RCI Timeshare Exchange has announced the launch of the “RCI Going Green Award” for its affiliate resorts in the Pacific.

Focusing on timeshare resort operations, the RCI Green awards will include recognition at the Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels for the top three ‘green’ timeshare resorts.

Working in conjunction with Griffith University, RCI Timeshare Exchange’s Going Green Award will include a two-phase assessment. First, timeshare resorts will be asked to assess the green or environmentally conscious practices they have in place, supporting these efforts with documentation when possible. The second phase will be an on-site inspection. Timeshare resorts that scored well in the phase one self-assessment will be visited by an expert in sustainable tourism and evaluated on their ‘green’ efforts.

Griffith University’s Dr. David Weaver, a professor of Tourism Research, will be participating with RCI Timeshare Exchange in both phases of the evaluation and award assessment.

Dr. Weaver was quoted by Hotel Interactive as saying, “I am absolutely delighted to be working on this initiative with RCI. I expect an award program such as this will really raise awareness of and participation in environmentally-friendly best practices within the sector.”

RCI Timeshare Exchange, Recognizing the Efforts of Timeshare Resorts

RCI Timeshare Exchange plans to announce the winners of the first-ever Gold, Silver and Bronze RCI Going Green Awards at the Australian Timeshare and Holiday Ownership Council annual conference in Christchurch in September 2010.

RCI Timeshare Exchange is working to promote and encourage the sharing of environmental sustainability best practices and green ideas with its associates and affiliates through a Green Council, under the support of its parent company (Wyndham Worldwide and Wyndham Timeshare) which has launched the WyndhamGreen sustainability initiative.

This week the American Resort Development Association Conference (ARDA) is convening their 2009 Fall Conference in Washington D.C. As many timeshare owners know, ARDA, is the trade association that represents the timeshare, vacation ownership, and resort development industries. ARDA functions to protect the welfare of both the industry and the consumer, helping to effect the growth, legislation, and beneficial change that makes the timeshare industry stronger and better for all who are a part of it on any level and in any capacity.

A significant aspect of this week’s conference will be the release of two, carefully researched advisories designed to aid consumers and timeshare owners looking to buy, rent, or sell timeshare on the secondary market. This directives look at both the role of the timeshare industry “good guys,” like Sell My Timeshare NOW, and the problem of those companies that prey on timeshare owners who seek to sell timeshare they no longer use or perhaps can no longer afford.

Sell My Timeshare NOW has been actively involved in the development of these advisories since the project first began. As ARDA President and CEO, Howard Nusbaum explains, “This is not an indictment of our reputable resale company members, but rather a problem faced by everyone who loves this industry (and doesn’t love the industry) being painted with the same ‘timeshare scam’ brush.

We deliver so much timeshare news and current events here on The Timeshare Authority, it becomes easy to forget that many of the people who are interested in buying timeshare or a timeshare rental are new to the world of timesharing. They may not “speak the language” that the rest of us have all grown accustomed to understanding.

So let’s use today’s blog and talk about some of the industry jargon that is understandably confusing to people who haven’t encountered it before:

• Fixed Week: These are seven-day increments of timeshare that you own at a home resort. Your fixed week of timeshare ownership is usually identified by a number, such as, “Week 10”. When you own a fixed week of timeshare, you are guaranteed that vacation week every year. But you are not required to stick with it; you can still typically use it as a timeshare exchange.
• Floating Week: A floating week gives you the right to one week of timeshare that usually falls within a season of a specified value. RCI (Resort Condominiums International) for example, uses color coded seasons of red, white, and blue with red representing the highest demand season. Use of a floating week is always based on availability and you must go through the steps required by your resort or exchange company to use it as a timeshare exchange. Points based timeshare is always floating timeshare ownership.
• Space banking: When you save or ‘bank’ your timeshare into a collective of other available timeshare weeks or units, you are space banking it for future use.
• Lock-out: A lock out or lock off timeshare unit is one that can be subdivided and each section rented separately.
• Gold Crown Resort: A Gold Crown timeshare resort is a connotation applied by RCI to identify timeshare properties of the highest standards.

Buying, renting, or selling timeshare is not a complicated process (at least it shouldn’t be) and enjoying timeshare is certainly not hard to do. But the industry has developed some specific terminology and you will be better prepared to make decisions and make plans if you understand the language.

To learn more about the no doubletalk approach to timeshares, check out the Sell My Timeshare NOW Timeshare Glossary.

Hard to believe it’s already November and time for the American Resort Development Association Conference in Washington DC. Registration begins tomorrow, with the opening night reception hosted by Interval International.

The Fall ARDA Conference, which runs from November 4-6, is hosted at the Fairmont Washington, DC. Former Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire will be leading off the sessions as keynote speaker.

As always, it is expected to be a significant week of information exchange, interaction, and engagement by representatives of the timeshare industry, vacation ownership, timeshare resales, and timeshare brokerage.

It’s going to be a busy week and in the upcoming days I will be sharing news with you from the ARDA Fall Conference.

Sell My Timeshare NOW in the news:

• Previous Senator John Sununu Honored By Sell My Timeshare NOW