Timeshare Rentals

Today, the VacationOwnership.com LLC companies of SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and ResortRentals.com announced exciting news. We are now just a little more then 30 days away from rolling out timeshare rental as no one in the timeshare and vacation ownership industry has ever been able to offer it.

SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and DAE Partner on New Timeshare Rental Opportunity

EXETER, NH–( June 3, 2013) – SellMyTimeshareNOW.com, a VacationOwnership.com LLC brand and the leader in online timeshare resale, and ResortRentals.com is launching an unprecedented service for timeshare owners, management and travel consumers that is unprecedented in the industry. Starting July 8, 2013, vacationers will be able to rent discounted by-owner timeshares for weeklong luxury vacations backed by an accommodations guarantee assured through the ResortRental.com’s project partner, Dial An Exchange (DAE). Dial An Exchange, the largest privately owned timeshare exchange company in the world, will ensure that the timeshare rentals week of stay booked online are guaranteed to be available at the time of arrival.

Until now, no company has ever effectively offered the assurance of a guarantee for all timeshare rentals. Making the process even more attractive is the fact that it will exclusively be available through the Vacation Ownership brand websites, SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and ResortRentals.com, offering the type of easy travel booking that vacationers already experience through other commonly known online travel websites. Timeshares rented through this new program will not be bound by the price parity restrictions that drive rental prices higher on traditional Online Travel Agency websites.

Fermin Cruz, Vice President North American Business, Dial An Exchange, says, “The service we are providing for the VacationOwnership.com brands is part of our core competency. We see it as a perfect fit and a real value for renters, who will not have to worry if the owner has paid his maintenance fees, has already rented the unit, or has chosen to deposit the unit with an exchange service without taking down the rental listing. Until now, such problems were all valid concerns. The continued Online dominance of ResortRentals.com and SellMyTimesharenow.com coupled with DAE’s expertise will deliver a value benefit to the industry as a whole, breathing new life into the secondary market.”

In addition to benefiting vacationers who want to enjoy the amenities and spacious accommodations of timeshare resorts at excellent prices, the new VacationOwnership.com timeshare rental program means timeshare owners will be better able to monetize their vacation ownership using it as a rental or using the real process as a marketing avenue to reach millions of prospective buyers that haven’t considered timeshare as an option.

Current owners will be able to use timeshare weeks, points or vacation club memberships as timeshare rentals.

Scott Roberts, CEO of ResortRentals.com explains, “Through advancements being implemented on the VacationOwnership.com LLC websites, including SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and ResortRentals.com, timeshare owners will soon be able to get their resale properties in front of an extremely targeted and massive base of vacationers who have been previously under-marketed for timeshare rentals. This market includes millions of consumers who are already accustomed to the convenience of booking vacations online but who have never considered the value proposition, space and opportunity of timeshare.

Jason Tremblay, Founder of SellMyTimeshareNOW.com adds, “There are more than seven million timeshare owners in the United States with the vast majority eager to sell or rent their timeshare, especially when they can take advantage of a process this easy and effective. Timeshare owners will benefit from our company’s high-visibility platforms, enhanced with the same online booking ease consumers experience on popular travel sites.”

The OTA-style rental booking experience will be available on SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and on ResortRentals.com starting July 8, 2013. Tremblay describes the new timeshare rental booking platform as, “delivering what travelers and vacationers want by making it easy for them to book and confirm their vacation immediately, in the same easy way they are accustomed to booking airline reservations and other online travel services.”

About VacationOwnership.com LLC. Originally founded in 2003 as Sell My Timeshare NOW, VacationOwnership.com LLC has grown to include the brands Vacation Ownership Brokerage and ResortRentals.com. As a proven leader in marketing, sales and rental of vacation ownership products, the company provides consumers with options for licensed vacation ownership brokerage and customized resort services through Vacation Ownership Brokerage. SellMyTimeshareNOW.com provides high visibility online advertising and the largest inventory of timeshare resales and rentals available on the web. ResortRentals.com offers owners and vacationers a revolutionary way to try before you buy timeshares at prices that compete with the online travel agencies. VacationOwnership.com LLC has offices in Orlando, FL and Exeter, NH.

According to research from TravelClick North American Distribution Review, the growth segment in travel booking continues to be online travel agents, known as the OTAs. As consumer confidence in the online travel booking process increases, it inevitably carries over to confidence in booking online timeshare rentals.

In the first quarter 2013, online channels that include OTAs and hotel websites demonstrated the strongest growth in the travel-booking sector. Online Travel Agencies gained by almost 14 percent. Bookings of hotel rooms through walk-ins and phoned-in reservations directly to a hotel increased by 3.7 percent. In contrast, during this same period, bookings through travel agents and calls to hotels’ 800-reservation numbers decreased from last year, with a less than one percent decline in travel agent bookings and a more than 4 percent decline in 800-reservation use.

