Many timeshare resorts do not provide the courtesy supply of toiletries that most of us expect to receive when we stay at a hotel. But because some timeshares do, I thought I would bring to your attention, yet another consumer recall related to products produced in China.

Several brands of toothpaste have been recalled by manufacturers in light of a US Food and Drug Administration alert about the presence of diethylene glycol (DEG), a chemical used as a coolant in automobiles. Indianapolis based, Gilchrist & Soames has issued a recall of a .65-ounce tube of toothpaste made by Ming Fai Enterprises, International of China and provided as a courtesy toiletry in some hotels and resorts.

The US Food and Drug Administration has a complete list of all the different brands of toothpaste that may contain this ingredient—including those sold by retailers, not just provided in hotels. Use this link, http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/toothpaste.html to check which toothpastes have been identified to contain (or possibly contain) DEG.

The request to destroy any remaining inventory of the product has extended to hoteliers in the US, Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, the Turks & Caicos, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, according to an August 13 article in The Indianapolis Star’s online news site.

But which hotels have the toothpaste and has it been distributed in timeshare resorts as well?

I don’t know.

On August 20, 2007, I placed a telephone call to Gilchrist & Soames and promptly received a return call from Kathie De Voe, president of the company. She was forthright and helpful, but she did decline to identify whether any of the resorts receiving the toothpaste in question were timeshares. I can respect her position. Her customers—the hotels and resorts that purchased the product—have requested not to be singled out by name.

It is a safe assumption that because Gilchrist and Soames have been aggressive in notifying them and resolving the problem that hoteliers have likewise jumped into action and destroyed any of the toothpaste they have on hand. There is also a Guest Notification Program in place to notify frequent quests at hotels and advise them to discard any Gilchrist & Soames toothpaste they may have brought home in their travel kits during the past twelve months. Most importantly, there is no reason to panic. The FDA is very clear that there have not been any reported problems regarding the toothpaste.

The immediate fix is simple: if you have brought home a tube of toothpaste from a hotel, resort, or timeshare, go to your bathroom and toss it. My thanks to the always-informative blog. Hotel Hotsheet, written by Kitty Bean Yancey for USA Today, that first brought the matter to my attention in a post by Ben Abrahamson titled, Hotel toothpaste recalled after testing positive for toxins.

From New Hampshire to New Zealand, you hear the same message: be alert for internet fraud and internet scams.

Because our company, Sell My Timeshare NOW, uses the internet to advertise and market timeshares for sale or rent by owner, I have a real concern for how people perceive online commerce and what they can do to keep themselves safe.

So first, let me share a few of the things I found just last week, searching online:

Right here in my own state of New Hampshire, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte reminds people to act with caution when they sell items over the internet. In an Associated Press article, which appeared in the Concord Online Monitor, Ayotte is quoted as saying “red flag transactions” include those where the buyer provides a check or money order that is more than the selling price of the goods, accompanied by a request for the seller to mail some of the money to another person.

When you want to rent, buy, or sell timeshare online, you can do it safely and with confidence if you start by dealing with a reputable timeshare company. Look for someone who has a track record verified by customer comments and endorsements. Look for a timeshare company that practices transparency in their business and shows you how they use the internet to attract timeshare buyers and timeshare sellers to their website, as well as how many people are actually visiting the site each day.

When dealing with a timeshare advertising and marketing company, ask up front what services you will be receiving for your money. Ask if they offer a refund in the event that your timeshare sells at the same price through an advertisement placed on another website. Also, check to see if they are a bricks and mortar business—that means, are they a real company, with employees on-board, rather than a one-man band operating out of a post office box?

It is also a good idea, when dealing with any company for the first time, to check both the State Attorney General’s office for the state where the business is based and the Better Business Bureau. The key piece of information to learn is that the few complaints filed have been resolved.

Sadly, in 2006, nearly 700,000 people reported fraud, scams, or identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission, and many more cases go unreported. As Robyn Caffasso, senior deputy with the district attorney’s office in El Paso County, Colorado, said in the Colorado Gazette, “Scams have always been around, but the format and nature of them change. They are changing with the times.”

Did you notice anything different about the Timeshare Owners Blog last week?

