timeshare news

The latest news for Consolidated Resorts owners, as Director of Communications Steve Luba explains.

Over the past year, we have written a great deal about the “green” efforts at Marriott timeshare to reduce, recycle, and reuse at their administrative offices, timeshare sales centers, and timeshare resorts. And while they are not the only timeshare sales company or timeshare developer stepping up to this important responsibility, they are certainly setting a pace for exemplary environmental responsibility.

But a recent Letter to the Editor in Timesharing Today® makes the point that perhaps timeshare resorts are not doing as much as they could to help the environment. In a letter titled, “Need ‘recycling’ in Resort ratings” Joan Carr points out that recycling should perhaps be one of the areas for which a timeshare is rated by timeshare owners and timeshare guests. As she explains, “Everywhere we go, I always ask if the resort recycles. I have never come across one yet that does. We always had to go out of the resort to recycle.”

Excellent point. Timeshare vacationers need the opportunity to recycle at the timeshare resort. They may be on vacation but they haven’t taken a holiday from environmental responsibility. No timeshare owner or timeshare guest should have to spend part of his or her vacation time in search of a recycling station. And when you consider that timeshare vacationers, using travel-size containers and disposable products, possibly generate a higher quantity of waste for recycling than they would at home, recycling becomes an even more important issue for timeshare resorts.

Ms. Carr wants to make recycling a topic on timeshare report cards and she is right. Kudos to her for bringing up this point and to Timesharing Today for spreading the message!

Eye-Opening Facts about Recycling that Effect All of Us (From: Planet Green)

• 544,000: Trees saved if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100 percent recycled ones.
• 20 million: Tons of electronic waste thrown away each year. One ton of scrap from discarded computers contains more gold than can be produced from 17 tons of gold ore.
• 9 cubic yards: Amount of landfill space saved by recycling one ton of cardboard.
• 315 kg: Amount of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere each time a metric ton of glass is used to create new glass products.

Recycling opportunities for timeshare owners and timeshare guests will change when we all speak out about this. Tell your timeshare resort that you want to recycle! Discuss this with your timeshare home owners association.

Recycling not only helps save the planet, it saves money, too, and conserving cash is a type of “green” that’s on everyone’s radar these days.

Past news about timeshare developers and timeshare sales companies taking environmentally responsible actions:

• Three Marriott Timeshare Resorts Earn Special ‘Green’ Designation as Environmentally Conscious Resorts
• Part II: Marriott Timeshare Resorts Earn Special ‘Green’ Designation from State of Florida
• Part III: Marriott Timeshare Resorts Recognized by State of Florida with Green Lodging Program Designation
• A Timeshare Sales Company Taking an Important Environmental Stand
• Marriott Timeshare Is Turning Green

The Sell My Timeshare NOW HOT 100 List, published earlier this spring, revealed an interesting trend in Florida timeshares. Even though timeshare buyers and timeshare owners frequently identify a beachside location or beach access as a favorite feature, the top five Florida timeshares on the HOT 100 List, are all Orlando timeshare destinations—not Florida timeshare resorts at the beach. In fact, HOT timeshare property number 22, Marriott’s Ocean Pointe in Palm Beach Shores, Florida, is the highest-ranking beachside Florida timeshare on the list of timeshare properties receiving the greatest number of offers to buy or rent.

Florida Timeshare are Popular, but Orlando Timeshare Tops the List

The popularity of Orlando timeshare is easy to understand. Orlando timeshare resorts have so much to offer while still being only a short drive to both the Atlantic coast beaches at Cocoa Beach and Daytona, and the Gulf of Mexico beaches in the Tampa – St Petersburg area. When you vacation in Orlando timeshares, you enjoy a Florida timeshare resort at its best. The theme park fun starts with Walt Disney World, SeaWorld, Universal Studios, along with many other parks and themed attractions. There are lakes for water sports of every type and swimming pools, water slides, and water parks all inviting you to splash, swim, or float way a sunny afternoon in the sparkling cool blue water. And if golf is your game, play a different championship course every day of the week when you vacation in an Orlando, Florida timeshare.

Top Five Orlando, Florida Timeshares on the HOT 100 Timeshare List

1. Orange Lake’s West Village timeshares.
2. Marriott’s Grande Vista timeshares.
3. Hilton Grand Vacations Club at SeaWorld International Center timeshares.
4. Sheraton Vistana Resort timeshares.
5. Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort timeshares.

Whether the economy is up or down, the best value in vacation accommodations is always timeshare resales and timeshare rentals. And year in, year out, Orlando, Florida timeshares are always on the list of favorite resort destinations.

Related information from The Timeshare Authority:

• Timeshare Resales and Timeshare Rentals that Make the 2009 HOT 100 List
• A Closer Look at the HOT 100 List for Sell My Timeshare NOW, Timeshare Resales

The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) launched a new website last year dedicated to helping people “vacation better”. Appropriately named VacationBetter.org, this site reminds us all that we desperately need to vacation better, and that means vacationing with more frequency, more regularity, and under more relaxing circumstances.

As Howard Nusbaum, ARDA president and CEO says, “Unfortunately vacation is one of the first things people give up when times get tough economically, and with that goes some of the best quality time you can get with your family.” He continues by reminding us, “Tough times are when people need (to) connect to their families even more, and it can be done very economically.”

In a recent ARDA survey of website visitors at VacationBetter.org, nearly half said they felt that quality time with their family was lacking. The feedback led ARDA to launch “The Family Stimulus Plan,” as a way to help people easily plan successful vacations.

ARDA reminds us that timeshares make vacation planning especially convenient. When you own timeshare, you will be far less likely to eliminate or postpone your vacation—after all, your vacation accommodations are either paid for (or are part of a payment plan) and probably already scheduled. Since so many timeshare resorts offer lots of onsite entertainment and activities, you can even enjoy a fabulous vacation without ever leaving the property. In fact, the convenience of kitchens and eat-in dining (available in so many timeshare units and timeshare condos) means that meals during your timeshare vacation don’t have to cost a bit more than you spend on groceries at home.

As the vacation specialists at ARDA and www.vacationbetter.org remind us, “It’s a proven fact that people who spend time away reap health benefits far beyond that week or two of vacation. Vacations are not a luxury, but a necessity for good health and well-being.”

Click here to download your VacationBetter Family Stimulus Plan from ARDA.