Happy Labor Day to all who have been observing this US holiday that is so welcomed this time of year, signaling for many the end of summer and the return to school and all-too-familiar routines. If you have been vacationing this weekend, good for you! And if you have been on the job this weekend, well, that’s can be a good thing too especially considering today’s economy.

However you schedule your leisure time and days off, just be sure you do work vacationing into your routine. Not just because you deserve it, which you certainly do, but also because you NEED it.

We’ve said it here before, but it bears repeating: Men who don’t vacation regularly are 32 percent more likely to die of heart attacks while women are 50 percent more likely, according to experts cited by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) at www.vacationbetter.org.

Referencing the research of John De Graaf, editor of the book, Take Back Your Time and frequent speaker on issues of over consumption and overwork in America, VacationBetter.org explains, “Doctors recognize the connection between vacation starvation and heart attacks, high blood pressure, stress and depression. Studies show the risk of these ailments can double or more for people who don’t regularly vacation. Americans are twice as likely to suffer from chronic illnesses as Europeans, who get a minimum of four weeks off each year.”

Timeshare Vacations Make it Easy

Statistics like these remind us that we don’t just need vacations for our mental health; we need them for our physical well-being. And if you are an over-worker and an under-vacationer, timeshares may be just the solution you need to make a vacation happen.

• Timeshares let you spread the cost of vacation accommodations over an extended period.
• If you buy a value-priced timeshare resale, you’ve reduced the headache of paying for a lifetime of vacation accommodations before you even start enjoying that first day of relaxation.
• Owning timeshare lets you skip the vacation scheduling and planning that you didn’t have time to do anyway, and transition seamlessly from “at-work” to “on-vacation”.
• The numerous amenities of most timeshare resorts mean that should you choose to, you and your family can enjoy a fully relaxing, fully entertaining vacation, without ever leaving the property… now what could be easier than that?

Here’s a little more insight on why vacation time is critical, not optional:

Group RCI has commissioned an in-depth study of patterns within the timeshare industry, particularly looking at where the top demand is for timeshare and where the busiest timeshare areas are located. Essentially, it’s to be a look at timeshare supply and timeshare demand.

Some of the points the RCI timeshare study is expected to show include geographic areas or vacation destinations where timeshares and timesharing has a limited presence as well as identifying areas where demand is being met and the needs of interested timeshare owners are being served. According to HotelNetwork.com the soon-to-be-released RCI Timeshare study will show:

Timeshare: Is the Cup Half Empty or Half Full?

It is interesting to see research that focuses on making timeshare a better product with more application for more people. Perhaps the timeshare industry, like so many other areas of business, has been somewhat lulled into believing that its job is to convince people why they should want or need a timeshare.

In fact, the focus by all of us in the timeshare industry always should be on making timeshare into a product that better serves the vacation and travel wants or needs people already have.

Could some residential homeowners or investors find opportunity by selling properties as fractional ownership vacation homes?

Good question and one addressed in a recent issue of Perspective Magazine. David M. Disick, president of David M. Disick & Associates writes about the opportunity that fractionals may hold within the real estate market. Disick is considered to be a pioneer in the fractional vacation home industry. He is the developer behind the Private Residence Club, Franz Klammer Lodge in Telluride, Colorado and is currently developing Club ElyseeSM.

Is a Fractional Just Another Name for a Timeshare?

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, let’s start with the argument of whether timeshare and fractionals are the same product on different scales. Fractionals afford owners the chance to buy a percentage of ownership in a vacation home. The property is typically a luxury or uber-luxury home, located in a desirable vacation destination. Unlike a timeshare where there are often as many as 50 individual owners, each claiming a week or perhaps two of interval ownership, a fractional is typically owned by a limited number of owners (10 or fewer) who many own several months of interval usage time.

Good approach? Probably it is, since statistics show the fractional industry accounted for some $2 billion in sales in 2007 and another $1.5 billion in 2008. Fractional industry expert Sherman D. Poptvin points out, “Even in the economic downturn of 2008, the fractional market was still the fastest growing real estate product.”

The logistics of sales for fractional ownership vacation property comes down to this: A vacation home in a highly desirable location may be a tough sell at $5 million, but expand the ownership pool to 6 or 7 individuals at $750,000 apiece and you have a much greater market of potential buyers from which to draw.

But here’s the warning. While selling a luxury home (either as the current owner or as an investor) to multiple joint buyers may be a way to expand your market, Disick warns it, “is not for the uninitiated.” He calls the concept relatively simple and potentially very profitable but cautions, “A wide variety of skill sets is required for a successful development.”

Fractional Expert David Disick’s Advice for Selling a Vacation Home as a Fractional

• Before you do anything, consult a financial and a legal advisor.
• Location, location, location. Prime locations in prime resorts are essential for a successful venture into fractionalizing a property.
• Check the zoning laws. Not all properties can be turned into fractionals.
• Find financing sources for your venture. You may even have to educate them about the concept and the opportunity of fractionals.
• Study the rate of return expected as well as the return on investment.
• Look at your pro forma in a best and a worst-case scenario.
• Find properties that you can acquire at a favorable price.
• Be prepared to update the home’s furnishings and technology, or to furnish the home from scratch.
• Be prepared to make any necessary repairs to the property.
• Consider the needs that will arise for property management, concierge or reception services, reservations, bookkeeping and auditing procedures, and documentation for ownership, as your starting needs, with the eye-opening recognition that more needs will become evident as you move through the process.

And lastly, don’t let this list scare you off. As Disick advises, the market is sure to bounce back. He suggests that if the approach of selling fractionalized property appeals to you, then you should prepare now in anticipation of the “pent up demand” there is sure to be from people who have, during this recession, delayed their vacation ownership purchases.

