I share a story you may never have heard—how I came to be part of the timeshare resale industry. This is a very candid interview, where you’ll hear me say, “the timeshare resale industry is wrought with fraud.”

Have I got your interest? Want to know how Sell My Timeshare NOW is working hard to change the face of timeshare resales?

Please listen in…

• I will tell you why Sell My Timeshare NOW is one of the fastest growing timeshare resales companies in the world today.
• You’ll hear me tell what it has been like to be an unwelcomed newcomer in the timeshare industry and what we’ve done to earn the respect of both timeshare developers and very importantly, the timeshare owner, timeshare buyer, renter, or timeshare seller.
• And I’ll take on the existing timeshare sales process and tell you what’s wrong with it—and how it can be made better for the benefit of timeshare buyers and timeshare owners and the health and vibrancy of the industry.

You have several ways to hear this podcast. You can click the link below to play now, catch us on iTunes or download the interview to hear later.

Play it via iTunes or subscribe at iTunes to Today’s Timeshare (and its sister show Fractional Focus).

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SPI Software, a Miami, Florida based company, has been providing software to the timeshare, vacation ownership, fractional, and private residence club industry since 1978. Their software is effective for both traditional timeshare and timeshare points based ownership programs. The proprietary timeshare software utilizes Microsoft .NET-based software either as an enterprise suite called Orange Systems, or in specific modules to handle sales, marketing, finance, property management, centralized reservations maintenance fee and receivables servicing, or Website access operations.

Why Social Media Matters When it Comes to Timeshares

Timeshares inherently have a special need for social media. Timeshare owners may buy timeshare from a developer who gives them plenty of attention, right up until they become a timeshare owner. After that, some timeshare owners feel they are “on their own” when it comes to gaining updates and general information about the opportunities of vacation ownership. This feeling of “aloneness” can be even greater for timeshare owners who bought timeshare as on the resale market. Who do they turn to with their questions? Where is their support system?

A strong network of connectivity through Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and other social media platforms can be a difference maker in the satisfaction level timeshare owners feel after their initial purchase. Matt Brosious will no doubt be reinforcing this message, offering insights to the VOASA conference attendees that will help everyone involved in the industry be more responsive to timeshare owners and their needs.

More news from The Timeshare Authority on the VOASA Conference:

South Africa Timeshare and the VOASA Conference 2010

Today, Sell My Timeshare NOW is a leader in timeshare resale and rental advertising and with our brokerage arm, Timeshare Broker Services, a leader in brokered timeshare resales. The company is proven and trusted, with our websites averaging more than two million pageviews each month. But SellMyTimeshareNOW.com began seven years ago as nothing more than the vision of entrepreneurs who believed in an idea and were willing to invest energy, personal resources, and genuine sweat equity into seeing it develop.

Timeshare, as a concept, was originally the result of entrepreneurial minds willing to think, pardon the cliché, “outside the box” about new possibilities in vacation ownership. As the industry grew and time passed, companies such as Sell My Timeshare NOW developed because new entrepreneurial minds recognized unmet consumer needs in the timeshare industry and could offer cost effective ways to meet those needs.

But in a struggling global economy, with timeshares taking both deserved and unfounded criticism in the media virtually every day, you have to wonder if there is anything to entice new blood, new ideas, and exuberant entrepreneurs into this business. And if there isn’t, will the current thought leaders of the industry put forth and embrace the kind of new thinking necessary to recharge the concept, making it vibrant and flexible in all the ways it needs to be?

Why Entrepreneurs are Important to Timeshares

Startup companies in any industry (on average) account for more than 60 percent of the new jobs available. Between automation, downsizing, and the fact that more people enter the workforce each year than exit it, new job creation is critical in maintaining (or recreating)a healthy economy.

The timeshare industry began with a basic flaw, that being the absence of a process for reselling timeshare. Imagine the automobile industry without a resale option? What if car dealers offered owners no way to resell their vehicles; it would be like saying we will sell you a new car, but should you ever want to resell it and buy a different car or even get rid of it entirely and go back to riding the bus, well… you are just out of luck. Until Sell My Timeshare NOW began offering affordable, effective, and trustworthy timeshare resale solutions, timeshare owners were left struggling over what to do with a timeshare they no longer wanted to own.

The combination of a very atypical sales model for new timeshares and the lack of a viable plan for timeshare resales has haunted the industry, creating an Achilles heel of vulnerability. With no regulated or structured timeshare resales plans in place, the door was left open for unscrupulous people to jump in trying to make a quick buck off of someone else’s problem. Timeshare resale scams have popped up like a “Whack-a-mole” game, with government agencies wielding a rubber mallet, trying to keep them at bay.

As long as there are lemonade stands operated by pint-size visionaries, there will be another crop of entrepreneurs to charge into the business arena and both shake it up and smooth it out by challenging old ideas and instigating new ones. Let’s hope the timeshare industry closes the door on scammers and at the same time, puts out the welcome mat for the dreamers and doers who have so much to offer for the future.