Why Online Works for Timeshare Rentals

Thanks to the growing success of online travel agents, such as Expedia, Travelocity, (and all the many, many others), everyone from computer-savvy young adults to grandparents have now grown highly accustomed to booking airline travel, hotel rooms, and rental cars online. The high comfort level in online booking and e-commerce makes timeshare rentals more attractive than ever.

As SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and VacationOwnership.com unroll new options for online timeshare rental booking, making the process easier than ever and comparable in user experience with that of booking hotel accommodations through the OTAs, you have to wonder why anyone would ever book another hotel vacation when they could be staying in the spacious resort accommodations of timeshare rentals.

Last month, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 100 Domain Drive, Exeter, New Hampshire, Sell My Timeshare NOW and VacationOwnership.com moved into new, purpose-built office space. For the timeshare resale and rental innovator, the move is more than the opening of doors to new offices; it parallels the company’s launch of a new perspective on renting and marketing timeshare resales.

For Sell My Timeshare NOW, a brand that began in 2003 as a home based business, the move to new offices represents the company’s $1.5 million investment in the future of timeshare resales and rentals. The modern, 20,000-square-foot environment was designed to accommodate a growing staff with increasing technology needs. The space is equipped with next-generation technology, state-of-the-art workstations and a 700-square-foot break room and training area. Geographically, the new location better positions the company to attract future employees from Boston’s tech-savvy labor pool. Together with its existing office in Orlando, Florida, the timeshare resale and rental leader now has the space and technology it needs to grow.

Timeline of a Growing Timeshare Company

A long way from its beginnings as a self-funded startup, Sell My Timeshare NOW initially offered timeshare resale and rental by-owner services  to consumers with the goal of bringing the ease of online sales and rentals to the secondary marketplace. In 2006, the company expanded to include licensed timeshare brokerage. In 2009, it further expanded its offerings, adding custom resort services through a division originally called Vacation Property Solutions. Today, through the Resort Services division of the company’s brokerage brand, Vacation Ownership Brokerage, resorts, HOAs, timeshare developers, and timeshare management companies benefit from client-specific services, custom designed to help them respond to the resale needs of their owners.

In December 2008, Sell My Timeshare NOW took on $10 million in expansion funding provided through Edison Venture Fund, an investor known for backing high-growth, entrepreneurial technology organizations. In 2012, Edison Venture Fund sold its equity interest through a merger transaction and in August 2012, VacationOwnership.com and SellMyTimeshareNOW.com, with its new investor, announced the company’s strategic partnership with Vacation Innovations LLC. The result of the merger and partnership is the creation of one of the world’s largest timeshare resale and rental companies.

• SellMyTimeshareNOW.com for by-owner timeshare resale and rental.
• Vacation Ownership Brokerage for timeshare brokerage and resort services.
• ResortRentals.com, a revolutionary approach to timeshare rental and marketing and the company’s newest brand addition.

Beyond Cutting Ribbons, it’s Time to Cut to the Chase

Recognizing that today’s vacationer is already in the habit of booking travel online,  VacationOwnership.com LLC is developing ResortRentals.com, designed to deliver reliable vacation rentals via a website that is similar in user experience to that of the online travel agencies (OTAs). Jason Tremblay, founder of Sell My Timeshare NOW and VacationOwnership.com describes it as, “a next generation technology approach” to reach the next generation of timeshare buyers and renters.

Created to out-compete OTAs in booking vacation rentals, ResortRentals.com will feature timeshare rentals at prices no online travel service currently offers or can match and guarantee. Today’s consumer is accustomed to booking travel and vacation accommodations on websites that aggregate multiple brand offerings, is confident in the process, and appreciates the ease and 24/7 availability that online travel agencies offer. Yet in most cases, these same vacationers would not be comfortable with what they know (or think they know) about timeshare as a vacation product. They don’t understand timeshare, often don’t trust it, and they are not going to agree to a resort tour. Nevertheless, they will rent timeshares online if the price is right and the booking process is user-friendly and similar to that of the OTAs they already trust.

Driven by the types of search engine optimization (SEO) technology proven by SellMyTimeshareNOW.com to be robustly effective in capturing the demand for rentals and aggregating the largest inventory of available timeshare rentals in the secondary market, ResortRentals.com has the potential to redefine the way vacationers plan weeklong getaways and annual holidays. Adding to the brand’s commercial appeal is “Spot,” an animated version of the viewfinders you remember from your childhood vacations.

Spot will help consumers spot the best rental deals at all the top vacation spots, while ensuring that travelers never overpay or under-stay during a vacation again. A national publicity campaign will introduce Spot and ResortRentals.com to the massive marketplace of vacationing consumers who currently book their travel online. Through ResortRentals.com both timeshare owners and select timeshare HOAs, resale and management companies will gain an effective platform for monetizing timeshare while promoting the vacation ownership product to what is currently a  massive and under-marketed segment of the vacationing population.

