About a month ago, the Timeshare Owners Blog carried a post titled, Marriott Timeshare Is Turning Green. We told you about a corporate effort by Marriott to increase environmentally conservative practices by employees of their hotels and timeshare resorts. The plan calls for more emphasis on recycling and an expanded use of recycled materials.

But the green at Marriott hotels and timeshare resorts has just gotten greener, and this time , they are going green on the greens – the golf greens and fairways.

Environmentally Conscious Timeshare Resort Golf Courses

When the Doral Golf Resort & Spa Hotel and Timeshare in Miami hosted the World Golf Championships last week, they became the first Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary in North America to host a World Golf Championships event. And Marriott Golf is following this accomplishment by requiring 34 of the Marriott managed golf courses at 25 locations to become Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries by the end of 2008.

The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries honor certain golf facilities for their efforts to protect the environment by enhancing wildlife habitats and natural areas. To achieve an Audubon Certification, a golf center must prove that it achieves and maintains the highest degree of environmental quality in areas that include wildlife and habitat management, community outreach, educational efforts, minimized use of chemicals, water conservation, water quality management, and environmental planning.

Currently Marriott Golf has six hotel or timeshare resort golf courses that are operated in accordance with the Audubon standards. These resorts are the Ritz-Carlton Members Club in Sarasota, Stone Mountain Golf Club in Georgia, Doral Golf Resort in Miami, and two other Florida courses.

In a press release issued by the Environmental News Service, Kevin Fletcher, director of Audubon International was quoted as saying, “We are elated with the level of commitment Marriott is showing by mandating Audubon Certification across their portfolio of golf courses…These proven environmental management practices will help preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf for many generations to come.”

Marriott Timeshare Resales

If you want to know more about opportunities to buy timeshare resales at or near great golf courses, the seven Marriott timeshare resorts at Hilton Head Island, SC are a perfect place to start.

• Marriott’s Barony Beach Club Timeshare Resales
• Marriott’s Grande Ocean Timeshare Resales
• Marriott’s Harbour Club Timeshare Resales
• Marriott’s Harbour Point Timeshare Resales
• Marriott’s Heritage Club Timeshare Resales
• Marriott’s Monarch Timeshare Resales
• Marriott’s Sunset Pointe Timeshare Resales

If you want to know more about improving your golf swing during your Marriott timeshare vacation, watch this YouTube video of a private lesson taught by Bobby Cole at the Marriott Doral Golf Resort and Spa:

And if you are more interested in watching birds than making birdies, you will enjoy this YouTube video about Audubon certified golf courses:

CNNMoney.com reported last week that despite the fact that hoteliers in general are feeling the pinch of the tight economy, hotel companies that have a timeshare sales component are doing just fine.

Backing up this theory are strong financial reports from timeshare companies, including Wyndham Worldwide, with fourth-quarter 2007 timeshare vacation revenue up 4 percent to $576 million and Marriott timeshare sales and services revenue up 2 percent in the same quarter.

Here’s What Leading Financial Analysts Said about Timeshare Sales

Last month, Goldman Sachs analyst Steven Kent toured Florida timeshare resorts belonging to Marriott, Starwood, and Wyndham. CNNMoney.com quoted him as saying, “We came away with a renewed sense belief that timeshare sales should be able to muscle through the current difficult economic environment, given a proactive sales model and the compelling quality of the product.”

Robert LaFleur, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group, reportedly said that timeshare sales remain a very profitable business and at the same time afford a way for hoteliers to extend their brand. But perhaps LaFeur’s most quotable observation relates specifically to why people continue to buy timeshare despite challenges in the US economy. La Feur said, “It’s (buying timeshare) like going to Costco and buying vacation in bulk.”

No Mistake About It: Timeshare Sales, NOT Vacation Home Sales

If you don’t think consumers clearly understand the difference between the value of buying timeshare vacation ownership property in this economic market and buying sole ownership vacation homes, think again. Vacation home sales (sole ownership properties) dropped 30.6 percent in 2007, from their 2006 all-time record high.

Timeshare ownership …for millions of satisfied people, it’s a great vacation solution no matter what the economy.

Last week, when a timeshare company partnered with a timeshare owners group to offer a members-only timeshare auction, it would have been understandable if some the timeshare owners stared feeling like Rodney Dangerfield claiming, “I don’t get no respect.”

