This week the American Resort Development Association Conference (ARDA) is convening their 2009 Fall Conference in Washington D.C. As many timeshare owners know, ARDA, is the trade association that represents the timeshare, vacation ownership, and resort development industries. ARDA functions to protect the welfare of both the industry and the consumer, helping to effect the growth, legislation, and beneficial change that makes the timeshare industry stronger and better for all who are a part of it on any level and in any capacity.

A significant aspect of this week’s conference will be the release of two, carefully researched advisories designed to aid consumers and timeshare owners looking to buy, rent, or sell timeshare on the secondary market. This directives look at both the role of the timeshare industry “good guys,” like Sell My Timeshare NOW, and the problem of those companies that prey on timeshare owners who seek to sell timeshare they no longer use or perhaps can no longer afford.

Sell My Timeshare NOW has been actively involved in the development of these advisories since the project first began. As ARDA President and CEO, Howard Nusbaum explains, “This is not an indictment of our reputable resale company members, but rather a problem faced by everyone who loves this industry (and doesn’t love the industry) being painted with the same ‘timeshare scam’ brush.

We deliver so much timeshare news and current events here on The Timeshare Authority, it becomes easy to forget that many of the people who are interested in buying timeshare or a timeshare rental are new to the world of timesharing. They may not “speak the language” that the rest of us have all grown accustomed to understanding.

So let’s use today’s blog and talk about some of the industry jargon that is understandably confusing to people who haven’t encountered it before:

• Fixed Week: These are seven-day increments of timeshare that you own at a home resort. Your fixed week of timeshare ownership is usually identified by a number, such as, “Week 10”. When you own a fixed week of timeshare, you are guaranteed that vacation week every year. But you are not required to stick with it; you can still typically use it as a timeshare exchange.
• Floating Week: A floating week gives you the right to one week of timeshare that usually falls within a season of a specified value. RCI (Resort Condominiums International) for example, uses color coded seasons of red, white, and blue with red representing the highest demand season. Use of a floating week is always based on availability and you must go through the steps required by your resort or exchange company to use it as a timeshare exchange. Points based timeshare is always floating timeshare ownership.
• Space banking: When you save or ‘bank’ your timeshare into a collective of other available timeshare weeks or units, you are space banking it for future use.
• Lock-out: A lock out or lock off timeshare unit is one that can be subdivided and each section rented separately.
• Gold Crown Resort: A Gold Crown timeshare resort is a connotation applied by RCI to identify timeshare properties of the highest standards.

Buying, renting, or selling timeshare is not a complicated process (at least it shouldn’t be) and enjoying timeshare is certainly not hard to do. But the industry has developed some specific terminology and you will be better prepared to make decisions and make plans if you understand the language.

To learn more about the no doubletalk approach to timeshares, check out the Sell My Timeshare NOW Timeshare Glossary.

Hard to believe it’s already November and time for the American Resort Development Association Conference in Washington DC. Registration begins tomorrow, with the opening night reception hosted by Interval International.

The Fall ARDA Conference, which runs from November 4-6, is hosted at the Fairmont Washington, DC. Former Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire will be leading off the sessions as keynote speaker.

As always, it is expected to be a significant week of information exchange, interaction, and engagement by representatives of the timeshare industry, vacation ownership, timeshare resales, and timeshare brokerage.

It’s going to be a busy week and in the upcoming days I will be sharing news with you from the ARDA Fall Conference.

Sell My Timeshare NOW in the news:

• Previous Senator John Sununu Honored By Sell My Timeshare NOW

Disney Vacation Club (Disney timeshare) is adjusting its salary and bonus strategy to try to incentivize members of its timeshare sales staff and increase sales of Disney timeshare units in the process.

In changes that were announced to Disney timeshare sales staff last month, the company will be reducing base pay to its front line timeshare sales team by about ten percent, yet increasing bonus amounts for employees who reach certain timeshare sales objectives.

Disney Vacation Club spokesperson, Rena Langley says, “We have made changes to the pay structure among our advance sales associates to allow us to provide more reward and recognition to top performers.”

Advance sales associates (also called ASAs) for Disney timeshare sales are the people who work in the Vacation Club sales kiosks that you find throughout the Disney parks and hotels. If Disney’s plan is doable, its timeshare sales workers will have the opportunity to earn larger paychecks. But among the approximately 100 ASA’s affected by the salary reductions, concern looms over whether they will be able to “make back” the salary amounts lost. Entry-level pay for ASAs prior to this pay reduction was around $11 per hour.

Not Even Disney Vacation Club Timeshare can Escape the Challenge of This Economy

With consumer credit lines for buying timeshare drying up, along with many people simply tightening their belts, timeshare sales at Disney have dropped. Yet Disney timeshare is still faced with four new timeshare properties to sell, on top of any existing inventory at the Disney Vacation Club resorts they still had.

Now add to this the increasing number of people who are buying timeshare resales on the secondary market because they have recognized the enormous savings it can mean, and you have a tough hill to climb by any worker who is trying to sell new timeshares on primarily a commission or incentive basis.

Opportunities in Disney Timeshare Resales:

• Disney’s Vero Beach Resort Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Boardwalk Villas Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas Timeshare Resales

Other recent Disney Vacation Club News:

• Plan a Disney Timeshare Vacation in their New California Timeshares
• New Disney Timeshares are first California Timeshares for the Mouse
• Finding Disney Vacation Club Magic at the Mall