Like using the internet while you travel? I’m addicted, both for business and personal reasons. But finding a way to log in to email, etc. while at a timeshare has been a challenge. Now we’re getting somewhere, though.

5G Wireless Communications, Inc. has entered into a service agreement with ICOA, Inc., a national provider of wireless broadband internet access and network services to high-traffic public venues. The agreement provides for state-of-the-art Wi-Fi service and support to timeshare resorts across the United States.

Wi-Fi stands for wireless fidelity. It’s a way to connect with the internet without a direct, wire plug-in. You need a special device in your computer, phone, or PDA (most come with them these days) and as long as you are in close proximity to a “hotspot” or wireless access point, you can hop on the internet and check email, change your plane reservations, buy theatre tickets, share your vacation photos with friends and family, or even order pizza delivery. Many cafes, like Starbucks, offer this around the world.

ICOA, Inc. reports that presently fewer than 25 percent of timeshare properties offer Wi-Fi capabilities, yet 37 percent of vacation travelers bring their laptop computers with them during vacation and timeshare travel, and that’s a number that increases all the time.

Once the new services are in place, timeshare owners or renters will typically be able to access Wi-Fi services on a daily, three-day, or weekly subscription basis. As an internet user, you should expect to see branded sign-on pages for each resort, and be able to easily access many convenient features including online payment for use of the service itself.

ICOA Wi-Fi services are currently used at Trump Hotels, Ramada Inns, and numerous campgrounds, airports, and hotspot locations across the country.

Hilton Hotels Corporation has announced plans to build a 161-unit timeshare resort on West 57th Street in Manhattan. With its midtown Manhattan location, between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue, the 28-story property marks the first Hilton “purpose-built” timeshare in Manhattan.

President and CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, Antoine Dagot, was quoted by TradingMarkets.com as saying, “After decades of leadership in all hotel segments throughout Manhattan, Hilton has achieved a development milestone that has never before been accomplished in the New York hospitality industry. The ability to build, from the ground-up, a timeshare product tailored exclusively to meet our customers’ distinctive preferences offers extraordinary advantages.”

Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2007 with a target completion date of early 2009. Hilton Grand Vacation Club already offers Manhattan timeshare units in some of their existing hotel properties.

Please pardon our appearance as we get some new great changes in place to provide you with greater ease, clarity, and access to top-notch information on timeshares, vacation ownership, fractionals, condotels, and traveling.

As I reported in early June, when MVCI purchased the Radisson Suite Beach Resort in Marco Island, Florida, with plans to renovate the property as a timeshare, local ordinances stood in their way. Marriott’s intention was to convert the 233-room property into a 219-unit timeshare. But to do that, they’d need to build upward beyond the building’s present 125-foot height.

The timeshare/vacation club developer requested permission to build to a height of 175 feet. At the August 7, 2006, Marco Island city council meeting, a compromise was reached. MVCI will be permitted to build to a height of 150 feet.

According to an article by reporter Jennifer Brannock in The Naples News, (www.naplesnews.com) the president of the Marco Island Civic Association, Kathryn Sullivan, expressed disappointment with the decision. Sullivan was quoted as saying, “I think hotels are important to the economy of the island, and I think we lost a hotel tonight. The danger with this is that we’ll lose more hotels as the owners realize the advantages of going to timeshares.”

A recent survey of island residents showed that more than half are opposed to raising the height regulations for Collier Boulevard, the main thoroughfare on the island. The Naples News says, “Some residents and councilors said they were concerned that the allowance of more units will create traffic and congestion problems, because more people can occupy a two-bedroom time-share than a hotel room.”

And while it is easy to empathize with the local residents’ desire to protect their community from overgrowth, it is interesting to note they have identified some of the very same things we are always saying at SellMyTimeshareNOW.

1. When people realize the advantage of timeshares, it is hard to go back to hotels, and this applies to both vacationers and hoteliers.
2. The spaciousness of timeshares beats out a comparable hotel room every time.