Check with your resort before your college student heads for spring break at your timeshare.

If you own or have exchanged your timeshare week for one during the March to early May vacation season, you may be thinking of letting your college student put your timeshare to use during the Spring Break holidays. Before your son or daughter loads the car with luggage and friends and heads south, you should first contact your resort. Most timeshares do not permit underage youths to occupy a timeshare unit without an adult chaperone. And underage sometimes means 25, not 21, however in some places (Nassau in the Bahamas, for example) it can mean 18.

Another problem you may face is that college spring breakers are notorious for loading hotel rooms with as many bodies as can fit on the beds, couches, or floor to sleep. Your timeshare will not permit you to house more guests than the maximum number for which the unit is rated. In other words, if your timeshare sleeps six to eight people, then eight is the total number of guests who can stay overnight.

You should also consider your liability should your college student or his guests cause damage to property during their vacation days and nights. Even the most responsible young adult cannot control the actions of others during the high-energy, high-alcohol consumption activities that are typically associated with spring break holidays.

Cities including Ft. Lauderdale and Daytona Beach, along with many others, have tried to change their image as a spring break destination for college students. They have a justifiable reason for seeking to shed the reputation and lose this segment of business. Hoteliers have learned the hard way that the revenue associated with “breakers” just doesn’t justify the clean-up and repairs that follow.

Businesspeople fear Malta’s image is being marred.

Here’s one of those items I always like to report. Members of the General Retailers and Traders Union (GRTU) have asked officials in Malta to put a stop to pushy timeshare sellers.

The businesspeople of the GRTU generally support the presence of timeshares in Malta, recognizing that they bring thousands of tourists to the tiny island. But they are asking the Ministry for Tourism and Culture to set and enforce guidelines to stop Malta timeshare operators, street side hucksters and persistent OPCs (“OPC” stands for “off-property consultant”) from approaching tourists in the cities. Such aggressive tactics not only disrupt business in the area but also drive tourists away and damage Malta’s image as a serene vacation destination.

It is clear that everyone benefits when local governments clamp down on the bad boys of the resort sales industry. Let’s hope that Maltese officials are listening to the wisdom and common sense voiced by their business and tourism communities.

FBI called in to help with the search for missing timeshare employee.

Jennifer Kesse, a financial analyst at Westgate Resorts in Ocoee (Orlando) has been missing from her home for over six weeks despite manhunts and an all-out effort by police to find her. As previously reported on this blog and elsewhere, Jennifer is believed to have been getting ready to leave her home, or perhaps had already left, headed for work on the morning of January 24, 2006. No one has heard from her since the evening of January 23. Efforts to find Jennifer have produced few clues, despite the recovery of her Chevrolet Malibu found three days into the search.

Jennifer’s family has recently released new photos of her. We have all seen Jennifer’s warm smile in the images the media has publicized to assist the search. The link below will take you to a photo of Jennifer that is somber, perhaps looking more as she would appear under the circumstances of a kidnapping. Please take a moment to visit this website and study the photo.

http://jenniferkesse.net/new-english.pdf

Remember that Elizabeth Smart was found after nine months missing and having been taken by her captors to several states. Someone who had seen the Utah girl’s photo and thought they recognized her on the street made that critical call to the authorities.

As it says on the website established by Jennifer’s family, “Someone out there knows something that can help us bring Jenn home.”

http://www.jenniferkesse.com

1-800-423-TIPS

New legislation helps safeguard consumers, but there’s still cause for consumers to be vigilant.

An article published this past Saturday in the online version of The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18145220%255E25658,00.html) has many good things to say about the state of timeshares in Australia. While I personally am very pleased to see such optimism reflected in the pages of a major online periodical, I do have some constructive criticism to voice.

New legislation forbids Australia’s timeshare salespeople from advertising timeshare as a financial investment. This is great news! More and more countries around the world are implementing similar policies, which have been gratefully received by the timesharing public. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that a timeshare’s monetary value almost always depreciates, and timeshares should not be considered a sound financial investment because of the likelihood of such depreciation.

This legislation has improved consumer confidence in the product of timeshare, and the Australia timeshare business is booming as a direct result. Again, this is good news. Australia is a wonderful place to visit (here’s a tip: September to December is a great time to go scuba diving around the Great Barrier Reef), whether for a week or an extended stay. The people are wonderful, the scenery is spectacular, and I’ve noticed that children in particular are especially intrigued by Australia’s wildlife (especially koalas).

However, reading between the lines of this article, I find that a certain amount of foreshadowing becomes evident. As with any healthy industry, it is only a matter of time before the lure of easy money convinces some timeshare salespeople to abandon their scruples.

The article mentions that direct marketing is increasingly becoming the most popular method of attracting new timeshare buyers in Australia. This concerns me because many of the complaints we’ve heard about timeshares have to do with how a timeshare property is marketed.

I feel that a timeshare property should rely on its own qualities to sell itself, rather than sales hype. Hopefully most would agree that our company’s business model reflects this attitude. A lot of timeshare buyers have been led to sign less-than-agreeable contracts after being wined and dined, subjected to free gifts, treated to elaborate and lengthy sales presentations, or subjected to other inducements.

In areas with a longer history of timeshare development, hype and high pressure are falling rapidly from favor. In areas like the United States, consumers are becoming more aware about the product of timeshare and how it is marketed, and fewer of these folks are likely to buy a timeshare because of marketing hype. However, in other parts of the world, timeshare sales practices exist which may differ startlingly from an American’s idea of “business as usual”.

Maybe I am overly skeptical of direct marketing as it applies to timeshare, but I have good reason: I am involved with the resale sector. If you’re a timeshare owner, and you receive an unsolicited phone call from someone claiming to be a timeshare reseller, use extreme caution. If you smell a rat, hang up the phone if you need to. The person on the other end has probably obtained your personal information from someone selling lists of known timeshare owners. If you want to buy, sell or rent timeshare, don’t wait for a stranger to cold-call you! Contact a reputable timeshare-by-owner company or a licensed timeshare broker.

It has always been my belief that people should buy a timeshare because it fits well with their lifestyles and vacation goals – NOT because of free toasters.

It is my sincerest wish and hope that owners of Australia timeshare properties will enjoy a lifetime of amazing vacations. By saying no to timeshare hype, you have the power to make it happen.