To make sure you get all the information about Sell My Timeshare NOW’s new “Book It NOW” feature, we’re talking about it again today here on The Timeshare Authority blog. This new timeshare rental feature is just too important and too helpful for you to miss; it could totally change the way you think about renting timeshare.

For the first time ever, you can now book a timeshare rental with the same type of online, real time booking convenience that we’ve all grown accustomed to using for booking air travel online. And it’s only available at Sell My Timeshare NOW; no other timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising company offers this service.

“Book It NOW” Turns Booking a Timeshare Rental into ‘Pushbutton Vacation Planning’

This is such an easy, convenient way to book an affordable timeshare rental vacation. First, go to this Timeshare Rental page on the website www.sellmytimesharenow.com. Click the link that says, “Click here to search our amazing vacation rentals available for immediate booking!“

The page that opens will have choices for you to select. They are all optional. Fill in as many or as few as you like. Your next step will then be to choose a timeshare rental. You will find an excellent selection based on price, week available, location, and size of the timeshare unit, including timeshare rentals available for your “last minute” vacation plans.

After you have made your selection, you’ll be taken to a webpage that explains in detail the conditions of the rental process—this is not scary legalese; it’s things like “leave the timeshare unit as clean as you found it”.

This is also the page where you will provide your contact information. After you have completed the information form, you will then receive confirmation first from Sell My Timeshare NOW with your booking number, and later from the resort itself, with your confirmation number.

It’s Just That Easy to Plan a Great Timeshare Rental Vacation

Let’s face it, timeshare rentals are some of the best deals available in vacation accommodations. They are roomier than a hotel, many include kitchen and dining areas, and they are located in all the places you like to visit.

Taking advantage of the spacious accommodations and the excellent prices in timeshare for rent couldn’t be any easier. All you have to do is go to Sell My Timeshare NOW and “Book It NOW“.

Overstressed and under-vacationed? Overworked and underpaid? It’s not just you; it’s a global mantra.

In trying to do our part in these challenging times to help you get that much-needed vacation, we have focused extra attention on our timeshare rentals. Renting timeshare is one of the most economical ways to vacation. You get more space and more amenities for less money compared to almost any other type of vacation accommodations. And because timeshares are designed so that they can easily be shared by extended families or multiple families, a timeshare rental is a perfect way to cut the cost of vacationing while sharing your good times with family or friends.

Knowing that timeshare rentals are one of the best choices for vacation affordability, Sell My Timeshare NOW has been working on strategies to make scheduling that timeshare rental even easier for you.

That’s Why We’ve Added “Book It NOW” to Our Timeshare Rentals

We’ve added a user-friendly, real time feature to our website. You can now select a timeshare rental from available dates and locations and then just click the “Book It NOW” button. You will be booking your timeshare vacation accommodations online, in real time, without ever needing to interact with a booking agent or the timeshare owner. Think of it as ‘pushbutton vacation planning’.

And because timeshare vacations mean flexibility and choices, Sell My Timeshare NOW still offers two additional ways to rent timeshare. You can search the company’s full inventory of timeshares rentals and then contact the timeshare owner directly to negotiate a best-price rental rate, or you can take advantage of Rental Assist by Sell My Timeshare NOW and let a vacation specialist find the timeshare rental that’s right for you.

A vacation … right now when you need it most, plus the option to click and book your timeshare rental with Sell My Timeshare NOW’s “Book It NOW” feature. To make it any easier for you to enjoy an affordable timeshare rental vacation, we will have come to your house and pack your luggage for you.

I’ve heard it; you’ve heard it; you may even believe it. I am talking about the misconception that timeshares do not resell on the secondary market. Saying this is like claiming that no one ever buys a car that has been previously owned. It doesn’t make sense and it is simply NOT TRUE.

So as promised in yesterday’s The Timeshare Authority blog, I am going to show you proof that people are actively searching the internet in general, and the Sell My Timeshare NOW website in particular, for timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.

Proof that Consumers are Shopping the Internet for Timeshare Resales and Timeshare Rentals

Lately politicians have been using the word “transparency” to describe their practices and protocols, but, transparency in business is what Sell My Timeshare NOW has pledged to you since the first day we started, some five and a half years ago.

