We’ve been updating you all year on what Marriott International and Marriot Vacation Club timeshare is doing to protect and preserve the environment. In February, The Timeshare Authority brought you an update on Marriott Vacation Club employees in Orlando, FL who made the switch from plastic eating utensils and Styrofoam serve ware in their cafeterias. They even switched to SpudWare ™, which are eating utensils that are made from potato starch and that completely biodegrade in 100 days after disposal.

Marriott has also taken steps to make their greens environmentally greener on golf courses at Marriott Hotels and Marriott timeshares, by using more eco-friendly methods of golf course maintenance, including reducing their use of chemicals on the greens and fairways.

Last week in Salt Lake City, Utah, Marriott Vacation Club International expanded their efforts to go green by conducting the Green Fair, involving more than 18 businesses and non-profit organizations. The idea behind the Green Fair is to educate and inform employees and associations about actions they can personally take to recycle and reduce energy consumption.

Over 900 Marriott Vacation Club International associates received reusable eco-friendly mugs and shopping bags. They were also given the opportunity to calculate their individual carbon footprint. Ron Essig, vice president of global owner products and services for Marriott Vacation Club International said, “This is just one step toward Marriott International’s efforts to preserve the environment, acting both locally here in Salt Lake City and across the Marriott Vacation Club International division. With more than 900 associates at the Salt Lake City Marriott Customer Service Center, if we all do our part, we can definitely make a difference-both at the office and at home.”

Marriott vacation club estimates that the immediate result of their effort to go green will be a reduction of nearly 100,000 pieces of plastic ware that would have wound up in landfills.

Sell My Timeshare NOW and Marriott Timeshare

Sell My Timeshare NOW works to reduce, reuse, and recycle in our own work environment. We are proud that our website, www.sellmytimesharenow.com not only advertises and markets right-priced timeshare resales and timeshare rentals, but that our inventory includes Marriott timeshare, a company that is proving their commitment to the environment through their actions.

With timeshare resales from Disney Vacation Club, Westgate timeshare, Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare, and Hilton timeshare, to name only a few, Sell My Timeshare NOW offers you the opportunities of vacation ownership with timeshare companies that are environmentally responsible, at prices that are realistic and affordable in today’s economy.

Related posts on The Timeshare Authority:

• Marriott Hotel and Timeshare CEO Speaks Out for Energy Cost Cuts
• A Timeshare Sales Company Taking an Important Environmental Stand

The Hyatt Beach House Resort Timeshare is number 65 on the Sell My Timeshare NOW HOT 100 List of timeshares that received the most offers to buy or rent.

Key West, Florida has been an ‘escape-to’ destination for generations, and the Hyatt Beach House Resort timeshare gives you plenty of reasons to choose it for your own great escape. This Key West timeshare offers a relaxed and slightly reclusive hideaway that is perfect for vacations now, and for many years to come.

Spanish Kings first laid claim to Key West real estate. Explorers came, seeking the fountain of youth. Generations later, artists, writers, visionaries, and even expatriates called it their home, including John Audubon, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Edison, and Tennessee Williams.

Getting to Your Key West Timeshare Vacation

While many travelers think that Key West is just beyond Miami, Key West is actually more than 150 miles south and west of metropolitan Miami. If you are headed to your Key West timeshare by car, don’t expect to clip along US Highway 1 (an official Florida Scenic Highway) at 70 miles an hour. Schedule time to allow you to stop and enjoy the sights along the way from Key Largo to Marathon to Big Pine Key.

Another fun way to arrive at Key West is via the Key West Express, which operates high-speed passenger ferries from Ft. Myers Beach and Marco Island to the Key West Bight Ferry Terminal, located in the city’s historic Seaport District. Plan about 3.5 hours to make the trip by ferry or you can schedule your air travel directly into the Key West International Airport.

Key West Timeshares Will Have You Living on Island Time

When you vacation in Key West, you are truly living on island time. While the island’s roads accommodate automobiles, there are also trolleys, bicycles, and walking paths for leisurely touring the shops and restaurants.