A Clear Cut Marketing Approach

ResortRentals.com is currently adding inventory and readying itself for full launch to the consumer market in upcoming months. Already soft launched as a beta website, www.ResortRentals.com showcases a user-friendly interface, designed to make it easy for vacationers to search the site by the date they want to travel or the location or resort they wish to visit. When fully built out, the website will enable renters to search resorts by sleeping capacity, on-site amenities or other key features. Visitors must register in order to book their timeshare or to receive updates and notices on future vacation opportunities that might interest them.

Working in partnership with timeshare exchange providers, ResortRentals.com will deliver timeshare rentals that in industry terminology, are “cleaned and pressed,” assuring renters that their bookings are secure, their rental rates are far below those offered by any OTA, and that these vacations values are available to them without the requisite of buying vacation club or travel club products. Timeshare owners with weeks or points to rent, and select HOAs or management companies can offer their properties (or points) as a vacation rental. Rates for rentals will be standardized using proprietary demand-curve pricing technology. Timeshare owners will not be competing with each other onpricing but can collectively compete with hotel booking websites and websites where people use private homes as vacation rentals. Anyone who submits a unit or interval for rental via ResortRentals.com is also agreeing to the ResortRentals.com price drop policy through which targeted price reductions occur when an unrented timeshare approaches its use date. Over time, ResortRentals.com could dramatically reduce the overall incidence of unused weeks from which no one benefits, typically described as “burn inventory.”

ResortRentals.com is projected to be a game changing rental and marketing option for vacation ownership. By exposing an untapped market of vacationers to the fun, spacious accommodations and desirable amenities timeshares afford, ResortRentals.com could extend a firsthand timeshare experience to millions of vacationers who might otherwise never see for themselves what vacation ownership really offers.

Moving into the Future

From new offices to new products and new directions in timeshare rental and resale marketing, VacationOwnership.com LLC is on the move, yet remains dedicated to the company’s core objective of providing effective and affordable ways to buy, rent or sell timeshare resales online. Strong, stable, growing and focused on delivering timeshare the way today’s consumer wants to buy or rent it, VacationOwnership.com LLC sees ResortRentals.com as a new product on track to make a formidable impact in a changing marketplace. With ResortRentals.com, consumers should soon be spotting great rental deals and seeing vacation ownership from a fresh and inviting new perspective.

The following article, “VacationOwnership.com LLC: Making Moves and Making Sense in Today’s Marketplace” appears in the current issue of Perspective Magazine. 

VacationOwnership.com LLC: Making Moves and Making Sense in Today’s Marketplace

Sell My Timeshare NOW has been making headlines in the secondary timeshare market since it first launched. Created to provide consumers the ease and availability of internet search for timeshare resales and rentals, even the company’s founder Jason Tremblay didn’t foresee how fast the company would grow or how effective its services would become. Now, as part of VacationOwnership.com LLC, the timeshare resale and rental advertising and brokerage leader is not only making moves but making more sense than ever for today’s timeshare marketplace, taking big steps that have the potential to impact the vacation ownership industry at a game changing level.

Last month, the company cut the ribbon on 20,000 square feet of modern new office space in Exeter, New Hampshire. After many years in nearby Dover (NH), VacationOwnership.com LLC was in need of a facility that could be purpose-built to accommodate its increasing technology needs and growing staff. Equipped with next-generation technology, state-of-the-art workstations and 700 square feet of break room and training area, the customized space at 100 Domain Drive, Exeter, NH, proved to be the ideal solution. Including its existing office in Orlando, Florida, VacationOwnership.com now has the space it needs to grow, the technology its innovative concepts require, and is positioned to attract prospective employees from Boston’s tech-savvy labor pool. The new VacationOwnership.com LLC offices in Exeter represent a $1.5 million investment in the future of the company and, in a way, in the changing future of the shared ownership industry.

Question:  So what’s behind all the growth at VacationOwnership.com?

Answer: The company is taking a series of very deliberate steps that it believes lay the groundwork for revolutionary industry changes and opportunities.

The Foundation

Initially offering by-owner timeshare resale and rental services to consumers, in 2006 the company expanded to include licensed timeshare brokerage for the secondary market. In 2009, the company added custom resort services originally called Vacation Property Solutions and now offered through the Resort Services division of the company’s brokerage brand, VacationOwnership.com Realty.

Although Sell My Timeshare NOW was self-funded at its startup in 2003, in December 2008, it took on $10 million in growth and expansion funding through Edison Venture Fund, an investor known for backing high-growth, entrepreneurial technology organizations. In 2012, Edison Venture Fund sold its equity interest through a merger transaction and in August 2012, VacationOwnership.com and SellMyTimeshareNOW.com, with its new investor, announced the company’s strategic partnership with Vacation Innovations LLC. The result of the merger and partnership is the creation of one of the world’s largest timeshare resale and rental companies.

