In a very short time, eBay has created a powerful, effective global marketplace that serves as yard sale, antique auction, real estate showcase, trading post, and memorabilia collector’s paradise. Old, new, valuable, eclectic, or pure junk, you can find it all on eBay…including timeshare resales.

Beyond creating a worldwide flea market, eBay has also afforded a way for people to supplement their incomes or even build small (and sometimes not so small) businesses. eBay entrepreneurs are a whole new category of business people, so much so, that the eBay empire has also established eBay University to train aspiring merchants in their structure and business model.

When You Sell Timeshare or Buy Timeshare Through an Online Auction

Yes, you can even buy timeshare or sell timeshare on eBay. When you sell timeshare through eBay, you have the choice to handle the sale yourself or to go through an eBay store that resells timeshare. Selling your timeshare weeks this way may work for some people, but online auctions are truly a situation of both buyer beware and seller beware.

For example, I just checked today’s timeshare resort properties advertised on eBay and found timeshare weeks listed at a starting bid of one cent—that’s right—one penny. Some have a reserve amount on them, meaning the timeshare will not be sold until a minimum price is met, but others are sold without the reserve. This is potentially a one-penny selling price; received after you (the timeshare seller) pay a fee to advertise your timeshare resale on eBay. And as a timeshare buyer, don’t assume that these rock bottom prices are actually the amount that you are required to come up with at the close of the auction. Instead, be sure you read all the fine print, because you are sure to be hit with closing costs, maybe advance or past maintenance fees, and other costs that turn your penny-priced property into a much larger expenditure. Additionally, as a timeshare buyer, you may not be given the choice of which timeshare closing company you wish to use to finalize your transaction, giving you even less control of the final dollar amount your budget priced timeshare deal will cost.

A timeshare owner posting on the TUG website recently observed: “Did you see the auction on eBay, a small 1 br gold week so that was an original Starwood went for the whopping amount of $3.25. Yes the decimal point is in the right spot.”

Another reason to be cautious in any online auction is that there is often nothing to standardize the information provided about the timeshare resale. If a timeshare seller knowingly or unknowingly, misrepresents the facts about the timeshare weeks he or she owns, the prospective buyer has no real way of sorting out fact from fiction. Important details about the timeshare weeks being advertised can be omitted or misstated. As a timeshare buyer, your risk can be great. As a timeshare owner who wants to sell timeshare, you will find the timeshare resort ad you credibly present is competing with ads that may promise amenities or terms they cannot deliver.

The Challenges of Buying and Selling Timeshare Resales on Auction

When you try to sell timeshare in an online auction, you are attempting to sell timeshare in a marketplace that contains timeshare properties owned by people who are apparently willing to pay to give them away! Combine that with how quickly eBay’s ads expire and you have a tough way to sell timeshare unless you too, are ready to pay someone to let you give them your vacation property.

In an interesting move this week, eBay announced that beginning in May, sellers will not be allowed to leave negative comments about their customers. They will still be permitted to leave positive ones. According to eBay spokesperson, Usher Lieberman, “The No. 1 reason buyers cited for decreasing or ceasing their activity on eBay was negative unwarranted retaliatory feedback they received from sellers.”

Remember that no one solution is best for every person who wants to sell timeshare or buy timeshare. Your needs and your objectives are unique. But before you turn to any online auction to buy or sell timeshare, consider all your options. An online auction is truly a case of caveat emptor…buyer beware…and sometimes, it is “seller beware” as well.

To learn more about safe, effective ways to sell timeshare or buy timeshare resales, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Orange Lake Country Club in Orlando, Florida has recently completed the first phase of its three-phase renovation.

For starters, Orange Lake Country Club timeshare resort has opened The Marketplace, which includes a pro shop, retail space, and dining area. Included in The Marketplace is the General Store, which is a full service grocery store, and a pizzeria that offers dine-in, take-out, or delivery.

The second phase of renovations at Orange Lake Country Club, Orlando, includes redesigning the main entrance and lobby of the clubhouse, enhancing the beach and pool areas, and adding new amenities including a new fitness center and a family fun center.

Phase Three of the renovations and revitalization of Orange Lake Country Club timeshare are expected to be completed this summer, with a new entertainment facility that will include shopping, two restaurants, and a poolside bar, offering live music.

Orange Lake Country Club timeshare resort is one of the largest single timeshare resorts in the world. While they are perfectly located for a vacation that includes all the Central Florida theme parks and attractions, there are so many on-property amenities that timeshare owners often say they find themselves never leaving the resort.

To learn more about owning timeshare weeks at Orange Lake Country Club timeshare in Orlando, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW, where we have an extensive inventory of timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.

Dial An Exchange Timeshare Exchange is expanding their offerings to timeshare owners with the addition of timeshare travel insurance provided by CSA Travel Protection.

The travel insurance will be available to timeshare owners to purchase when they exchange their vacation weeks. Fermin Cruz, VP North American operations Dial An Exchange, says, “When combined with our Cancellation Protection Option, we believe that CSA travel insurance is the perfect complement to any exchange transaction, offering the DAE member an inexpensive, yet valuable protection to cover their entire vacation experience.”

