Orlando’s Channel 9 TV has been on the trail of a Nevada-based company using some interesting tactics to attract timeshare sellers. According to reporter Todd Ulrich, the timeshare company, Apex Professionals, sends post cards to timeshare owners leading them to believe the company wants to buy their timeshare and inviting them to a meeting to learn more. The post cards say, “Now making immediate offers to timeshare owners who want to sell.”

After a seminar held in an Orlando hotel, (which Action 9 investigators sat in on) the details of the meetings were shared with timeshare industry expert Lisa Ann Schreier. Here’s Ms. Schreier’s take: “These people (Apex Professionals) wanted 35 hundred dollars and your deed which is really unconscionable as far as I’m concerned.”

That’s right, those “immediate offers” being made to timeshare owners turned out to be an offer for the timeshare owner to pay Apex $3500, and then deed their timeshare over to Apex.

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

But it is highly possible that once you sat through the company’s persuasive seminar, listened to stories of how the timeshare industry is failing, how maintenance fees for timeshares are “soaring” and heard that it is impossible to resell your timeshare, you might have walked away believing that in the long run, paying someone to take your timeshare was actually a prudent thing to do.

Not so.

Sell My Timeshare NOW averages over a $1million per day in offers to buy or rent timeshares. Timeshare resales are sold or rented every day. But don’t just take our word for it; follow this link to the Channel 9 website. View their video and see where their investigative report tells you, “Consumer experts say timeshare owners can rent, or sell at a loss, and even that would be a better deal.”

If you no longer wish to own your timeshare, you do have options and none of them should ever involve a deal like this one.

After several blog posts about layoffs and changes at Bluegreen timeshare, it is good to be able to share some positive and very interesting news about this popular timeshare company.

While the media has been focusing on what appears to be a downturn at Bluegreen, it seems that the people at Bluegreen timeshare have been going about their business, doing what they do best, which is implementing innovative new ways to serve and to interact with their clients. In keeping with this, they have turned to Maverick Network Solutions, Inc, a company that provides merchant-issued debit cards and prepaid “credit” cards.

These are the types of card that have a prepaid and typically fixed line of credit, and that normally have nothing to do with your personal creditworthiness. Instead, you are most likely to receive such a card as a gift with purchase at a retailer, or as a bonus from a company who wants to reward your loyalty or spending.

The Lowes stores, for example, ran a large promotion in 2008 issuing prepaid credit cards as a way to reimburse delivery costs for consumers purchasing major appliances at their stores. The cards had a value roughly equal to Lowe’s normal delivery charges, and were sent to purchasers after the new washer and dryer or perhaps refrigerator was delivered. Rather than discounting the price of delivery, the company chose to issue these Visa logoed cards that could be used at any retailer. Customers have proven very receptive to this type of ‘perk’ or ‘thank-you’.

Now Bluegreen timeshares is looking to get in on this strategy for building client relationships and rewarding their timeshare buyers and potential buyers. Peter J. Quadagno, the president and chief operating officer for Maverick says that in the upcoming weeks, Bluegreen timeshare will launch a Visa-branded, non-reloadable prepaid card. Bluegreen timeshare plans to use this card as an incentive for potential timeshare buyers to hear presentations.

Exciting for Bluegreen Timeshare and the Timeshare Industry

What stands out about this new approach is that it shows first that Bluegreen, despite current challenges created by the economy, is a forward-thinking company – just what so many timeshare buyers and timeshare renters have known about them all along. But just as importantly, this is evidence that timeshare developers are continuing to redefine the industry, looking for ways to market their product that are more acceptable to the consumer and which will serve the needs and the image of timeshare sales in a beneficial and positive way.

(source: www.digitaltransactions.net)

Following on the heels of Tuesday’s The Timeshare Authority blog post about layoffs at Hyatt timeshare comes this interesting item pointed out by Orlando’s WFTV Channel 9.

Hilton Grand Vacations (Hilton Timeshare) is headquartered in Orlando. Over approximately the past 6 months, Hilton has laid off some 187 of its 3500 employees. Yet, according to information confirmed by Channel 9 reporters, Hilton timeshare is actually expanding in Orlando by launching the first phase of Club Parc Soleil (a 7-phase project in the tourist area of Orlando); building a new Hilton hotel on International Drive in Orlando; and continuing construction on the 1400 Orlando Hilton set to open later this year.

When reporters pursued the question of why the employee layoffs at a time the company was expanding, they did not receive answers from the spokesperson for Hilton timeshares. There is no information on whether any of the employees who had been let go were offered the opportunity to relocate to other positions at Hilton.

After laying off over 2000 employees, Bluegreen timeshare may still be facing more cutbacks in personnel. An article published by the SunSentinel.com, says Bluegreen timeshare’s chief executive, John Maloney, states that the timeshare sales and development company expects to cut its staff by approximately 60 percent this year.

When you look at Bluegreen timeshare’s past performance, (previously posting more than four straight years of timeshare sales growth) you have to say that this problem seems to have come about quickly. And with the momentum of a fast moving, downhill snowball, things have changed dramatically in a very short period of time.

Changes at Bluegreen Timeshare Happened Fast

In July 2008, Bluegreen timeshare was doing just fine. Their stock was trading at over $12 per share and the timeshare sales and developer, Diamond Resorts, was looking into acquiring Bluegreen for around $15 a share plus all outstanding debt.

As The Timeshare Authority was then reporting to you, timeshare sales (the sale of new timeshare intervals) were holding, despite the challenges hotels were feeling as the economy tightened. Timeshare sales and development companies were making money, not just from the sale of new timeshares, but from the ‘sale’ of the money consumers needed to buy timeshares. Acting like banks, mortgage companies, or loan sharks, timeshare companies were loaning (or reselling) credit at double-digit interest rates that sometimes exceeded 20 percent.

However, as John Maloney put it, “the music stopped.” With the credit market tight, timeshare companies like Bluegreen and others have been forced to cut back on expansion and growth plans. Bluegreen timeshare was suddenly looking to reduce their growth and acquisition budget by some $150,000 million. With development on hold or drastically cut back, the need for timeshare sales and administration personnel also diminished.

Now Bluegreen timeshare is moving forward, making prudent cutbacks and learning to live in the world of the new credit market. They have long been a strong, solid company and they are clearly making the right moves to continue that way.

Here are links to recent posts about this interesting timeline of events effecting Bluegreen timeshare:

• Bad News for Bluegreen Timeshares
• Credit Crisis May Change the Deal for Bluegreen Timeshare Resorts
• No Happy Holidays for Many Workers at Bluegreen Timeshare