timeshare resale

Last week, ARDA’s vacation website, www.vacationbetter.org announced the winners of this year’s “Bring Your Vacation to Life Contest.”

Each year this photo, essay, and video competition is announced in conjunction with the National Travel and Tourism Week in May. Entrants are asked to share a memory of a timeshare vacation that contributed to their enjoyment of life or impacted their family or their health.

This year’s winners received an American Express gift card.

• Sally Lessig received first place for her photo, “Al Relaxing” and the accompanying story, “Thru the Years.”
• Alexis MacDonald received second place for her photo, “Lexie & Dan Love Myrtle Beach.”
• Tracy Dunn received second place for her photo, “For My Next Act.”

Follow this link to read Sally’s story about a lifetime of timeshare vacations at the Beach House Golf and Racket Club in Myrtle Beach.

And remember, you aren’t limited to just reading about the great timeshare vacations other people enjoy. The competitive prices of timeshare resales and timeshare rentals make affordable vacations an option even for travelers on a limited budget.

Lisa Ann Schreier, author of Timeshare for Dummies authored an excellent article last month in Resort Trades making valid points about what the timeshare sales industry can learn from the travel industry.

Schreier looked at research from Chairman and CEO of Ypartnership, Peter Yesawich, which shows that the two greatest influences on Americans who travel are internet technology and feedback from other consumers.

Prodding the timeshare industry to ‘catch up,’ (or perhaps wake up) author Schreier focuses on the scarcity of timeshare sales information on the internet and lack of feedback from timeshare owners and vacationers about timeshare resorts.

“Hotels and motels and other non-timeshare travel services have been forced to become price transparent…as have just about every other product or service available to consumers. And still, the timeshare industry won’t budge on this because they cling to the concept that timeshares are not a sought-after product.”

Why Timeshare Resale Advertising Works

Strong words, but very perceptive. And they explain a great deal about why timeshare resale advertising is so effective.

• Consumers want the best price possible whether they are shopping for a hotel room or to buy timeshare or rent timeshare. Timeshare resales give buyers and renters the opportunity to shop from a large inventory of timeshares for sale or rent, where prices are clearly posted and resort features are specifically detailed.
• Consumers trust other consumers. Many people who buy timeshare or rent timeshare really like the idea of doing business directly with the property’s current owner.
• And as Schreier points out, “If a consumer can purchase a timeshare from the developer for $20,000 or a similar product on the resale market for $5,000 or $6,000…why wouldn’t they?”

Helpful reading: Surviving a Timeshare Presentation by Lisa Ann Schreier

Happy Labor Day to all who have been observing this US holiday that is so welcomed this time of year, signaling for many the end of summer and the return to school and all-too-familiar routines. If you have been vacationing this weekend, good for you! And if you have been on the job this weekend, well, that’s can be a good thing too especially considering today’s economy.

However you schedule your leisure time and days off, just be sure you do work vacationing into your routine. Not just because you deserve it, which you certainly do, but also because you NEED it.

We’ve said it here before, but it bears repeating: Men who don’t vacation regularly are 32 percent more likely to die of heart attacks while women are 50 percent more likely, according to experts cited by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) at www.vacationbetter.org.

Referencing the research of John De Graaf, editor of the book, Take Back Your Time and frequent speaker on issues of over consumption and overwork in America, VacationBetter.org explains, “Doctors recognize the connection between vacation starvation and heart attacks, high blood pressure, stress and depression. Studies show the risk of these ailments can double or more for people who don’t regularly vacation. Americans are twice as likely to suffer from chronic illnesses as Europeans, who get a minimum of four weeks off each year.”

Timeshare Vacations Make it Easy

Statistics like these remind us that we don’t just need vacations for our mental health; we need them for our physical well-being. And if you are an over-worker and an under-vacationer, timeshares may be just the solution you need to make a vacation happen.

• Timeshares let you spread the cost of vacation accommodations over an extended period.
• If you buy a value-priced timeshare resale, you’ve reduced the headache of paying for a lifetime of vacation accommodations before you even start enjoying that first day of relaxation.
• Owning timeshare lets you skip the vacation scheduling and planning that you didn’t have time to do anyway, and transition seamlessly from “at-work” to “on-vacation”.
• The numerous amenities of most timeshare resorts mean that should you choose to, you and your family can enjoy a fully relaxing, fully entertaining vacation, without ever leaving the property… now what could be easier than that?

Here’s a little more insight on why vacation time is critical, not optional:

Myth #1. Timeshare is a financial investment.

How can this myth still exist? Timeshare is NOT a financial investment; it is a vacation choice. In an age when your personal home may or may not still be an asset, how can anyone think that buying timeshare will guarantee a return upon resell? Not only do timeshare sales people misrepresent the truth if they claim, “… timeshare is an investment,” they also break the law in some states regarding what one can market as an investment. The only time the words “timeshare” and “investment” should appear in the same sentence is when pointing out that regular vacationing is an investment in your good health and that many timeshare owners find planning, scheduling and committing to regular vacations to be easier because they chose to buy timeshare.

Myth #2. Timeshare is worthless on the resale market.

Many of the people who expound this as fact do so because they did not advertise their timeshare resale in the right places and they had trouble selling it. Other people who propagate this myth do so because they want to buy your timeshare from you at lower than rock bottom prices (so they can then resell it for a profit). They try to convince you that they are rescuing you in the process. When it comes to selling timeshare, you don’t need relief, respite, or rescue; you need resale.

No one can guarantee you that your timeshare will sell, but every day around the world, timeshare resales are purchased. Your opportunity to sell your timeshare increases when you choose to advertise it in a large, established marketplace.

Myth #3. If a company charges you to advertise your timeshare resale, the company is unethical.

How are you going to sell timeshare if you don’t advertise it? Yes, there are websites that permit you to advertise your timeshare resale at no charge. How effective are they? Who visits these freebie websites besides other people who have timeshares they want to resell?

Most people are familiar with websites or local print publications that permit you to advertise a timeshare, a used car, a snow blower, or perhaps a wedding dress and they charge you nothing to run the ads. These sites are fine if you think you can find a buyer for that snow blower in your community. But how well does this work for timeshare resales, when what you really need is advertising to a global marketplace of buyers in a medium, such as a well crafted internet website that has been purpose built and is maintained with strategy and deliberation in order to attract the largest possible audience of interested potential buyers?

Timeshare Myth Buster

Here are some timeshare facts you can rely on:

Buy timeshare as a timeshare resale and you are already ahead of the game. You will have spent less money from the onset, and you will have less to worry about when you get ready to resell. Buying timeshare resales offers you the luxury and amenities of timeshare vacations without tying up as much of your hard-earned cash or your credit line.

When you get ready to sell your timeshare, try low hanging fruit first and ask your friends, co-workers, family, and neighbors if they would like to buy your timeshare. But if that doesn’t work, pick a timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising company that can demonstrate its skill in advertising timeshare resales to a worldwide market of targeted buyers.

Here’s a really fun video of the Discovery Channel’s MythBusters blasting Adam with 20,000 paintballs at YouTube Live.