Yet even with the outstanding global visibility of the Sell My Timeshare NOW websites, there is still no one-size-fits-all option when it comes to selling timeshare. We’ve always offered timeshare owners the option to sell timeshare, advertising it by-owner, on our well-positioned websites. (That means websites that show up in all the search results, no matter which timeshare or timeshare-related words you may type into your computer.)

However, not everyone is comfortable with or has the time to handle their timeshare sale themselves, connecting with prospective buyers, negotiating the contract, and contacting the timeshare resort. That’s why it is important for us to bring our timeshare broker services, (which we have offered for years) into a more prominent role in our discussions with owners.

Timeshare Resale: You Have Choices

If you choose to sell your timeshare by advertising it on the Sell My Timeshare NOW website as a by-owner resale you pay $599 in a one-time fee and your timeshare ad is marketed until it sells. If your timeshare sells via some other outlet first, we refund the money you paid to advertise it with us.

But if you want a broker managed timeshare sale, you can turn the entire process over to a licensed timeshare broker who is part of Timeshare Broker Services. You timeshare broker will take care of everything—start to finish. For this ‘turn-key’ service, you will pay nothing up front, and then either a 15 percent commission or $2,000 (whichever is greater) when the sale of the timeshare closes.

Yes, you really can resell timeshare and now, you have even more choices about how you do it.

Read our latest media release to learn more: Timeshare Resales Leader Steps Up to Expand Timeshare Owner Options

RapidResale.ca is the domain name for Secondary Solutions Group, an Ontario-based Canadian timeshare resales company with an excellent reputation for customer service, satisfaction, and timeshare resales success. When April Cummins, founder of the six-year-old Canadian timeshare company, began looking to change the direction of her demanding career, her first priority was what she would do to ensure that her current clients continued to receive the top-quality levels of service that Rapid Resale had always provided.

April Cummings found her solution in Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services. Ross Perlmutter, President/CEO of the Canadian Resort Development Association (CRDA) sees this as a win-win, saying, “With more than 180 shared ownership resorts and nearly 350,000 owners in Canada, we welcome the expanded presence of SellMyTimeshareNow. They are a leading international timeshare reseller that can potentially bring great benefits to timeshare buyers and sellers on both sides of the border.”

Canada Timeshare Opportunities

For current clients of Rapid Resale, this change means greater exposure through the powerful, targeted websites of Sell My Timeshare. And for current and future clients of Sell My Timeshare NOW, it means the company’s brand and websites will have a stronger than ever presence in the Canada timeshare market.

And for everyone who has so enjoyed working with April, the news here is good too. April is not leaving the timeshare industry; instead, she will be working for Canada timeshare developers in sales and marketing.

Until recently, Chinese internet technology made e-commerce for travel difficult for Chinese web surfers, plus cultural traditions lingered, creating a preference for face-to-face interactions. But China is presently experiencing the same phenomena that has occurred in North America and Europe… once people begin to gain even the slightest comfort level with booking hotels, timeshare rentals, and air travel online, use escalates rapidly.

The Chinese Powder Keg for Buying Travel, Timeshares, and Timeshare Rentals Online

China already has over 400 million internet users, and many believe the numbers are far higher claiming that young adults relying solely on cell phones (and one of the strongest demographics for internet use) are overlooked in this headcount. With this in mind, the numbers quickly begin to add up to a powdered keg ready for explosion:

1. The Chinese yuan has recent seen substantial appreciation again the US dollar.
2. Chinese travel visas are becoming easier and easier to obtain worldwide.
3. Online search and ecommerce technology in China are quickly catching up with other parts of the world.
4. The Beijing Olympics exposed many Chinese to the global face of travel in a new and exciting way.
5. The China National Tourism Administration expects year-over-year to see an increase in outbound travel of not less than 7 percent.
6. Between January and May of 2010, China’s number of tourists for outbound travel already has increased by 19 percent over the same period in 2009.
7. iResearch estimates that revenue from the online travel service market (in China) will more than triple between 2009 and 2013.

We’ve seen it happen here in the US. As a culture of people become internet savvy and internet confident to book travel services online, comfort spreads by osmosis to buying timeshare resales and booking of timeshare rentals from a web-based resource. And for timeshare owners looking to resell timeshare, these changes ultimately add up to a larger—vastly larger—pool of potential timeshare buyers and renters.

More insight on travel in China from the National Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China.

When the Travel Promotion Act was signed by President Obama in March of this year, the media focused a great deal of attention on what it could mean for hotels, airlines, theme parks, all of the travel-related industries, and even timeshare resorts. Often overlooked in the discussion were campgrounds and RV parks, which include timeshare campgrounds, and what an important boost this would could be for these facilities.

Following the passage of the bill, the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds projected that US campgrounds and RV parks should see and additional 50,000 campers this summer. If this proves accurate—and stats are already showing record numbers visiting the nation’s National Parks—then the increase will translate to more than $14 million in revenue for lodging, plus another $30 million that will filter down to related businesses.

