Continuing on the list of SellMyTimeshareNOW.com HOT 100 properties is number 72, Diamond Resorts Polo Tower Villas in Las Vegas, Nevada. This Las Vegas timeshare is pure Tuscan elegance in the heart of the glittering casinos, entertainment, and nightlife of one of America’s favorite recreation destinations.

In a city of neon, nothing could be more relaxing than beginning and ending your days at the Polo Tower Villas timeshares where the well-appointed timeshare units look more like luxuriously decorated custom homes, than your typical vacation accommodations.

When you buy Las Vegas timeshare at the Polo Tower Villas, here’s how easy your vacations become:

• Step one. Arrive at the Las Vegas International Airport and take a short cab ride (3.3 miles) to the resort. If you arrive by car, let the valet take care of your parking or park in any of the ample self-park spaces.
• Step two. Check-in any time, day or night, with the assistance of a multi-lingual staff to make the process simple. Bell service, elevators, a valet, handicap parking, and wheelchair accessibility make getting settled in your beautiful villa effortless.
• Step three. Look around you. Your accommodations are luxurious and spacious. The vista from the 19th floor lounge features a 270-degree view of the sparkling Las Vegas strip. With housekeeping services, a concierge desk, and 24-hour security, you have all the amenities of a luxury hotel, but all of the spaciousness of a beautiful Diamond Resorts Las Vegas timeshare.
• Final step. Breathe in and breathe out slowly. You are now officially on vacation.

At a Polo Tower Villas timeshare, your vacation becomes as easy as 1-2-3. And if you buy a Diamond Resorts Polo Tower Villas timeshare resale, it will be not only easy, but affordable. No timeshare sales pitch to attend. No paying developer prices. Instead, you can shop for you Las Vegas timeshare from the comfort of your own computer, selecting a Polo Tower Villas timeshare resale or timeshare rental that fits your vacation needs and your budget.

That means, that the only thing left for you to do, is blow on your lucky dice, and get the party started!

SellMyTimeshareNOW.com is Summer Bay Las Vegas timeshare. Known as the Summer Bay Las Vegas Desert Club, this Las Vegas timeshare is part of the Summer Bay brand that includes timeshare resorts in Orlando, Missouri, and Gatlinburg.

Summer Bay Las Vegas timeshare is located only one block from all the excitement of the Vegas Strip. Spend the day (or night) at the casinos and shows, and then relax by the pool or soak in the whirlpool spa at your Summer Bay Las Vegas timeshare condo.

Situated on 19 acres of lushly landscaped grounds, Summer Bay Las Vegas timeshares are an oasis in the heart of one of the world’s favorite convention and vacation destinations. During 2008, the timeshare resort has been involved in extensive renovations, taking it from 489 units to a beautifully landscaped and gated 648 timeshare condos. The new, luxury timeshare units, are adjacent to the original property and will offer one-bedroom and two-bedroom timeshare condos that each include a private patio, a full kitchen with washer and dryer, a fireplace, master bath with a soaking tub, cable TV, DVD player, and wireless internet.

The renovations are ongoing during this year, with occupancy of the new timeshare condos scheduled to begin in stages in August through November. The new property also includes a clubhouse and a service and activity center. With the completion of the Summer Bay Las Vegas timeshare’s new facilities, the resort will be classified as an RCI Gold Crown property.

Buying timeshare resales at Summer Bay Las Vegas now gives you the opportunity to own timeshare at what is essentially a brand new resort, while paying resale prices. To learn more about Summer Bay Las Vegas timeshare resales and other Nevada timeshare resales, visit SellMyTimeshareNOW.com.

Travel writer Lynne Christen is known as a Life Tips Travel Guru. Her book, Travel Wisdom-Tips, Tools, and Tactics for All Travelers was runner up for the best 2004 travel book, voted by the North American Travel Journalists Association. Her newest book, 101 Vacation Rentals Tips, is a handy guidebook that offers exactly what its title promises: 101 tips - many of which are as helpful to timeshare owners as they are to vacation home owners and renters.

As the author explains in her foreword, “A vacation home rental allows us to briefly become ‘locals’ rather than tourists … a good base for exploring the immediate area, venturing forth on entertaining and educational day trips knowing we will be returning to the luxury and privacy of ‘home’ at night.”

That really says a lot about timeshare ownership, doesn’t it? Timeshares offer you the luxury and privacy of home at night and a good base for exploring. For a few days, a week, or maybe two, you become a local at a new and intriguing destination.

In 101 Vacation Rentals Tips, Christen categorizes her advice geographically: Cape Cod; Caribbean; European; Florida; Hawaii; Lake Tahoe; and Las Vegas vacation. She also throws in sections for golf vacation tips and ski vacation tips. It’s all very handy information and is excellent to know when you plan a timeshare vacation - whether you are looking at buying timeshare, renting timeshare, or exchanging a timeshare you already own.

Here are excerpts from 3 tips found in 101 Vacation Rentals Tips that you may find handy:

• Provincetown (Cape Cod) MA. “Provincetown, called P-Town by locals is located in the outermost point of Cape Cod … Over 30 miles of beach front and an active historic seaport make Provincetown the perfect launching point for whale watching …”
• The Emerald Coast of Florida. “Although the pristine, sugar-white sand beaches are the main draw, there’s plenty to do off the beaches … Military buffs enjoy Pensacola’s National Museum of Naval Aviation and the Air For Armament Museum in Fort Walton Beach … And, along the coast of Okaloosa, Walton and Bay Counties golfers can play 18 holes of golf every day for over a month without playing the same hole twice.”
• Las Vegas, Nevada. “Vegas Veterans offer these tips: Set your limits. Determine your gambling budget before you arrive in Vegas and stick to it … practice playing early morning when tables are not crowded … Enjoy the free cocktails, but don’t over-imbibe and let alcohol dull your judgment.”

And to learn more about timesharing in these exciting vacation destinations, use these resources:

• Follow this link to learn more about Provincetown timeshare resales.
• Follow these links to learn more about Emerald Coast timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.
• Follow these links to learn more about Las Vegas timeshare resales and Las Vegas timeshare rentals.

Source: 101 Vacation Rentals Tips, a LifeTips Book Series, by Lynn Christen. © 2006, LifeTips.com Inc., Charlestown, MA.

So far, the timeshare industry has weathered the economic problems in the US without significant impact. Most of the leading timeshare resort developers are still publishing solid quarterly reports, and in many cases, timeshare sales are propping up declining hotel revenues.

But when people stop gambling, we have to feel concern for all sectors of the economy. Typically, gambling weathers almost any economic crisis. For the first two months of 2008, gambling revenues in Vegas were down by 4 percent from last year.

Ups and Downs in Las Vegas Timeshare and Hotel Construction

Hotels Magazine tells us, “…Las Vegas has a huge inventory of new casinos and hotels due for completion in the next few years, and a long slump could send the city reeling.”

The bright side:

• Caesars Palace is planning a billion dollar makeover, with a 23-story tower and three new swimming pools.
• MGM Mirage’s $8 billion CityCenter project is still moving forward, encompassing 76 acres on the Vegas strip.
• Westgate Resorts timeshare’s fifty story timeshare resort, the Planet Hollywood Towers, is moving forward to become the only timeshare resort directly connected to a major hotel and casino on the strip.

The bad news:

• Foreclosure has started on a $760 million construction loan for the Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino.
• Plans to build the Crown Las Vegas, a bullet-shaped hotel and casino resort that was supposed to become the tallest building in the city, have been scrapped due to lack of financing.
• For January and February, hotel occupancy was down by 1.5 percent, despite the fact that daily room rates were nearly 4 percent lower than for the same period in 2007.

Serving Your Timeshare Needs

Who can even guess any longer, how the US economy will sort itself out? For people who are in the business of buying real estate, selling oil, or repossessing automobiles, then these are good times. And for the rest of us, who need gasoline to get to work, groceries for our families, and mortgages we can afford, well, things are feeling a little scary.

