Hyatt Vacation Club Timeshare

For several years, we’ve been hearing only good things about the state of timeshare sales in India. India has been a vacation hot deal with strong timeshare sales both from residents and from abroad. In fact, business has been so good, that some India timeshare companies have established targeted offices in cities such as Washington DC and London because these areas have large populations of residents whose parents or grandparents live in India and who visit there regularly.

India timeshare sales have boomed, in part, because people who make annual trips to visit their India homeland recognize the value of owning timeshare weeks at resorts located near their family and friends. Additionally, India has long been considered a safe vacation destination, with a warm climate, beautiful beaches, and a rich and splendorous cultural heritage, that is geographically well located for millions of travelers.

So I was surprised to read the recent post from India news source, Sify.com, stating, “The concept (timeshare ownership) failed because their owners apparently did not intend to honour their commitments to the consumers who paid money up-front and booked time in resorts. It was also alleged that after building these resorts, consumers holding valid timeshare were told that the resort was unavailable while walk-in customers were provided room because they paid cash.”

The India Timeshare and Timeshare Resale Market

I challenge this statement as a problem of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” I would certainly not call India timeshare a failed concept. While it appears that India timeshare owners are raising a complaint about their inability to exchange timeshare while their exchange company seems perfectly willing to rent timeshare weeks to non-owners, they are simply voicing a problem that is confronting timeshare owners in all parts of the world.

A detailed and highly-informative article posted by IndLawNews depicts a much more positive picture of timesharing in India, stating, “Timeshare is one of the most evolved and profitable sectors in the hospitality and leisure industry. Introduced in India barely 15 years ago, the timeshare industry is growing manifold with big brands such as Resort Condominiums International (RCI), Ramada Hotels & Resorts, Club Mahindra, Hyatt Vacation Club, etc. entering the business. Much of it still remains untapped and developers keep coming up with new, innovative and attractive deals.”

I venture to say that timeshare ownership in India is still an excellent idea and a perfect solution for both vacationers and people who travel regularly there. Every nation that has embraced the concept of timeshare ownership has soon found that new legislation must be introduced to regulate timeshare buying and timeshare selling within their marketplace.

Growing pains in the India timeshare market maybe, but a failure? Not a chance!

On one of the nation’s top 10 beaches, in Siesta Key, Florida, Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare is developing a fractional ownership resort, which they say is unlike timeshare ownership.

The resort will front 300 feet of Crescent Beach and will offer 44 furnished vacation condos ranging from 1600 square feet to 2600 square feet with privleges at the adjoining beach club. To be known as the Hyatt Siesta Key Beach resort, the vacation ownership property will offer valet parking, a concierge, pool, spa, and fitness center with massage treatment rooms.

Larry Shulman, senior vice president for Hyatt Vacation Ownership, Inc, says, “We have every reason to believe through an early survey we’ve done (that) there’ll be a very significant local contingent of owners more likely to purchase in summertime rather than wintertime.”

In the first phase of occupancy, 11 vacation condo units will be sold as fractional ownership residences. As Shulman explains, “Effectively, there’ll be eight owners of each residence.” Occupancy is expected by 2009.

Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare has similar properties in Bonita Springs, Florida, and in Aspen, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge, Colorado, as well as at Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Sell My Timeshare NOW can help you learn more about the many excellent values in Hyatt Vacation Club timeshare resales, at favorite locations worldwide. For sometimes as little as half of what it costs to buy timeshare or fractional ownership from the developer, you can become a vacation property owner with a great deal on timeshare resales.

What is the first big clue that timeshare resorts are edging out the hotel market, claiming more and more vacation business and a bigger piece of the hospitality and tourism pie?

Simple.

The fact is that most major hotel chains are devoting as much or more attention (and more dollars) to their timeshare and vacation ownership divisions as to their regular hotel business. There are the Disney Vacation Club Resorts, Marriott Vacation Club International, the Hyatt Vacation Club, Hilton Grand Vacations, Wyndham Vacation Ownership and even the Ritz Carlton Club and Residence, to name a few of the big dogs now on the playing field.

