Today the American Resort Development Association Fall Conference (ARDA) held each year in Washington, D.C., is fully underway. The schedule begins with early morning registration and Committee Meetings that start by 8:30 AM. The VIP Lounge is open by 9, along with coffee service sponsored by First American Title.

A busy day for attendees? Absolutely!

Committee meetings include: The Resale Forum, Travel Club Task Force, Technology Forum; AIF Education; Audit; State Legislative Committee; HR Council;  Communications Committee; Membership Committee; Investment Committee; Suppliers Council; AIF Research Committee; ARDA-ROC Executive Committee; Awards Committee; Sales and Marketing Forum; Finance Committee; Ethics Committee; Resort Management Committee; Federal Issues; AIF Board; Meetings Committee; Construction & Design Council General Counsel Council; LARPAC; and the CFO Council.

The Welcome Reception, Sponsored by Interval International and hosted at The Westin Georgetown, is scheduled to begin at 5:00 PM and is open to all.

Representing Vacation Property Solutions, our resort services division, I will be attending the Trustee Foundation Dinner, at 7 PM tonight. To be held at La Maison Francaise (The Embassy of France), the invitation-only Trustee Foundation Dinner is sponsored by Wells Fargo Capital Advisors.

Wyndham's WorldMark Resort Denarau Island Timeshare

Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific, (Wyndham timeshare) has announced the start of construction on Stage 3 of WorldMark Resort Denarau Island. When completed, this Fiji timeshare resort is expected to be one of the largest tourism developments in the Fijian islands.

The renovation plans include construction of 63 amazing timeshare villas, both one and two-bedroom units, as well as 3 and 4-bedroom presidential villas that will feature private dip pools overlooking the ocean. (Are you beginning to envision yourself vacationing there?)

Architect Guymer Bailey along with the Fijian firm, Architects Pacific, will handle the new design with much of the support work for construction, furnishings and fixtures to be provided by local Fijian consultants, subcontractors and suppliers. Michael Fairfax, Managing Director of PBS, noted that their company is very excited to get started on the project, which will likely be the largest building construction job in Fiji and will employ hundreds of workers and subcontractors in a variety of trades over the course of the next 18 months.

Wyndham Timeshare

Current Wyndham timeshare owners and guests will be pleased to know that the construction on the expansion will be localized to the new project area, with minimal impact on the serenity of upcoming Wyndham Fiji timeshare vacations at WorldMark Resort Denarau Island.

In keeping with Wyndham Green, Wyndham Worldwide’s global sustainability initiative, environmentally sustainable features will be incorporated into the redevelopment. Such initiatives include the use of local timbers, natural lighting when possible along with energy saving lighting, water saving devices, and cross-flow ventilation plus energy efficient cooling systems.

ARDA Fall Conference for the Timeshare Industry

The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) Fall Conference is at hand. Each year, it convenes in Washington, DC, providing attendees important insights and understandings on the timeshare, fractional and vacation ownership industry, including economic, business, and political trends. The Fall Conference is also scheduled as a time for ARDA committees to lay plans for the year that lies ahead.

Hosted at the Fairmont, Washington DC, the ARDA Fall Conference gets underway this week on Wednesday, November 9 and runs through Friday, November 11, 2011.

Keynote Speaker this year is  FOX News contributor, editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller news site, and  senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Tucker Carlson. We can expect him to be providing his witty and insightful commentary on today’s political climate, including the divided Congress, the administration of Barack Obama and the 2012 elections.

Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services

Along with others from Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services, I’ll be in Washington DC for all the events. It’s going to be a great week … even the weather looks good for Washington DC, and how exciting to be there as Veteran’s Day rolls around on Friday.

Look for my updates from the ARDA Fall Conference on Twitter @JasonTremblay_ and here on The Timeshare Authority blog.

The 2011 Obitz Travel Index revealed some surprising and not-so-surprising travel trends for this year’s holiday season.

Despite the still-tight economy and rising airfares, which are up some 4 percent over last year, people still plan to travel this holiday season. Of those surveyed, 68 percent said they would cut back elsewhere, including on gift buying if necessary to cover the cost of holiday travel.

Where is everybody going?

Well, New York City ranks as the top destination for Thanksgiving travel. Chicago and Orlando ranked as second and third. Other popular destinations include Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, Los Angles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

For Christmas and New Year’s travel, Orlando ranked number one, New York number two, with Denver ranking third in Christmas travel and Cancun taking the number three spot for New Year’s travel.

But experts advise, book your travel and lock in your plans NOW.

Jeanenne Tornatore, senior travel editor for Orbitz.com, says, “With the travel demand strong for the holidays, consumers need to lock in their plans. We’re seeing many deals catering to families on a budget, but travelers will miss these great opportunities if travel planning is pushed back as prices are not likely to go down.”

This year, more than ever, at Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services, we are finding that timeshare rentals are being snapped up fast.