Wherever you are in this economic rollercoaster, Sell My Timeshare NOW is an affordable, safe, and reliable way to deal with your timeshare needs, whether that is buying timeshare, selling timeshare, or renting timeshare.

Part Two in a Two-Part Blog Post on Westgate Timeshare

Saturday’s Timeshare Owners Blog reported on David Siegel, CEO and founder of Westgate timeshare and Westgate Vacation Villas, who was found guilty last week by a federal court in Florida of sexual harassment.

The $5 million lawsuit, brought against Siegel by a former employee, was not the first storm the self-made billionaire has weathered, nor is it likely to be the last. Siegel’s divorce from his second wife, Betty, cost him over $200 million in cash and assets including a lakeside home so decadent in style that when Michael Jackson first saw it, he made an offer on the spot to buy it for his personal residence.

Yet over the years, David Siegel seems to have done a good job of ensuring that his personal challenges do not affect the quality of service or standards at Westgate timeshare resorts. His motto, “Good enough isn’t good enough,” appears to be something he takes seriously. A 2007 Forbes Magazine profile of Siegel says he personally checks every detail about Westgate timeshare, including sleeping on sample bed pillows and, “…inspecting the furniture he preselected, the showerhead, and flat-screen TV in each unit.”

As an innovative, creative, and driven entrepreneur, Siegel continues to grow Westgate timeshares in his usual big way, building most of his properties three times larger in number of timeshare units than is the industry average for a timeshare resort. His commitment includes not only time, but also money. The company has already spent $100 million (with another $1.1 billion planned in investments) on his current showpiece timeshare resort, a joint venture between Westgate timeshare and Planet Hollywood for a 2,800+ timeshare condo resort in Las Vegas.

But the same Forbes article that extolled Siegel’s attention to detail also quoted him as describing the people who buy Westgate timeshare as being the, “Johnny Lunch-Bucket crowd,” who “shop at Wal-Mart and otherwise would stay in a Ramada Inn.”

…Somehow, I don’t think he meant that as a compliment.

Most people who buy timeshare as new property from Westgate Vacation Villas or Westgate timeshare, make a down payment (according the article in Forbes Magazine) of approximately, “…$2,400 for the right to stay one week per year in a two-bedroom apartment. They pay the other $21,600 over ten years (often borrowing it from Westgate, which makes much of its money on financing), plus a $599 annual maintenance fee.”

In case you missed that part, let me repeat it, “…Westgate, which makes much of its money on financing…“

Maybe It Is Time to Consider Timeshare Resales

I will leave you to draw your own conclusion about a decision to buy timeshare as new property from Westgate Resorts, or the decision to let Westgate Resorts finance your purchase.

On Sell My Timeshare NOW’s website, we advertise timeshare resales and timeshare rentals that belong to Westgate timeshare owners who want to sell or rent timeshare. When you buy timeshare through Sell My Timeshare NOW, you deal directly with the person who currently owns the timeshare weeks or timeshare condo. Because you are buying timeshare resales, you can expect to pay lower prices than if you buy timeshare directly from the developer.

If you are interested in buying Westgate timeshare, do two things before you make your decision. First, search the extensive inventory of timeshare resales available on the Sell My Timeshare NOW website and see for yourself the good deals that are available. Second, take a few minutes to watch this YouTube video of an interview with David Siegel and his wife Jacqueline, as they take you on a tour of their new house, at that time, still under construction.

The sale and rental of new timeshares and of timeshare resales benefits the economy both directly and indirectly.

The American Resort Development Association, known as ARDA, recently released statistics on the economic effect of the timeshare industry in certain geographic regions. The study showed that the timeshare industry positively impacts regional, state and local economies in measurable ways. In fact, resale timeshares specifically are a significant and sometimes overlooked economic contributor within the industry.

The studies prepared for ARDA by PricewaterhouseCoopers and released by ARDA International Foundation, show that the Florida timeshare industry contributed $12.3 billion to that state’s economy in 2005, and the Nevada timeshare industry contributed $2.8 billion to the Nevada statewide economy during the same period. While many states in the US gain considerably from the presence of the timeshare industry, Nevada and Florida head the list, with California and South Carolina coming next in line.

