Sell My Timeshare

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.

The Middle East is one of timeshare’s fastest growing regions.

This year’s Vacation Ownership Investment Conference will be held on March 6, 2007 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The theme of the VOIC Dubai 2007 conference will be, “Timeshares, Fractionals, Condo-hotels And more…”

Over 100 senior management executives from industries in 13 countries attended the 2005 Dubai symposium, formerly known as the Timeshare & Resort Investment Conference. This year’s event is returning to Dubai because VOIC recognizes the Middle East as one of the fastest growing regions for vacation ownership, in an industry that has experienced double-digit growth for more than two decades. Many experts believe that the timeshare vacation industry in the Middle East will see growth previously unparalleled in vacation ownership. With some 6.7 million timeshare owners, and over 5500 resorts in 110 countries around the globe, the vision of even greater growth, at a faster rate, is staggering.

The conference will not only educate its attendees on the opportunities in timesharing but will discuss fractionals, private residence clubs and condo-hotels, as well. Owners and decision makers within the industry will learn ways to benefit from the multiple profit centers timesharing creates, as well as develop a better understanding of the unique synergy between the traditional real estate industry and the vacation ownership market. Orlando’s Peter C. Yesawich, the chairman and ceo of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown, & Russell, will be the conference’s keynote speaker. Mr. Yesawich is an industry expert you’ve heard me quote frequently in the Sell My Timeshare NOW, Timeshare Owners’ Blog, podcasts, and press releases. You’ll also find Yesawich’s wisdom in publications including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, Business Week, and Newsweek. His firm is one of the travel industry’s leaders in marketing, advertising, and public relations, and includes among their clients, the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotels, US Airways, Marriot Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Grand Vacations, Marriott Vacation Club International, the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), and Interval International, to name only a few.

The host hotel for the conference will be The Arabian Court, One & Only Royal Mirage in Dubai, a beachside resort that includes three properties: The Palace, The Residence & Spa, and The Arabian Court.

Sadly the one-year mark has passed and still no leads on Jennifer Kesse.

January 24, 2007 marked the one-year anniversary of the date Orlando resident and timeshare employee, Jennifer Kesse went missing. During this past year, we have used our Timeshare Owners Blog to help get the word out about this heartbreaking event. Once again, we’d like to remind you of the facts in this case, always in the that hope that someone, somewhere will remember a key piece of information that might lead to Jennifer’s safe return.

Jennifer Kesse was 24 years old at the time of her disappearance and presumed kidnapping. She was a graduate of the University of Central Florida and an employee of Central Florida Investments Timeshare Company (Westgate Resorts). After working as usual on Monday, January 23, 2006, Jennifer returned home to her recently purchased condo and spoke by phone that evening with several family members, as well as with her boyfriend, Robert Allen, and other friends. On Tuesday morning when she failed to have her routine morning phone conversation with Allen, a resident of Ft. Lauderdale, he called CFI only to learn that she had not arrived at work. Two days later the Orlando Police found Jennifer’s car at a nearby apartment complex.

Despite exhaustive searches of the area the police have no viable leads at this time. The Kesse family, along with Jennifer’s friends, and co-workers at Westgate, continue their efforts to keep Jennifer’s story alive and to spread the word to as many people as possible. It is believed that the abduction occurred on the morning of January 24, and that someone who was in the area at that time may remember details that will be helpful to the police.

What can you do to help?

Here are some of the suggestions that investigators believe might lead to solving this case:

1. Visit the website www.JenniferKesse.com. You can download copies of Jennifer’s photo to distribute by email, print your own flyers, or request flyers in English or in Spanish to distribute in your area.
2. Tape the information with a photo of Jennifer to your car windows, so that everywhere you go, you will be spreading the word.
3. Send information about Jennifer to everyone on your email list.
4. Make it a habit to share the information about Jennifer’s disappearance with strangers you may meet during your workday.
5. And if you know anything—anything at all that might be helpful—contact Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS.