Interval International

We love the news we receive from TATOC Timeshare Association. Here’s what they said in their last news release. It is just so intriguing we want to share it with you in exactly their own words:

“Wednesday 26th May 2010 was an important day for the timeshare industry. There was no scandal, no new legislation nor a consumer television programme about to reveal all. But in a hotel in Manchester (England) there were representatives from every facet of the industry meeting for the first time to discuss the challenges and problems of the industry and more importantly to discuss action to overcome them.”

TATOC (Timeshare Association Timeshare Owners and Committees) is known as the only elected consumers association to represent the interests of timeshare owners in Europe. The topics of their watershed meeting sounded very much in harmony with the issues brought up last week, here in the US at the ARDA New England Regional Meeting. TATOC members addressed, with concern, the fact that the media perception and consequently much of the consumer perception about timeshares is not healthy for the industry. One spTimeshare resales, timeshare news, timeshare blog, timeshare owners, timeshare exchange, RCI timeshare, Interval International, European timeshareecific prevailing topic that the industry is working hard to resolve is that of how to best respond to timeshare owners who wish to resell timeshare.

Harry Taylor, the CEO of TATOC, explains, “Following our very successful Annual conference in March and as an Association who represents the consumer, we felt, that we should keep the impetus going and use this opportunity to move forward as a cohesive body. It is a TATOC initiative and we have been very encouraged as to the companies and interest taken by the industry and also the commitment to address these issues.”

Executives from Worldwide Timeshare, Club la Costa, Diamond Resorts International©, FNTC, RCI, Resort Developers Association, Resort Properties, Resort Solutions, Interval International, and Dial an Exchange participated.

Learn more about TATOC:
www.timeshareassociation.org
Or contact Harry Taylor CEO on +44 (0)845 230 2430

This week I had the opportunity to be part of the 2010 ARDA New England Regional Meeting that was held at the Marriott Providence Downtown in Providence, Rhode Island.

First, let’s give well-deserved accolades to all of the sponsors of the event.

Presenting Sponsors: Interval International and RCI.

Event Sponsors: Customer Count, and Gallagher, Callahan and Gartrell.

National Sponsors: ARDA-ROC, Aspen National Collections, Concord Servicing Corporation, MasterCorp Inc., Ski and Sea International, and TimeShareWare.

Regional Sponsors: BiddingForGood, Inc., Centron Data Services, Inc., Colebrook Financial Company, LLC, Continental Central Credit, Inc., Cotapaxi Custom Design & Manufacturing, GScf Furnishings, Lodging Kit Company, Magna Timeshare Software, Meridian Financial Services, Reservation Services International (RSI), TRITON Timeshare Software and VisitNewEngland.com.

2010 Signature Sponsors: American Express, Equiant Financial Services, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Holiday Systems International (HSI), International Cruise & Excursions, Inc., Interval International, RCI, RedWeek.com ResortCom International, Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., and VacationGuard, Inc.

The Timeshare Sales, Timeshare Resales, and Supporting Industries Work Together

The weather in Providence was spectacular (vacation weather!) and it is always great catching up with your colleagues who inevitably wind up becoming your friends. One of the very best parts of meetings and conferences when representatives of the timeshare industry get together is that you’d think it was a family reunion.

There’s a great deal of camaraderie in the business, which is part of the reason timeshares, as a vacation product, are constantly being improved—the industry works to together for change that is beneficial to timeshares and timeshare owners. Working together is a natural process that happens to be becoming a real business model for the timeshare industry—which leads into the points made by the event’s keynote speaker Howard Nusbaum, ARDA’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Howard Nusbaum stressed five important directions that are the American Resort Development Association’s top priorities for 2010. In summary, here is key point number one:

1. Seeking solutions to help ‘unfreeze’ capital.

In 2008, timeshare sales reached $9.7 billion. In 2009, they slipped to $6.3 billion. Did people suddenly decide timeshares were not a desirable or affordable product? No. Far from it. If anything, consumers, realizing the potential for long-term vacation savings by buying timeshares and timeshare resales, had an increased interest to learn more. But because lenders were simply not lending, and access to capital for timeshare developers and timeshare financing was so locked up, new timeshare development and new timeshare sales took a hit.

Although it would be easy to assume that actual demand in timeshare sales declined, this just isn’t the real issue. Instead, there has been little to no access to capital by developers and limited money available for financing timeshare sales. And as with many aspects of economics, the problem fed other problems. As timeshare sales and development declined, so did the funds available within timeshare companies for maintaining and supporting sales and marketing. As outreach from the timeshare companies weakened, so did response, which led cyclically to smaller staffs that inevitably led back to decreased timeshare sales. The problem is now self-perpetuating, greatly in need of lenders to free up more growth and investment capital.

I’ll publish “ARDA Regional Meeting Emphasizes Timeshare Solutions and the Importance of Timeshare Resales (Part II)” in tomorrow’s edition of The Timeshare Authority. In it, I’ll be sharing ARDA’s Top 5 Priorities for 2010, numbers 2-4, as well as my thoughts and comments.

