President of Welk Resorts takes on more responsibilities with the American Resort Development Association.

The American Resort Development Association, known as ARDA, is the professional association for the vacation ownership (timeshare) and resort development industries. With over 1,000 members, ARDA protects and advances the needs of its timeshare industry related membership.

This month, Jon Fredricks, CHA, RRP, president of Welk Resorts was elected as the new chairman of ARDA. Howard C. Nusbaum, RRP and ARDA’s president and CEO was quoted in Hotel Interactive Magazine as saying, “Jon Fredricks is an exemplary Leader in timeshare, fractional, and private residence club development, with a history of stewardship as an active member of the ARDA Board of Directors and as chairman of the ARDA California Legislative Committee.”

Welk Resort timeshares include:

• The Welk Resort – San Diego timeshares
• The Welk Resort – Desert Oasis timeshares (Palm Springs and Escondido)
• The Welk Resort – Branson timeshares

For those of you “mature” enough to remember the impresario of television’s champagne music, Jon Fredricks is the grandson of the late musician, entertainer, and bandleader, Lawrence Welk. And to refresh your memory, take a look at this great piece of video we found on www.youtube.com…and a one…and a two…

Disney BoardWalk Villas timeshares rank eighteenth on the Sell My Timeshare Now Hot Properties List.

If you saw the Sell My Timeshare NOW press release earlier this week, or you read our blog on Wednesday, you know that Sell My Timeshare NOW has just released their list of the top ranking resorts, based on the number of offers submitted to the timeshare property owners. This report, that we call the Hot Properties List, looks at over 1,300 timeshare resort properties advertised for timeshare resale on www.sellmytimesharenow.com during the first quarter of 2007.

If you would like to receive a free list of how 1,360 timeshare properties ranked on the timeshare resales offers list, call Sell My Timeshare Now, toll free at 877-815-4227 or send an email to [email protected] and ask for the free Hot Properties List.

In upcoming blogs, I will be focusing on timeshare resorts that appeared near the top of the list, starting today by shining the spotlight on Disney’s BoardWalk Villas timeshares.

Located in Orlando, Florida, between Epcot and Disney MGM Studios, the Disney BoardWalk Villas timeshares have 383 villas, ranging from studios, all the way up to their 3-bedroom, 3-bath, “grand villas”. Room options include studios, which sleep up to 4 adults and include room for a crib, or studios with daybeds, which sleep up to 4 adults, with room for a crib and a small child. One, two and three bedroom villas offer full kitchens and washers and dryers. Grand villas have over 2100 square feet of living space and will accommodate up to twelve adults plus one baby crib.

The Boardwalk is the main entertainment and dining area closest to the Boardwalk Villa timeshares, so staying in a Boardwalk Villa timeshare resale or rental, puts you conveniently close to the ESPN Restaurant, the Atlantic Dance Hall, the dueling pianos at JellyRoll’s, the Flying Fish Café, Spoodles Restaurant, arcades, strolling entertainment, and appropriately themed activities including bicycling and croquet, to name only a few of the options.

Besides all the fun of the Disney theme parks, (transportation to any area of the Disney park is free for guests who stay on property) the resort includes two swimming pools (one with a 200-ft waterslide), two tennis courts, and use of the Muscles and Bustles Health Club.

Great deals are available now on Disney BoardWalk Villa timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.

Sell My Timeshare NOW releases their First Quarter 2007 Hot Properties List, showing which timeshare resales are receiving the most offers at www.sellmytimesharenow.com

Sell My Timeshare NOW has just released their 2007 Hot Properties List. The entire list includes 1,360 different timeshare resort properties, and ranks them from first to last by the number of buyer offers received, based on the records of Sell My Timeshare NOW, LLC. The top 25 timeshare resales properties for the first quarter of 2007 are:

