Last October, SellMyTimeshareNOW.com launched our ‘Rental Assist‘ program to make it easier than ever to rent timeshare. Rental Assist offers in-house client matching for timeshare renters and available timeshare rentals. Peter Emery is the manager of Rental Assist and our dedicated staff has increased from two to nine employees already, with more expansion expected over the next six months.

Why all the interest in renting timeshare?

Apparently a lot of people are realizing that renting a timeshare is an incredible way to vacation. Timeshare units are more spacious than hotels, prices are better, and the selection of available locations and dates makes it practically impossible not to find your perfect vacation accommodations. But renting timeshare is a win-win. In these tight economic times, when some timeshare owners are opting not to vacation this year, being able to rent their timeshare helps them offset the cost of owning timeshare, while holding on to it to use for their own vacations in the future.

Timeshare Rentals at SellMyTimeshareNOW.com

Don’t just take my word for how much the interest in renting timeshare is growing; the numbers speak for themselves. In our Rental Assist program, at the end of the second quarter 2009, 23,086 offers to rent timeshare had been received by SellMyTimeshareNOW.com. This represents an increase of 179 percent over the same quarter year-to-date figures last year. And the dollar amount of these offers was $29,922,343 - a figure that shows a 175 percent increase over the same quarter in 2007, and in fact, surpasses SellMyTimeshareNOW.com’s 2007 year-end total.

So are you ready to rent great vacation lodging at a luxurious timeshare resort? Pour yourself another cup of coffee or a nice, cool drink and from the comfort of your computer, peruse the incredible inventory of timeshare rentals available through SellMyTimeshareNOW.com.

Follow this link to read our most recent press release about timeshare Rental Assist at SellMyTimeshareNOW.com.

When you travel, you have several options for lodging, in addition to the alternative of renting timeshare. All of these choices come with both pros and cons.

Nothing saves vacation dollars quite like staying with relatives, and depending upon the situation, this can be a great way to spend time with people you perhaps don’t see as often as you would like. But spending your vacation in someone else’s home, where their schedules and plans will greatly impact your own, can be like a lot like a summer movie, starring you instead of Chevy Chase. Besides, unless you have lots of accommodating friends and family, or the ones you have relocate like nomads, spending every vacation in the same location can quickly lose its appeal.

For the motivated economizer, there are also lodging opportunities at hostels, fire watch towers, and even college dormitories, but will you be able to find such deals, when and where you need them? Will they meet your needs, and most importantly, will you feel like you are on a vacation while staying there?

Traveling like a movie star and renting a private home can be a very luxurious option, but unless a domestic staff comes with the deal, or you are bringing your butler, you can expect to be pretty much on your own during your stay. If you need anything, there is no one at the front desk to assist you and forget about courtesy tee times and supervised activities for the kids. Besides, staying at a private residence or vacation condo is often a bit of a gamble, unless you have rented there before. Your landlord’s idea of spacious, well appointed, and convenient to local attractions may differ vastly from your own. This leads us to the reason that so many people choose to stay in hotels or motels when they travel.

Hotel and motel lodging is available almost everywhere. Easy to book, easy to find, hotel lodging is relatively predictable. However, as everyone knows, or learns the hard way, cleanliness, quality, and safety can vary enormously from property to property, even though hotels may be owned or managed as part of the same chain.

The Timeshare Rental Solution

Timeshare rentals are more predictable than renting a private vacation home or condo. You can largely rely on the on-site timeshare management to ensure the standard of safety, cleanliness, and service at the resort. Timeshare management, after all, must answer to the timeshare owners at that resort, in a way that demands a different type of accountability than a motel or hotel has with its transient guests. And for many of the same reasons that people want to buy timeshare, they also want to rent it. Timeshare resorts typically offer an abundance of amenities, good security features, and roomy accommodations.

With the economy tight and gas costing more and more each week, this may not be the year you buy timeshare. But there has never been a better time to rent one. Rent timeshare and learn firsthand if timesharing is right for you. Check out a resort, enjoy a vacation, and pay less and get more than you do at a hotel.

