The marketplace becomes increasingly more interesting in a world where the ‘rules’ of business are evolving before our very eyes. In an interesting move in brand building, Westin Hotels & Resorts (which includes Westin timeshare), launched the website (www.westin-hotelsathome.com) dedicated to selling their signature products. Their guests can continue the Westin Resort luxury experience long after they have checked out of the hotel or come to the end of their Westin timeshare vacation. Westin has even aligned with Nordstrom’s so you can purchase their famous bed sheets and other signature Westin items at your local mall.

Now the branding wizards at Westin Hotels & Resorts are taking the magic of their signature “10-layer Heavenly Bed®” to a new venue, making it available to the mainstream marketplace in a way no hotelier previous has done with its branded products—they are setting up shop on Amazon.com.

A New Marketing Avenue for Westin Resorts and Westin Timeshare

Westin’s innovative direction makes them the first hotelier to launch a branded storefront on Amazon.com. They will be using the Selling on Amazon program, a part of Amazon Services, which companies of all sizes, including solo-entrepreneurs, utilize for retailing their products.

Planned as a tool for expanding the company’s ‘wellness’ message, the Westin on Amazon storefront will sell Westin’s own Heavenly Bath collection and signature line of White Tea fragrance candles and diffusers along with compatible lines including: Tea Forté, Riedel, Kate’s Paperie, and Gaiam.

The branded Amazon store launches March 1, with an introductory gift of a $100 Amazon.com gift card to all hotel guests who stay twice mid-week from February 22 to May 13 and have preregistered on westin.com/balance.

Over the years, Westin Resorts have sold roughly 40,000 Heavenly Beds, more than 32,000 sheets, 100,000 pillows, and over 10,000 Heavenly spa bath products. When you think about it, what better way to nurture brand loyalty than by appealing to your market with a relaxing sensory experience that they can enjoy on a daily (and nightly) basis?

Starwood is the parent company of Westin timeshare and of Sheraton timeshare.

ABC7 News out of Los Angeles, California recently teamed up with Consumer Reports ShopSmart to look for ways to make vacationing more affordable.

They came up with-no surprise here-timeshare and timeshare rental!

As they reported on the ABC7 webpage, in an article titled, “Vacation bargains found in timeshare rentals“:

“Timeshares are a great way to vacation with the whole family since many of the properties have great amenities such as space and kitchens. But when ABC7 teamed up with Consumer Reports, we found that you don’t need to buy one to enjoy one.”

Here’s some of what the Consumer Reports team liked best about timeshare rental and timeshares:

• Timeshare exchange opportunities when you buy timeshare or timeshare resales.
• Spacious accommodations, with living rooms and eat-in dining areas.
• Kitchens available in many timeshare units.
• Exotic locations for your timeshare vacation.
• And the negotiability of timeshare resale and timeshare rental, which of course comes into play especially when you deal with by-owner timeshare opportunities.

Earlier this month, Sell My Timeshare NOW issued a press release on the opportunities of timeshare rental: $2.6 Million Last Year into the Hands of Timeshare Owners Using New Timeshare Rental Management Service.

We started a pilot program to help timeshare owners who want assistance in using their timeshare as a timeshare rental. The results have been outstanding and a proven win-win for both timeshare owners and vacationers who want to take advantage of the excellent deals available in timeshares for rent.

Early this year, The Timeshare Authority rolled out its Blog Roll. We listed blogs that we follow and that we think are helpful, useful, or entertaining to our readers. Some are blogs with multiple contributors and large followings; others are small, newly started, or simply so quirky that their niche of readership is limited. All are worth your time to check out.

Over the next few months, we will profile the blogs on the list, giving you more insight about each one. As time goes by, we will be adding new blogs to our list, and dropping blogs if activity falls off there and the blogger stops posting regularly.

Today we are directing your attention to the Absurd Adventurers blog, written by Kathryn and Caitlin. These two young adventurers have made their bucket list and have taken on the pursuit of accomplishing it, (even though they’d rather call it by some name other than a bucket list, just to ensure that no one confuses them with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.)

Their merged list of 27 items (and still growing) is a good one. And we were struck by how many of their goals could realistically involve a timeshare. So we’ve taken a small part of their list and matched it with timeshare destinations. Our results are very interesting and just prove that owning timeshare and the opportunities of timeshare exchange can come in very hand in life, no matter your age and no matter what is on your personal bucket list:

Want to live out your own bucket list? Consider a timeshare exchange as a way for making this happen, providing you locked in accommodation prices at the most exciting destinations worldwide and wherever you personal bucket list may take you.

Partnerships are a powerful way to unite thought leaders in the timeshare and vacation ownership industries. So it is no surprise that Shari Levitin, CEO of both ePercipio (next generation software-as-a-service [SaaS] provider of e-learning solutions) and of the Levitin Group (a leading training company in the timeshare industry), has endorsed The Trades Publishing Company‘s two new Mobile Web sites.

These forward-thinking sites can be found at: www.ResortTrades.mobi and www.AskMandO.mobi. Both were launched earlier this month by 6 Dimensions Consulting to provide business-to-business access to timeshare and vacation ownership industry news via cell phones and personal handheld devices using Bluetooth technology.

Dora Edmonson, co-owner of 6 Dimensions consulting says, “We saw great similarity between Shari’s and The Trades’ interest in providing greater access to online communications tools. Like Shari might tell you, today’s technology promotes communications from ‘the one to the many.'”

Why the Timeshare Industry Counts on The Trades Publishing

The Trades Publishing Company has been a leader in providing timeshare and vacation ownership industry news for almost thirty years. With a subscriber list of some 9700 readers, the Trades publications (including www.ResortTrades.com; Resort Trades, Resort Trades’ Management & Operations magazine; and www.AskMandO.com) are all driven exclusively by advertising sales.

Managing Director David Kerr explains that The Trades is committed to being a technology innovator, a philosophy they clearly share with innovator, Shari Levitin.

…When industry leaders join forces advancing services and pioneering ideas, everyone from timeshare developers to timeshare owners benefits.