Sarasota, Florida based Triton Timeshare Software, a technology solutions company has named Race Wall as its new Director of Sales for Canada, the United States, the Caribbean Islands, Central and South America, Europe and Asia.

Triton Timeshare Software is known in the industry as a trusted provider of timeshare solutions software for property management, timeshare sales and marketing, lead tracking, marketing management, contract preparation, payroll and forecasting, and other valued programs.

Delaina Probus-Staley, president of Triton, says, “In his short time with us, Race is already making a huge impact on our business. He knows the product backwards and forwards from a technical point of view and has an in depth knowledge of our resort industry. We are thrilled to have him to take a leading role in our growing company.”

Previously, Race Wall was with System Products in Miami and has worked for NCR and IBM business partner New Generation Computing, which he helped bring to IPO.

To get a better understanding of what Triton Timeshare Software is and what they do, watch this video, shot last spring at the ARDA Conference (American Resort Development Association). You’ll appreciate their story of starting this now successful company in their garage and will be interested in how they are serving an evolving timeshare industry with their multiplatform programs.

RCI Ventures‘ Dave Thackeray is spot-on when he writes about the potential damage that can be done to a business in the form of “fake” consumer reviews. But before we get into that, let’s give credit where credit is due.

Online consumers who leave comments and reviews of companies, businesses and their services have played an important role in the rise of social media. In many ways, individuals leaving comments on travel websites with regard to hotels, timeshares, airlines, and restaurants have laid the groundwork for an important shift from agency driven marketing to consumer-defined marketing. And this move is proving to be very healthy for the business to consumer relationship, even though it has clearly shaken and challenged some companies and some advertising agencies.

With the proliferation of social media tools and their ease of access, consumers are now learning more about businesses from each other than from the business (or its ad agency) itself. Business, in all arenas, is being pushed to new levels of service, credibility, and transparency—and this is a very good thing. Time, they tell us, will either promote us or expose us, and it’s never been truer nor has the clock ever ticked any faster than it has since everyone from grandparents to teenagers has a Twitter account and a Facebook page.

How Social Media Helps and Hurts Business

Yelp.com is an excellent example of the good news/bad news story of social media and business. Yelp began regionally in San Francisco as a resource to help people in local neighborhoods find restaurants, businesses, and other services. Because of its broad appeal, it has spread to major metropolitan areas across the country. Although most of the comments on Yelp are apparently fair, there are situations when a single irate customer –say a customer at a hair salon who wasn’t thrilled with the cut he or she received—has been able to do serious damage to a business’ reputation. When you consider the often undeserved beating that timeshares take in the court of public opinion, it’s probably a good thing that Yelp hasn’t yet created a category for timeshare and vacation ownership.

But consumer-driven marketing is a good thing only when it is used responsibly. What happens if it becomes an outlet for petty complainers, whiners, or worst of all, what RCI Ventures describes as “malicious fake online reviews”?

RCI Ventures Looks for an End to Fake Holiday and Timeshare Vacation Reviews

A fake online review has even greater potential to harm a business than an authentic review posted by someone who is unduly anxious, simply because the fake reviewer has no boundaries.

In an example cited by RCI Ventures, Mr. Des Hauge, owner of Thornsett house, was the victim of malicious reviewers whose words had a crippling effect on his small business. So bad were these reviews that after 30 years running a Bed and Breakfast, Hague simply gave up his business.

Now, reputation management company KwikChex will take legal action against reviewers who post “unduly malicious comments about holiday properties under the cloak of anonymity.” And apparently the numbers here could be quite large as recent investigations are uncovering more and more fake reviews, both those that excessively praise and those intended to destroy.

For more information, read: End for fake holiday reviews?

In August, Sell My Timeshare NOW announced the acquisition of the primary assets and customers of Rapid Resale, LTD, a popular Canadian timeshare sales website and service. While the company’s timeshare resale and timeshare rental services have always been available for Canada timeshare and Canada timeshare owners, extending our Canadian outreach via Rapid Resale provides Sell My Timeshare NOW with greater depth and breadth in the timeshare resale market in Canada.

As we continue to deepen our relationship with Canadian timeshare owners, buyers, and Canada timeshare renters, we strive to understand and then serve this market as fully as possible. Here are some of the interesting updates we’ve learned from researched developed by Ipsos (the third largest survey‐based research company in the world) and shared at the recent CRDA Conference on Canadian timeshare.

Profile of Canada Timeshare:

The clear takeaway in studying all of these facts is that timeshare sales and timeshare resales have to do a better job of reaching the market that isn’t currently being reached, the startling 18 percent of Canadians who seem to have never heard of timeshare. To go with this insight is the solid impression that a highly visible, well-optimized website is the critical tool for anyone who wants to buy, rent, or sell Canada timeshare.

It’s been nearly two weeks since the CRDA (Canadian Resort Development Association) timeshare conference in Toronto and here at The Timeshare Authority blog, we’ve been remiss in not already sharing with you the full story of what an outstanding timeshare event this was.