The opportunities in timeshare rentals are excellent and with the choices available through Sell My Timeshare NOW, you are bound to find one that is just right for your vacation needs and budget.

According to an article that appeared this week in Boston.com, Steve Shermoen plans to spend his retirement years traveling the world and staying in timeshare resorts. Shermoen, an attorney from International Falls, MN, says he owns about 100 timeshare weeks, bought with an eye on his retirement.

Tom Kelly, author of the article, explains, “A growing number of entrepreneurs with an exceptional grasp of timeshare purchasing, closing and selling have begun to acquire inexpensive weeks at upscale resorts via resale channels, which they then rent out weekly or on a per-night rate comparable to what a nice hotel would charge.”

Using some of his timeshares weeks as timeshare rentals is part of Shermoen’s plan. But he clearly understands the importance of buying timeshare resales rather than buying timeshare from the developer. Shermoen says, “You cannot make the rental concept work if you buy directly from the developer. You have to be sure of what you are buying and purchase only on the resale market. The cost from the developer simply is too high for it to become a rental that will pencil out.”

Here is the advice Shermoen offered for picking up great deals on timeshare resales:

• Look for timeshare owners who may be desperate to sell because of unexpected circumstances, such as job loss, divorce, or a death in the family.
• Stick to big name brands, such Marriott timeshare, Hyatt timeshare, and Hilton timeshare.
• Look for timeshare resales during the time of year when annual fees are announced for the next year.
• And for Shermoen, who happens to be an attorney, he offers to provide timeshare closing at a discounted fee.

Okay, but suppose you are not an attorney, you are not in the market for 100 timeshare weeks, and you want a good deal, but you are not willing to read the obituaries looking for desperate timeshare sellers?

The article, which is titled, “Despite Economy, Timeshares Drum Up Big Business,” suggests looking for points based timeshare ownership.

The Good Things about Timeshare Points

Points based timeshare, as the Boston.com article correctly points out, offers flexibility. While some interval based timeshare ownership allows you to break up your time into segments of less than one week, almost all points based timeshare lets you choose whether you use it one night at a time, or in blocks of consecutive days.

Once timeshare becomes lodging you can schedule as you would a hotel stay, it suddenly becomes something you use not just for vacations, but for family reunions, long weekends, weddings, and as a day by day rental.

On the other hand, the article also brings to light a downside about timeshare points. Points are like dollars, they represent a spending value that can be used for timeshare and other vacation related expenses, like air travel and cruises. But like the dollar, the value of your points can go down, depending upon how many timeshare points overall a resort issues.

If you are planning, like the attorney mentioned in this article, to use some of your timeshare weeks in future years (possibly renting the timeshare weeks you are not using), you need to understand how the fluctuation of timeshare points could affect you. The number of points it takes to “buy” a timeshare week today, may not be sufficient to “buy” a full week by the time you retire.

No choice is perfect. There are positives and negatives about buying a vacation home, buying timeshare, renting timeshare, or staying at home and never taking a vacation. But as Steve Shermoen figured out, buying timeshare the right way, at the right price, can turn out to be a very good plan. Just do your homework first!

Thinking about a trip to Florida? Many Central Florida tourist attractions are offering special prices, discount coupons, and other incentives to help vacationers offset the cost of travel this year.

For timeshare owners, or vacationers who want to take advantage of timeshare rentals, Orlando offers more timeshare resorts than anywhere in the world. Since our timeshare blog often writes about the brand name properties, (Hilton timeshare, Marriott timeshare, Disney Vacation Club, etc.) I thought I would share with you some information on a timeshare property you may not be familiar with, but that is consistently a popular destination.

Vacation at Calypso Cay Timeshare Resort

Calypso Cay Vacation Villas timeshare resort is located in Kissimmee, Florida, which means it is just south of Orlando and only 7 miles from the Walt Disney World theme parks. This timeshare resort is within minutes of Universal Studios, SeaWorld, and all the other Central Florida attractions you and your family enjoy. If you plan beach time in addition to relaxing by the pool, you’ll be roughly an hour from the Atlantic beaches and only slightly over an hour to the Gulf of Mexico.

