Author: Staff Contributor

After a beautiful week in Orlando at the American Resort Development Association 2009 Convention and Exposition, I want to first congratulate ARDA for another meaningful and informative event. Several members of the Sell My Timeshare NOW team were there, and all of us found the week to be power-packed with educational experiences and networking opportunities.

When asked what I take away from the ARDA 2009 Convention, it is this: the atmosphere in the educational sessions and committees was almost as bright as the Florida sunshine outside. The movers and shakers of the timeshare industry clearly are not letting the challenges of the economy and the tight credit market get them down. Instead, they are meeting these challenges head-on.

When you think about it, why would we be surprised at this? Many of the people who have helped build the timeshare industry and who make it so exciting today are true entrepreneurs; they are visionaries, dreamers, risk takers, and at the same time, excellent business people. The meetings at ARDA were filled with great minds and energetic leaders who are problem solvers and solution builders, rethinking many things about the ways timeshare is bought, sold, rented, marketed, managed, designed, operated, and advertised. If the economy is no longer a perfect fit for your business model, you do what these bright and creative minds are doing, you reshape your model.

The Timeshare Industry is Rethinking Vacation Ownership

Change was already underway in timeshares before the tough economy reconfigured the playing field. The internet has given rise to new ways to buy, rent, or sell timeshare, and created great momentum in timeshare resales. Gen X’s are redefining the ways people shop, share their opinions, and spend both their money and their time. The timeshare industry was clearly primed for a change, even before the US and global economies began pushing everyone into new buying, selling, borrowing, and lending patterns.

So when you ask me what I found at the ARDA 2009 timeshare convention, I am going to tell you that I found an amazing energy and fresh spirit of optimism from dedicated and hardworking timesharing industry professionals. The world around them is changing, but timeshares are clearly not going to be left behind.

Thank you again, Howard Nusbaum and everyone at ARDA who worked so hard and produced such a meaningful convention for the timeshare industry.

Ed Hastry discusses the role of the NTOA in educating timeshare owners about the use of their timeshares and important issues facing the industry.

New guidelines for timeshare resale companies in the works by ARDA.

The Timeshare Resale Forum at last week’s American Resort Development Association Convention in Orlando was pretty exciting in terms of future directions for the timeshare industry. With roughly 100 participants from all areas of timeshare resales present, it was great to see such a strong level of participation and enthusiasm. Right now, ARDA is working to craft a much needed Code of Ethics for timeshare resale companies.

ARDA currently has a Code of Ethics that covers all member businesses. Complaints about a company or its practices are referred to the ARDA Ethics Committee for discussion and possible revocation of membership , depending on the severity of the complaint. The new guidelines will center more on timeshare resale companies and ARDA’s role in potentially policing them.

New ARDA Guidelines for Timeshare Resales

Three primary themes were discussed at the Forum: Disclosure, Transparency, and Enforcement. I could not feel more strongly about the pressing need for these types of guidelines for timeshare resales. If you read The Timeshare Authority regularly, you already know my conviction that standardizing timeshare sales, timeshare resales, and timeshare rentals benefits the timeshare industry just as much as it benefits the consumer.

Greater disclosure in the marketing and sale of timeshare resales would address areas such as costs, with the guidelines requiring all costs be discussed with the consumer at the start of the timeshare sales process, thereby eliminating the possibility for surprise, or ‘hidden fees’ cropping up later.

Transparency in the timeshare resales process would cover marketing practices and what the consumer will actually receive in services from a timeshare resale company. Transparency will also help standardize the reporting of the sales results a timeshare resales company achieves, as well as addressing how the company can use those claims in its marketing. In other words, timeshare buyers will be able to compare apples to apples when looking at the timeshare sales results published by different resale companies.

New timeshare resale guidelines for enforcement will deal more with ARDA’s role in holding timeshare resales companies accountable for their marketing, advertising, and sales practices. Like the guidelines in ARDA’s present code, after review by the Ethics Committee, ARDA members breeching the new resales code may be subject to expulsion from ARDA.

Sell My Timeshare NOW and the New Code of Timeshare Resale Ethics

As a part of the timeshare industry and an active member of ARDA, Sell My Timeshare NOW welcomes the additional scrutiny that an expanded code of ethics for the resale market will bring. Timeshare resale companies should provide information and verification about their timeshare sales results and the claims they make to consumers. In fact, I’ll go even further and call for independent, third party evaluations to substantiate these claims. As an industry, we need to do everything we can to raise the bar for integrity of standards in timeshare resales.

ARDA’s new timeshare resales guidelines are expected to be finished sometime this summer and The Timeshare Authority will keep you apprised of developments along the way.

Shep Altshuler publishes one of the most influential timeshare owners magazines in the country. He has a unique perspective on owner issues and shares his thoughts on the industry and what is important to today’s owners.