that timeshare developers are continuing to redefine the industry, looking for ways to market their product that are more acceptable to the consumer and which will serve the needs and the image of timeshare sales in a beneficial and positive way.

(source: www.digitaltransactions.net)

Following on the heels of Tuesday’s The Timeshare Authority blog post about layoffs at Hyatt timeshare comes this interesting item pointed out by Orlando’s WFTV Channel 9.

Hilton Grand Vacations (Hilton Timeshare) is headquartered in Orlando. Over approximately the past 6 months, Hilton has laid off some 187 of its 3500 employees. Yet, according to information confirmed by Channel 9 reporters, Hilton timeshare is actually expanding in Orlando by launching the first phase of Club Parc Soleil (a 7-phase project in the tourist area of Orlando); building a new Hilton hotel on International Drive in Orlando; and continuing construction on the 1400 Orlando Hilton set to open later this year.

When reporters pursued the question of why the employee layoffs at a time the company was expanding, they did not receive answers from the spokesperson for Hilton timeshares. There is no information on whether any of the employees who had been let go were offered the opportunity to relocate to other positions at Hilton.

After laying off over 2000 employees, Bluegreen timeshare may still be facing more cutbacks in personnel. An article published by the SunSentinel.com, says Bluegreen timeshare’s chief executive, John Maloney, states that the timeshare sales and development company expects to cut its staff by approximately 60 percent this year.

When you look at Bluegreen timeshare’s past performance, (previously posting more than four straight years of timeshare sales growth) you have to say that this problem seems to have come about quickly. And with the momentum of a fast moving, downhill snowball, things have changed dramatically in a very short period of time.

Changes at Bluegreen Timeshare Happened Fast

In July 2008, Bluegreen timeshare was doing just fine. Their stock was trading at over $12 per share and the timeshare sales and developer, Diamond Resorts, was looking into acquiring Bluegreen for around $15 a share plus all outstanding debt.

As The Timeshare Authority was then reporting to you, timeshare sales (the sale of new timeshare intervals) were holding, despite the challenges hotels were feeling as the economy tightened. Timeshare sales and development companies were making money, not just from the sale of new timeshares, but from the ‘sale’ of the money consumers needed to buy timeshares. Acting like banks, mortgage companies, or loan sharks, timeshare companies were loaning (or reselling) credit at double-digit interest rates that sometimes exceeded 20 percent.

However, as John Maloney put it, “the music stopped.” With the credit market tight, timeshare companies like Bluegreen and others have been forced to cut back on expansion and growth plans. Bluegreen timeshare was suddenly looking to reduce their growth and acquisition budget by some $150,000 million. With development on hold or drastically cut back, the need for timeshare sales and administration personnel also diminished.

Now Bluegreen timeshare is moving forward, making prudent cutbacks and learning to live in the world of the new credit market. They have long been a strong, solid company and they are clearly making the right moves to continue that way.

Here are links to recent posts about this interesting timeline of events effecting Bluegreen timeshare:

• Bad News for Bluegreen Timeshares
• Credit Crisis May Change the Deal for Bluegreen Timeshare Resorts
• No Happy Holidays for Many Workers at Bluegreen Timeshare

As inauguration day dawns cold and clear in Washington DC, the US economy has many timeshare sales employees across the company – even those in sunny Key West – feeling the chill.

Last week The Hyatt Vacation Club in Key West implemented corporate-mandated layoffs in their sales and marketing departments. The resort, known as Windward Pointe, is operated by Hyatt timeshare and owned by the Key West-based Spottswood Companies. Spottswood also owns the Marriot Beachside Hotel, the Coconut Beach Resort, the Holiday Inn, and the Comfort Inn, all in Key West.

Built in 2001, this Key West timeshare has 104 two-bedroom, two-bath timeshare units, that Hyatt sells from just under $10,000; to about $30,000, for the highest demand season, which in Key West is during Christmas and during Fantasy Fest, always scheduled near Halloween.

According to KeysNet.com, Larry Shulman, a senior vice president at Hyatt’s Beverly Hills office said, “We don’t typically comment a lot on these types of things … different than any business across the country … we’ve had to revisit our business model and downsize.” Shulman did mention that cuts were happening across the board at many Hyatt properties, primarily hitting the timeshare sales and marketing departments the hardest.

Sales information at the Monroe County Property Appraiser’s office shows that timeshare sales at Windward Pointe in 2008 were less than half of what they were in 2007, even though the average sale price had increased to $21,551.

Currently there are more than 40 Windward Pointe timeshare resales or timeshare rentals available at Sell My Timeshare NOW, starting at just under $10,000.