3 Ways the Timeshare Sales Process Must Change NOW

The timeshare industry can’t be guilty of pointing fingers. I’ve been in the timeshare resale business for seven years now and every year I see the same cycle: some developers pointing fingers at the resale companies for all the fraud that has happened while some resale companies point fingers at the developers for creating the problem to begin with.

Let’s face it, solving resale is challenging or it would have already happened. For starters, the days of pretending the secondary market does not exist are over. The internet has brought unprecedented transparency into the secondary market. People are bringing iPhones and Blackberries to sales presentations and that’s not going to change; they have on-the-spot access to the asking prices of timeshare resales and to owners’ forums and blogs which are loaded with in-the-trenches advice.

Changing the Timeshare Sales Model

The industry will need to move away from the antiquated and highly inefficient tour marketing model. Today’s consumer does not like to be “sold”. There is still robust demand for the product but one of the reasons the secondary market is growing while much of the primary market is largely struggling is due to both the consumer unfriendly sales process and the value one can receive in buying resale that is not overloaded with marketing costs.

1. The primary market can still thrive, but to do so they must better leverage the internet and eliminate inefficient and ineffective marketing.
2. While many brands have been surviving on current owner sales, this is not sustainable long term.
3. The industry must evolve to meet the demands and expectations of the new generations X and Y, and the changing demands of an increasingly tech-savvy Baby Boomer generation. Personally, I love timeshare–grew up going on timeshare vacations, but I would never go on a timeshare tour. I (like a growing number of consumers today) use the internet to do my research and ultimately make most of my purchases online.

The Timeshare Resales Solution and Where Developers Fit In

Developers should be, and many are, looking at their responsibility either to provide a resale solution in-house or partner with a resale company they vetted to refer owners to when the timeshare owners are ready to sell. While no developer wants to recommend the wrong company, not recommending anyone is even worse. Without guidance from the resort they purchased from, timeshare owners can fall prey to any number of outright scams.

Here’s What Timeshare Resales Companies Must Do

The resale companies also have a responsibility to be more transparent and offer “success based” options. While Sell My Timeshare NOW has built a good business offering owners a for-sale-by-owner advertising option, I also believe that it is important to provide owners with a “no up-front fee” option.

Sell My Timeshare NOW partners with several developers and successfully offers their owners both options. In fact, we are currently transitioning our entire business to offer more success fee-only options to even more owners. Legitimate resellers should support reasonable regulation and should be willing to be transparent where and when they feasibly can be.