Timeshare Rentals

With NASCAR enthusiasts now one of the fastest growing sports fan bases in the country, more timeshare owners see potential to use their timeshare vacation property themselves or rent it to other fans during the big races.

Who is staying in your Texas timeshare to watch NASCAR’s Samsung 500 on Sunday at the Texas Motor Speedway? Who is scheduled in your Arizona timeshare to see the Subway Fresh Fit 500 next week, or in your Alabama timeshare the week after that for the Aaron’s 499?

NASCAR is one of the fastest growing spectator sports in the US and their fans are some of the most loyal. But have you ever tried to get a hotel or motel room within a 150-mile radius of Talladega, Alabama on a race weekend? It can’t be done, and the same is true for accommodations in many of the cities that host NASCAR events.

So if you follow the races or know someone who does, don’t overlook timeshare rentals or timeshare exchanges for your lodging. While many big names in corporate America spend a lot of money to promote themselves to NASCAR fans, hotels (other than Holiday Inn) and timeshare companies have not been known for paying to advertise their logos on the uniforms and cars of NASCAR drivers. But I predict this may be changing. You see, women (already comprising some 40 percent of race fans) are the fastest growing segment of the NASCAR fan base. And while camping in the infield or the parking lot may have been acceptable when NASCAR was primarily a guy’s sport, as racing becomes more and more of a shared family pastime, look for hoteliers and timeshare companies to start paying attention to this expanding market.

Earlier this spring, Super 8 ® Motels, part of Wyndham Worldwide Resorts and timeshares, announced that they have signed an agreement with Petty Enterprises to become the official lodging partner and associate sponsor of the Number 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge that Bobby Labonte drives. You may have already noticed the Super 8 logo on Labonte’s car and his uniform this season.

To help you coordinate your timeshare vacation schedule with the upcoming NASCAR season, here is a list of the official events scheduled in 2007:

• April 15 2007 Samsung 500 Texas Motor Speedway
• April 21 2007 Subway Fresh Fit 500 Phoenix International Raceway
• April 29 2007 Aaron’s 499 Talladega Superspeedway
• May 05 2007 Crown Royal Presents Jim Stewart 400 Richmond Int. Raceway
• May 12 2007 Dodge Avenger 500 Darlington Raceway
• May 19 2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge Lowe’s Motor Speedway
• May 27 2007 Coca-Cola 600 Lowe’s Motor Speedway
• June 03 2007 Dover 400 Dover International Speedway
• June 10 2007 Pocono 500 Pocono Raceway
• June 17 2007 Citizens Bank 400 Michigan International Speedway
• June 24 2007 Toyota/SaveMart 350 Infineon Raceway
• July 01 2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 New Hampshire International Speedway
• July 07 2007 Pepsi 400 Daytona International Speedway
• July 15 2007 USG Sheetrock 400 Chicagoland Speedway
• July 29 2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• August 05 2007 Pennsylvania 500 Pocono Raceway
• August 12 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup at the Glen; Watkins Glen International
• August 19 2007 3M Performance 400 Michigan International Speedway
• August 25 2007 Sharpie 500 Bristol Motor Speedway
• September 02 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series 500 California Speedway
• September 08 2007 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Richmond International Raceway
• September 16 2007 Sylvania 300 New Hampshire International Speedway
• September 23 2007 Dover 400 Dover International Speedway
• September 30 2007 Kansas 400 Kansas Speedway
• October 07 2007 UAW-Ford 500 Talladega Superspeedway
• October 13 2007 Bank of America 500 Lowe’s Motor Speedway
• October 21 2007 Subway 500 Martinsville Speedway
• October 28 2007 Georgia 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway
• October 04 2007 Dickies 500 Texas Motor Speedway
• November 11 2007 Checker Auto Parts 500 Pennzoil Phoenix International Raceway
• November 18 2007 Ford 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway

There is an interesting link between timeshares and time pieces.

I wrote about Clocky in 2005 when it was just a prototype homework project for MIT graduate student, Gauri Nanda. Ms. Nanda, a native of Michigan, has—like many of us—struggled from time to time dragging herself out of bed in the mornings. As you would expect from a gifted MIT grad student, Gauri Nanda set out to solve her problem and get class credit at the same time. She may also wind up being a very successful designer and businessperson in the process.

When I first blogged about Clocky, it was just a simple clock-on-wheels, wrapped up in shag carpet. Today it is sleek, sophisticated, and well on its way to being a niche-market success story. The idea behind Clocky is, when the alarm sounds, you can either turn it off and get out of bed or you can hit the snooze button.

When you hit the snooze button, you may get to drift back to a few more minutes of slumber, but you have just given Clocky the challenge for which it was built. Press the snooze button and Clocky is programmed to immediately roll away from you; typically off your nightstand, onto the floor. Clocky will roll away from you in randomly programmed directions, forcing you to leave the comfort of your bed in order to turn off the ringing alarm.