1. Sunterra Resorts Ka’anapali Beach Club
2. Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas
3. Orange Lake’s West Village
4. WorldMark by Wyndham – Multi-Destination
5. Manhattan Club
6. Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club
7. Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club
8. Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas
9. Sheraton Vistana Resort
10. Harborside Resort at Atlantis
11. Marriott’s Grande Vista
12. Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club
13. Pueblo Bonito Rose Spa and Resort
14. Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa Phase I
15. Mayan Palace Riviera Maya Cancun
16. Pueblo Bonito Resort at Sunset Beach
17. Mystic Dunes Resort and Golf Club
18. Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
19. Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Hilton Hawaiian Village
20. Villa del Palmar, Cabo San Lucas
21. Hilton Grand Vacations Club on International Drive Orlando
22. Point at Poipu
23. Westgate Vacation Villas
24. Hilton Grand Vacations Club at the Flamingo
25. Palace Resort at Moon Palace

Like all statistics, there are several ways to look at the Hot List. If you are a timeshare owner with a property to sell, this list will help you assess the demand for a timeshare unit at your resort. And if you are interested in buying timeshare, the Hot List will help you see which properties are popular with other timeshare vacationers and which timeshares probably offer high-demand timeshare exchange opportunities. But just because you own a timeshare or are thinking of buying timeshare that does not rank at the top of the list, don’t assume there’s a problem with that resort or that it is unpopular. In fact, the opposite could be true. A limited number of timeshare resales at a resort could simply mean that all the current owners are highly satisfied with their timeshares and few timeshare units at that resort ever show up on the resale timeshare market. Other factors, like the week you own and the number of bedrooms in your timeshare unit also affect timeshare resale.

Over the next few months, I am going to be profiling one location each week from the top-25 timeshare resorts on the Hot Properties 2007 List. On Saturday, I will take an in-depth look at number 18 on the list, Disney BoardWalk Villas, and then each week, I’ll focus on more properties from the list.

To obtain a free list of how 1,360 timeshare properties ranked on the resales offers list, contact Sell My Timeshare Now, toll free at 877-815-4227 or send an email to [email protected] and ask for the free Hot Properties List.

The only thing better than chocolate or a timeshare vacation might be enjoying them both at the same time in Hershey, Pennsylvania timeshares.

Finally there’s some good news about the food we eat. If you are like me, in your lifetime, you have heard many foods once touted as good for you, demoted to the ranks of unhealthy. The food police seem to have condemned everything from steaks grilled over charcoal to grandma’s homemade yeast rolls as something you should eliminate from your diet.

So I was really pleased to read recent studies that say, in moderation, dark chocolate and other foods rich in cocoa, may help lower blood pressure. Health Day News (http://www.healthday.com) quoted Dr. Dirk Taubert, senior lecturer in pharmacology and toxicology at University Hospital in Cologne, Germany as saying, “Based on our analysis, regular consumption of polyphenol-rich cocoa products like dark chocolate may be considered a part of a blood pressure-lowering diet, provided there is no total gain in calorie intake.”

And it only seems logical to me that if chocolate can lower your blood pressure, and we already know how beneficial a week of r & r can be to your health, then a week in a timeshare unit at Hershey, Pennsylvania ought to be just what the doctor ordered. The city of Hershey is home to the Hershey Company, manufacturer of all those Hershey products we enjoy, including the classic Hershey® bar, Kisses®, Reese’s® Peanut Butter Cups, and even Jolly Ranchers®.

If you’ve ever traveled to the city of Hershey, you know that throughout the town, the aroma of chocolate fills the air. In this chocolate-themed town, even the streetlights replicate the chocolate company’s most famous product, the foil-wrapped Hershey’s Kiss. Hershey is also home to Hersheypark®. This 100-year-old theme park was built as a gift from one of America’s greatest philanthropists, Milton Hershey, to the workers employed by his company. Theme park aficionados appreciate Hersheypark because it offers a great mix of rides and attractions to appeal to adults and even the park’s youngest visitors. You can buy or rent Hershey timeshare at The Suites at Hershey Resort, or perhaps choose a Pennsylvania timeshare resale in nearby locations that make it easy to also enjoy historic Gettysburg Battlefield Park and all the charms of the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside.

Here are a few of the timeshare resales you may want to check out in addition to The Suites at Hershey Resort:

• Villas at Tree Tops timeshares
• Mountain Laurel Resort and Spa timeshares
• Galleria at Split Rock timeshares
• Willowbrook at Lake Harmony timeshares
• Shawnee Fairway Village timeshares
• The Villas at Fairway timeshares
• Gettysburg Battlefield Resort timeshares
• Wolf Run Manor at Treasure Lake timeshares