Last week, The Worldmark Resort in Long Beach was damaged by fire. Fire trucks from the Long Beach and the Illwaco volunteer fire departments responded to the blaze at the California timeshare resort. Timeshare resort guests were evacuated to the main lobby as well as into the parking lot, where they waited, surrounded by frozen, snow-dusted dune grass.

As they stood outside, shivering in the 34-degree temperatures, guests at the timeshare resort voiced concerns about the WorldMark resorts’ smoke detectors, according to The Daily Astorian. Reports in the Astorian also pointed out that one family, “… went as far as to yell up to the firefighters to see if they could get their camera and oysters out of their room.” There has been no indication from officials that the resort’s smoke detectors failed to perform adequately.

Crews battled the fire on the second and third stories in the north side of the timeshare resort, ultimately dismantling the inner western wall and the outer northern wall on the third floor. A second shift of firefighters were needed to relieve the original crew as the blaze continued, however the fire was reported to be under control within about 2 hours after firefighters arrived on the scene. No timeshare guests or firefighters were injured but there is no mention of whether or not the oysters were rescued.

Timeshare Resorts Dealing with Fires and Other Natural Disasters

Fires at timeshare resorts occur from time to time, but typically they only inconvenience the guests who are staying there at the time the fire occurs. Resorts generally relocate timeshare guests to other timeshare units at the property or to other nearby timeshare resorts .During the period of repairs or reconstruction on the damaged units, timeshare owners are typically able to continue to book their vacations with little to no disruption to plans.

Wyndham Worldwide says they will lay off 75 percent of their employees at their Reno, Nevada locations, accounting for approximately 75 of 100 positions. The majority of the reductions will be among their timeshare sales and timeshare marketing team.

Wyndham spokesperson Lisa Burby, told Reno News 4 that the layoffs were part of the company’s organization changes, as Wyndham seeks ways to “re-invent the way they do business by taking a pro-active approach to ensure long-term stability.”

Wyndham timeshare owns WorldMark the Club, which operates six timeshare resorts in the state of Nevada, one in Reno, and two in Lake Tahoe.

Nationwide, Wyndham timeshare is reportedly laying off approximately 4000 workers during the upcoming weeks. In reporting this, The Timeshare Authority is adding more bad news to a growing list of recent timeshare blog posts about cutbacks in the timeshare development and timeshare sales industry.

• Orlando Timeshare Workers Face More Cutbacks
• Further Layoffs at Westgate Timeshare
• The Other Side to the Westgate Timeshare Lawsuit Story
• More Bad News for Westgate Timeshares, Hit with $1 Million Judgment
• Bluegreen Timeshares and Westgate Timeshare Mogul Settle Pending Lawsuit
• Hotels, Timeshares, and the Bailout

In the small island fishing village of Favignana is the Sicilian timeshare resort, Villaggio Cala La Luna. Travelers love the area for its old world charm and clear blue waters, where local fishermen catch bluefin tuna, lobster, and octopus.

This week, the resort announced their affiliation as part of the Interval International timeshare exchange. According to Timeshare Perspective, Darren Ettridge, Interval International’s vice president resort sales and service (Europe), says, “Good quality resorts such as this are popular with our members and we are delighted to welcome this resort to our network. This is our fourth affiliation in Italy since July 2007 and it is continued evidence of Interval’s success in the region.”

New Timeshare Resort Destinations Growing in Popularity

Villaggio Cala La Luna timeshare resort is within walking distance of the harbor and offers a pool, restaurant, and live entertainment. Popularly accessible by hydrofoil from the mainland, the island is a favorite destination for deep sea fishing and diving. Many people are familiar with it as the host site of the 2008 America’s Cup. Less than one year old, this timeshare resort includes 58 timeshares within its 70 studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units.

While we are all familiar with well-known favorite timeshare vacation destinations, including Florida timeshare, Las Vegas timeshare, Aruba timeshare, and Hawaii timeshare, it is exciting to see new venues in the timeshare marketplace. And by joining the Interval International timeshare exchange system, this small Sicilian timeshare resort is becoming part of an exchange network that includes over 2,400 timeshare resorts in 75 countries around the world.

Who knows, someday tiny Sicily might be on the list of top-demand timeshare vacation destinations.

As reported in yesterday’s The Timeshare Authority, Sell My Timeshare NOW has received an injection of capital through Edison Venture Fund.

There is no doubt about it; despite a downturn economy, our timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising and marketing company is experiencing dramatic growth. In the past year, we’ve seen a 90 percent increase in the number of offers to rent or buy timeshare advertised on our website and a 74 percent increase in the dollar amount of those offers. In 2008, more than 23 million people have visited the www.sellmytimesharenow.com and offers to buy or rent timeshare now total over $1 million daily.

Our services are needed and valued by the consumer market, whether the economy is up or down. But at Sell My Timeshare NOW, we also recognized how important our services are to timeshare developers. We are a bridge between developers and the resale market, and we are expanding those services to that market. At Sell My Timeshare NOW, we see part of our future as becoming the business-2-business solution to the resale problems timeshare developers currently face. We are developer-friendly and forward-looking in providing solutions to timeshare resale problems.

More About Sell My Timeshare NOW Partnering with Edison Venture Fund

Edison Venture Fund, founded in 1986, has a successful history of partnering with many different types of business to help build successful companies. They provide both capital and value-added services to expansion stage information technology businesses. In other cases, Edison funds management buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, and secondary stock purchases.

Some of Edison’s success stories include Dendrite, Best Software, Gain Capital, E-Transport, Liberty Tax, Vocus, VirtualEdge, and Visual Networks, as well as numerous other information technology leaders, which collectively have a market value exceeding $5 billion.

Edison Venture Fund has offices in Lawrenceville, NJ; McLean, VA; New York, NY; Needham, MA; and West Chester, PA.

View the Sell My Timeshare NOW press release here.