Besides the fact that I admire the inventor for developing a product that is both genuinely useful and is actually fresh and unique—something that is hard to do these days—why does this nagging alarm clock deserve not one, but two mentions in our Sell My Timeshare NOW blog? Because as great as Clocky is from a design standpoint, Clocky is exactly the reason we need timeshare vacations. If you weren’t already tired enough each morning, the recent shift to Daylight Savings Time observed in most parts of the country was enough to remind us that we never really get enough rest and down time. Too many of us start our workdays exhausted from the day before. Too many of us work nights, weekends, and long, unappreciated hours of overtime. If we dare to think about taking a vacation, we don’t even feel as if we had time to plan it. But nothing makes vacation planning as simple and as streamlined as timeshares do.

Also, for a lot of people, taking an entire week of leisure is an impossibility. Not to worry, chances are, your timeshare company is ahead of you in solving that problem. Most interval timeshare can now be used in increments of 2, 3, or 4 days, meaning you can get in several mini-vacations in your timeshare unit or a timeshare rental.

Go ahead, schedule that interval timeshare you already own, or look into the great timeshare deals in rentals and resales, and then, as I wrote nearly two years ago, “Leave your alarm clock – whatever kind you prefer to use – in a different time zone and go on holiday.”

Take a timeshare vacation. You’ve earned it.

More timeshare opportunities in Mexico with Wyndham Resorts.

Taos, New Mexico is as ideal for a summer vacation as it is for a winter ski holiday. Long recognized for both its mystical beauty and its historic charms, Taos is a center for arts and native crafts as well as skiing, white-water rafting, hiking and biking.

Last month, Wyndham Vacation Ownership announced that they are expanding their timeshare vacation properties through the acquisition of the Fechin Inn in Taos from Taos Lodging Associates, LP. Located near the cultural center of historic Taos Plaza, the current property will be renovated and upgraded into timeshare condos. When reconfigured, the original 84 rooms in the Inn, located just behind the Taos Art Museum, will offer studio units, as well as one and two-bedroom timeshare condos. The Wyndham Fechin Inn will become the second Wyndham Vacation Ownership property currently under development in New Mexico. In 2006, Wyndham purchased 22 vacation units north of Taos, at the Riverside Lodge and Cabins in Red River, with plans to also refurbish them as a timeshare vacation resort. Additionally, during the past year, Wyndham Vacation Ownership has opened a sales center in nearby Albuquerque.

If you are interested in a New Mexico timeshare vacation, Sell My Timeshare NOW currently offers resale timeshare condos and cabins at:

• The ski resorts of Angel Fire and Eagle Wing
• Pine Cliff Village, Crown Point Condominiums, and High Sierra, all near Ski Apache
• Tiara Del Sol atop Camelot Mountain, and
• Las Brisas and the Sunterra Resorts, both in Santa Fe.

Visit www.sellmytimesharenow.com to check our constantly changing inventory of resale and rental timeshares and vacation ownership properties.

Not able to use your timeshare every year? Consider renting your timeshare!

According to a 2003 survey*, 85% of timeshare owners are happy with their timeshare purchase. However, the same survey also indicates that 26% actually use their time.

Why this discrepancy?

It is likely that the average timeshare owner can’t find the time for a week-long vacation every year. A hectic work schedule or the complications of family life can play havoc with a timeshare owner’s vacation plans.

There is always the option of exchanging a timeshare for a more convenient week, but if you simply can’t get away, this often adds up to a different unused timeshare in a different location. We have heard stories from our clients who have had the same timeshare week for ten years or more and never had an opportunity to use it. A situation like this would seem less worrisome were it not for the (often) high initial price of the timeshare unit itself, coupled with maintenance fees and other non-recoverable expenses.

Many timeshare owners who aren’t using their timeshare look for ways to alleviate this financial burden. Often, we suggest that an owner rent his or her unused timeshare. The benefits of renting your timeshare are many. For instance, if the yearly fees owed on a timeshare property amount to $600.00, and the expense associated with advertising the timeshare for rent is $399.00, renting this property for $1000.00 covers the required expenses.

Timeshare weeks vary in value, depending on the particular week in question as well as the desirability of the resort. In order to adequately determine a timeshare’s value, one has to take these factors into account.

Subsequent rentals of this property (assuming that the asking price and the fees remain the same), can yield $400.00 profit for the timeshare owner. This makes more sense than simply paying for a timeshare one is never going to use.

Thinking of renting your timeshare? SellMyTimeshareNOW offers a free market value survey for your timeshare rental property.  This will enable you to price your timeshare competitively and still feel confident when you are renting your timeshare that you are getting your money’s worth.

*Source:
Ragatz Associates Resort Timesharing Worldwide and in the United States
2003 Edition Summary Report
Ragatz Associates Resort Timesharing in the United States
2003 Edition Summary Report 8/03