Dial An Exchange Timeshare Exchange is expanding their offerings to timeshare owners with the addition of timeshare travel insurance provided by CSA Travel Protection.

The travel insurance will be available to timeshare owners to purchase when they exchange their vacation weeks. Fermin Cruz, VP North American operations Dial An Exchange, says, “When combined with our Cancellation Protection Option, we believe that CSA travel insurance is the perfect complement to any exchange transaction, offering the DAE member an inexpensive, yet valuable protection to cover their entire vacation experience.”

Les Maine, CEO of CSA Travel Protection says, “By purchasing travel insurance from CSA when exchanging or banking their timeshare with Dial An Exchange, timeshare owners can protect themselves from losing any of their vacation time already purchased as well as annual maintenance fees.”

Dial An Exchange Timeshare Exchange was founded in 1997. The company’s website says it is the largest privately owned timeshare exchange company with worldwide destination availability. Not only is there no charge to timeshare owners to be a member of Dial An Exchange, but timeshare exchange fees are not charged until the actual exchange is made.

Last week, in a blog post titled, Expansion of SFX Timeshare Resort Exchange Company, the Timeshare Owners Blog told you about the expansion and new services of San Francisco Timeshare Exchange. Like Dial An Exchange, SFX offers timeshare owners another choice in timeshare exchange or banking timeshare for future use or exchange.

RCI and Interval International are well known, but smaller timeshare exchange companies are really claiming a portion of the timeshare resort market, and in many cases, offer service that is as good as or better than the larger timeshare exchange companies offer.

If you have had a good experience or a poor one with a smaller timeshare exchange company, please leave your comments on the Timeshare Owners Blog. No one has better insights about timesharing than timeshare owners who are using their timeshare weeks or exchanging them on a regular basis. We’d love to hear your comments.

Lodging Econometrics (LE), a Portsmouth NH company that monitors trends in hotel real estate, has released hotel growth projections for 2008.

In their report titled, 2008 Outlook for the Lodging Industry, Lodging Econometrics says that the Construction Pipeline stood at 5,438 projects and 718,387 guestrooms at the end of the fourth quarter 2007, meaning that the hotel industry now offers more than 700,000 rooms for the first time ever.

According to Patrick Ford, president of Lodging Econometrics, “The development boom is led by projects in the upscale and mid-market sectors, which together make up 83% of the non-casino projects and 76% of the guestrooms in the Pipeline. These chain scales include the high profile brands from the top franchise companies – Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental, and Choice, as well as Best Western. These companies had an outstanding year selling their family of brands both to developers for new construction and to investor groups interested in reflagging their open and operating hotels.”

According to Lodging Econometrics research, there are 1208 new hotels projected to open in 2008 translating to 133,628 guestrooms and 1456 hotels projected to open in 2009, which will add an additional 166,236 guestrooms.

The hotel industry experts at Lodging Econometrics assess that this growth pattern indicates, “a clear reflection of optimistic developers who anticipate the lending markets will have stabilized and approached normalcy when they are ready to seek financing.”

While this forecast is almost entirely derived based on the numbers of hotels already under construction, the new report acknowledges that 2009 numbers could decline slightly if economic and lending conditions turn out to be worse than currently projected.

Hotel developers were hoping that the residential real estate mortgage and lending situation would have improved by the end of 2007, and that it would not interfere with lending for hotel development in the future. Because there has not been an improvement, according to Lodging Econometrics, the Federal Reserve started a series of auctions in December to infuse banks with capital at reduced rates. These emergency auctions are meant to encourage banks to be more proactive lenders.

Since that time, the rate cuts by the Feds have surprised (and pleased) most of us. The assessment by Lodging Econometrics is, “Lenders simply have to resume lending.” But even the Lodging Econometrics people acknowledge that the impact of the cuts by the Federal Reserve will take months to truly begin to turn the economy around.

Hotels and Timeshare Resorts May Feel the Belt Tighten

Many of the people who buy timeshare weeks have not been hurt by the mortgage crunch. They have owned their home long enough to have sufficient equity to help them weather the soft economy, and frequently, their homes were bought before the days of irresponsible mortgage lending practices. Yet, I don’t have to tell you that everything from gasoline to groceries has gone up dramatically in price.

So far, the hotel industry has not dealt with enough decline, nor has it gone for a long enough period of time, that serious damage has been done. And timeshare resorts have felt the belt tightening even less than hotels. But how long can either hotels or timeshare resorts hold up if a true recession unfolds?

According to the Lodging Econometrics report, “the Condo Hotel boom is over, while the number of new Timeshare announcements is certain to decline.” Here’s who their report predicts will fare the best in upcoming months. “Properties under 200 rooms, with the top brands and the most experienced developers – having conservative proformas that account for anticipated supply increases in the years ahead – will be the most attractive to finance during the current turmoil, either through local institutions or a declining number of national lenders.”