The soon-to-be-open Bengal Vacation Club at Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa will be affiliated with Interval International timeshare exchange, making it the first Bangladesh timeshare available through II. Under construction at Cox’s Bazar, a popular vacation destination, the Bengal Vacation Club at Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa is scheduled to be operational in October 2011.

Joe Hickman, Interval International’s executive director for Asia Pacific says, “Bangladesh has a population of some 160 million and is visited by a large number of tourists from all over the world. Easily accessible by air and road, we believe Sea Pearl and its spectacular beachfront location will offer our members an appealing new holiday choice.”

At completion this beautiful timeshare resort will include studio timeshares, and one and two bedroom timeshare units, many with ocean views. On-site amenities at the timeshare resort will include a cinema, numerous restaurants, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a clubhouse, and a health club. Located in a serene setting on Sea Pearl Beach, timeshare owners and guests will be able to enjoy miles of natural sand beaches that slope to the Bay of Bengal perfect for beach activities, boating, and horseback riding.

Aminul Haque, chairman and chief executive officer of Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa Ltd, the developer of Bengal Vacation Club, saya, “We are pioneering the timeshare concept in Bangladesh and want to provide high-quality exchanges.”

Other opportunities in timeshare available immediately in the Indian Ocean area include:

• Maldives Timeshare
• Mauritius Timeshare
• Seychelles Timeshare
• Sri Lanka Timeshare
• United Arab Emirates Timeshare

Yesterday The Timeshare Authority offered a rebuttal to a post found on a financial advice blog that claimed timeshares are essentially the worst deal ever. ‘Piling on’ is an expression that describes how critics can jump on the bandwagon against a concept or cause, fueled primarily by the criticisms of others. Some critics of timeshare seem to ‘pile on,’ attacking the concept because others in their field have done so yet never fully exploring what timeshares are all about and how much timeshares have to offer.

If you missed yesterday’s post, (10 Reasons Timeshares are a Good Deal – Part I) we hope you will go back and read it as well as the post below that addresses the final five criticisms of timeshare and our rebuttals:

6. Miss One Year and You’re Better Off Without a Time Share. If you are not going to use a timeshare, don’t buy one. On the other hand, it is hard to say that missing one year of use is the kiss of death either. Many timeshare companies offer you the option to bank your timeshare for use in the future. Another solution to missing a year of timeshare use is to rent your timeshare during the period you won’t be able to use it or to thank someone you know by giving a week’s use to your favorite relative, school teacher, pastor, hardworking employee, or prospective client. There are many ways to benefit from timeshare and they aren’t all wrapped up in whether you personally vacation in it or not.
7. Trading Isn’t Near as Easy as Claimed. Again, this claim is challenging to address as the writer doesn’t say who is making the claims or what those claims are. Each year, thousands of timeshare weeks are exchanged. Timeshare exchange includes in-network exchanges, exchanges through timeshare exchange companies, and even something as simple as swapping a week or a destination with another timeshare owner you know. Timeshare exchange companies come in all sizes from the giants, RCI and Interval International, to dozens of smaller companies, all with different terms and offerings. A timeshare owner may never be able to exchange a January week in a Cape Cod timeshare for the same week in the Caribbean, but there are options for timeshare owners who are willing to learn more about how the timeshare exchange process works best.
8. If You Can’t Pay in Full, It’s a Terrible Deal. If most homeowners paused to look at the amortized cost of home ownership, when financed over 20 or 30 years as is typical with home mortgages, there would probably be a lot fewer people who make the decision to buy a house. One of the excellent benefits of recent regulations in credit card reform is that your monthly statement now shows you very clearly what you are paying when you borrow money at credit card interest rates. Paying in full for anything you buy is almost always the best practice, whether that is for your home, your car, paying off your credit card each month or paying for your timeshare at the time of purchase. But to accurately evaluate the cost of timeshare financing, you have to assess both the purchase price and the financing terms. There are terrible timeshare financing deals, and then there are better ones. Every case is different.
9. Travel Is Not Calculated When Comparisons Are Made. Travel costs do make a difference in the big picture cost of timesharing, which is why it is especially nice that when travel costs are atypically high or your vacation budget is a little smaller than usual, you can exchange timeshare for a destination that is closer to home, keeping your travel costs under control.
10. Hotel Prices Are Increasing (But So Are Time Share Fees).Good advice for anyone who is considering buying timeshare is to research if and how much timeshare fees have increased in the past at the resort where they want to buy. The cost of purchasing many things increases over time but this is not always a decision maker as to whether or not we will buy them. If the cost of buying timeshare or a timeshare resale is a better deal today than the cost of vacationing in a hotel, and both the timeshare and the hotel increase in cost, then the timeshare is still a better deal than the money paid for hotel accommodations.

Timeshares, as a vacation product, are neither inherently good nor bad; they are simply a choice. Yet for many people, timeshares are a choice that translates to years of vacation enjoyment.