The timeshare units at the Hyatt Beach House timeshare resort are 2 bedroom and 2 bath units with approximately 1000 square feet of living space that is designed to accommodate 6 to 8 people comfortably. Each timeshare unit offers a screened balcony, with a television, VCR/DVD/and CD player.

Bedrooms have a King bed and whirlpool tub, and there is a Queen sleeper sofa in the living area. Kitchens are fully equipped with a microwave/convection oven and a dishwasher. Washers and dryers, data ports, and high-speed internet are also available.

While there’s a pool for relaxing and a beach to enjoy, don’t expect your Hyatt Beach House Resort timeshare vacation to be high energy and a whirl of activities—that’s just not the way things are done in Key West.

Hyatt Beach House Resort Timeshare

So the next time your job, your commitments, and your daily grind start feeling like the weight of the world, remember what you’ve read about days spent in the Florida Keys. With excellent options to buy Hyatt Beach House Resort timeshare resales or rent Hyatt Beach House Resort timeshares, what’s standing between you and a Key West timeshare vacation?

Somewhere, in the very southern tip of the US, there’s a slice of key lime pie, a tall frosty drink, and a shaded beach chair just waiting for you.

For several years, we’ve been hearing only good things about the state of timeshare sales in India. India has been a vacation hot deal with strong timeshare sales both from residents and from abroad. In fact, business has been so good, that some India timeshare companies have established targeted offices in cities such as Washington DC and London because these areas have large populations of residents whose parents or grandparents live in India and who visit there regularly.

India timeshare sales have boomed, in part, because people who make annual trips to visit their India homeland recognize the value of owning timeshare weeks at resorts located near their family and friends. Additionally, India has long been considered a safe vacation destination, with a warm climate, beautiful beaches, and a rich and splendorous cultural heritage, that is geographically well located for millions of travelers.

So I was surprised to read the recent post from India news source, Sify.com, stating, “The concept (timeshare ownership) failed because their owners apparently did not intend to honour their commitments to the consumers who paid money up-front and booked time in resorts. It was also alleged that after building these resorts, consumers holding valid timeshare were told that the resort was unavailable while walk-in customers were provided room because they paid cash.”

The India Timeshare and Timeshare Resale Market

I challenge this statement as a problem of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” I would certainly not call India timeshare a failed concept. While it appears that India timeshare owners are raising a complaint about their inability to exchange timeshare while their exchange company seems perfectly willing to rent timeshare weeks to non-owners, they are simply voicing a problem that is confronting timeshare owners in all parts of the world.

A detailed and highly-informative article posted by IndLawNews depicts a much more positive picture of timesharing in India, stating, “Timeshare is one of the most evolved and profitable sectors in the hospitality and leisure industry. Introduced in India barely 15 years ago, the timeshare industry is growing manifold with big brands such as Resort Condominiums International (RCI), Ramada Hotels & Resorts, Club Mahindra, Hyatt Vacation Club, etc. entering the business. Much of it still remains untapped and developers keep coming up with new, innovative and attractive deals.”

I venture to say that timeshare ownership in India is still an excellent idea and a perfect solution for both vacationers and people who travel regularly there. Every nation that has embraced the concept of timeshare ownership has soon found that new legislation must be introduced to regulate timeshare buying and timeshare selling within their marketplace.

Growing pains in the India timeshare market maybe, but a failure? Not a chance!

On one of the nation’s top 10 beaches, in Siesta Key, Florida, Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare is developing a fractional ownership resort, which they say is unlike timeshare ownership.

The resort will front 300 feet of Crescent Beach and will offer 44 furnished vacation condos ranging from 1600 square feet to 2600 square feet with privleges at the adjoining beach club. To be known as the Hyatt Siesta Key Beach resort, the vacation ownership property will offer valet parking, a concierge, pool, spa, and fitness center with massage treatment rooms.

Larry Shulman, senior vice president for Hyatt Vacation Ownership, Inc, says, “We have every reason to believe through an early survey we’ve done (that) there’ll be a very significant local contingent of owners more likely to purchase in summertime rather than wintertime.”

In the first phase of occupancy, 11 vacation condo units will be sold as fractional ownership residences. As Shulman explains, “Effectively, there’ll be eight owners of each residence.” Occupancy is expected by 2009.

Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare has similar properties in Bonita Springs, Florida, and in Aspen, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge, Colorado, as well as at Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Sell My Timeshare NOW can help you learn more about the many excellent values in Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare resales, at favorite locations worldwide. For sometimes as little as half of what it costs to buy timeshare or fractional ownership from the developer, you can become a vacation property owner with a great deal on timeshare resales.

What is the first big clue that timeshare resorts are edging out the hotel market, claiming more and more vacation business and a bigger piece of the hospitality and tourism pie?

Simple.

The fact is that most major hotel chains are devoting as much or more attention (and more dollars) to their timeshare and vacation ownership divisions as to their regular hotel business. There are the Disney Vacation Club Resorts, Marriott Vacation Club International, the Hyatt Vacation Club, Hilton Grand Vacations, Wyndham Vacation Ownership and even the Ritz Carlton Club and Residence, to name a few of the big dogs now on the playing field.

Timeshares, or vacation ownership, as some providers like to call it, are giving hotels such serious competition that in top tourist destinations like Orlando, Florida, hoteliers actually blame the decline in room night bookings on the excellent offerings in timeshares, timeshare resales, and timeshare rentals.

Today, most leading hotel companies have a timeshare division, even though many like to avoid use of the word “timeshare” and replace it instead with phrases like vacation ownership and vacation club. No matter what you call it, it’s still timeshare. Ritz-Carlton Hotel spokesperson, Vivian Deuschl, says the Ritz-Carlton Hotel company will no longer even manage a hotel unless it includes a residential component, according to a July 6, 2005 article published in USA Today.

A recent Time Magazine article about the newest trend in hotels, makes me wonder if one specific trend isn’t a direct response to the competitive pressure hotels feel from timeshares. The Time article states, “Global tourism is thriving, and the luxury segment, the top 15 percent of the market by price, is driving it. With rates as high as $25,000 a night, these are the most profitable rooms in a hotel, and they consistently have the highest occupancy rates”. The Time Magazine article, titled “The Grander Hotel”, goes on to cite Smith Travel Research as showing that luxury room revenues increased more than 10 percent from 2005 to 2006.

Let me make something clear, we are not talking about the type of luxury you find in a fabulous beachside Marriott Vacation Club timeshare, where the suites are spacious and the amenities are practically perfect. Time Magazine is talking about uber-luxury, targeted at a market willing to pay thousands or tens of thousands per night for hotel accommodations, sometimes referred to as “ultraluxe”.

While this may be a growing market, I’d say that it is not one that most of us are going to be part of, at least not on a regular basis.

Let’s see, you can pay $25,000 for one room night—one time—at an ultraluxe hotel. You can buy a fabulous timeshare week from the timeshare developer for about the same amount of money and use it for 7 days, each and every year, for the rest of your life. Or, for that kind of money, you can deal directly with timeshare owners who want to sell timeshare they currently own, and you can buy the right to enjoy anywhere from 14 nights to perhaps as many as 30 or even 60 or 70 nights, per year, every single year, as long as you own the timeshare. Own a timeshare for 20 years, and you conceivably could get 1400 vacation days and nights from an initial expenditure of $25,000.

I suspect many of us will be passing up ultraluxe and “settling” for more affordable (and more logical) levels of luxury.

Towns across America are weighing their options, and their decision determines whether the new style of resort will be built in their areas. What’s the deciding factor? It pretty much comes down to the taxes.

In an October 16 meeting with town council members at Snowmass Village, Colorado, Hyatt Vacation Ownership vice president Larry Shulman and fractional developer Pat Smith explained Hyatt’s intent behind their recent application for a land use permit.