First, let me thank Ross Perlmutter, Executive Director for CRDA, and all of the CRDA team and the sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors who worked to make this such an excellent conference. “The Resort Development Summit: the 2010 Canadian Resort Development Association Annual Conference” was held at the Radisson Admiral Hotel Toronto Harbourfront, overlooking Lake Ontario, and the beautiful venue made the time there even more enjoyable.

Day 1 started with a look at the Canadian timeshare owner and the Canada market for buyers and renters. We’ll be sharing more of that information with you in tomorrow’s The Timeshare Authority blog.

Howard Nusbaum, President/CEO of ARDA (American Resort Development Association) delivered the Keynote Address, with a serious (and optimistic) look at the state of the timeshare industry. And then it was time to roll up our sleeves and dive into the breakout sessions, with topics that included:

1. Fundamentals of Finance: Back to Basics for a Better Bottom Line
2. Resort & Club Management: Finding Money under the Rocks
3. Meet The New Market
4. The Legal Eagles
5. Resale Forum: Where do we go from here?
6. Timeshare Technology
7. And an Opportunity to Ask the Experts

I know I speak for everyone there that the time was enriching, inspiring and informative, which is good news for the hard working people in the timeshare industry, millions of timeshare owners and two strong countries working to bounce back from economic challenges.

Other Canada timeshare and CRDA News:

• Sell My Timeshare NOW Targets Expanded Presence in the International Vacation Market
• Canada Timeshare Association (CRDA) and US Timeshare Association (ARDA) Announce Expanded Relationship

Last week Disney Vacation Club timeshare announced that its first California timeshare has sold out. The new, The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel has sold all of the timeshare intervals in its 50 two-bedroom timeshare villas.

Jim Lewis, president, Disney Vacation Club, says, “Families have enjoyed visiting the Disneyland Resort for decades and Disney Vacation Club members who own at The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel will enjoy the savings for decades to come.”

Disney timeshares opened The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa last September (2009) with a vision toward increasing their presence in the West Coast timeshare market. The Grand Californian is built adjacent to the Disney California Adventure Park. Some of the timeshare villas there even overlook the park itself. The timeshare units are designed to complement the Arts and Crafts architecture of the Grand Californian, while providing home-like amenities including kitchens, washers and dryers, and living and dining areas.

The Demand for Timeshare

As easy as it is for critics to say timeshare doesn’t sell, the success of the Disney Grand Californian proves otherwise. While the resort only offers fifty timeshare villas, remember that is fifty on a timeshare calendar, which means each unit is likely sold some fifty times if sold in one-week increments (most resorts reserve one or two weeks of a timeshare for the resort in order to keep up with annual maintenance such as repainting.) Figuring multiple owners, the Grand Californian may have contributed as many as 2500 timeshare owners to the growing Disney Vacation Club that currently has some 450,000 individual members.

Although The Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa timeshare are sold out, there are still Disney timeshare opportunities at:

• Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina, Hawaii timeshare
• Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Orlando, Florida timeshare
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas Orlando, Florida timeshare
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort Orlando, Florida timeshare

And of course, many of the Disney Vacation Club properties are available on the secondary market as Disney timeshare resales and Disney timeshare rentals—even those that are sold out as new timeshare.

Europe’s leading consumer-based timeshare association has announced they are expanding their support of timeshare owners by adding a Mediation Service to their Helpline facility. TATOC’s Timeshare Helpline is open to serve all consumers, providing information and assistance with timeshare questions along with help when possible in resolving timeshare problems. TATOC is now extending these services with the addition of Mediation Service.

Timeshare mediation does not provide a judgement in a dispute, but it will assist the parties involved in reaching an agreement. Use of the TATOC timeshare Mediation Service does not preclude anyone from pursuing the matter further with an attorney or in the courts, should he or she decide that is the best course of action.

Currently TATOC’s Mediation Service includes four mediators, two in the UK, one in Spain and one in the Canary Islands. This list will expand in the future, and may include attorneys who are interested in being part of the service. As TATOC explains:

TATOC can provide a list of persons who are qualified or have experience of mediation and certain lawyers have been approached to see if they are prepared to be included in the list. It is the responsibility of the mediator to inform client how they would carry out the mediation. It is not the intention that TATOC recommends any particular lawyer or mediator; the consumer or committee will be given a list of TATOC approved mediators who have agreed to abide by the following parameters. The requirements of a mediator are to provide:-

To learn more about TATOC, the Timeshare Association, contact Harry Taylor at:
harry.taylor@timeshareassociation.org or by telephone at: +44 (0) 161 237 3518.

The Timeshare Authority will be contributing a monthly column that will appear in print editions of The Resort Trades Magazine, beginning with the publication’s December issue.

This column will look at the business of timeshare and vacation ownership, primarily but not always, as a resale product. We will focus on ways the industry can work together creating owner-centric options that better serve the interests of timeshare owners, developers, and timeshare resale companies.

