Author: Staff Contributor

Orange Lake timeshare resorts in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and in Panama City, Florida are now officially part of the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Brand Portfolio. Already branded by the new Holiday Inn Club Vacations timeshare is the Orange Lake Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Christian Hempell, vice president, Holiday Inn Club Vacations FL, says, “We’re pleased to offer leisure travelers and their families two more destinations for the ultimate resort vacation experience. Whether they’re looking for a great golf experience, spa treatments, a ski getaway or a sunny beach escape, our guests will find that Holiday Inn Club Vacations provides the comfort and value of Holiday Inn in a full-service resort style environment, and they can now take advantage of two more Holiday Inn destinations to spend their precious leisure time with family.”

Not the Typical Timeshare Deal

The formation of the new Holiday Inn Club Vacations timeshare company was announced last September, uniting IHG hotelier with Orange Lake Resorts, companies that already shared a history and a working relationship. One of the most interesting things about the alliance is that Holiday Inn’s involvement is through a licensing and marketing agreement and involved no capital investment. Orange Lake timeshare continues to own and operate the timeshares while benefiting from the global brand identity of Holiday Inn.

While other timeshare companies are shaking their piggy banks and tightening their belts, this is a noteworthy time for Holiday Inn to be stepping into the timeshare business on any terms. On the other hand, the timing could turn out to be just right.

Holiday Inn is a brand with roots in America’s happier times, when visions of hitting the open road, day tripping, or driving Route 66 with the top down all beckoned. Young baby boomers were loading their family in their Chevy Impala or Ford Galaxy, eager to see America. Holiday Inn was part of their dream, providing accommodations that travelers knew would be safe, clean, and affordable, whether they were visiting the Grand Canyon or simply in route to Grandma’s.

As today’s Americans reassess how they spend their money, they are looking for symbols of those happier, more hopeful days. This recessionary economy is proving to be good business for companies that are perceived to be affordable and to offer predictable standards in their products. McDonalds and Burger King are weathering this depression just fine; and the comfort and familiarity of a name such as Holiday Inn, which has long stood for reasonably priced accommodations, could be exactly what America is looking for.

Do you suppose if Dinah Shore was still singing about Chevrolet, that Detroit would be in better shape today? If you have any appreciation for nostalgia, be sure you play this YouTube video:

Group RCI timeshare exchange has announced an agreement with the Resort Owners Group that will allow member/ owners at Resort Owners Group to participate in RCI’s The Registry Collection (RCI’s luxury exchange program) or in RCI Weeks, the timeshare exchange company’s traditional interval exchange program.

Geoff Ballottii, president and CEO of Group RCI says, “These fine properties (the vacation homes of Resort Owners Group) will be complementary to our global portfolio and owners at Resort Owners Group affiliated resorts will greatly benefit from the services and benefits we provide through our unsurpassed global vacation exchange networks.”

CEO Gary Carter of Resort Owners Group was quoted in Hotel Interactive as saying, “Our affiliation with RCI now provides our owners with even more vacation options and a great value-added selling feature for Resort Owners Group developer partners.”

Group RCI, a subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, is the leading timeshare exchange company for vacation exchange and European vacation rentals, and this affiliation clearly expands options for owners with the Resort Owners Group. Based in Canada, Resort Owners Group is known for offering a unique platform approach for independent developers. With destinations in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and the US, Resort Owners Group has created a global brand of professionally managed, rental-ready, resort vacation homes. The company markets their properties as being, “more affordable, more usable, and more exchangeable, with ownership options of fractional, whole, Private Residence Club and the new BuyWithFriends.com model of ownership.”

… A Little More Insight on this Type of Vacation Ownership

If you haven’t run across the concept of buying a vacation property “with friends,” Resort Owners Group is one company marketing a purchasing structure that lets you share ownership of a vacation property with your friends and family on the assumption that this is more desirable than ownership shared with strangers such as a fractional or a timeshare. How correct this theory is, has a lot to do with your friends and your family members and whether you see them as ideal property ownership partners or as contractual partners with whom complexities or problems could arise.

Spanish police arrested six British businesspeople over the weekend. The six were all part of a timeshare business based in Costa del Sol. According to reports released by the AFP Newswire, the timeshare business involved offering: … bogus timeshare title deeds for vacation apartments in exchange for “major sums of money.”

Titles to the timeshare properties (and the same intervals) were sold repeatedly to different buyers.

Last week’s raid follows on the heels of other raids made by Spanish police on a company called Global Vacations, where sixteen British employees were arrested on suspicion of timeshare fraud. The Global Vacations employees have been charged with charging money to timeshares owners, assuring them that they had a buyer for the timeshare and that the money was needed to close the lucrative sale.

Watching Out for Timeshare Scams

During these tight economic times, criminals and fraudsters may become more aggressive than ever. After all, with less money in circulation, defrauding others becomes more of a challenge. Now more than ever, keep your guard up when you buy timeshare or sell timeshare. Deal only with timeshare companies that have a proven record of reliability.

Spain timeshares are some of the most beautiful resorts in the world, and offer many incredible opportunities. If you are interested in buying Spain timeshares, don’t let these stories stop you; consider buying Spain timeshare resales from the individual who currently owns them, or renting Spain timeshare as a way to explore a resort before you buy.

Channel 7 News from Spartanburg-Greenville SC and Ashville NC, is reporting on an unhappy Westgate timeshare buyer, who recently received her money back. Quanisha Savage believed that she had won a vacation weekend in a radio contest. To her surprise, when she checked in at the resort, she was told that she had to attend an orientation session on the topic of timeshares.

After 4 hours in the presentation, Savage reported that she was, “… very tired and wanted to just get them out of my hair and it did sound like a good deal.” But buyer’s remorse set in quickly and several hours after leaving the presentation, Savage realized that she had made a mistake in agreeing to purchase the timeshare.

Calling Westgate timeshare, according to Savage, yielded no result. Two weeks after the purchase, Savage received documents via email confirming that she had 5 days from the date of purchase to cancel. Had she missed her chance to cancel the sale because Westgate timeshare had failed to respond to her in time?

After contacting Westgate Resorts, Channel 7 TV received an email from David Siegal, founder and CEO of Westgate timeshares. The email stated, “…Since we have to service our owners forever we don’t need to have an unhappy one like Ms. Savage. Let her know that due to your efforts (if you want to take the credit) she is getting her refund. We are a good company and certainly don’t need any bad publicity.”

Westgate Timeshare Did the Right Thing

The timeshare industry never needs more bad publicity, nor would, one hopes, they ever want to do the ethically wrong thing in dealing with a timeshare buyer. In this case, Westgate timeshare was not only doing what was ethically right, but if the facts presented by Channel 7 TV are complete, Westgate timeshare did what was legally correct for them to do as well. And David Siegal was most certainly right; no company worth its salt wants or needs an unhappy customer.

Recent blog posts at The Timeshare Authority on Westgate timeshare:

• Westgate Timeshare Is Paying the Price
• Orlando Timeshare Workers Face More Cutbacks
• Further Layoffs at Westgate Timeshare

Here’s a quick view of the luxurious Westgate Resort at Westgate Lakes Resorts and Spa in Orlando: