This week, we announced that at Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services, we are hosting a Holiday Food Drive for the New Hampshire Food Bank. Our partner in this food drive is Cocheco PrintWorks.

Although this food drive is targeting the Dover, New Hampshire area for drop offs of canned goods and non-perishable foods, you can also get involved in other ways. Here are some facts about the food drive and about NH Food Bank that will tell you more about this effort and about why it is so needed:

• New Hampshire has one of the lowest poverty levels in the US but ranks #7 in the number of homeless children
• New Hampshire Food Bank is a program of New Hampshire Catholic Charities. So far this year, it has distributed more than 7 million pounds of food through a statewide network of approved agencies. Distribution is made to over 400 New Hampshire senior citizen homes, food pantries, shelters, day care centers and soup kitchens and more than 130,000 adults and children have been served.
• Checks are also accepted. Please make them payable to: NH Food Bank.
• You can make your donations through Thursday, December 22, 2011.
• Our drop-off location is 383 Central Avenue, Suite 260, Dover, NH 03820, which are the offices of Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services. We are located on the second floor of the Cochero Falls Millworks and you may park on the street or in the guest parking spaces in front of the building and use the entrance facing TD Bank.

You can learn more about this important effort at:

http://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/media/2011-holiday-food-drive/

We also invite you to read our most recent media release here:

http://news.hospitality-1st.com/SellMyTimeshareNOW-120811.html

The needs are great and the stories are endless.

This is a tough year for many people. Families—right here in our own communities—are dealing with hunger. Mothers and fathers are putting their children to bed at night knowing that those children have not eaten adequate or nutritious food. Senior citizens are choosing whether to buy medication they need or put groceries in their pantry. And countless others are making painful decisions in which housing, food, electricity and other basic needs compete for the same limited dollars.

Almost everyone has been challenged by the tight economy in recent years. But if you can share, even just a little, we invite you to help us support the New Hampshire Food Bank. Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services, along with Cocheco PrintWorks, are hosting a 2011 Holiday Food Drive.

Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services Food Drive

Now through Thursday, December 22, 2011, we’re collecting donations of canned goods and other non-perishable food items at our Dover, NH offices at: 383 Central Avenue, Suite 260 in downtown Dover.

You can learn more about this food drive by visiting our website at: http://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/media/2011-holiday-food-drive/

And you can learn more about the New Hampshire Food Bank at: www.nhfoodbank.org/

Each year the NH Food Bank collects over 7 million pounds of food and facilitates its distribution to more than 400 New Hampshire food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, day care centers and senior citizen homes. By their efforts, some 130,000 adults and children in need are served.

We also encourage you to visit, and “Like” both the NH Food Bank and Sell My Timeshare NOW on Facebook. You’ll find us at:

https://www.facebook.com/SellMyTimeshareNOW

and the NH Food Bank at: https://www.facebook.com/nhfoodbank

The holidays typically leave everyone busy and often overwhelmed, but there are a few smart financial moves that can really benefit you if you find time and take care of them now. And for some timeshare owners, selling your timeshare may be one of them.

Must-Dos before 2012 rolls around:

1. Contribute as much as permitted to your retirement account. You only have until the last day of the year to contribute to your 401(k) through your workplace. Yes, you can add to your IRA or ROTH IRA up until April each year, but for your workplace 401(k), the deadline is December 31. Ask your HR department how much you have already contributed this year. For workers under age 50, the maximum is $16,500 and for those over, it is $22,000. If you are under these caps, try to raise your contributions between now and New Year’s Eve to realize the best tax savings for 2011.

2. Pay in advance. If you have bills that are partially or wholly tax deductible and you can, pay them before December 31 to gain the tax deduction in the current year. Examples of bills that may be tax deductible include the interest portion of your home mortgage, college tuition, or expenses you can claim as business deductions.

3. Consider selling your timeshare. It’s likely that as a timeshare owner, you have recently received the bill for your annual dues on your timeshare or vacation club membership. For most people, this bill averages about $750. But if you are not using your timeshare, this may be one expenditure you can save in the future by selling your timeshare in 2012. No, you won’t make back what you paid for it, but you will eliminate what it costs you going forward. And while not all timeshares are easy to sell, many timeshares resell quite well. Ask the timeshare resale specialists at Timeshare Broker Services to help you. It will cost you nothing upfront, and you’ll be under no obligation. Call 877-884-9577 to learn more.

4. Review your utilities and services. One call to your telephone, cable, satellite or other service provider can save you money every month. Plans and service options change constantly and many companies that provide services you regularly use have ways to save you money you may not be benefitting from now. Ask companies to look at your services and see how they can help you. In some cases this can be in the form of bundling services in order to save money, a loyalty discount or credit, adding features at no cost to you, discontinuing features for which you are paying but not using, or even a free home energy audit that puts you in a better position to save.

5. Share. Now is the ideal time to make charitable donations. Studies show that sharing generously with others increases your personal feelings of contentment and satisfaction, activating the same “happiness” areas of the brain as is triggered by eating a good meal. Publication 78, Cumulative List of Organizations described in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, provides you the full list of charities to which your donations are tax deductible.

And always, when exploring ways to save on your state or federal income taxes, be sure to consult you CPA, tax attorney or other tax expert.

Saturday morning, while many of us are sleeping in or enjoying one more pumpkin latte, Jerome Bocquet, our Vice President of Brokerage Sales & Rental at Timeshare Broker Services, will have his running (or maybe walking) shoes on, participating in the HOPEworldwide  Fundraising Event that is a part of the Runnona Walk.

Held at Lake Nona, (Orlando, Florida) the 5K Run/Walk will begin at the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine and will wind through Lake Nona Medical City, offering views of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Orlando VA Medical Center, Nemours Children’s Hospital and UCF’s just-opened College of Medicine.

The event’s start time is 8:00AM for all who are walking or running the 3.1 miles of a 5K race. Later in the morning, there will be a Halloween Costume Contest for children, the Nemours Kids’s Run and at 9:30AM, the Awards Presentation.

Proceeds from the race will benefit the Tavistock Foundation. Jerome Bocquet is walking in support of HOPE worldwide, an international charity that harnesses the compassion and commitment of dedicated staff and volunteers to deliver sustainable, high-impact, community-based services to the poor and needy. 87 percent of HOPE Worldwide expenditures go directly for program costs.

To learn more about HOPE worldwide, please visit their website at: www.hopeww.org

And “Go Jerome!”

Frankly, much of the messaging about where the timeshare industry stands and where it’s going is confusing. And because it is often difficult for those who are part of the industry to discern, it can be truly a puzzle to consumers.

Here are a few relevant facts that should be insightful to timeshare buyers, renters, sellers, and current timeshare owners in trying to get a handle on the true popularity of timeshares and the health of the timeshare product:

• The timeshare industry registered $6.4 billion in total sales volume for 2010, which represents a 1.6 percent increase over sales in 2009. This number reflects only new sales of timeshare and does not include the multi-billion dollars in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.
• Timeshare resort occupancy rates were 79 percent in 2010; an interesting contrast to hotel occupancy rates, which rose from the previous year, but still only reached 58 percent.
• 329,200 timeshare intervals sold last year at an average price of $19,300. Again these figures reflect only at the sales of timeshare from developers, not timeshare resales that happened privately, though a timeshare broker, or through a timeshare resale advertising company.
• Beach timeshares remain the most popular and the most prevalent. Timeshare resorts at golf or theme park destinations tend to be the largest in size and island destination resorts are typically the most expensive and have the highest occupancy percentages.
• In the US, there are approximately 1,548 timeshare resorts. Differences in numbers reported for this often stem from confusion over how  resorts with many phases of construction counts their properties.
• 8.1 million timeshare intervals are owned in the US alone.

With many naysayers ready to condemn the industry, reporting of its impending death and downfall, numbers like these present quite a different (and eye-opening) story.

Before you make any decisions about timeshare, get the facts. Be an informed consumer so that if you chose to rent or buy a timeshare, you wind up with a vacation product you enjoy, fully utilize, and that comes with only good surprises.

It’s great to be at the ARDA West Regional Meeting (American Resort Developers Association) here at the  Westin Denver Downtown.

Yesterday’s activities got underway with ARDA-WIN Programming and event registration. It was my honor to be part of a panel that addressed, “HOA Challenges and Solutions: Postcard and Rescue Companies, Resales, and Rentals.”

John Funk, Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, was Moderator of the panel that included: John Lee of Christie Lodge; R. Scott MacGregor of InnSeason Resorts; and me, Jason Tremblay of Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services.

We looked at some of the timeshare industry’s significant challenges and ways to solve these challenges. Questions raised included:

• With association maintenance fee delinquencies increasing what are positive methods for HOAs to find replacement owners?
• What can HOAs do about weeks being transferred into trusts, clubs or to individuals who have no intention of paying the fees?
• The current challenge that is putting the reputation of timeshare resales on the line.

Thursday evening’s activities included the Opening Reception with Product Showcase, and time for networking.

Friday’s Schedule at the ARDA West Regional Meeting

The Friday schedule for today is  busy with an  8:05 AM Breakfast and ARDA Updates, including information from and regarding  ARDA-ROC, AIF Research and State Legislative Issues.

Speakers are Kevin Riley, ARDA-ROC; Chris Stewart, ARDA State Affairs; and Darla Zanini, ARDA International Foundation.

Morning sessions include:

• “Retaining Owners Loyalty” moderated by Clark Rowley, Scottsdale Camelback Resort, with speakers: Jeff Andrews, East West Resorts and  Kimberly Tramontana, Breckenridge Grand Vacations.
• “New ADA Requirements”  moderated by Amy Bellman, Baker & Hostetler LLP, with speakers: Jessie Creighton, Ballard Spahr LLP and John Farrow, FARROW Commercial Construction
• HOA Board/ “Ask the Attorney” moderated by Gary Kujawski, Christie Lodge Owners Association with speakers: Candyce Cavanagh, Orten, Cavanagh, Richmond & Holmes LLC; and Jennifer Hayes, Foley & Lardner LLP

Lunch with Guest Speaker Aaron Acker, HOA Information Officer, Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs, will bring an outside perspective on the latest and hottest regulatory and legislative issues in the HOA and Timeshare industries.

Thank you ARDA for offering these informative and important meetings and to all the sponsors who help make them possible. Special thanks to: ARDA-ROC; Epsilon Targeting; First American Title Insurance Company; RCI, HD Supply, and Interval International.

$284,876,202 in qualified offers to timeshare owners in the first three quarters of 2011!

At Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services, we are excited to announce our third quarter sales results.

Between January 1, 2011 and September 30, 2011, Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services, as part of Vacation Hotdeal Companies, Inc., presented $284,876,202 in qualified offers to timeshare owners who contacted us seeking to sell or rent timeshare they currently own.

These qualified offers include:

• $225,000,000 in offers to buy a timeshare, and
• $60,000,000 in timeshare rental offers
• 3rd Q sales results were up 24 percent over the same quarter in 2010 at Sell My Timeshare NOW for timeshare sales and rentals
• 3rd Q sales results were up 88 percent over the same quarter in 2010 at Timeshare Broker Services for timeshare sales and rentals

Yes, that right… 88% increase in sales for Quarter3 2011 as compared to Quarter 3 2010!

And you never have to just take our word for our sales and rental offers … you can see them for yourself.

Go to http://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/owners/index/content/buyeroffers/

Here you can view a live feed of offers to buy or rent timeshare. You will see the ad number, the resort, the date, the amount, and the type of offer.

Today Sell My Timeshare NOW released its second announcement to the media regarding growth in timeshare sales through our timeshare brokerage division, Timeshare Broker Services.

As we noted, we saw a 109 percent increase in broker assisted timeshare sales for the month of July 2011 over July 2010. These numbers reflect the strong demand there is to buy timeshare on the resale market and the interest in both the large hospitality brand resorts, including Hyatt Vacation Club, Starwood timeshare, Disney Vacation Club, Hilton timeshare, and in independent timeshare brands, that offer quality resorts but may not be as well known.

While our by-owner timeshare sales remain solid, we’ve also focused a great deal of attention this past year on building our timeshare brokerage services, too. It comes down to offering more choices to consumers, and we think that is very important.

Why Offer 2 Different Types of Timeshare Sales?

Timeshare ownership comes in many formats. There are fixed week timeshares, floating timeshare, timeshares owned by deed, owned by right to use, and timeshare ownership through points or vacation clubs. The product a potential seller has may be as small as a studio unit may, or it may be a spacious multi-bedroom, multi-bathroom timeshare. Some timeshares are at high demand locations during popular weeks and others are at more off-the-beaten path destinations, or are during less-busy seasons of the year.

