Local author and columnist, Laura Bricker, has an interesting perspective on timeshare sales based on her recent timeshare vacation to Florida. You can read “Psst, Wanna Buy a Timeshare?” at SeaCoastOnline.com

While her account of her experiences is accurate, her assessment that the timeshare resort industry is in trouble is not…but who can blame her for thinking this when you look at the way some timeshare real estate is sold?

Laura Bricker and family might have enjoyed their Florida timeshare vacation even more if they hadn’t been subjected to aggressive overtures from timeshare salespeople who approached them on the beach and even while driving. They were offered cash and other incentives to attend timeshare presentations. The unprofessional and desperate tactics of some timeshare sellers would leave anyone to assume that timeshare real estate is on its last leg.

In fact, timeshare sales of both new timeshare weeks purchased directly from developers and timeshare weeks and timeshare condos purchased as resales have never been better. According to the American Resort Development Association, known as ARDA, vacation ownership (new timeshare sales) has increased every year during the past decade, growing at an annualized rate of 16 percent. And in 2007, Sell My Timeshare NOW, presented its customers just over $274 million in offers to buy timeshare or rent timeshare – that’s an 18 percent increase in dollar amount over offers presented in 2006. Further proof of the strength of timeshare sales is the fact that major hoteliers all continue to expand their timeshare resort offerings worldwide. In fact, many sources in the hospitality and tourism industries claim that timeshare sales are the fastest growing segments of their business.

It’s a shame that heavy-handed sales tactics are still being used as part of timeshare sales. Timeshare ownership is a good product that brings a great deal of satisfaction to many people and doesn’t deserve the “bad rap” a few overzealous sales people give it.

To learn more about buying timeshare resales from their current owner, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW, where no salespeople will ever flag down your car or disturb you as you relax on the beach.

Sell My Timeshare NOW has completed the first phase of a multi-part study on people who buy timeshare and people who sell timeshare. Today, in a press release, we addressed some of the interesting – and highly positive – information we learned about timeshare buyers.

Click here to read the full press release, one of several that Sell My Timeshare NOW will issue about this informative study.

Part of what we learned is that 35.66 percent of the people who buy timeshare resales do so because they recognize they can save money this way. Another 31.52 percent recognize timeshare resales as a great way to vacation. Some of the people (4.91 percent) who buy timeshare resales do so because they are looking for specific amenities such as golf, water sports, or skiing. And 11.8 percent of timeshare buyers say timeshare resales enable them to research the best deal for themselves.

The survey information was collected over a 4-month period to ensure that it represents a valid demographic cross-section of the population and included over 2100 respondents. Additionally, all participants did so anonymously and were qualified to participate, meaning that they had to have placed an offer to buy timeshare in order to be included in the research.

Here’s what these facts tell all of us about buying timeshare in the resale market. The people who buy timeshare resales are not doing so on a whim. This is not a knee-jerk reaction that occurs after someone on vacation has gone on a timeshare resort tour or heard a timeshare sales pitch.

Instead, the people who buy timeshare are thoughtful, deliberate buyers who research the opportunities in timeshare resales and understand the value of timeshare ownership. At Sell My Timeshare NOW, we always knew the timeshare buyers and timeshare renters we work with are knowledgeable consumers…now we have the statistical research to back it up!

This Timeshare Owners Blog post is for college sports fans everywhere-

While you may root for the Tigers, Wildcats, Jay Hawks, Blue Devils, Gators, Huskies, or other high profile college sports team, there are many fans cheering on the Geo Ducks, Banana Slugs, and Boll Weevils.

…Until this week, I’d never heard of any of these teams.

The Geo Ducks is the official team name for Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. These ducks, however, don’t quack. Geo Duck, pronounced gooey-duck, is the name of the largest burrowing clam in the world. “Go Clams Go!”

The student athletes of the University of California at Santa Cruz are known by the name Banana Slugs, while the men’s sports teams at the University of Arkansas at Monticello go by the name of Boll Weevils.