True to its name, the design and furnishings of the Calypso Cay timeshare resort reflect the balmy breezes and sun-soaked feel of a lazy Florida afternoon. Calypso Cay offers one, two, and three-bedroom timeshare units, themed in cheerful, island decor. There are laundry facilities on property, entertainment centers in each timeshare unit, and an in-suite web access portal, making it easy for you to book travel arrangements online, plan details of your daily outings, or simply surf the Internet.

While the location of Calypso Cay Vacation Villas is convenient to all you want to do and explore, you may find yourself satisfied to never leave this timeshare resort. You can enjoy the pool and Tiki bar, nightly entertainment at the bandstand, or play mini golf at the resort’s own putt-putt course.

Calypso Cay was designed to be an island retreat in the heart of this family vacation destination. The opportunities available in Calypso Cay timeshare resales and Calypso Cay timeshare rentals will amaze you. Contact Sell My Timeshare NOW to learn more, and then pack your flip-flops and your straw hat, because a Calypso Cay vacation is waiting for you.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Travelocity, the online travel service, says Americans are booking shorter vacations, especially for overseas destinations. For summer trips planned by US travelers to destinations outside the US, the trip duration is more than 5 percent shorter in length than in past years.

Research from AIG Travel Guard (travel insurance) says that almost half of all clients who responded to a questionnaire say they plan to alter their summer vacation in order to save money. Some say they will eat in less expensive restaurants, (look for the crowds at McDonalds) while others say they will relax closer to home. And in anticipation of this trend, regional theme parks are gearing up for a very busy summer.

All-inclusive resorts are selling well this summer, and while the Travelocity research didn’t specifically address timeshares, one would assume that the eat-in kitchen and dining areas in timeshare condos are looking especially appealing to travelers.

Sell My Timeshare NOW is seeing a dramatic increase in timeshare rentals in 2008, compared to 2007. This increase reflects the ever-growing interest in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals. It is also indicative of a whole new market of vacationers who may never buy timeshare, but have recognized the value in timeshare rentals for spacious vacation accommodations that offer room for the whole family and let you skip (or reduce) the cost of restaurant dining.

The Timeshare Rental Solution

This is the year to rent timeshare. It has never made more sense, than now. If the high price of gas or a mortgage that has over-adjusted will prevent you from taking a vacation, then go to a timeshare resales and timeshare rental advertising company and get them started marketing your timeshare rental now.

And if you are planning to enjoy a summer vacation, forget about a crowded room in a high priced hotel, and book a timeshare rental. Get more vacation, spend less money– a timeshare rental can solve a lot of problems.

If there is a theme park in your summer vacation plans, whet your appetite here with this YouTube video of the rollercoaster at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Although Sell My Timeshare NOW is a privately held company, and as such, does not report to stockholders, we do like to keep our timeshare buyers, timeshare sellers, and timeshare renters informed on a regular basis about the state of business in our company.

This week, we released our First Quarter 2008 Statistical Synopsis, as well as a statement to the media. Click here to read our media release and here to download the report in PDF format.

The good news of the report is that it is all good news. Sell My Timeshare NOW saw the number of offers to buy or rent timeshare increase in the first quarter of 2008 by 22 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2007. The dollar amount of the offers during this most recent business quarter was more than $90 million, also reflecting an increase over 2007 numbers.

Timeshare Rentals at Sell My Timeshare NOW

In 2007, Sell My Timeshare NOW started a new program, called Rental Assist. We are very proud of how that service helps timeshare owners who want to use their property as a timeshare rental connect with people who are interested in renting timeshare for their next vacation. Rental Assist is undoubtedly an effective tool for timeshare owners and timeshare renters, as evidenced by the fact that at Sell My Timeshare NOW, offers to rent timeshares rose 141 percent quarter-over-quarter 2007 to 2008.