I can’t help but believe, that timeshare resales will feel the impact of the economy less than other sectors. Besides the fact that often timeshare owners and timeshare buyers are in better shape going into the economic crunch than are many other Americans, the most important factor is that a decline in the number of new timeshare resorts to be built should only serve to drive up the value of existing resorts.

I am not predicting that the value of timeshare resales you currently own will soar, or even necessarily increase, but it may very well be one of the few areas of the economy that does not take a nose dive. And in a declining economy, holding your own, can be a very good thing.

Saturday’s Timeshare Owners Blog reported on several factors that could strengthen the interest in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals in the Bahamas, including two US airlines that are adding more flights to Grand Bahama.

The Weekend Edition of England’s Travel Mole reported that British Airways increased their number of flights from Gatwick to St Lucia and will offer a non-stop flight rather than flying via Antigua, which creates a two-hour layover. Caribbean Airways’ codeshare flight with British Airways to the Port of Spain route will incorporate the new flights via St Lucia as well as four weekly Barbados flights.

Also according to The Travel Mole, despite the fact that over 60 percent of Bahamas hoteliers who participated in an economic survey reported a net loss for 2007, the Bahamas Hotel Association (BHA) continues to be optimistic about the tourism sector’s performance in 2008. President of the Bahamas Hotel Association Russell Miller says that hoteliers do blame the week US economy for the 2007 downturn.

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has predicted a record year for 2008 with 10.5 million passengers originating from North America and 2.3 million from international markets, but they say they fear that the Caribbean will not be a hot destination for 2008. According to the Special Features News of the Travel Mole, “We anticipate that the unparalleled diversity of cruise experiences offered by our members will result in another record year for the industry.”

Yet they quickly follow this quote by explaining that, “…climbing US unemployment might soften demand in the Caribbean which offers the most affordable offerings. Low income consumers tend to lean towards Caribbean cruises based on pricing, said Robert Simonson of William Blair & Co.”

Like so many other things about the potential economic ups and downs of 2008, only time and hindsight will tell us precisely what the year will mean for Bahamas tourism and Bahamas timeshares. But as the Timeshare Owner’s Blog said yesterday, “logic says, the more the Bahamas develop into a highly desired tourist destination, the easier it could be to sell your Bahamas timeshare resale or use it as a Bahamas timeshare rental.”

Here are only a few of the opportunities in Bahamas timeshare resales and Bahamas timeshare rentals available through Sell My Timeshare NOW:

• Viva Vacation Club at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach
• Sandyport Beaches Resort
• Island Seas Resort
• Freeport Resort and Club

Do you have Bahamas timeshare weeks you want to sell or rent?

If so, you may benefit from this information. According to an article that appeared in The Freeport News, January 11, this month is bringing record numbers of visitors to the island of Grand Bahama. Logic says, the more the Bahamas develop into a highly desired tourist destination, the easier it could be to sell your Bahamas timeshare resale or use it as a Bahamas timeshare rental. And the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism is doing everything they can to move the Bahamas up the preferred vacation destination charts.

Tourism to Grand Bahama Island recently benefited because high winds in other parts of the Caribbean rerouted some cruise ships to Freeport Harbor. Yet much of the tourism Grand Bahama is enjoying is simply the result of people who have selected the Bahamas as their target destination.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is working hard to improve the island’s desirability factor. According to the Executive Director of the Ministry, Kerry Fountain, (as quoted in The Freeport News) the plan is to, “Create your product, deliver on the experience in terms of service and the attitude, get your guests here affordably, and promote it.” He adds, “It has to happen in that order, but we have to keep our nose to the grindstone in order to get it done.”

The Ministry of Tourism anticipates being able to successfully weather even a tight US economic market because many US vacationers will still be taking trips, they will just be looking to travel closer to home. Additionally, the Ministry is working hard at recruiting and training better hospitality industry workers, unrolling programs in the high schools to promote careers in tourism. Efforts like this will help the long-term tourism market in the Bahamas as well as Bahamas timeshare resales and Bahamas timeshare rentals.

Creating immediate boosts to the tourism market in Grand Bahama are recently discounted airfares to Freeport and Nassau. US Airways and American Airlines are currently both offering special pricing on island airfares or vacation packages.

And now that things seem to be turning around for the Royal Oasis timeshare resort with plans to renovate and reopen, popular Bahamas tourist destinations like the International Bazaar may actually return to their former glory. Harcourt Developments Limited, the purchaser of the Royal Oasis timeshare, is expected to invest some $400 million dollars in their Bahamian resorts over the upcoming years.

To learn more about how to sell timeshare or rent timeshare you own in the Bahamas, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW. If you are interested in becoming a Bahamas timeshare resales owner, Sell My Timeshare NOW also offers an excellent inventory of vacation ownership properties.