Here’s an interesting thought regarding vacation planning: Last week the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, a government-industry aviation safety group, elevated “birds” to its list of priority aviation safety issues.

Everyone knows about US Airways Flight 1549 that made a miraculous and safe emergency landing in the Hudson River last January; an incident precipitated by a flock of Canadian geese. According to an article that appeared in USA Today, “… last month, a bird blasted a hole through the windshield of a cargo plane over Arizona and another gouged an 18-inch tear in the side of a Delta Air Lines jet near Phoenix. Birds also have been involved in several helicopter accidents this year, including a crash in Louisiana that killed eight people headed to an oil platform.”

Even if concerns over airline safety are not enough to keep you grounded (air travel remains the safest form of transportation available), there are other reasons to buy timeshare at a drive-to destination.

Reasons to Buy Timeshare near Your Home

• A drive-to timeshare vacation translates to money saved on travel, meaning that even when your vacation budget is tight, because timeshare affords you prepaid vacation accommodations; you can probably always manage to take a vacation.
• When you buy timeshare located near where you live, you can work in ‘mini vacations’ thanks in part to the fact that today’s timeshare intervals can typically be enjoyed in periods of less than a week—some even allowing you to enjoy your timeshare one night at a time.
• Depending upon where you live, odds are that if your timeshare is near your home, it is within driving distance of other large populations meaning that when you want to sell timeshare or rent timeshare you have a targeted market of others who may be interested in drive-to vacations.
• If your timeshare is sufficiently close to your home, you can also use it for overflow housing for guests, visiting relatives, or business associates who are in town.

While the FAA will likely be able to spur the development of solutions to problems our fine feathered friends create for jet engines, one idea that is definitely not for the birds is how much sense a drive-to timeshare can make.

A cease and desist order has been issued by North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to a Florida timeshare company based in Palm Beach Gardens. The company has allegedly made false promises to timeshare owners telling the owners that they have timeshare buyers in place for their properties.

Attorney General Stenehjem says that the Florida timeshare company’s practices are a timeshare scam and that their claims to the timeshare owners are “untrue” and “are nothing more than a ruse to obtain money under false pretenses.” (source: LegalNewsline.com)

Here is the link to the Cease and Desist Order on the website for the North Dakota Attorney General.

Safe and Reliable Timeshare Sales and Timeshare Resales

With so many safe and reliable ways to buy timeshare or sell timeshare resales, it would seem that fraudsters wouldn’t be able to survive. But as long as we live in a world where people will trustingly wire money to a Nigerian (or scammer from any other location) who randomly shows up in their email with a story that is “too good to be true” then bogus or disreputable timeshare companies will continue to spring up.

Despite how it sometimes seems that timeshare scams are always popping up in the news, they are far from the biggest trouble area for consumer fraud. Identity theft, building contractor fraud, and investment scams are only a few of the problems that do more damage and occur more often than do timeshare scams.

Timely Reminder: Since since December is the month in which consumers tend to do the most “consuming” it also becomes peak season for identity theft. While we have all heard the warnings, it is amazing how we don’t always heed them, so it never hurts to repeat what has been said so many times before:

• When you shop online, make sure you are dealing with authentic websites. Counterfeit websites do an amazing job of ‘looking like the real thing’.
• Don’t walk around with your life story in your purse or wallet. Carry only essential information.
• Shred, shred, shred; otherwise, you are just handing your personal information over to potential criminals.
• Sleep on it. Before you make a major purchase of any kind or sign a contract, tell the sales person you want time to think it over. Chances are, he or she will do everything possible to try to persuade you that this deal won’t be around if you don’t “act now”. Fine! No one should make buying or selling decisions with the feeling that he or she is being pressured into it.
• Lastly, remember, if a deal, whether it is a timeshare deal, absurdly cheap airfares, or an unbelievable price on electronics, seems too good to be true, assume there is a catch and assume you are likely to get caught up in it.

A few more winter storms like those raging through the Midwest and people in some parts of the country will be getting tired—if they aren’t already—of ice and snow. So here’s some ICE news in the timeshare industry that won’t cause a shiver.

RCI Timeshare exchange (a part of Wyndham timeshare and the Wyndham Worldwide family of companies) is expanding their alliance with International Cruise & Excursions Inc.—commonly known as ICE for short. ICE is recognized worldwide for providing integrated cruise and leisure packages to the timeshare, vacation ownership, and travel industries.

As Geoff Ballotti, CEO of RCI says, “For more than eight years, ICE has been a fantastic partner offering quality cruises and services to our members in the United States and Canada.” ICE will soon provide cruise fulfillment for RCI global timeshare exchange programs, as well as technology platforms, related fulfillment for member loyalty, and other value added benefits to RCI affiliated timeshare developers.

The Potential of Timeshare Exchange

Many timeshare owners do not realize that they may be able to exchange their timeshare unit or timeshare intervals for cruises depending upon the terms of their timeshare ownership and on their affiliation with a timeshare exchange company, such as RCI. Timeshare exchange, for many timeshare owners, is one of the most attractive parts of owning timeshare. The flexibility of timeshare exchange means (depending upon your exchange company) that owners can choose other resorts from a worldwide network of top destinations; that you can exchange your timeshare unit or timeshare interval for more spacious accommodations, for timeshare during a different season, or, though affiliations like RCI timeshare and ICE, for cruises and other valued travel amenities.

In a changing marketplace, it is not surprising that people are also changing the way they buy timeshare or sell timeshare they no longer wish to own. Late last month, Marriott Vacation Club International announced staffing changes at their St. Kitts Beach Club Resort, where some twenty-nine employees will be let go, effective January 1, 2010.

The economy clearly plays a part in this decision, but so does a shifting paradigm in the timeshare industry. As Ed Kinney, Marriott Vice President of Corporate Affairs told a reporter for the online publication, SKNVibes “The reason for closing the gallery is in part due to the economic downturn, but it is also in part because we can sell our product through other effective channels. We found greater efficiencies in certain channels, such as selling to current owners and their referrals and using our telesales group that is also web-based, providing greater global exposure.”

Consumers have grown extremely comfortable with online resources for booking travel. Of course it follows that the same would be true of the way they buy timeshare or sell timeshare. Why sit through a timeshare sales presentation when you can go online and search at your leisure for the timeshare you want?

When you buy timeshare online, you have time to think through your decision-making process in an unpressured way. You can choose to buy timeshare from the developer, paying the full price or sometimes a negotiated discount price. For consumers who want to realize a substantial saving, timeshare resales offer an even better option, affording timeshare buyers discounts as great as fifty percent and sometimes more off the original price of the timeshare.

Remembering the Human Element When Discussing Timeshare Sales

Most importantly, discussing these types of changes in consumer patterns and buying models is not intended to make light of the fact that seven management people and 22 people in non management positions with Marriott Vacation Club International’s St. Kitts Beach Club Resort have lost their jobs. For them and their families, discussions of shifting paradigms offer no consolation. And Marriott timeshare is doing all that they can; as Ed Kinney explained to SKNVibes, these are “valued associates” and there are options for the terminated associates to, “…travel to another location or to apply for a position in the adjacent Marriott resort”.

“We have jobs posted throughout our system,” says Kinney, “and we certainly counsel the associates to make them aware of those different opportunities.”