On Tuesday, at Sell My Timeshare NOW, we announced that we have received an injection of $8.5 million in funding as part of our company’s aggressive growth plan. Edison Venture Fund has become the sole institutional investor in Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Already the leader in the online advertising and marketing of timeshare resales and timeshare rentals, at Sell My Timeshare NOW, we could see ways to even better serve the timeshare resale needs of consumers and of the timeshare development industry. But neither this growth plan nor the funding was an overnight decision.

Sell My Timeshare NOW carefully looked at different options to expand and improve our timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising services. And as carefully as we considered ways to grow, Edison Venture Fund was just as deliberate in their decision to invest in our growth. After extensive due diligence, Edison Venture Fund added Sell My Timeshare NOW to the high-growth, entrepreneurial technology companies in which they invest.

Edison Venture Fund evaluated our company’s business model very carefully. As Edison’s Orlando Mendoza explained, “… the company’s search engine leadership drives massive exposure to sellers. Buyers now have the ability to purchase timeshare intervals online at attractive discounts to retail prices.” Michael Kopelman described our services at Sell My Timeshare NOW as, an impressive eCommerce platform built with limited outside capital.

Yep, that’s us. We bootstrapped our way from a three-person, home-based business in 2003 to become the leading online resource for the advertising and marketing of timeshare resales and timeshare rentals. Now we look to take our services even further, expanding our offerings to developers, becoming a much-needed bridge between timeshare developers and the timeshare resale market.

Tomorrow’s The Timeshare Authority blog will share a little more with you about Edison and about Sell My Timeshare NOW’s vision for the future.

The first Holiday Inn timeshare was unveiled on Monday, at the Orange Lake timeshare resort in Orlando, Florida. Through a contract with InterContinental Hotels, Orange Lake Resorts will sell timeshare for the newly created, Holiday Inn Club Vacations.

The new Holiday Inn Club Vacations resort offers 2,412 timeshare villas located near the Walt Disney World vacation complex. The resort includes a water park, four championship golf courses, seven swimming pools, an 80-acre lake for water sports, retail and pro shops, and five restaurants.

In the company’s official press release, Christian Hempell, vice president, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, was quoted as saying, “Guests know and trust Holiday Inn, and we’re excited to offer them the opportunity to experience the brand in a new way through timeshare ownership.”

The Orlando timeshare property is the first of several timeshare resorts planned by Holiday Inn Club Vacations timeshares, including Panama City, FL.; Ascutney, VT.; and Lake Geneva, WI. All are locations where Orange Lake timeshares already had vacation ownership resorts.

Holiday Inn Resorts and Holiday Inn Timeshares in the Future

With other timeshare companies in downsizing mode, it is interesting timing that InterContinental Hotels Group, the owner of the Holiday Inn brand, has chosen now to launch a new timeshare product. Maybe this is a sign of America returning to its roots. Holiday Inn was one of the first and most popular names in “Americana-style” hotel/motels, rising to popularity in the 1950’s and 60’s as American families took to the roads for vacation and travel. Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts is the most widely recognized lodging brand in the world, with nearly 1,400 hotels worldwide.

In 2007, the company began a $1 billion relaunch of their brand, trying to create a more contemporary image, increase the quality of their resorts, and improve consistency from one Holiday Inn resort to the next. The brand relaunch is expected to be complete by 2010.

Recent The Timeshare Authority blogs on the new Holiday Inn timeshares:

• Another Major Hotelier Entering the Timeshare Resort Industry
• Orange Lake Timeshare Resorts Expanding in Vermont

South Africa’s Southern Sun Hotel Interests Limited “Southern Sun” has signed an affiliation agreement with Interval International timeshare exchange company.

Included in the agreement are Southern Sun’s six existing Lifestyle Resorts, (timeshares) which represent one of the largest South African vacation ownership programs. Any Southern Sun Hotel properties added during the term of the contract between Southern Sun and Interval International will also fall under the affiliation agreement.

Interval International will provide the Southern Sun South Africa timeshares with a comprehensive package of customized services, including back-office points based reservation services and program-design support and enabling Southern Sun hotels and timeshares to offer both deeded and points based timeshares.

South Africa Timeshare is a Destination on the Rise

South Africa timeshare offers vacation options that range from big game to beautiful beaches to great golf and safari explorations. For US travelers (and vacationers from many other parts of the world), a South Africa timeshare vacation includes an added perk … a beneficial currency exchange rate. Currently the US dollar still exchanges at approximately 1 US dollar = 10.2005427 South African rand. This means that your money will go a long way paying for food, restaurant dining, entertainment and travel within the country, making your South Africa timeshare resale a truly excellent vacation opportunity.

More Opportunities in South Africa Timeshare from Sell My Timeshare

• Bushman’s Nek Berg and Trout Resort Timeshare Resale
• Chakas Rock Chalets Timeshare Resale
• St. Michaels Sands Timeshare Resale

We know that the economy is bad and that hoteliers and timeshare developers are taking a real hit right now from the credit crunch. But just how bleak the picture really is, seems to depend on where you get your information.

A Negative Perspective on the Timeshare Market

This past week Reuters news ran an article titled, “The Timeshare Industry Squeezed by Credit Crisis,” in which they explained that credit for consumers to finance timeshare purchases is harder to come by, and, “… the securitization market for hotel companies selling bonds backed by timeshare deals has mostly closed its doors.”

The article quotes Jeremy Glaser, lodging industry analyst at investment research firm Morningstar, “In the last few months, sales have really dropped off a cliff – consumer credit is really disappearing in a lot of ways.” To this, they added the following less-than-cheerful comment from Bjorn Hanson, lodging industry veteran from New York University, “The syndication (securitization) market has all but gone.”

The Reuters article closes by pointing out that as consumers examine their budgets, discretionary spending will be the first item they cut, with Hanson reiterating, “Among discretionary spending, vacation ownership (timeshare) is high on that list.”

A More Upbeat Slant on Timeshare and Travel

On the same day, the British-based travel website, Travelmole USA Newswire reported on improving optimism among American travelers. According to research gathered in a special edition of Destination Analysts’ The State of the American Traveler survey, a survey of 800 American leisure travelers conducted in mid-November showed that optimism about future travel plans was on the rise. In July of this year, nearly 29 percent of those surveyed stated that they were planning to travel less for leisure. By November, that number had dropped to 21 percent. Additionally, one third of those recently surveyed said that leisure travel was a high or very high priority for them in upcoming months.

What’s the Real Story on Timeshare Sales?

What to take away from these two differing perspectives? Besides the reaffirmation of the adage that events are rarely as bad or as good as they seem, the other important point to consider is that timeshares purchased new from the developer and timeshare sold on the resale market are two very different types of purchases. At The Timeshare Authority, we tend to think both sides of the story are partially correct.

The days of under qualified buyers overpaying to buy and finance timeshare they really can’t afford may be over … at least for the time being. On the other hand, with travelers saying they are sufficiently optimistic to be planning new travel, there will be plenty of demand for the types of great value and good deals available in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.