If you are like me, always reading the news and updates in the world of timeshares, you may be getting really tired of running into headlines about soccer great David Beckham working out his timeshare deal between the LA Galaxy and AC Milan.

Nothing against David Beckham, but perhaps the news you really want is the updates about Marriott timeshares, Sunterra, Disney Vacation Club, and all the other developers, resorts, and associations in the world of timeshare sales and timeshare resales. Nevertheless, running into David Beckham news when you are trying to find out more about vacation ownership does verify one important fact: our culture is getting really comfortable with the word TIMESHARE.

Getting Comfortable with Timeshares

As far as I can tell (and I don’t claim to be an etymologist), the word “timeshare” or “time share” seems to have first shown up in the English language in the early 1950’s as a computer science term used to describe time shared on one computer or one computer system – a use you still hear today, as in “timesharing”.

Timeshare, as commercially marketed vacation ownership property, first came into use in Europe in the 1960’s. Developer Paul Doumier created a ski resort in the French Alps with shared ownership and shared usage. At about the same time, Guido M. Fenggli and Alexandra Nette formed a company in Switzerland through which its membership could holiday in different vacation locations, first in Switzerland, and not long afterwards, throughout southern Europe.

In the United States, Hawaii timeshare property was sold first on the island of Kauai in 1969. A timeshare owner had the right to use his Hawaii timeshare for forty years after purchase, but he or she did not have deeded timeshare ownership.

By the 1970’s, the timeshare business model had evolved to include timeshare by right to use, deeded ownership, and leasehold, with deeded ownership quickly becoming the predominating type in the US.

Today, you hear the word timeshare or timesharing applied to all sorts of situations from joint ownership of luxury automobiles, to skyboxes at sports stadiums, to boats, yachts, ladies’ designer handbags, and yes, iconic sports stars such as David Beckham.

While some timeshare companies have tried to downplay the fact that they sell timeshare by calling themselves a vacation club, that trend may change as we see the concept of timesharing becoming part of the mainstream vernacular.

We live in a changing economy. Many people are having to rethink their ideas about how they spend their money and whether or not it makes sense for them to tie up their dollars in a luxury vacation home they use only a few times each year or a luxury car they must bear the sole cost of insuring and maintaining. In a scaled-down economy, we may all be coming to terms with the fact that owning only the percentage of something that we actually use is actually better than owning (and maintaining) it all. And what could be more indicative of a changing comfort level about the idea of sharing than the fact that American sports fans are willing to timeshare David Beckham if that’s what it takes to keep him playing in the US?

The Florida Sun-Sentinel is reporting that Bluegreen Corporation intends to sell to Las Vegas-based timeshare developer and manager, Diamond Resorts LLC. The reported sales price will be $15 per share, or about $500 million excluding outstanding debt owed by Bluegreen.

Alan B. Levan, who is Bluegreen’s chairman, says the offer was unsolicited, but admitted that Bluegreen timeshare has been considering its options. A statement released by Bluegreen timeshare quoted Levan as saying, “When Diamond presented our board with this unsolicited, attractive offer, we believed that it was in the best interest of our shareholders to pursue this transaction at this time.”

In April 2007, Diamond Resorts timeshare bought Sunterra timeshare for approximately $750 million. Diamond Resorts is well on its way to becoming one of the world’s largest timeshare companies, with 110 branded or affiliated resorts in 14 countries and over 360,000 owners. Their timeshare resort locations include North and South America (and Hawaii), and Europe.

A nonbinding letter of intent has been signed by Bluegreen timeshare. The company’s stock dipped to $6.44 a share with the news, coming off a 52-week high of $11.85. Bluegreen’s business focuses heavily on their residential community development, golf communities, and home sales. One has to wonder how much the weak real estate market has affected the Bluegreen corporation and if the impact of declining home prices on part of their business made the offer from Diamond Resorts look even more attractive.

Back in April, I wrote in the Timeshare Owners Blog (”$7 Million Worth of Timeshare”) about Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts acquiring all of Sunterra timeshare corporation’s issued and outstanding common stock.

The acquisition of Sunterra timeshare by Diamond Resorts marked the end of an up and down period for the timeshare company, which had first come to the public’s attention in 2006 when Sunterra put their European timeshares up for sale. The Timeshare Owners Blog reported on the sale of the European properties in an entry titled, “Don’t Panic About Sunterra Timeshares.”

At our company, Sell My Timeshare NOW, we help timeshare owners advertise and market their timeshare for sale or rent. We always get questions about timeshare points in general, and sometimes about Club Sunterra Points specifically.

For starters, let me point out that the only points that are transferable on the timeshare resale market are Club Sunterra Points.

Sunterra Points represent a true undivided interest. For example, if you divide the ownership of a piece of property by the number of owners — AND you issue each owner a deed for their fragment of ownership, then you have what is known as divided interest.

The alternative is to establish an undivided interest. For example, if there are 52 owners of a timeshare unit, and they collectively own the timeshare unit under one deed, they have an undivided interest. But there still needs to be a way to define what each timeshare owner (or club member) owns. Assigning “points” is a perfect way to establish how large a piece of pie each person gets. If you own more points, then your piece of pie is larger than that of someone who owns fewer points.

And points function in the world of timeshares like currency. You can spend your points on a larger timeshare unit this year, but perhaps next year choose to use the same number of points on a smaller timeshare unit during a higher demand season. In some cases you can bank your points to use in a future year, purchase out-of-pocket additional points to increase your “spending power” or sometimes use your points for something totally different than timeshare, such as a cruise or airline tickets.

Here is some additional information about points that applies specifically to Club Sunterra Vacation memberships:

• • Your membership is in perpetuity.
• • The real property that you own in your undivided interest is deeded to an independent trustee, which is currently First American Trust. Sunterra members do not hold a deed to a timeshare unit or interval, but instead receive a Vacation Ownership Policy and Membership Certificate.
• • Sunterra ownership can be sold or transferred. Club Sunterra Vacation SunOptions and membership in the Association are transferrable and a new owner can travel within the nineteen Club Sunterra Vacation resorts, or pay an additional fee for membership in to Club Sunterra, Inc.

The timeshare resale and rental professionals at Sell My Timeshare NOW are available to assist you when you buy, rent, or sell Sunterra timeshare, as well as other timeshare and vacation club memberships. They will also help you understand more about points, and the differing types of timeshare ownerships. Visit our website at www.sellmytimesharenow.com or call toll-free 877-815-4227 to learn more.