Timeshare Rentals mean:

• Spacious accommodations, where you and your family or friends can spread out, with home away from home comforts
• Great competitive prices, as timeshare owners seek to rent timeshare they cannot use themselves
• Locations near all the fun attractions you want to visit
• In-unit kitchens, making it easier to save money on dining out
• In-unit or on-site washers and dryers meaning, less to pack and fewer “extra bag” fees from airlines
• Great options for accommodating your holiday guests as well as for your own travel

Timeshare rental for your holiday travel … do it NOW.

No wonder people are immensely attracted to the way timeshare locks in the price of vacation and travel accommodations. For 2011, the add-on fees and surcharges billed by hotels in the United States are projected to be $1.8 billion, based on research conducted  by the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management of New York University.

If you don’t travel regularly, then the mounting trend toward add-on hotel fees may come as a surprise to you.

Much like airlines moving toward an à la carte menu, where each additional service you use means an add-on charge to your bill, more and more hotels are charging fees for ancillary services. Most shocking, is that often guests are seeing these charges as part of their bill, even when they have not actually used the service.

What has led to these skyrocketing fees, up 80 percent in the past 10 years?

Hotels, like many other types of travel services, began to add fees to room nights after travel dipped in the months following 9-11. Then, three years ago, as the overall economy began to decline and the cost of food and many hard goods increased, adding fees became even more important for hotels, providing a way to recoup per client, some of what they were losing on the whole.

Here are some examples of the types of fees that are showing up on individual hotel bills:

• Fee for the safe in the hotel room
• Fee to check in early
• Pool access fee
• Luggage holding fee
• Wi-Fi access fee
• Pet fee in hotels that permit pets
• Rollaway bed fee
• Bellhop fee

And these costs are in addition to the mini-bar restocking fees, parking fees, local and long distance phone call fees and other services that most guests already expect to be dinged heavily for if they use.

Timeshares, Get What You Pay For

Timeshares come with their own types of fees. But these are annual maintenance fees and or property taxes, and in some cases periodic special assessments from the management or HOA. Timeshare owners know when they buy a timeshare to expect these fees and to factor them in accordingly as part of their overall cost of vacation ownership.

In addition to enjoying a timeshare resale for vacation travel as a way to avoid hotel add on fees, timeshare rentals provide you an excellent way to get what you pay for and pay for only what you get.

You won’t see mini bar fees at your timeshare. Neither will you be billed per item for many of the types of add-ons that hotel guests are seeing on their check-out folio. Instead, timeshares, particularly when bought as resales or enjoyed as a timeshare rental, make it easy for you to know and lock-in the price of your vacation accommodations, without falling victim to a fluctuating (or falling) economy.

The topic of unused vacation days is a hot one currently with agencies, associations, and companies feeling the pain as workers who have accumulated massive counts of paid vacation time, try to cash out on what is owed them.

But the biggest problem of unused vacation days is probably not what they mean in financial payouts and much more about the toll they represent on the workers for failing to take regular vacations and holidays.

Life for most people is just about as hectic as it can be with work and responsibilities taking up far too much of our energy, our time, our peace of mind, and our zeal. And for all the reasons you may be able to give for why you can’t work a vacation into your life, consider this:

Regular vacations:

• Improve your work performance
• Improve your health
• Increase bonds in families and relationships
• Promote creativity
• And enhance your overall sense of well being, happiness, and job satisfaction

In other words, the cost of NOT vacationing can be far greater than the cost of talking a break from your routine. As NPR reported, based on research conducted by  the University of Pittsburgh’s Mind-Body Center, “Among the benefits to be found from engaging in multiple (leisure) activities are lower blood pressure, lower stress hormones and smaller waists.”

People who have never taken a timeshare vacation often don’t “get it” but people who have enjoyed timeshare understand how much easier they can make it for you to commit to taking the vacation time you have earned and so very much need.

When bought as great deals on the timeshare resale market, make vacations easy to afford. Timeshare ownership creates a commitment to vacationing that you are much more likely to honor because you have already paid for your vacation accommodations. And even for the busiest among us, a timeshare vacation is about as simple to plan as it can be, requiring only that you commit to your timeshare interval, throw some clothes in a bag, and get there.

…Because the decision to not vacation could be so costly you wouldn’t want to pay that price.

The new Partner Portal Program at Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Brokers Services is the topic of this month’s Technology article in ARDA’s Developments magazine.

The article, “New Portal for Bulk Resales/Rental Inventory,” explains how the timeshare industry has been in search, for years, of such a program in response to the industry’s need for a database resource akin to the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) used in residential real estate.

This Fall, at the C.A.R.E. Convention in Chicago, we launched the Partner Portal as a game-changing, industry-changing tool that virtually everyone in the timeshare industry can take advantage of for moving their resale and rental inventory.

Here’s how Developments describes the timeshare resale and timeshare rental Partner Portal Program:

Different from Sell My Timeshare NOW’s public-facing Web site geared to consumers, this new platform provides tools and services to business-based sellers and renters who want to advertise their inventory. The Partner Portal provides a central depositary for independent brokers, resale companies, management companies, HOAs, and even developers with large or small amounts of resale and rental inventory—all inventory is displayed within SellMyTimeshareNOW.com. With SMTN’s millions of page-views each month, the site provides key access to leverage growth across the new Portal business as well.