During a three-day period, members of the timeshare group were allowed to bid on any of over 300 timeshare resale properties. While the timeshare weeks auctioned were priced from $800 to $2500 and up, there were no reserves on the bidding that started at 10 cents.

As the official press release for the event stated, “…the potential pitfalls of owner-to-owner auctions via eBay are many. Who transfers the ownership? Who takes care of the legal paperwork? How do I know what I’m really buying? What guarantees do I have?” This timeshare auction claimed to reduce the type of buyer risk associated with eBay property auctions, while offering deeply discounted prices for timeshare buyers.

Timeshare Auctions and Market Values of Timeshare Resales

Ironically, the timeshare owners group has historically been critical of timeshare resales companies, claiming that buying timeshare on the resale market, like buying timeshare on an eBay auction, is fraught with problems. Personally, I can’t think of a much bigger problem than owning timeshare property that has been devalued because it has been sold at an absurdly low price.

When the bidding at a timeshare resales auction starts at a dime per property, no one really wins. The timeshare owner who wants to sell timeshare that he or she no longer uses would do just as well (and maybe better) to donate that timeshare to charity or give it to a friend or family member rather than sell it at a price that is so low it is meaningless. And while the timeshare buyer may gain in the short term by purchasing timeshare weeks at a giveaway price, in so doing, the timeshare buyer may have directly contributed to the long-term devaluation of his own property as well as that of all the other timeshare units at the resort.

Timeshare Resales By Owner

For the timeshare resales market to stay solid there must be fairness for both timeshare buyers and timeshare sellers. It is just as detrimental to the value of the product to sell timeshare weeks for pennies, as it is to overprice it and gouge the timeshare buyer.

Look for good deals on by-owner timeshares resales; but expect to play fair. Fair market pricing is good for the buyer, good for the seller, and good for the timeshare resales market.

A Look Back at the Humor of the Late Rodney Dangerfield, With Our Respect:

When Tom Corbin and Steve Bodack bought timeshare units at the Navigator Beach Club in Dennisport, Massachusetts, they thought they were making vacation planning simple. Instead, they bought into a huge headache.

In May of 2006, Corbin paid $16,000, (according to a report published online by TheBostonChannel.com) for the right to vacation one week per year in timeshare unit number 6 at the Navigator Beach Club. Bodack paid $4300 for his timeshare and Ernie Morin paid $4500 for his. Each of the three men is still waiting.

It now looks like it is going to be a long wait.

Not only is construction on the Navigator Beach Club timeshare unfinished, but the resort had been scheduled for auction for nonpayment of the $2.2 million mortgage, just two days from now. Instead, the developer, Robert Reposa of Hingham, caught a break; the lender has agreed to give him another two weeks to find a buyer for the partially built timeshare resort property.

The Legalities of Buying Timeshare

According to Kathleen O’Donnell, a property law expert, Corbin, Bodack, Morin, and an undisclosed number of others have, “…bought something that doesn’t exist.”

Massachusetts law requires developers to form entities and file deeds. Neither of which was done in the case of the Navigator Beach Club timeshare resort. Simply put, where there is no entity to sell timeshare, any “timeshares” sold just don’t exist.

The next step is likely to be that the Massachusetts Attorney General will get involved. Whether or not the timeshare buyers ever see their money again is anybody’s guess at this point.

Don’t Gamble; Buy Timeshare Resales Instead

There are many situations in which timeshare developers legitimately sell pre-construction timeshare units. And as the situation at Navigator Beach Club timeshare resort proves, there are times when they don’t.

The simplest advice to avoid falling victim of a timeshare scam, is to know what you are buying. You can do this by thoroughly investigating the business stability and track record of a timeshare developer before you sign on the dotted line or you can buy timeshare at a resort that is already built, already operating, and already proven.

Timeshare resales can take a lot of the guesswork out of buying vacation ownership property. Not only can you visit an operational timeshare resort and decide for yourself if you are spending your money wisely, but you can talk to others at the resort and online. Find out what current owners like and what they dislike about their timeshare resort.

Vacations are supposed to provide you rest and relaxation – freedom from worry, which might be the best reason ever to buy right-priced, already proven timeshare resales.