Hyatt Vacation Ownership is seeking to develop vacation properties to fill a new niche market. According to John Burlingame, a Hyatt Vacation Club vice president who had previously spoken before the Snowmass Planning Commission, more families are traveling together as a group. There is also a trend among extended families to buy shared vacation property. Hyatt referred to the concept as “togethering.”

To meet this specific need, Hyatt wants to offer fractional ownership of 51 residences, seven of which will be five-bedroom units; 25 will be four-bedroom units, with the others offering either one, two, or three bedrooms.

While council members were concerned about maintaining high occupancy of these larger units, Shulman reminded the group that timeshare owners typically either trade their week or rent it directly to another vacationer. Any Hyatt timeshare units that are not rented are listed in the global Hyatt reservation system as part of the Gold program, making them available to roughly one half million potential renters.

Hyatt estimates that if construction stays on schedule the properties will be available for occupancy in late 2009. By that date, Hyatt estimates that the active membership of the Hyatt Vacation Club will number somewhere around 40,000 members.

How does this impact the tax issue? Occupancy rate is the crux of the matter. Can a Colorado timeshare or fractional resort with a higher occupancy rate generate more tax money for the town via individual owners than a hotel with a lower occupancy rate but the added benefit of sales tax on top of property tax? Snowmass Village will be letting Hyatt and the rest of us know what they think.

Tell us about your experiences with “togethering!” How does it work for your family? Do you stay near home, or go somewhere in between Cousin Louie in Louisiana and Aunt Elma in Washington state? What timeshare company or fractional resort has been most accomodating for your large gathering?

Timesharing has been around since the 1960’s and available in the US since as early as 1970 when the first right-to-use timeshare resort was developed in Hawaii. Most of the early developers were individuals or companies whose names were not well known to the general public. It took another fifteen years before big name hoteliers, interested in the timeshare market, made their decisive move.

To the surprise of many in the hospitality industry, the Marriott Corporation was the first major hotel chain to venture into the timeshare business. In 1984, Marriott purchased the assets of American Resorts, Inc., which at that time owned two resorts on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and had a third resort under construction. Marriott recognized the successful track record of American Resorts in this market and quickly hired many of American Resort’s top executives to run the Hilton Head properties.

Today, Marriot Vacation Club International (MCVI) features over fifty luxury resorts in more than thirty destinations including the US, Spain, the Caribbean, and Thailand. With Marriott’s demonstrated success as inspiration, Disney, Sheraton, Hilton, Hyatt and many other big guns of the hotel business soon found themselves developing and operating timeshares and vacation clubs. Their presence has benefited the industry across the board, raising standards of service, quality, and reliability, and increasing customer confidence in timeshares as a product. Hoteliers in the timeshare industry are able to take advantage of name recognition and customer loyalty from one branded product to another.

But the consumer interested in buying a timeshare resale should not feel left out of the “big name” market. A quick search of the internet reveals that resale opportunities are plentiful for hotel brand timeshares and vacation club memberships. Hotel brand timeshares tend to command higher resale prices, while retaining excellent value.

The timeshare buyer interested in a hotel-brand property as a resale should carefully confirm which of the present owner’s membership perks will transfer in a sale. The answer to this varies from company to company, but since many vacation club members claim their perks alone are worth their membership costs, it is important for the resale buyer to understand exactly what s/he is purchasing. It is also sometimes a good idea for interested buyers to tour a property as a new timeshare prospect, even if they know before they go that they are only interested in buying resale. The time spent listening to a sales presentation affords interested buyers several benefits. They will learn many details about the amenities of the property from the sales presenter. They will enjoy the opportunity to tour the property firsthand and to compare the costs of buying new with buying resale. And they will typically have the opportunity to enjoy a luxury vacation at a free or highly discounted price in return for their time spent at the sales presentation.

A timeshare buyer should always remember that buying resale and paying a lower purchase price does not mean settling for less in the way of quality, comfort, and amenities. In today’s timeshare market, almost any resort product that can be purchased new is also available at a much lower price buying resale from a broker or by-owner service, and dealing directly with the person who owns the timeshare now.