The Obvious Solution When You Want to Sell Timeshare

When you look at our report, and I really hope you will, you will see that for timeshare owners who are ready to sell timeshare, there is no better choice than Sell My Timeshare NOW. In the first quarter of 2008 alone, offers to buy or rent timeshare totaled more than $90 million, while website traffic for the first quarter rose by 13 percent to nearly 7.4 million people.

In these days when the economy is shaky, I am proud to be able to report to our employees, our community, and all the customers who rely on us to help them with their timeshare resales transactions, that at least, in our little corner of the business world, business is booming!

What’s in a name? Apparently a lot if you are the UK cruise community website www.cruise.co.uk

This week, a new British record was set as cruise.co.uk paid $1 million (US dollars) for the plural version of the same domain name - www.cruises.co.uk

Seamus Conlon, managing director of the company, said that their purchase of the name is an indicator of how serious the company is about retaining its number one position in a fast-growing sector. He explained, “Cruises is consistently ranked first on Google, with ‘cruise‘ just behind. We wanted the top positions so that when internet users are searching for cruise deals, reviews or news, we are the first port of call.”

While the price paid sounds painfully large, the logic behind it makes perfect sense to me and our internet marketing specialists at Sell My Timeshare NOW. If you want to sell timeshare, you need to advertise your timeshare weeks on a website that consistently ranks at the top of the search results in Google and other popular search engines. You need Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Why?

Because if you can easily find Sell My Timeshare NOW’s website when you want to sell timeshare, then people who want to buy timeshare are finding the site just as easily and just as quickly.

A lot of people visiting our timeshare resales and timeshare rental advertising and marketing website means lots of potential buyers for your timeshare resale. Sell My Timeshare NOW is the number one best place to buy timeshare, sell timeshare or rent timeshare, and we didn’t have to spend a million dollars on a name, to get there.

Wonder what other domain names people are paying big bucks to own? Here are some of the biggies:

• www.beer.com sold for $7 million in 1999
• www.diamond.com sold for $7.5 million in 2006
• www.business.com sold for $7.5 million in 1999

The names auto.com, wine.com, and creditcards.com have all been sold at high prices, as have the domain names for a sex site and a pornography site, which commanded $12 million dollars and $9.5 million in recent years.

These days, when every evening’s nightly news seems to always bring us new warnings of unrest, terrorism, and political disruption around the world, you might think people who buy timeshare abroad risk being stuck with timeshare condos or condo resales that they cannot use and cannot rent or sell - but that is generally not the case.

First, as a timeshare owner, you may have the option to bank your timeshare weeks for future use, or to turn them over to a timeshare exchange. Many timeshare exchange programs do not require your timeshare weeks to be picked up by someone else in order for you to enjoy a timeshare vacation at a different resort.

The next thing to remember is that many times, while it may not be safe for people of your particular nationality to travel to a foreign country, people who live in that country may be able to travel freely and vacation without incident. Although this is not currently the case in Kenya, as I wrote about in yesterday’s Timeshare Owners Blog, when this does apply, you may want to use your timeshare weeks as a timeshare rental. To successfully rent timeshare to people from other countries you must advertise and market it through a timeshare company like Sell My Timeshare NOW that has a global marketplace and the expertise to bring timeshare rentals to the attention of interested renters or even buyers around the world.

The problems in one part of a country do not always affect vacationing and timeshare resorts in other areas of the same country. Don’t immediately assume that an entire region or country is dangerous just because you hear about one incident, in one location. In fact, isolated events in one part of a country can sometimes have an upside for travelers in other areas, making tourist dollars especially appreciated in an area where other parts of the country have recently received bad publicity. Attractions, restaurants, and other tourist areas are less crowded and sometimes offer discounted prices in efforts to attract business once again.

Kenya Timeshare Resales, In the Future

I am not in any way making light of recent tragic events in Kenya or any other part of the world that has suffered adversity. But I am suggesting that if you own timeshare weeks in a locale that has experienced problems, whether it is weather-related, incidences of terrorism, or other types of crime or civil unrest, don’t immediately assume that all is lost for utilizing your timeshare unit or timeshare weeks. You have options and Sell My Timeshare NOW can help you assess those options and make the choice that is right for you.