While the content will target those who work in the timeshare industry or in fields related to timesharing, we think that anyone interested in timeshare ownership, timeshare rentals, or timeshare real estate in general will find these articles relevant.

And although it will be a while before the December issue reaches your mailbox, you can get a sneak preview of the column each month on the website for The Resort Trades, where the new timeshare articles also appear online. And to get your interest revved, here’s a quote from our first article:

“Buy a new Ford or Toyota and you know that you will, at some point, trade it in, resell it, or pass it on to your teenage son or daughter. But buy a timeshare, even one that carries the confidence-inspiring name of a global hospitality brand, and the timeshare buyer is left to wonder how he or she will get out of it in the future. … In the world of shared or vacation ownership, resales have too long been the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss.”

When a target demographic in the US population represents $90 billion, you pay attention, right? That’s the thinking of the tourism and hospitality marketers who represent Florida’s Space Coast.
The Space Coast is a popular Florida tourism destination, sometimes overshadowed by the vacation glitz and ‘magic’ of the tourism marketing done by their neighbors in the Orlando-Kissimmee vacation area. But the Space Coast of Brevard County, Florida offers at least two drawing cards that the popular Orlando area can’t boast: there’s Cape Canaveral where the US has been launching missiles since before I Dream of Jeanie’s bottle washed ashore there, and there are the beautiful Atlantic Coast beaches themselves.

With an under-tapped market and assets as vast as outer space and as deep as the Atlantic Ocean, the Space Coast Office of Tourism will be playing those cards in a purposeful way, targeting the market of minority and multi-cultural travelers. Florida Today writes, “Realizing that more of this market can be captured, the Space Coast Office of Tourism has recently launched marketing campaigns targeting minorities, including promoting the Space Coast in publications with high African-American readership and on Spanish-language billboards across South Florida.”

Rob Varley, executive director of the tourism office, points out, “It’s a big deal and we feel that’s a real strong market for us.” He goes on to explain that the marketing target is diverse, including Spanish-speaking families, black, Indian, as well as other cultures.

Follow this link to learn more about Cocoa Beach timeshare resale and rental opportunities.

Or this link to take you to Ron Jon Cape Caribe timeshare resales at Cape Canaveral.

SPM Resorts, Inc. has hired Lani Liber, a veteran timeshare professional, to lead the company’s corporate office. SPM is a full-service timeshare management company that manages 34 resorts serving approximately 100,000 timeshare owners. The timeshare company is based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Liber, who will be the new Senior Vice President of Corporate Operations, has over 25 years of experience, which include having been the president and founder of CPC Group, a timeshare consulting firm, a past senior vice president for Bluegreen Resorts, and having worked with Sunterra Resorts in Orlando, Florida.

At Bluegreen Resorts, Liber was responsible for the company’s owner relations division, she was responsible for the engagement and satisfaction of 208,000 owners, including the management of inbound call centers, travel services, communications, quality assurance and owner web services divisions. Because of her efforts, annual owner-related sales grew from $65 million to $273 million. While with Sunterra Resorts, she led the successful development of new resorts and sales centers and oversaw the integration of the new vacation club product and supporting software at Sunterra’s resort and sales locations throughout the United States.

“Lani’s vast amount of experience in our industry and her proven ability to guide and lead teams successfully showed us she was the right person for the job,” said Bill Young, SPM Resorts, Inc. president and chief operating officer. “Lani will be instrumental in effectively leading our corporate office activities, supervising departments and continuing our efficient internal operations.”

To learn more about SPM Resorts, call 843-238-5000 or visit www.spmresorts.com.

In blog posts twice this week, The Timeshare Authority blog has talked about how some timeshare sales companies (timeshare developers) are adjusting their marketing plans in order to focus on their most responsive demographics. And who is most likely to buy timeshare? Why people who already own timeshare!

Now Orange Lake Resorts, an Orlando timeshare that is part of Holiday Inn Club Vacations, announces it is making this type of marketing move, which unfortunately calls for employee layoffs in the process. The decision to eliminate many of the Orange Lake Resorts timeshare concierge locations, primarily in Orlando hotels, means the company will be laying off employees who typically booked hotel guests into Orange Lake timeshare tours.

Stacey Sutherland, vice-president of corporate communications and brand services for Orange Lake explains, “Instead of cold calling, if you will, you get to speak with someone who’s already heard about you and is curious. You’re talking to a customer who already knows and loves Holiday Inn.”

The Orange Lake Resorts timeshare cutbacks will involve some 120 positions, including the company’s concierge post at Universal Orlando. Sutherland says that some of the employees from outposts that are closing are being asked to rejoin the company in other positions.

The traditional timeshare sales model has never been inexpensive, in that it involves extensive one-on-one time between employees and potential timeshare buyers and frequently includes gifts or perks, that the consumer revives whether or not he or she makes a buying decision. As long as this approach forms the core of the timeshare sales model, it makes sense that in a tight economy a timeshare company will focus its attention on the most qualified consumers who most closely fit the demographic of current timeshare owners.