With OTAs Thriving, How Can Online Timeshare Rentals Do Anything But Follow Suit?

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.