The Next Big Steps

Today the company is known as VacationOwnership.com LLC and includes the brands SellMyTimeshareNOW.comfor by-owner timeshare resale and rental; VacationOwnership.com Brokerage for timeshare brokerage and resort services; and the company’s newest brand, ResortRentals.com, a revolutionary approach to timeshare rental and marketing.

VacationOwnership.com LLC is strong, stable, growing and focused on the future, but with the launch of ResortRentals.com, one can’t help but add the words disruptive, vibrant, and trailblazing to any discussion of the company. ResortRentals.com is already in its soft launch stage as a beta website, adding inventory and readying itself for full launch to the consumer market in upcoming months. Working in partnership with timeshare exchange providers, ResortRentals.com will offer timeshare rentals that in industry terminology, are “cleaned and pressed,” assuring renters that their bookings are secure, their rental rates are far below those offered by any OTA, and that these vacations values are available to them without the requisite of buying vacation club or travel club products.

Led by “Spot,” an animated version of those scenic viewfinders that have been part of everyone’s vacations since childhood, ResortRentals.com will make it possible for people to spot the best rental deals while never overpaying or under-staying during a vacation again. With a national marketing campaign planned to introduce ResortRentals.com and Spot to the vast market of vacationing consumers who already book travel online,  timeshare owners, and select timeshare HOAs, resale and management companies will gain a robust platform for monetizing timeshare while promoting the vacation ownership concept to a whole new market of vacationers.

Being developed to out-compete the online travel agencies (OTAs), ResortRentals.com will feature vacation rentals at prices no other online travel service currently offers or can match and guarantee. Driven by the types of search engine optimization (SEO) technology already proven by SellMyTimeshareNOW.com to be powerfully effective in capturing the demand for rentals and aggregating the largest inventory of available timeshare rentals in the secondary market, ResortRentals.com will redefine the way vacationers plan weeklong getaways and annual holidays.

But what can the vacation ownership industry expect from ResortRentals.com?

The ResortRentals.com website has been designed with a simple, user-friendly interface. Consumers can search the site by the date they want to vacation or the location or resort they wish to visit. When fully operational, the website will also enable renters to peruse resort rentals by sleeping capacity, resort amenities or other features. Visitors must register in order to book their resort vacation or to receive updates and notices on future vacation opportunities that might interest them.

Timeshare owners with weeks or points to rent, and select HOAs or management companies can offer their properties (or points) as a vacation rental. Rates for rentals will be standardized using proprietary demand-curve pricing technology. Timeshare owners will not be competing with each other on pricing but can collectively compete with hotel booking websites and websites where people use private homes as vacation rentals. Anyone who submits a unit or interval for rental via ResortRentals.com is also agreeing to the ResortRentals.com price drop policy through which targeted price reductions occur when an unrented timeshare approaches its use date. Over time, ResortRentals.com could dramatically reduce the overall incidence of unused weeks from which no one benefits, typically described as “burn inventory.” More importantly, ResortRentals.com has tremendous potential for marketing timeshare ownership to a previously untouched segment of the vacation market.

Research conducted on behalf of News24 Travel revealed that, in a survey of more than 2000 consumers who travel regularly, 93 percent use the Internet to research, discuss or book their travel. Of those surveyed, 88 percent said they routinely search travel sites seeking the best deals on accommodations, with 73 percent indicating that they make their final decision regarding accommodations based on price. These consumers, and millions of others like them, are part of an untapped market. They represent the generation of adults who have used computers since childhood, are fully comfortable shopping on websites and booking travel online, and who are currently underrepresented within the timeshare owner market segment. They don’t understand the timeshare product, often don’t trust it, and aren’t going on a resort tour … but they will rent timeshare resorts if the prices are right and the process is comparable to that of the OTAs with which they are already comfortable. ResortRentals.com is the conduit for introducing a new generation of vacationers to the pleasures of timeshare resort vacations while also creating a pipeline for owners and others who want to market timeshare as by-owner or broker facilitated resales.

A long way from its start-up days nearly a decade ago when the company’s founders began SellMyTimeshareNOW.com as a home-based business,  VacationOwnership.com LLC remains dedicated to the company’s core objective of providing effective and  affordable ways to buy, rent or sell timeshare resales online. With ResortRentals.com now part of the big picture, bringing with it the potential to dramatically impact the way timeshare is marketed, rented and purchased, it’s clear that consumers will soon be spotting great rental deals and seeing the timeshare product from a fresh perspective. Whether you call it making moves, making sense, or making waves, VacationOwnership.com LLC is making an impact in a changing marketplace.