timeshare news

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.

In the category of “Really, Really Strange” are the reports of vacationers destroying their hotel rooms. No, not Spring Breakers getting too wild at a party; we’re talking about Mom and Dad on vacation with the kids, demolishing a hotel room because a caller from the ‘front desk’ instructs them to break windows and knock holes in the wall.

Believe it or not, it is happening. Some very obliging people are falling victim to pranks that have gone beyond funny and evolved into criminal acts. Vacationers from Nebraska to Arkansas to Orlando have already become the victim of some outrageous pranksters. And while the cost is adding up, the bigger concern is that it is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed as a result of the pranks.

Here’s an example, based on an article that originally appeared last week in The Orlando Sentinel:

Lisa Kantorski and her family were on vacation in Orlando, staying at the Hilton Gardens Inn. Around 7 AM, they received a phone call identifying that it was from the hotel’s front desk, and telling Mrs. Kantorski that there was a gas leak at the property. Frantically Lisa relayed the instructions the caller was giving her to her husband, a sheriff’s deputy.

Break the window, she was told. Break the mirror. Use the lamp and bash a hole in the wall to get to the trapped man on the other side. Now throw the mattress out your window and jump for safety. The family had yet to jump when management from the hotel arrived in response to a noise complaint.

Not the First Time Vacationers Have been the Victim of this Type of Prank

According to the Sentinel article: “In Arkansas, a caller posing as a sprinkler company employee convinced a motel employee to do more than $50,000 in damage to a motel as part of a “test” of the motel’s emergency alarms. At a Comfort Suites in Daphne, Ala., a caller ordered a guest to turn on the sprinklers for a fire that wasn’t. The result: more than $10,000 in damage. In Nebraska, a Hampton Inn employee was convinced by a caller to pull the fire alarm, later telling him the only way to silence the alarm was by breaking the lobby windows. The employee enlisted the help of a nearby trucker, who drove his rig through the front door.”

When you begin researching this topic, you find that there are thousands of these types of calls made regularly, not just to hotel guests, but to restaurant workers, office staffs, and unsuspecting people in a variety of situations. Several websites memorialize the events. We won’t list any of these sites, because they don’t deserve the attention.

This is far beyond “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” This type of prank is malicious, destructive of property, dangerous to lives, and disrespectful to everyone involved. It is also criminal. And perhaps worst of all, it leads to a ‘Cry Wolf’ environment in which people will become conditioned to ignore pleas for assistance because they believe them to be fallacious.

If you are ever a hotel or timeshare guest and you receive a request to do something that just doesn’t sound right, take a moment before you act and double-check the source. You could save yourself a lot of embarrassment and save your timeshare resort a lot of expensive repairs.

We’ve never made it a secret. Our approach to getting timeshare sellers and timeshare renters the best possible visibility on the World Wide Web for their advertised timeshare property has involved using the best strategies of internet marketing. Sell My Timeshare NOW works to stay on the cutting edge of internet and search engine optimization, so that when you let us advertise your timeshare resale or timeshare rental, you have maximum internet visibility to a marketplace of interested timeshare buyers and timeshare renters.

But the internet continues to change, transforming itself and how people use it. As these changes happen, we keep expanding our offerings to you so that you will always have a timely and reliable resource for the newest and most comprehensive timeshare information. The Timeshare Authority blog has been a frontrunner in timeshare industry communication for almost five years. No one else has a timeshare news and information update, published over 300 times per year, except here at The Timeshare Authority blog.

Timeshare News from a Source You Can Trust: Sell My Timeshare NOW on Twitter

We are also tweeting to you on the following corporate account: @VacationHotDeal. Twitter is a fun, dynamic medium of communication and we hope you will sign up to follow our tweets and that you will retweet our messages.

Web 2.0 and the surge in social media is exciting. It means that advertising and marketing is no longer industry driven, but is instead defined, and constantly redefined — as it should be — by the consumers who use it.

Director of Communications Steve Luba talks about some of the stranger happenings this week.