The Partner Portal is a Simple, Effective Way to Sell or Rent Timeshare

At Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Brokers Services, we have worked to make the Partner Portal as simple to use as possible. Timeshare brokers, real estate agents, timeshare HOAs, timeshare developers, anyone who takes timeshare trade-ins, timeshare management companies, timeshare resales companies, or anyone with access to clean, rentable inventory, can potentially put the Partner Portal to work for them.

The process is as simple as:

1. Initially setting up your no-upfront fee online account
2. Uploading your timeshares resale or rental inventory, whether that is one property or thousands
3. And then seeing your inventory sell or rent!

Before your property information is published live online, we double-check it for accuracy and standardize it so that all information is presented in a similar way, ensuring that all the content that appears on our sites is accurately represented to consumers.

More importantly, we continue to apply, 24/7, the strategies and technologies that keep our websites buzzing with over 1.7 million page-views each month. And always, throughout the process, you remain in control of your properties… you pay nothing to advertise them through our websites and you can take your ads down at any time you like, no penalties, no fees.

To learn more about The Partner Portal for timeshare resale and timeshare rental, be sure you read the November/December edition of Developments.

We also invite you to view the slides included below and to visit www.sellmytimesharenow.com/portal

You can also learn more by contacting Jerome Bocquet at 877-884-9577 ext. 307 or Jay Bade at 317-213-2553.

Vacationbetter.org, the vacation website of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) has rolled out a new look and feel to its website. Focusing on bringing you more stories directly from timeshare owners and timeshare vacationers, the new website design for Vacationbetter.org now includes on its homepage, video testimonials directly from owners.

The website describes it saying, “The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) is partnering with its members to bring the passion of the owners to other vacationers through its Timeshare Fans Program. These Timeshare Fans will explain – in their own words – why timeshare is a better way to vacation.”

The new look of the website puts the emphasis on timeshare the way the world should be seeing it: as a valued choice for family vacations, with spacious accommodations and easy vacation planning. The redesign also helps showcase how many, many families find timeshare vacations to be a tradition that they anticipate and enjoy year after year. And to help get more timeshare owners share the real truth of timesharing, Vacationbetter.org has made it easy for owners to add their photos and written or video stories to the website.

Millions of Happy Timeshare Owners

ARDA and Vacationbetter.org see their new-look website as part of their commitment to their Timeshare Fans program, through which they can help show the world the enthusiasm and passion that so many timeshare owners feel for their vacation ownership products.  With nearly 8 million timeshare owners worldwide, there are a lot of raving fans. ARDA and many others in the timeshare industry think it’s time you heard more about and from these happy owners.

And what better place to start telling the story of satisfied timeshare owners than at Orange Lake Resort in Orlando, Florida… as the owners in this video explain…

This year, skiers have every reason to feel optimistic about a great ski season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has projected a La Nina year, which means greater than average snowfalls. Avid skiers are clearly taking the predictions to heart. According to travel experts, seasonal ski lodge and resort bookings are up some 18 percent over where they were this time last year and airfares to ski destinations are up by roughly 10 percent.

…Good news if you are in the ski business; not so good news if you are looking for a winter ski getaway at a discounted price.

With the white stuff already off to a strong start for the Winter of 2011-2012, ski resorts are feeling no pressure to discount their prices. Smartmoney.com conjectures that it’s a, “Snow Forecast: Great for Slopes, Bad for Bargains?”

Timeshare Rentals and Resales, Your Best Ski Resort Option

Timeshares afford you a way to plan your winter ski vacation without the uncertainties of how Mother Nature and her seasonal partner, Old Man Winter, will impact accommodation pricing. When you buy a timeshare resale, you start with a vacation lodging option that is already competitively priced, often saving you thousands of dollars during your years of use. Your timeshare resale at a ski destination is locked-in vacation lodging pricing and will not be affected by weather-related dips and peaks in ski lodge rates.

Skiers who are not prepared to commit to vacation ownership with a timeshare resale can still get in on the good deals by renting timeshare directly from the current owner or vacation club member. Your timeshare rental is a property that the owner has paid for and he or she may be highly negotiable on rent pricing. Timeshare rental owners will not be thinking about how weather prognostications will affect an entire ski season, but will simply be focused on whether they can rent the timeshare and cover their annual timeshare ownership costs.

If you and your family love to ski, you may find that timeshares are a great addition to your winter ski vacations. You can learn more by going to the Sell My Timeshare NOW website and in the search box typing in “ski”. You will find thousands of choices in ski locations, resort sizes, and amenities, both to buy and to rental. You can also contact us, at 1-877-815-4227, and we’ll be happy to help you find the deal that is best for you.

… Then start waxing your skis and singing, “Let it snow!”