There is an interesting link between timeshares and time pieces.

I wrote about Clocky in 2005 when it was just a prototype homework project for MIT graduate student, Gauri Nanda. Ms. Nanda, a native of Michigan, has—like many of us—struggled from time to time dragging herself out of bed in the mornings. As you would expect from a gifted MIT grad student, Gauri Nanda set out to solve her problem and get class credit at the same time. She may also wind up being a very successful designer and businessperson in the process.

When I first blogged about Clocky, it was just a simple clock-on-wheels, wrapped up in shag carpet. Today it is sleek, sophisticated, and well on its way to being a niche-market success story. The idea behind Clocky is, when the alarm sounds, you can either turn it off and get out of bed or you can hit the snooze button.

When you hit the snooze button, you may get to drift back to a few more minutes of slumber, but you have just given Clocky the challenge for which it was built. Press the snooze button and Clocky is programmed to immediately roll away from you; typically off your nightstand, onto the floor. Clocky will roll away from you in randomly programmed directions, forcing you to leave the comfort of your bed in order to turn off the ringing alarm.

Besides the fact that I admire the inventor for developing a product that is both genuinely useful and is actually fresh and unique—something that is hard to do these days—why does this nagging alarm clock deserve not one, but two mentions in our Sell My Timeshare NOW blog? Because as great as Clocky is from a design standpoint, Clocky is exactly the reason we need timeshare vacations. If you weren’t already tired enough each morning, the recent shift to Daylight Savings Time observed in most parts of the country was enough to remind us that we never really get enough rest and down time. Too many of us start our workdays exhausted from the day before. Too many of us work nights, weekends, and long, unappreciated hours of overtime. If we dare to think about taking a vacation, we don’t even feel as if we had time to plan it. But nothing makes vacation planning as simple and as streamlined as timeshares do.

Also, for a lot of people, taking an entire week of leisure is an impossibility. Not to worry, chances are, your timeshare company is ahead of you in solving that problem. Most interval timeshare can now be used in increments of 2, 3, or 4 days, meaning you can get in several mini-vacations in your timeshare unit or a timeshare rental.

Go ahead, schedule that interval timeshare you already own, or look into the great timeshare deals in rentals and resales, and then, as I wrote nearly two years ago, “Leave your alarm clock – whatever kind you prefer to use – in a different time zone and go on holiday.”

Take a timeshare vacation. You’ve earned it.

More than sun and sand to enjoy during your Mexico timeshare vacation

There is a multitude of reasons to enjoy a vacation in a Puerto Vallarta timeshare resale or timeshare rental, some you may know, and others that might be a surprise. But before I share with you some of the really interesting information I have recently learned about Puerto Vallarta, let me give you two links to our website where you can find an amazing inventory of timeshare vacation properties, in Puerto Vallarta as well as other great Mexico timeshare destinations.

Puerto Vallarta timeshare resales – Puerto Vallarta timeshare rentals

Puerto Vallarta has an interesting history. For many years, it remained a small beachside secret enjoyed primarily by visitors who traveled from other parts of Mexico or southern California. Then Hollywood came to Puerto Vallarta, and it was never the same.

In 1963, famed movie producer, John Huston, choose the site for the filming of The Night of the Iguana. The film starred Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, and Ava Gardner—three of the most press-worthy names of their time. But what really drew attention to the small town, was the arrival of Elizabeth Taylor, who came to be near Burton during the movie’s production. Now add to that, the drama of Taylor’s ex-husband Michael Wilding already on the set as Burton’s press agent. Or the fact that Peter Viertel, who had once been romantically involved with Ava Gardner, accompanied his wife Deborah Kerr to the movie location, and it is easy to understand why, overnight, Puerto Vallarta became a media hotspot.

But development has been kind to Puerto Vallarta. Despite the luxurious hotel and timeshare resorts, there is still a strong measure of village charm. Most days, the sky and the ocean compete to see which one can be the bluest. Just off shore, in the protected waters of Banderas Bay, dolphins play year-round and humpback whales come to spend the winter. Forested hillsides slope down to the sea, and you can canopy tour (also known as zip lines) a great deal of the area on one of the most extensive canopy cable networks in Mexico.

Puerto Vallarta has wonderful shops and galleries to browse, but some of the most amazing art in the area can be found right on the beach. One particular example is the “La Rotunda del Mar” statues overlooking the ocean. Puerta Vallarta is rich with outdoor sculpture, with some of the most interesting pieces appearing along the Malecón, a favorite beachside boardwalk.

Our appreciation to the people at wired blog for bringing this artwork to our attention.

Timeshare company on the fast track.

I often talk about our company, Sell My Timeshare NOW, in this blog, but I realized recently that I have never really told you some of the most interesting facts about how we got started.

When we began the business, our “office” was nothing more than a spare room at my house. That was three very short—very busy—years ago. Co-founding the timeshare company with me was my partner, Mark Eldridge, and we have built and grown our company without any outside investment funding or capitalization.

We’ve come a long way from the three-person crew that started the business. Today, Sell My Timeshare NOW has 80 employees and plans to hire more. We’ve relocated twice since the days we were a one-room operation. In the fall of 2005, we moved into our present location. A spacious restored mill building, constructed in 1814 in the historic New England town of Dover, New Hampshire. We also have an office in Altamonte Springs, (Orlando) Florida.

In 2006, SellMyTimeshareNOW.com presented $229,962,492 in offers to buy or rent timeshares to our customers. And that’s a number we are well on our way to surpassing this year. All of this means that if you treat your customers with courtesy and respect, and you create and diligently maintain a high visibility website where timeshare owners can easily and affordably buy, rent, or sell timeshare, you can build a great business. You can create a thriving dot-com, despite the fact that you are a long way from Silicon Valley.

Online company takes the lead in providing great customer service.

A few weeks back, BusinessWeek (“Customer Service Champs,” March 5, 2007) released their “Customer Service Elite List“.

This was a first-time endeavor for the magazine, in which they identified the best 25 US companies for customer service excellence.

USAA took top honors on the list. In case you are not familiar with USAA, they provide banking, insurance services, and financial planning to people in the US military and their family members. Other than USAA, the rest of the names on the list are all household words. They are:

1. USAA
2. Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
3. Cadillac
4. Nordstrom
5. Wegman Food Markets
6. Edward Jones
7. Lexus
8. UPS
9. Enterprise-Rent-A-Car
10. Starbucks

A couple of things really stood out to me about this list. Because our company, Sell My Timeshare NOW deals with most of our customers by phone, email, or sometimes fax and letters, and because we take the business of providing good customer service so seriously, I was pleased that the number one company also delivers their services the same way we do—online! It proves what we say at Sell My Timeshare NOW. You don’t have to meet your clients face to face for them to know that you appreciate their business and are committed to working your hardest to help them buy, rent, or sell timeshare in a way that is efficient and economical for them.

I was also pleased that in addition to (#2) Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the list included (#11) the Ritz Carlton, and (#22) JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts. Three of the top twenty-five companies on the Customer Elite List are in the hotel, timeshare, and fractional business. This is a good endorsement of why you can buy a Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, or Marriott Vacation Club International timeshare resale with confidence that you and your family will enjoy many great timeshare vacations there.