Our goal with the blog has always been to bring you news, advice, insights, and opinions about the timeshare business and timeshare resale industry. We want the Timeshare Owners Blog to be a place you come, not only when you want to buy timeshare or sell timeshare, but when you want to learn more about the opportunities of timeshare rental, timeshare resorts, and the range of opportunities and options associated with vacation ownership.

If you are a regular reader of the Timeshare Owners Blog, you know that we don’t just write about timeshares only, but we also provide you meaningful news about travel, vacationing, and the hotel and leisure industries, as well. And none of this will be changing at the Timeshare Owners Blog!

What has changed is that we have started bringing you the timeshare vacation news—not just four times per week—but now on a five and often six-times per week schedule.

You can expect to learn more about all that’s good (and not so good) about timeshare sales, timeshare exchange, timeshare promotion, and generally what’s hot and what’s not in this business. Along with the industry news, we will go on sharing travel tips, and talking about real estate, sports, social trends, weather, and current events that we know are also on your mind and part of your life.

When I started writing the Timeshare Owners Blog, now more than two years ago, our company, Sell My Timeshare NOW was still very new. And while I founded this company because I a saw a genuine need to help improve and expand the way people buy, rent and sell timeshare, I don’t know that I ever realized how responsive and enthusiastic people would be to both our business and our blog.

Thank you to the thousands of readers who visit our blog each week. Your readership tells us that you like what we are doing. So in response, we are now providing you more timeshare news and timeshare views, more often. And more reasons to read the Timeshare Owners Blog!

Do you have Labor Day plans? Will you let this last chance for summer relaxation slip unobserved into the cool weather of autumn, or will you take advantage of a holiday timeshare vacation?

For many people, the long Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer vacation. Kids get ready to go back to school, beach time gets scare, and the picnic basket is packed away until next season.

But you may still have time to book a timeshare rental at a fabulous price and enjoy one last weekend of summer. Act fast and you may be able to take advantage of the opportunities in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals and plan a wonderful holiday timeshare vacation.

Many people just don’t realize that timeshare rentals are available. They incorrectly assume one has to buy a timeshare or join a vacation club in order to enjoy the wonderful locations and fabulous amenities timeshare resorts offer. But Sell My Timeshare NOW advertises great deals on timeshare rentals and timeshare resales. These are resort properties that you rent or buy directly from the person who actually owns them—no developer acting as the middleman and adding on extra fees. And while you have probably waited too late to book a Labor Day weekend hotel or motel, and you may still be able to rent a Labor Day holiday timeshare.

Timeshare rentals become available because the timeshare owner is unable to use his or her timeshare unit. Many property owners opt to rent their timeshare as a way to offset their annual fees, which they must pay whether they personally use the timeshare unit or not. Unlike hotels and vacation cottage rentals, which will always charge you the highest fee they can command, many timeshare owners are only looking to offset their own annual expense by renting all or part of their timeshare interval.

And renting timeshare at the last minute, even waiting until now to plan a Labor Day holiday timeshare vacation, can still mean you are on track to enjoy an incredible timeshare deal.

A recent Hotwire.com survey lists the following locations as the top-ten destinations for Labor Day 2007:

1. Chicago, Illinois
2. New York City, New York
3. Atlanta, Georgia
4. St. Louis, Missouri
5. Boston, Massachusetts
6. San Francisco, California
7. New Orleans, Louisiana
8. Las Vegas, Nevada
9. San Diego, California
10. Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Virginia

If you are interested in exploring timeshare rentals (or timeshares resales) at these popular destinations, here are some links to Sell My Timeshare NOW timeshare rentals:

• Illinois timeshare resale and Illinois timeshare rental
• New York timeshare resale and New York timeshare rental
• Georgia timeshare resale and Georgia timeshare rental
• Missouri timeshare resales and Missouri timeshare rentals
• Massachusetts timeshare resale and Massachusetts timeshare rental
• California timeshare resale and California timeshare rental
• Louisiana timeshare resales and Louisiana timeshare rentals
• Nevada timeshare resale and Nevada timeshare rental
• Virginia timeshare resale and Virginia timeshare rental