But the interesting team names don’t stop here. In the ranks of US universities and colleges, you will also find: Trolls, Stormy Petrels (a type of bird), Keel haulers, Ichabods, Cobbers, Gorlocks (even after Googling the word, I am not sure what a gorlock is), Lemmings, Poets, Moundbuilders, White Mules, and Squirrels. All of which suddenly make those names we are accustomed to, like the Trojans, Bruins, and Cardinals, seem downright boring.

And if you will be attending sporting events, art exhibits, plays, concerts, or any other activity at these uniquely-named universities and colleges, you can skip the motels and hotels, and schedule to stay in timeshare rentals or timeshare resales. There are great opportunities in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals at all of these locations, which means you never have to miss any of the Geo Duck and Banana Slug excitement.

Credit for the sports team information in this blog posting goes to Josh Pahigian, who wrote the original article for ESPN Travel. Click here to read the article in its entirety.

Timeshare resales that make it easy to take in home games for Geo Ducks:

• Washington Timeshare Resales
• WorldMark Marina Dunes Timeshare Resales

For Banana Slugs fans:

• San Francisco Timeshare Resales

And for supporters of the Boll Weevils:

• Arkansas Timeshare Resales

And here is YouTube substantiation of the GeoDuck mascot in action:

You have to hand it to the people at Travelodge UK for being genuinely concerned about the well-being of their customers.

During a trial period, guests at Travelodge hotels in London Heathrow T5, Bristol Central, Birmingham Fiveways, Manchester Central, and Edinburgh Central will receive a pair of complementary pajamas, scientifically designed to improve their sleep. These are no ordinary pj’s.

Made from a fabric called Dermasilk, they are designed to feel like a second skin. When you wear these pajamas, your skin can breathe, can more easily regulate your body temperature, and maintain its moisture balance, all of which should lead to a better night’s sleep.

According to Leigh McCarron, Travelodge Sleep Director, “As a retailer of sleep, we are constantly investigating innovative ways, on how we can help our customers attain a good night’s sleep. Something as simple as changing your bed attire can dramatically affect your quality of sleep.

To support our pjs trial, we conducted a sleepwear study, which examined the nation’s attitude towards nightwear. These findings have been incorporated into our final pajama prototype – resulting in the ultimate sleepwear.”

The findings of the Travelodge study on sleepwear revealed that among the 3000 British adults surveyed:

• • 23 percent said itchy nightclothes stop them from getting a good night’s sleep.
• • 66 percent said being too hot or too cold at various points throughout the night interferes with their sleep pattern and 54 percent say they are more often too hot while 35 percent say they are too cold.
• • 23 percent of women will wear socks to bed in order to stay warmer while only 11 percent of men will sleep in socks.

If you are a regular reader of the Timeshare Owners Blog, you may recall last November when I wrote a blog post about Travelodge UK’s concern over nude sleepwalking. I suppose if the new second skin pajamas are a success, then the hotel chain will have succeeded in improving the quality of sleep for many of their guests and at the same time reducing the epidemic numbers of nude sleepwalkers that they have been dealing with in recent months. (see our November 11, 2006 blog post here)

You have to applaud Travelodge’s commitment to improving every detail of their guests’ stay in their hotels, and wonder if providing free sleepwear will become a trend at hotels and timeshare resorts. After all, the plush, terry bathrobe has long been a trademark of many better hotels and resorts.

And in the spirit of, “don’t knock it, ’til you’ve tried it,” I won’t completely rule out sleeping in such ‘unique’ sleepwear, but I can’t help but wonder which would ultimately be more disturbing: seeing other hotel or timeshare resort guests sleepwalking in the nude or seeing them sleepwalking in these odd looking pajamas?

What do you think? Would you be willing to don a pair of these pj’s in the pursuit of a great night’s sleep? Have you stayed at other hotels or resorts that provided you courtesy sleepwear?