Timeshares positively impact the economy through the sale of new and resale timeshares, job opportunities created by the industry, direct and indirect expenditures of timeshare vacationers, and revenues realized through local property taxes. Every time someone buys a timeshare resale, two positive things happen. First, a new owner takes possession of the timeshare unit, begins to use it, and feeds money back into the economy where it is located. But secondly, a person who no longer wants or needs that particular timeshare is relieved of the on-going cost of vacation property ownership and is freed-up to put his or her money into something else, including even new timeshares.

One Nevada developer has finally received government approval to commence constructing six timeshare units at Homewood, Nevada, in the Lake Tahoe area. The West Shore development received the go-ahead earlier this month after the developer agreed to downsize the plan from nine timeshare units to six timeshare units. The proposed timeshare vacation homes will be constructed on Highway 89, across from Homewood Mountain Ski Resort approximately twenty miles north of South Lake Tahoe and six miles south of Tahoe City.

Conditions of the approval, according the website for Placer County, California government, include demolition of an existing property known as the Marina Lodge; constructing a facility for washing boats; building screens to block views of existing boat racks; and contributing $100,000 to the Homewood Home Owners Association for public beach access.

This particular project is one more instance where local government officials agonize over whether an area should be zoned for use as residential property, traditional hotel property, timeshare units, or as fractional ownership. I think it is the concept of fractionals that has really added to the justifiable confusion and concern of planning boards.

Residential property has predictable patterns for use, density, and the type of traffic, tax revenue, and demands on government services it will create. The pros and cons of hotel use are equally predictable. In both cases, a zoning or planning board can realistically project what an area will be like in five, ten, or even fifteen years, based on its zoning. But when you add timeshare vacation property—most especially fractionals—to the mix, neither the standard projections for residential property or for hotel property accurately apply.

As developers of fractional properties or timeshare units often explain, fractional ownership (whether it is one week at a time or a thirteen-week increment) creates more business for area restaurants, attractions, and other businesses and services that benefit from tourist trade. On the other hand, fractional owners generate less business for services such as dentists, hardware stores, or computer repair shops, which are all good examples of places a vacationer is less likely than a resident to spend money. And from a third perspective, some restaurateurs argue that timeshare units (because so many of them have kitchen and dining areas) and fractionals (which essentially offer all the features of a private home) hurt their business by comparison to hotels, where guests often have little choice but to dine out three times per day.

It’s always a tough call for those who carry the responsibility of planning our cities’ futures, but this past year, I have definitely seen more instances like this one. City planning boards are compromising and permitting developers to intermingle small developments that have a limited number of fractionals or timeshare units, into areas that are traditionally zoned for residential use only.

To learn more about other Lake Tahoe timeshare resales and timeshare rentals, or Nevada timeshare resales and California timeshare resales, visit the website for Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Hilton timeshares and Waldorf-Astoria fractionals under construction at the famed Reflection Bay golf course.

New Las Vegas timeshares and fractionals are in the plans for Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. The Hilton Hotels Corporation has announced that they will build 250 timeshare units at Lake Las Vegas Resort. Two hundred of the units will carry the brand of Hilton timeshares, while another fifty will be branded as part of the Waldorf-Astoria Collection. Currently Waldorf-Astoria Collection timeshares or fractionals are available at La Quinta, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Maui; and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Many of the timeshare units in the new Hilton and Waldorf=Astoria, will face the 17th hole and the 18th tee of the famous Reflection Bay Golf Course.

Reflection Bay Golf Course is the first public course Jack Nicklaus designed in the state of Nevada. It is also home to the Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge, where each year, stars from the PGA, LPGA, and the Champions Tours tee it up in a fan-favorite golfing showdown. Five golf holes play alongside Lake Las Vegas, and the course features three waterfalls. But if your game isn’t up to that much water, play the forward tees and you will completely take the water out of play.

Because Reflection Bay is a public course, even if you schedule your Las Vegas timeshare vacation at the last minute, you still have a good chance to get on this incredible golf course. Also there are always great deals available in Hilton timeshare resales and Hilton timeshare rentals.