Marriott Timeshare

Last month The Sunday Times Travel Magazine released a survey that said the number one complaint among vacationers is noisy neighbors.

At first I was surprised by this, but then I thought about how important rest and relaxation are to all of us and how often we are deprived of it. According to an article by Kathleen Fackelmann in USA Today, which quotes a study conducted by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researcher, Mathias Basner, “Sleep deprivation has been linked to serious health problems, including obesity.”

The article went on to explain, “People who are chronically sleep-deprived also can experience attention lapses, memory loss and other difficulties that can impair performance on the job, according to James Walsh, executive director of the sleep medicine and research center at St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis“.

So it really makes sense that when we finally break out of our work-work-work routines to enjoy a luxurious hotel or timeshare resort, we really count on getting a good night’s sleep.

Hotel Executive Magazine looked at the full report from The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and found that, by percentage, the following issues account for 50 percent of the things we don’t like about hotel rooms.

• Noisy neighbors and thin walls: 28 percent
• Noise from the street: 6 percent
• Size of room: 16 percent

Not every timeshare resort is a perfect solution for these problems, but considering that timeshare rooms are typically so much more spacious than hotel rooms, the odds of improving the rest and relaxation factor of your vacation increase tremendously when you stay in a timeshare. Timeshare resorts typically include a kitchen and dining area.

Most timeshares are much more like a condo suite or apartment than like an average hotel room. Obviously, the more room between you and your next-door neighbors, the more peace and quiet you can expect. And with more space for you and your family to spread out, you avoid the hotel scenario of a family of four cramped into a room with 2 beds and a single bathroom.

While there are thousands of peaceful timeshare resorts from which to select, here are a few that timeshare owners have identified as being particularly restful retreats:

Paradise Beach Villas in Aruba

Hilton Suites Venezuela

Wyndham Glade in Tennessee

Marriott Legends Edge at Bay Point, Florida

The timeshare resales professionals at Sell My Timeshare NOW are always available to help you custom select the timeshare resale or timeshare rental that is the right match for the way you and your family like to vacation.

Marriott Vacation Club International has announced the second phase opening of its Marriott timeshares at Frenchman’s Cove in St. Thomas. The new phase includes 30 additional two-bedroom timeshare villas and a full service restaurant.

Balconies off each villa overlook the sugar-white sand beaches of Pacquereau Bay. Other features of the timeshare units include fully equipped kitchens, dining areas, a washer and dryer, and multiple Sony televisions and DVD players. The resort is situated on 13 waterfront acres where tropical mountains slope to Caribbean-blue waters.

Marriott Vacation Club International views St. Thomas as a high-demand area among their vacation property owners, and regular readers of the timeshare blog may recall our Timeshare Owners Blog posting one chilly day last February when I wrote about Wyndham Vacation Resorts acquiring the Old Beach Palace resort in St. Thomas. At that time, I quoted Lisa Burby, senior director of Wyndham Vacation Ownership, as saying, “St. Thomas is an extremely popular destination for our owners.”

With Marriott and Wyndham timeshares taking the same position here, I’d say that buying a St. Thomas timeshare resale with plans to use it, rent it, or resell it in the future, is a pretty solid plan.

Here’s Marriott’s great video that appears on You-Tube. If it doesn’t make you want to go to St. Thomas, then the beach just isn’t for you!

Buying new timeshare at the developer’s price is not always a day at the beach…

Singer Island, just north of Palm Beach, Florida, is home to the community of Riviera Beach. Marriott Vacation Club International has a splendid timeshare resort on the south shore of the island at Ocean Point Reef, but in recent months has been in negotiations with the city council of Riviera Beach to build a timeshare resort on the northern end of the island.

Marriott timeshare’s plan was to raze a beachside Crowne Plaza Hotel and replace it with two, 19-story timeshare towers. Because some area residents were opposed to the action, and several council members likewise had objections, a series of negotiations began. The result was council approval in a 3-2 vote for the construction of the Marriott timeshare towers, with certain “community benefits” to be thrown in as part of the deal.