Les Maine, CEO of CSA Travel Protection says, “By purchasing travel insurance from CSA when exchanging or banking their timeshare with Dial An Exchange, timeshare owners can protect themselves from losing any of their vacation time already purchased as well as annual maintenance fees.”

Dial An Exchange Timeshare Exchange was founded in 1997. The company’s website says it is the largest privately owned timeshare exchange company with worldwide destination availability. Not only is there no charge to timeshare owners to be a member of Dial An Exchange, but timeshare exchange fees are not charged until the actual exchange is made.

Last week, in a blog post titled, Expansion of SFX Timeshare Resort Exchange Company, the Timeshare Owners Blog told you about the expansion and new services of San Francisco Timeshare Exchange. Like Dial An Exchange, SFX offers timeshare owners another choice in timeshare exchange or banking timeshare for future use or exchange.

RCI and Interval International are well known, but smaller timeshare exchange companies are really claiming a portion of the timeshare resort market, and in many cases, offer service that is as good as or better than the larger timeshare exchange companies offer.

If you have had a good experience or a poor one with a smaller timeshare exchange company, please leave your comments on the Timeshare Owners Blog. No one has better insights about timesharing than timeshare owners who are using their timeshare weeks or exchanging them on a regular basis. We’d love to hear your comments.

Lodging Econometrics (LE), a Portsmouth NH company that monitors trends in hotel real estate, has released hotel growth projections for 2008.

In their report titled, 2008 Outlook for the Lodging Industry, Lodging Econometrics says that the Construction Pipeline stood at 5,438 projects and 718,387 guestrooms at the end of the fourth quarter 2007, meaning that the hotel industry now offers more than 700,000 rooms for the first time ever.

According to Patrick Ford, president of Lodging Econometrics, “The development boom is led by projects in the upscale and mid-market sectors, which together make up 83% of the non-casino projects and 76% of the guestrooms in the Pipeline. These chain scales include the high profile brands from the top franchise companies – Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental, and Choice, as well as Best Western. These companies had an outstanding year selling their family of brands both to developers for new construction and to investor groups interested in reflagging their open and operating hotels.”

According to Lodging Econometrics research, there are 1208 new hotels projected to open in 2008 translating to 133,628 guestrooms and 1456 hotels projected to open in 2009, which will add an additional 166,236 guestrooms.

The hotel industry experts at Lodging Econometrics assess that this growth pattern indicates, “a clear reflection of optimistic developers who anticipate the lending markets will have stabilized and approached normalcy when they are ready to seek financing.”

While this forecast is almost entirely derived based on the numbers of hotels already under construction, the new report acknowledges that 2009 numbers could decline slightly if economic and lending conditions turn out to be worse than currently projected.

Hotel developers were hoping that the residential real estate mortgage and lending situation would have improved by the end of 2007, and that it would not interfere with lending for hotel development in the future. Because there has not been an improvement, according to Lodging Econometrics, the Federal Reserve started a series of auctions in December to infuse banks with capital at reduced rates. These emergency auctions are meant to encourage banks to be more proactive lenders.

Since that time, the rate cuts by the Feds have surprised (and pleased) most of us. The assessment by Lodging Econometrics is, “Lenders simply have to resume lending.” But even the Lodging Econometrics people acknowledge that the impact of the cuts by the Federal Reserve will take months to truly begin to turn the economy around.

Hotels and Timeshare Resorts May Feel the Belt Tighten

Many of the people who buy timeshare weeks have not been hurt by the mortgage crunch. They have owned their home long enough to have sufficient equity to help them weather the soft economy, and frequently, their homes were bought before the days of irresponsible mortgage lending practices. Yet, I don’t have to tell you that everything from gasoline to groceries has gone up dramatically in price.

So far, the hotel industry has not dealt with enough decline, nor has it gone for a long enough period of time, that serious damage has been done. And timeshare resorts have felt the belt tightening even less than hotels. But how long can either hotels or timeshare resorts hold up if a true recession unfolds?

According to the Lodging Econometrics report, “the Condo Hotel boom is over, while the number of new Timeshare announcements is certain to decline.” Here’s who their report predicts will fare the best in upcoming months. “Properties under 200 rooms, with the top brands and the most experienced developers – having conservative proformas that account for anticipated supply increases in the years ahead – will be the most attractive to finance during the current turmoil, either through local institutions or a declining number of national lenders.”

I can’t help but believe, that timeshare resales will feel the impact of the economy less than other sectors. Besides the fact that often timeshare owners and timeshare buyers are in better shape going into the economic crunch than are many other Americans, the most important factor is that a decline in the number of new timeshare resorts to be built should only serve to drive up the value of existing resorts.

I am not predicting that the value of timeshare resales you currently own will soar, or even necessarily increase, but it may very well be one of the few areas of the economy that does not take a nose dive. And in a declining economy, holding your own, can be a very good thing.