Did You Know there are RV and Campground Timeshares?

Many vacationers, even timeshare owners and frequent campers, are surprised to learn that RV Park timeshares exist and that they can also be purchased on the secondary market as campground timeshare resales. If this is a new or interesting idea to you, you may want to peruse ads for campground resales, where you will find a diversity of accommodations from tent and trailer sites, to rustic cabins, and stationary mobile homes, located in serene and peaceful destinations nationwide.

This past week, Vice President Biden visited Yellowstone National Park, while President Obama and his family vacationed at Maine’s beautiful Acadia National Park. While Biden’s trip was business in nature, the First Family, was, like millions of other vacationers, simply enjoying family time outdoors, in the beauty of nature.

If you have never watched Ken Burn’s six-part documentary on America’s National Parks, try to carve out a little time to do so. You can watch this as a replay on PBS next time it airs, or purchase the DVD. You will find it spectacular and amazing. Burns, who describes the US National Park System as “an utterly American invention,” explains that, “nobody else had ever set aside land in the past. Only kings did that. Only rich people got that. In America, in a democratic experiment everybody could own this land.”

When you look at it that way, I guess you consider all of America’s National Park a kind of ‘timeshare’ that you support through your tax dollars.

Related posts on The Timeshare Authority Blog:

• Travel Promotion Act Signed. What Does it Mean to Tourism, Timeshares, and the US Economy?
• The Power of Your Dollar When Your Timeshare Vacation Takes You to a National Forest

Like all search engine optimization-savvy businesses, Holiday Inn Vacations monitors Google Alerts, to stay current on what is being said and written about their resorts and other aspects of timeshares. Brooke wisely points out that many of the negative comments about timeshares that appear in the media are based on perceptions, while comments based on experience with timeshares are generally positive. In other words, some of the criticism you hear of timeshare has more to do with perception than with reality. Timeshares are not the right vacation choice for everyone, yet year after year, industry research validates that roughly 86 percent of timeshare owners are highly satisfied with vacation ownership.

In the end, no matter what the cause, everyone in the timeshare industry—whether they are timeshare sellers, developers, management companies, marketing companies, timeshare brokers, timeshare resales, or timeshare rental companies—shares the responsibility for changing any poor image that people may have about timeshares. And the only way to do this is to conduct business in ways that are transparent and above reproach and then to keep sharing that message in every possible way.

As Brooke points out, listing five ways that the timeshare industry can foster positive impressions, “we can make a difference and overcome these impressions.” Be sure you read her article at www.RCIVentures.com

First, Fiji is beautiful—purely, authentically, beautiful. Known as “The Crossroads of the Pacific,” the islands of Fiji (100 of the 330 isles are inhabited) lie at a cross point with Los Angeles approximately a ten-hour flight to the northeast and Japan only slightly closer to the northwest. Australia is southwest of Fiji (about four hours away); New Zealand due south; and French Polynesia is to the southeast.

1. Fiji is a true South Pacific paradise, known for its pristine beaches, sparkling water, dramatic rainforests and —the part that may matter to you the most—its affordable pricing.
2. Fiji is often seen as a romantic getaway or honeymoon destination (which it certainly is) but because the people there are by nature, warm and hospitable, it is also a good choice for an unforgettable family vacation.
3. Air Pacific, Fiji’s International Airline, is making this island destination even more kid-friendly by offering “Kid’s Fly Free.” You must book your travel before August 15, 2010, but you can use your tickets anytime between August 1, 2010 and February 28, 2011, except during the blackout dates of December 15, 2010 to January 15, 2011. For each free child’s ticket you must be purchasing a qualifying adult ticket. You can find out more at Air Pacific reservations, by calling 1-800-227-4446.
4. Now maximize your vacation savings by adding a great deal on a Fiji timeshare resale or Fiji timeshare rental.

A Fiji timeshare holiday can turn out to be a vacation of a lifetime and the kind of experience you and your children will remember forever. Sometimes, you just have to break the mold and do the unexpected.

With this objective in mind, always seeking to be the most consumer-friendly, service oriented company in timeshare resales, timeshare rentals, and timeshare brokerage, Sell My Timeshare NOW is working to develop our face and our place in the world of social media. In order to offer the most readily available, easy-to-access inventory of timeshares on the secondary market, we want to be “found” wherever consumers are looking.

Here are a few of the places to look for information and updates from Sell My Timeshare NOW:

• Our Twitter accounts: @JasonTremblay_ and @VacationHotDeal
• You will find us growing our presence on LinkedIn. www.linkedin.com/in/ceosellmytimesharenow and SellMyTimeshareNOW, LLC
• Look for downloadable reports on Scribed www.scribd.com/SellMyTimeshare

But this is only the beginning. We are growing, reaching out, and connecting. Please check out these sites above, but also come back to them often to watch us grow and improve.