Timeshare Trend Watch

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.