Here’s a You-Tube video that reminds us of the natural beauty of Kenya.

Arthur Frommer is known worldwide as the grandfather of travel guidebooks for the budget-conscious, and these days, doesn’t that description apply to most of us? Since the 1950’s. Frommer’s guidebooks have been the go-to resource for smart travelers, starting with his now legendary, Europe on 5 Dollars a Day, published in 1957.

Frommer’s New Year’s resolutions for 2008 include the following economical, environmentally correct, or just plain logical commitments:

• Limit myself to carry-ons, and never check a single bag.
• Carry sandwiches from home, and never bite into a single airline snack.
• Use public transportation from airport into town.
• Never book a connecting flight. If there’s no non-stop to my destination, I won’t go there (with some exceptions).
• Share courses with my wife, ordering a single main plate for the two of us.
• Stop patronizing “duty-free” shops.
• Never book an uncomfortable “boutique hotel” designed by a famous fashionista.
• Never use a credit card that doesn’t earn frequent flyer mileage.
• Never board a cruise ship carrying more than 700 passengers, and
• Remain calm and unperturbed by refusing to read the travel section of the New York Times.

This is all such good advice, I only wish Frommer had added a couple more equally worthwhile resolutions:

• Never book a hotel room when I can stay for less in a timeshare rental.
• Never stay in timeshare rentals leased from the timeshare resort or management company when I can rent timeshare directly from the timeshare owner at a much better rate.
• Stop spending money on hotel rooms when it makes so much more sense to buy timeshare, and
• Buy timeshare resales from the individual owner, not the timeshare development company.

It’s a brand new year and I can’t think of a better time to say, “Hey, I am tired of spending more money than I have to for great vacations and travel.” Think timeshare. There is a reason that “share” is part of the word; timeshare resales and timeshare rentals truly let you share the cost of vacation accommodations with others, and yet still enjoy the luxury and privacy of a beautiful resort vacation or holiday.

Visit Sell My Timeshare NOW to learn more about the opportunities for timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.

You know what they say about anything that sounds too good to be true…

An Orlando timeshare resale company agreed last week to pay nearly $100,000 to consumers as part of a settlement to end the investigation into a series of complaints about the company’s practices. More than half the money will go directly to clients who complained to the Florida Office of the Attorney General, Bill McCollum. The balance of the money will go toward the cost of the investigation itself.

The Orlando Sentinel quoted McCollum as saying, “Time-share resale businesses are often mistaken for real estate brokers when they are simply providing an advertisement service to promote the sale of a consumer’s time share.”

The allegations, some of which go back 5 years, claim that the timeshare resale company made the promise that, if it could not sell your timeshare in 180 days, you would receive two free airline tickets to certain destinations. According to consumers who received the promise during telemarketing calls from the timeshare resale company, the tickets had so many caveats and restrictions that they were useless. Some customers of the timeshare reseller say they never received the tickets at all.

Other alleged false claims by the company included the timeshare resale company’s membership in the Orange County (Florida) Convention & Visitors Bureau and affiliation with the Orange County Convention Center.

What a Timeshare Resale Advertising and Marketing Company Should Do

A good timeshare resale advertising and marketing company should present all the information about your timeshare property to the largest possible market of potential timeshare buyers. They should be on the cutting edge of internet marketing strategies so that your timeshare resale or timeshare rental is advertised in a global marketplace of people who want to buy timeshare or rent timeshare.

More than that, any timeshare resale company should be able to tell you:

• • How many visitors come to their website each day. (Sell My Timeshare NOW averages more than 10,000 unique visitors to their website each day and over 30,000 total visitors.)
• • And the dollar amount of offers made to rent or buy timeshare they advertise. (Sell My Timeshare NOW averages over $800,000 a day in offers made to buy timeshare or rent timeshare.)

Not only that, but at Sell My Timeshare NOW, if your timeshare sells at the asking price or higher through any other source, bring us proof of the sale, and we will give you back the fee you pay to advertise and market your property with us. That’s a promise, and it’s one we keep.