The required community benefits call for Marriott timeshare to give the city of Rivera Beach $1.4 million in cash contributions, of which $1.2 million will go to the city’s minority housing trust fund, with $100 thousand going to the beautification of highway A1A, and another $100 thousand going to the Riviera Beach job-training fund. Marriott timeshares also agreed to give 25 percent of the hotel’s supply orders to minority or women-owned businesses and to hire 60 percent of its operational staff from minority groups.

Ocean Point Reef is a magnificent Marriott timeshare and I feel certain that the new Marriott Singer Island timeshare resort will be just as luxurious, with similar breathtaking ocean views. But when $1.4 million gets tacked on to a project, before the first shovel of dirt (or in this case, sugary-white sand) gets turned, who do you think absorbs this cost?

Timeshare resorts are expensive to build. But basic mathematics tells us that the number of units in a timeshare resort multiplied by the developer’s selling price per unit, and then multiplied by the fact that each timeshare unit is sold at that price, to 51 separate owners, yields a tidy sum of money, any way you figure it.

Buying timeshare from the developer often results in a net savings to the timeshare owner on the cost of vacation accommodations, over multiple years of usage. However, the timeshare resale market probably reflects the true market value of timeshare units or intervals more accurately than the prices developers charge for new timeshare. Yet, as long as people are willing to pay the prices developers charge, the mark-up on timeshares is not likely to go down.

If you are considering buying timeshare, I seriously recommend you shop the inventory of timeshare resales that are available to purchase directly from the person who actually owns the timeshare unit. The website for Sell My Timeshare NOW offers a great place to start your search.

The Ultimate Cyclist Vacation Club is a good idea that might be an excellent match with timesharing.

I ran across the idea of the Ultimate Cyclist Vacation Club on an interesting blog: www.fatcyclist.com. The writer (who seems to go only by the name, Fatty) has an idea that I think sounds great.

An avid biker, Fatty suggests what he calls, “The Ultimate Five-Day Trip,” which he would host in his home area of Utah. His plan calls for inviting other cyclists (he suggests a group of seven) to join him on a five-day ride, where he would choose the trails, the places to eat, and generally coordinate all the details of the trip. He compares his role as host to that of Mr. Roarke, from the old television show, Fantasy Island. And then suggests that other bikers would follow up by hosting trips in their favorite biking territory.

Fatty describes the highlights of his proposed Utah bike trip like this: the ride would take in the epic views of Tibble Fork, the natural waterslide at Hog’s Hollow, an 80-mile section with 9000 feet of climbing called the Gauntlet, and then drop down into southern Utah to Gooseberry and Little Creek Mesa.

For housing, Fatty suggests accommodations at the local Marriott, but I have another suggestion: timeshares!

Think about how comfortably seven people could stay in a 3-bedroom timeshare or a couple of 2-bedroom timeshare units? The average 2-bedroom timeshare unit is usually designed to sleep between six and eight people, while 3 and 4-bedroom units may sleep up to ten. There are some spectacular Utah timeshares, and even more spectacular deals on Utah timeshare resales and by-owner timeshare rentals. And when you split the cost 7 ways, these great deals get even better.

The more I thought about the options, the more exciting I thought it was. A group of cyclists could purchase a timeshare resale jointly, then use their exchange privileges to help them plan annual bike trips to all parts of the country. Or they could just take advantage of a timeshare rental, and with no other commitments, pick a different place to go every year.

And for less adventurous bikers, many timeshare resorts have excellent bike trails in place, perfect for both adults and children to enjoy, often without leaving the security of the resort property. Bike trekking and timeshare resorts are a new combination, I’d never considered, but when you think about it, the opportunities are endless.

Here’s a link to a great page of Utah mountain biking video. Please remember that these videos are the copyrighted material of UtahMountainBiking.com.

biking video download link

Here is also a great You-Tube Video of biking Gooseberry Mesa.