We publish – on our website – the real-time stats for traffic to the site. Timeshare owners who are considering advertising their timeshare resale or timeshare rental on Sell My Timeshare NOW can look at these stats and see for themselves how much traffic the website receives and what words people are typing into their search engines to get them to the site. And knowing what words or phrases people are searching for gives you a lot of insight about whether the visitors are buyers or sellers.

On the bottom right corner of the homepage for www.sellmytimesharenow.com you will see a symbol that looks like this:

When you click the symbol, you will find the Extreme Tracking results for Sell My Timeshare NOW’s website. Examine these results; they tell you everything from the operating system the website viewer has in their computer to the search engine they used to find the site, and so very much more.

Here is a screenshot from our website’s Extreme Tracking results that was taken today, April 23, 2009. This chart shows you the exact phrases or words that unique website visitors were using during a 6-minute window of time to reach the Sell My Timeshare NOW website. You will find names of different timeshare resorts, phrases like “timeshares for sale” and “time share resales” as well search terms about renting timeshare. You will see many different combinations, but an overwhelming number of the words verify a unique website visitor who had enough interest in buying or renting timeshare to be searching the internet for information and opportunities. Is there a market for timeshare resales and timeshare rentals? Clearly! And Sell My Timeshare has seen more than 54,000 offers to buy or rent timeshare in the first quarter of 2009 alone.

So the next time someone tells you how bad the timeshare resale market is, don’t believe it. Send them instead to Sell My Timeshare NOW’s website and let the numbers do the talking.

Club Casa Dorada Beach and Golf Resort timeshare in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico is as beautiful as any beachside resort you have ever dreamed of visiting. Located on El Medano beach, which is one of Cabo San Lucas’ best beaches for swimming, Club Casa Dorada Beach and Golf Resort offers guests a relaxing Mexico timeshare vacation destination, featuring access to an amazing range of amenities.

Timeshare owners and vacationers who rent timeshare at Club Casa Dorada Beach and Golf resort timeshare can enjoy their days with time on the beach or at the four health spas, the equestrian center, or teeing it up at one of the two oceanfront championship golf courses at the resort. Adjacent to Cabo Real Desert Park Reserve’s 3000 acres of protected land, your timeshare vacation can include ATV trail riding, mountain biking or hiking. There are perfect places for swimming as well as for personal watercraft use, kayaking, fishing, and snorkeling. But you might prefer to simply relax by the timeshare resort’s pool, shop the boutiques of Cabo San Lucas, and dine at one of the resort’s many fine dining or casual restaurants.

Club Casa Dorada Beach Timeshare is an RCI Golf Crown Resort

This exquisite Mexico timeshare resort is part of the exclusive 3500 acre Cabo Real Master Plan Community, which offers more than three and a half miles of some of Cabo’s best and most beautiful beaches. Club Casa Dorada Beach timeshare resort is an RCI Gold Crown property and is part of Melia Los Cabos Hotels in Los Cabos Mexico.

Offering timeshare owners and guests one, two, and three bedroom vacation ownership suites, most timeshare condos at Club Casa Dorada Beach Timeshare have private terraces, ocean views, kitchens or kitchenettes, and rooms with an elegant, clean-line décor. Jetted tubs, flat-screen televisions, and wireless internet provide you the comforts of home, with an upscale touch.

Buy Timeshare Resales at Club Casa Dorado Beach Timeshare

If you are reading this on the day this blog posts to The Timeshare Authority, then it’s Labor Day weekend, a traditional ‘long-week’ holiday in the US. And chances are, you are not on vacation. Because as much as I like to think of this timeshare blog as ‘gripping’ reading, it’s not the kind of thing most people read during their vacations…The Timeshare Authority is what you read when you are dreaming about a vacation.

So if you set aside a little time during your busy Labor Day weekend and peruse the incredible opportunities in Mexico timeshare resales and Mexico timeshare rentals, (timeshare resales and timeshare rentals available anywhere else in the world) advertised at www.sellmytimesharenow.com, then next time a holiday rolls around, you can be doing instead of dreaming; enjoying vacation ownership with your own affordable and luxurious timeshare.

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!