Timeshares, or vacation ownership, as some providers like to call it, are giving hotels such serious competition that in top tourist destinations like Orlando, Florida, hoteliers actually blame the decline in room night bookings on the excellent offerings in timeshares, timeshare resales, and timeshare rentals.

Today, most leading hotel companies have a timeshare division, even though many like to avoid use of the word “timeshare” and replace it instead with phrases like vacation ownership and vacation club. No matter what you call it, it’s still timeshare. Ritz-Carlton Hotel spokesperson, Vivian Deuschl, says the Ritz-Carlton Hotel company will no longer even manage a hotel unless it includes a residential component, according to a July 6, 2005 article published in USA Today.

A recent Time Magazine article about the newest trend in hotels, makes me wonder if one specific trend isn’t a direct response to the competitive pressure hotels feel from timeshares. The Time article states, “Global tourism is thriving, and the luxury segment, the top 15 percent of the market by price, is driving it. With rates as high as $25,000 a night, these are the most profitable rooms in a hotel, and they consistently have the highest occupancy rates”. The Time Magazine article, titled “The Grander Hotel”, goes on to cite Smith Travel Research as showing that luxury room revenues increased more than 10 percent from 2005 to 2006.

Let me make something clear, we are not talking about the type of luxury you find in a fabulous beachside Marriott Vacation Club timeshare, where the suites are spacious and the amenities are practically perfect. Time Magazine is talking about uber-luxury, targeted at a market willing to pay thousands or tens of thousands per night for hotel accommodations, sometimes referred to as “ultraluxe”.

While this may be a growing market, I’d say that it is not one that most of us are going to be part of, at least not on a regular basis.

Let’s see, you can pay $25,000 for one room night—one time—at an ultraluxe hotel. You can buy a fabulous timeshare week from the timeshare developer for about the same amount of money and use it for 7 days, each and every year, for the rest of your life. Or, for that kind of money, you can deal directly with timeshare owners who want to sell timeshare they currently own, and you can buy the right to enjoy anywhere from 14 nights to perhaps as many as 30 or even 60 or 70 nights, per year, every single year, as long as you own the timeshare. Own a timeshare for 20 years, and you conceivably could get 1400 vacation days and nights from an initial expenditure of $25,000.

I suspect many of us will be passing up ultraluxe and “settling” for more affordable (and more logical) levels of luxury.

Towns across America are weighing their options, and their decision determines whether the new style of resort will be built in their areas. What’s the deciding factor? It pretty much comes down to the taxes.

In an October 16 meeting with town council members at Snowmass Village, Colorado, Hyatt Vacation Ownership vice president Larry Shulman and fractional developer Pat Smith explained Hyatt’s intent behind their recent application for a land use permit.

Hyatt Vacation Ownership is seeking to develop vacation properties to fill a new niche market. According to John Burlingame, a Hyatt Vacation Club vice president who had previously spoken before the Snowmass Planning Commission, more families are traveling together as a group. There is also a trend among extended families to buy shared vacation property. Hyatt referred to the concept as “togethering.”

To meet this specific need, Hyatt wants to offer fractional ownership of 51 residences, seven of which will be five-bedroom units; 25 will be four-bedroom units, with the others offering either one, two, or three bedrooms.

While council members were concerned about maintaining high occupancy of these larger units, Shulman reminded the group that timeshare owners typically either trade their week or rent it directly to another vacationer. Any Hyatt timeshare units that are not rented are listed in the global Hyatt reservation system as part of the Gold program, making them available to roughly one half million potential renters.

Hyatt estimates that if construction stays on schedule the properties will be available for occupancy in late 2009. By that date, Hyatt estimates that the active membership of the Hyatt Vacation Club will number somewhere around 40,000 members.

How does this impact the tax issue? Occupancy rate is the crux of the matter. Can a Colorado timeshare or fractional resort with a higher occupancy rate generate more tax money for the town via individual owners than a hotel with a lower occupancy rate but the added benefit of sales tax on top of property tax? Snowmass Village will be letting Hyatt and the rest of us know what they think.

Tell us about your experiences with “togethering!” How does it work for your family? Do you stay near home, or go somewhere in between Cousin Louie in Louisiana and Aunt Elma in Washington state? What timeshare company or fractional resort has been most accomodating for your large gathering?