Channel 7 News from Spartanburg-Greenville SC and Ashville NC, is reporting on an unhappy Westgate timeshare buyer, who recently received her money back. Quanisha Savage believed that she had won a vacation weekend in a radio contest. To her surprise, when she checked in at the resort, she was told that she had to attend an orientation session on the topic of timeshares.

After 4 hours in the presentation, Savage reported that she was, “… very tired and wanted to just get them out of my hair and it did sound like a good deal.” But buyer’s remorse set in quickly and several hours after leaving the presentation, Savage realized that she had made a mistake in agreeing to purchase the timeshare.

Calling Westgate timeshare, according to Savage, yielded no result. Two weeks after the purchase, Savage received documents via email confirming that she had 5 days from the date of purchase to cancel. Had she missed her chance to cancel the sale because Westgate timeshare had failed to respond to her in time?

After contacting Westgate Resorts, Channel 7 TV received an email from David Siegal, founder and CEO of Westgate timeshares. The email stated, “…Since we have to service our owners forever we don’t need to have an unhappy one like Ms. Savage. Let her know that due to your efforts (if you want to take the credit) she is getting her refund. We are a good company and certainly don’t need any bad publicity.”

Westgate Timeshare Did the Right Thing

The timeshare industry never needs more bad publicity, nor would, one hopes, they ever want to do the ethically wrong thing in dealing with a timeshare buyer. In this case, Westgate timeshare was not only doing what was ethically right, but if the facts presented by Channel 7 TV are complete, Westgate timeshare did what was legally correct for them to do as well. And David Siegal was most certainly right; no company worth its salt wants or needs an unhappy customer.

Recent blog posts at The Timeshare Authority on Westgate timeshare:

• Westgate Timeshare Is Paying the Price
• Orlando Timeshare Workers Face More Cutbacks
• Further Layoffs at Westgate Timeshare

Here’s a quick view of the luxurious Westgate Resort at Westgate Lakes Resorts and Spa in Orlando:

Shares of Wyndham Worldwide Corp. fell on Monday following a downgrade by Goldman Sachs analysts from “Neutral” to “Buy”. Goldman Sachs’ analyst cited concerns about Wyndham timeshares as influencing the decision.

Steven Kent, of Goldman Sachs says, “Wyndham still has extraordinarily low valuation and high quality management but until investors get a better sense of the long term timeshare opportunity/model we suspect the shares may tread water.”

Previously Kent had observed that hoteliers offering the best opportunity for investors are those hotels that are less invested in timeshares. Wyndham timeshares represent a large portion of the business at Wyndham Worldwide, and the company’s shares have lost more than 75 percent in the past 52 weeks.

But does any of this make your Wyndham timeshare less valuable? No. If you enjoy vacationing in your timeshare unit then the real value of your Wyndham timeshare is exactly what it always has been – a great way to enjoy luxury vacations at a fixed price for accommodations.

On an unrelated note …

The Timeshare Authority Blog received a nice acknowledgement from WFTS-TV ABC News (St. Petersburg, FL). Recently, in their website’s “Smart Money” column, written by money expert and radio talk show host, Bruce Williams, Williams recommended to the readers of his column, that they could turn to The Timeshare Authority as a resource for “honest, impartial information and advice regarding timeshares.”

Honesty and impartial reporting is critical to us and Sell My Timeshare NOW appreciates this recognition.

Last week, some thirty Marriott timeshare employees in New Jersey, all of whom know they are on their way to unemployment, participated in a program designed to get them started on their unemployment paperwork. Federal and state government officials met with the Marriott timeshare employees at the Seaview Resort and Spa. The officials were there to help the workers with pre-filing of unemployment paperwork so that the applications will be automatically triggered into the system on February 14, the first day the workers will be officially jobless. Other topics addressed included information on job training, health-care options, unemployment insurance, and retirement savings plans.

Marriott Ownership Resorts Inc. is closing their timeshare marketing and timeshare sales offices in Absecon and Galloway Township, New Jersey, leaving at least 134 Marriott employees without jobs. According to Marriott’s spokesperson, Ed Kinney, approximately 66 of the newly unemployed will be from marketing and timeshare sales.

New Jersey state law requires that the company notify the Department of Labor and Workforce Development any time layoffs involve a large number of people.

Where Do Things Stand at Marriott Timeshare?

In December, The Timeshare Authority reported to you about Marriott timeshare employee layoffs at the company’s Orlando timeshare sales offices (see: Marriott Timeshare, Like Wyndham and Westgate, in Cutback Mode). But in October we reported on the company creating over 200 new timeshare jobs—unfortunately for US workers, they were all in Ireland. (see: Marriott Hotel and Marriott Timeshare Company to Create 220 New Jobs).

The hotel and timeshare industry has to be very selective about where they invest their growth and expansion dollars. This is not to suggest that New Jersey isn’t a great location for timeshare sales offices; but right now, good businesses remain good businesses by following the money trail. If New Jersey timeshare sales are slow, then Marriott is smart to cut back, even though job losses are catastrophic in the lives of the people who experience them and in the bigger picture, layoffs continue to feed the cycle of reduced consumer spending.

However, it is very good news to hear that both corporations and governmental agencies are taking the individual loss of income very seriously and helping workers in the transition and the search for new jobs. This recession in not a time for any of us to take an “every man for himself” attitude, but instead for Americans to work together to weather this storm and emerge as a stronger nation and a stronger economy.

Source: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/179/story/382480.html (and others)

The Houston, Texas-based timeshare company, Raintree Vacation Club, released news this week that they are not only acquiring additional properties and opening new resorts, they are breaking sales records!

With sales offices in Cancun, Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Raintree is the largest independent, US-based vacation ownership company operating in Mexico. The company currently has twenty-one timeshare resorts, ten of which are Mexico timeshare. Raintree Resorts can also be found in the western US and in western Canada.

In December, Raintree opened timeshare resort number 20 in Villa Vera Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Property number 21 came when Raintree Timeshares acquired the Phoenix resort previously known as Canyon View, currently under renovation.

According to the company’s president and CEO Doug Bech, the new Phoenix property represents “… over $100 million in future timeshare sales. It was acquired from Resort Funding, which is also providing an excellent working capital/receivables hypothecation line of credit for the consumer notes for both the Phoenix and Villa Vera Puerto Vallarta resorts. We will be rebranding this property quickly and begin operating it as a Raintree Resort.”

Raintree timeshares is pleased to be offering a new timeshare resort destination in Arizona, and enthusiastic about their relationship with Resort Funding, about whom Bech says, “… we believe we will have other future business.”

Clearly Raintree Resorts is Doing Things Right

You already know the situation for many timeshare companies and timeshare developers who are struggling to downsize and ride out the recession. Yet, Raintree is clearly doing things the right way. The company reported they were more than $8 million above sales, year-over-year for 2008.

Raintree Vacation Club is the exchange arm of Raintree Resorts, serving over 50,000 member/owners.