Barbara De Lollis covers business travel for USA TODAY. In a recent series of interviews with Wyndham CEO Steve Holmes she asked some specific questions and received some very encouraging answers.

Although one cannot get around the fact that Wyndham timeshare has laid off approximately 4,000 employees in the past year—-most of whom were employed in timeshare sales—-Steve Holmes says Wyndham timeshare is pleased with its business for 2009.

Wyndham Timeshare Sales Have New Goals

Now the logical question is how can 4,000 layoffs and a 39 percent drop in timeshare sales during the second quarter of 2009 (compared to the same quarter last year), make any timeshare sales company pleased?

The answer comes in the changing outlook at Wyndham timeshare. With credit lines drying up, Wyndham timeshare (as with most timeshare developers) could not finance timeshare sales for as many new buyers as they have in the past. They had little choice but to sell fewer timeshare units, yet try to make their sales efforts more efficient.

Instead of operating on a ‘bigger is better’ approach, Wyndham seems to have taken a ‘better is better’ approach. With a scaled-back business plan for 2009, Wyndham timeshare has approached timeshare sales with reduced goals. Without the need for so many prospective buyers, the company needs fewer timeshare sales people to set up timeshare presentations and tours.

Wyndham timeshare sales for 2009 are focusing on efficiency. The company is trying to drive up the percentage of people who buy timeshare after they take a Wyndham timeshare sales tour, as well as increase the amount of those sales. According to Holmes, “In our business, both (measures) were up in the first half of the year. We continue to be very pleased.”

Here’s an interesting interview with Steve Holmes at the PhoCusWright 2008 Conference where he speaks in detail about Wyndham’s strategies for dealing with the current economy.