Just as timeshares come in all types, so do timeshare owners. Some people seek to sell timeshare because their family has changed or they simply don’t vacation in the same way they once did. Others are facing a life transition, such as marriage, divorce, relocation, retirement, illness, or any of a number of reasons that vacation patterns could change. And still other timeshare owners want to sell their timeshare so they can purchase different timeshares elsewhere.

One size rarely fits all and clearly one method of timeshare resales doesn’t either.

For owners who want to be hands-on in their timeshare resale transaction, by owner services may be the best option. These consumers pay to advertise their timeshare on the high visibility websites of Sell My Timeshare NOW. When the product sells, the money made is wholly their own; no commission is owed. If a by owner seller needs assistance along the way, we are there to assist them in connecting with the right professionals.

But, many timeshare owners want a turn-key approach to timeshare sales. They prefer to put their timeshare sale in the hands of a licensed real estate professional, and let that timeshare broker take it from there. For these owners, the process is simple and when the timeshare sells, a commission is paid to the broker for his or her services.
Timeshare resales at Sell My Timeshare NOW– it is one service with a choice of two approaches. Please read our full media release, Sell My Timeshare NOW Posts Dramatic Quarterly Gains Through Timeshare Brokerage, to learn more.

In today’s business economy, it is especially gratifying to post positive news. Today we just released news that Sell My Timeshare NOW has posted 27.5 percent increase in broker assisted timeshare sales, year-over-year, through the end of the second quarter of this year.

These numbers focus on our timeshare brokerage business, Timeshare Broker Services, though, which we offer full-service timeshare resale brokerage. And in the month of July alone, we saw a 109 percent increase in timeshare broker assisted sales month-over-month, as compared to July last year.

Why Are Timeshare Sales through Timeshare Broker Services So Strong?

We see several factors feeding into the strength of broker-assisted timeshare resales, and it is interesting to note that these strong sales are both in the branded hospitality providers such as Disney Vacation Club, Starwood timeshare, Hilton timeshare, Hyatt Vacation Club and others but just as much in independent timeshare brands –names you may or may not know as well.

First, demand for timeshare on the secondary market is strong. At Sell My Timeshare NOW, we have committed to offering clients the services they really want and value. That’s why we provide both by-owner timeshare resale advertising and a full-service timeshare brokerage.

With the leadership of Jerome Bocquet, vice president of our brokerage division, Timeshare Broker Services, we have focused on in-depth broker training and expanded services.

We’ve also launched a major redesign of our main website, www.sellmytimesharenow.com. We’ve made it easier and more intuitive for prospective buyers and renters to search for timeshare resales and rentals.

There’s a lot going on at Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services and we’ll continue to share it with you here on The Timeshare Authority blog.

Follow this link to read our full media release, Sell My Timeshare NOW Posts Substantial Gains in Quarterly Sales through Timeshare Brokerage.

Executive Quest Inc. has released the results of its annual study of salaries within the timeshare and vacation ownership, fractional, and hospitality industry.

Keith W. Trowbridge, Ph.D., President of Executive Quest, Inc says the research is based on survey data from more than 20,000 contacts. This year’s survey included an increase from the previous 25 categories to 30 and covered topics including salary, bonus, non-cash perks, commission and total annual compensation.

Likewise, the survey also considers factors related to the participant, such as: years in the industry, resort locations, units and total annual company revenue.

Results of Timeshare Jobs Survey

The survey shows that the timeshare and fractional industries continue to feel effects of the economy, but for the most part, to a lesser degree than in the previous year. Results from the one industry area that showed the hardest hit were in the category of realtor, real estate developer, timeshare sales and timeshare broker, which for some companies, showed a drop in income. Timeshare sales representatives showed a slight increase while sales managers and directors showed a, “minor cut in compensation.”

The report does show, “Many executives received non-cash perks including a company automobile, health and life insurance, contributions to a 401(k), housing for family/visitors. Relocation expenses and housing for an initial period are also a part of the non-cash perks enjoyed by many. The non-cash perks were converted to a dollar amount and are included in the Total Compensation figures.”

You can learn more about the survey at: http://www.execq.com/index.htm