(Source: Perspective magazine, July 2009.)

Myth #1. Timeshare is a financial investment.

How can this myth still exist? Timeshare is NOT a financial investment; it is a vacation choice. In an age when your personal home may or may not still be an asset, how can anyone think that buying timeshare will guarantee a return upon resell? Not only do timeshare sales people misrepresent the truth if they claim, “… timeshare is an investment,” they also break the law in some states regarding what one can market as an investment. The only time the words “timeshare” and “investment” should appear in the same sentence is when pointing out that regular vacationing is an investment in your good health and that many timeshare owners find planning, scheduling and committing to regular vacations to be easier because they chose to buy timeshare.

Myth #2. Timeshare is worthless on the resale market.

Many of the people who expound this as fact do so because they did not advertise their timeshare resale in the right places and they had trouble selling it. Other people who propagate this myth do so because they want to buy your timeshare from you at lower than rock bottom prices (so they can then resell it for a profit). They try to convince you that they are rescuing you in the process. When it comes to selling timeshare, you don’t need relief, respite, or rescue; you need resale.

No one can guarantee you that your timeshare will sell, but every day around the world, timeshare resales are purchased. Your opportunity to sell your timeshare increases when you choose to advertise it in a large, established marketplace.

Myth #3. If a company charges you to advertise your timeshare resale, the company is unethical.

How are you going to sell timeshare if you don’t advertise it? Yes, there are websites that permit you to advertise your timeshare resale at no charge. How effective are they? Who visits these freebie websites besides other people who have timeshares they want to resell?

Most people are familiar with websites or local print publications that permit you to advertise a timeshare, a used car, a snow blower, or perhaps a wedding dress and they charge you nothing to run the ads. These sites are fine if you think you can find a buyer for that snow blower in your community. But how well does this work for timeshare resales, when what you really need is advertising to a global marketplace of buyers in a medium, such as a well crafted internet website that has been purpose built and is maintained with strategy and deliberation in order to attract the largest possible audience of interested potential buyers?

Timeshare Myth Buster

Here are some timeshare facts you can rely on:

Buy timeshare as a timeshare resale and you are already ahead of the game. You will have spent less money from the onset, and you will have less to worry about when you get ready to resell. Buying timeshare resales offers you the luxury and amenities of timeshare vacations without tying up as much of your hard-earned cash or your credit line.

When you get ready to sell your timeshare, try low hanging fruit first and ask your friends, co-workers, family, and neighbors if they would like to buy your timeshare. But if that doesn’t work, pick a timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising company that can demonstrate its skill in advertising timeshare resales to a worldwide market of targeted buyers.

Here’s a really fun video of the Discovery Channel’s MythBusters blasting Adam with 20,000 paintballs at YouTube Live.

RCI timeshare exchange has announced that the Palace Vacation Club of Malaysia has joined the RCI network of timeshare exchange affiliates. This new timeshare exchange affiliation adds Country Villas Malaysia timeshares and the Palace of the Golden Horses timeshare resort to the inventory of destinations available to RCI members worldwide.

“We are delighted that one of Malaysia’s most famous and storied vacation clubs has selected RCI as its global exchange provider,” said Geoff Ballotti, president and CEO, Group RCI, parent company of RCI. “We look forward to welcoming Palace Vacation Club members to RCI and to providing this new affiliate with the most innovative sales and marketing programs available in the industry today.”

Ricky Yip, CEO, Country Heights Lifestyle Berhad says that for them the decision to work with RCI timeshare exchange came easily. He explains, “RCI is the world’s largest timeshare and vacation exchange company, and gaining access to their 3.8 million leisure-bound members will be exceptionally valuable for our resorts. RCI’s depth of management, technological resources, and global marketing infrastructure aligns well with Palace Vacation Club’s strategic growth plan. This relationship will provide our member families with the best and most diverse vacation experiences possible beyond our signature Palace Vacation Club resorts.”

Group RCI is part of the Wyndham family of hotels, Wyndham timeshares and related companies. Group RCI timeshare exchange offers exclusive access for its members to more than 73,000 vacation properties in approximately 100 countries.

Now this is just fun. How about an app for your iPhone that helps you time manage your Disneyland vacation? The Walkee™ iGuide to Disneyland® Park by TapBanana.com is out just in time for next month’s opening of the expansion at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. The California timeshare expansion adds 203 hotel rooms and 48 Disney Vacation Club timeshare units, including two Grand Villas, to the already expansive property.

The GPS-enabled customizable app is a fun alternative to those paper Disney Park maps we have all stuffed in our pockets but never really used in the past. And since the Disney Grand Californian Hotel and Spa (with Disney Vacation Club timeshares) is located in the very middle of the Disneyland resort, you will be at the heart of it all for using the Walkee™ iGuide to help you navigate the park, pick your favorite restaurant, or update your friends about what you’ve seen.

New Disney Vacation Club Timeshare is a Boon to Area Economy

The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa are the first Disney timeshare units available at the Disney California parks. And they couldn’t open at a more welcomed time for the people of Anaheim where the City Council says these new hotel rooms will generate more than $2 million annually in bed taxes, while the new Disney timeshare units translate to nearly a half million dollars in bed taxes the first year alone.

But Disney’s expansion with California timeshares is not just good for the local community, it’s great for members of Disney Vacation Club, providing that West Coast Disney timeshare option that has never existed before. And as of January 1, 2009, RCI is the exclusive exchange provider for Disney Vacation Club. Timeshare owners at Disney Vacation Club can now use their Disney Vacation Club timeshare points to book timeshare at RCI affiliated resorts worldwide.

Here’s a quick look at Walkee™: