Timeshare Resales

The following article appeared in the May 2012 issue of The Resort Trades.

In it, Jason Tremblay looks at  two different business models for reselling timeshare. The option for timeshare owners to resell timeshare when they no longer wish to own it is an important part of maintaining a healthy and balanced vacation ownership marketplace. Timeshare resales shouldn’t be mysterious, complex, or frightening. Any timeshare owner who decides to sell, should not have to feel as if he or she is navigating a sea of timeshare scam companies. Whether the timeshare resale is motivated by financial need, because the timeshare no longer fits the owner’s vacation style, or because the owner would like to buy new timeshare elsewhere, the process should be simple, straightforward and transparent.

You’ll find this article, along with timely news and information about the timeshare industry, each month at The Resort Trades, available both online and in print.  It is reprinted here with permission of the publication.

Timeshare resales: Marketing driven or market driven?

by Jason Tremblay

How many times have you heard someone in sales criticized for being “too pushy”? Pushy is a word that makes most people uncomfortable. Although we push our children, our coworkers and ourselves to try harder, do more, and strive for greater success and more milestones achieved, we are constantly trying to find a comfortable balance between push and pushy.

Sales efforts that take your timeshare product directly to your market are “push” tactics or marketing driven strategies. For timeshare sales in general, push marketing includes Off Premise Contacts (OPC) to drive potential buyers to sales presentations; telephone and email marketing campaigns; and other options for direct selling to prospects, such as satellite sales offices in malls, hotels, and at trade shows.

For timeshare resales, marketing driven strategies typically include having onsite sales teams at your resort to market to your existing timeshare owner base, drive tours, and move sales volume to a higher level. Marketing driven techniques allow you to push sales opportunities toward your prospective timeshare buyers. They are time-tested tactics that have served as the game plan for how timeshares have been bought, sold, and resold over the years and if they are working for your resort or HOA, you probably should keep doing them.

But what if, in addition to using marketing driven strategies to push your prospects toward your product, you also incorporate market driven strategies that pull or attract your prospective timeshare buyers and renters toward you? Marketing that is too pushy is problematic, but when have you ever heard an offer criticized for being too attractive?

Market driven timeshare sales reflect consumer intent

With timeshare buyers and renters armed with Blackberries, iPhones, iPads, and other smart devices to keep them fully connected to the buying, selling, and renting prices and patterns of today’s timeshare marketplace, pushing anyone toward a buying decision is more challenging than it has ever been in the past. Don’t call your prospects the next generation of timeshare buyers; recognize that the next generation is now and includes both younger shoppers and tech-savvy seniors.

Today’s timeshare consumer is web-wise, social media engaged, and peer review responsive. Instead of the timeshare industry pushing him or her toward vacation ownership, prospects are being pulled toward timeshare as they surf the Web, read positive feedback from current timeshare owners or renters, hear upbeat comments from their friends and family who enjoy timeshare, and learn more about the product through informative online content.

When prospects visit your website and the sites of your competitors, it is because they already have a strong behavioral intent to purchase or rent timeshare. In the primary market for timeshare sales, the Internet is growing in significance as a sales and rental resource, while in the timeshare resale marketplace, the Internet is already number one as the optimal place to buy or rent timeshare.

Developers and HOAs can use the Internet to create greater visibility for their inventory and for the owner services they offer. They can pull market driven prospects toward them through their own efforts or by utilizing a third party timeshare resale service or timeshare brokerage.

Some developers find that skilled and professional third party timeshare resales and rental services or timeshare brokerages mitigate issues of internal conflict that might potentially arise with the company’s own sales and marketing department. A third party resale company makes it easier for a timeshare company or HOA to protect the pricing integrity of their product by resolving the challenges of owners who need to sell. In the process, timeshare companies often find they increase customer satisfaction and enhance brand loyalty.

Lists of resale companies that are also ARDA members are available from the American Resort Development Association and some developers have chosen to work with multiple resellers. Many other developers and HOAs have turned to an exclusive relationship with a single authorized reseller as a way to consolidate resale inventory, stabilize resale and rental prices, and keep their membership strong by reselling to new owners who are emotionally vested in their vacation ownership product.

Market driven timeshare sales always reflect consumer intent. More specifically, market driven timeshare sales, resales, and rentals represent the voice of customers who are literally asking for your product.

These buyers and renters come to your website by way of the words they choose when searching the Internet. The online prospect who is being pulled toward you through market driven sales or resales may find you by searching for, “Key West timeshare” “timeshare resale in Aspen,” “week 26 timeshare Canada,” or any of thousands (yes, thousands) of search terms consumers use daily to find out more about the specific timeshare product that interests them most.

Marketing driven sales are not a bad way to operate. But for many timeshare developers, management companies, and HOAs, the strongest approach is a combo of marketing driven push and market driven pull strategies. Because the one thing we can all agree on is that, the Internet is not going away.

Andrew Housser, financial expert, entrepreneur, and cofounder of the Freedom Financial Network and of Bills.com, wrote an interesting and informative article for NBC Travel that appeared on KNDO.com. In the article, titled, The Pros and Cons of Timeshare Ownership, Housser took a fair and unbiased look at vacation ownership.

Impartial assessments of timeshare ownership written by financial experts don’t come along as often as they should, so we want to draw your attention to this article. In it, Housser leads by saying that vacation ownership can provide guaranteed vacation accommodations at national and even international destinations. He also points out that timeshares can be a legacy item that a parent passes on to his or her children, grandchildren, or other family member or friend.

Housser then goes on to list five benefits of timeshare ownership and five negatives about timeshare ownership … and all ten points are valid depending upon a potential timeshare buyer’s personal situation.

Timeshare Ownership is Right for Many Vacationers [Read more…]

With so many resources touting the message that you cannot sell timeshare, how does a timeshare owner who wants to resale his or her property know where to turn? 2012 has certainly been the year in which the mainstream media is stuck on a message that if you do sell timeshare you currently own, you will only receive a dollar, or perhaps a penny for the vacation ownership you paid thousands to buy.

What’s the truth  and how do timeshare owners know who to trust and who to believe when it comes time to sell timeshare they no longer want or use?

Sell My Timeshare NOW has been offering reliable timeshare resale and timeshare rental services for almost 10 years. We’ve seen timeshare resellers come and go in the marketplace. But our company has steadily moved ahead. We have grown our inventory, expanded our customer base, and expanded our services, as we continue to help more timeshare owners buy, rent, or sell timeshare on the secondary market.

See for Yourself that We Sell Timeshare

And you can see for yourself that we really do sell timeshare. We publish our daily business online on our website to prove it. Visit our Live Offer Feed. Here, 24/7 you can see the offers coming in to buy or sell timeshare through our websites.

In a live feed, you can see the Ad Number for every timeshare unit, interval or timeshare points we have advertised for sale or rent on which a buyer makes an offer. You’ll find the name of the resort and information that tells you whether this is an offer to rent timeshare or to buy timeshare.

On our live fee of Timeshare Offers, you will also find the amount of the offer and the day, hour, and minute the offer is being made. Many of the offers you see are the initial offer on a timeshare unit or interval, meaning that after negotiations either between the buyer and seller or between the timeshare broker and the buyer, the final offer accepted was higher.

Not only does our feed of  Timeshare Offers show you what is happening today, it also shows you week by week, this same offer information for every week since January 1, 2005, when we first began tracking our timeshare sales and rentals in this way.

Yes, you really can resell timeshare. See for yourself.

The fifth development phase at Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club Hawaii timeshare has recently been completed. With 132 new two- and three-bedroom villas added in this expansion, the Ko Olina Resort is the largest Marriott timeshare in Hawaii, and the largest resort in the Hawaiian Islands.

Marriott Timeshare for Luxury and Comfort

Each of the spacious Marriott timeshare villas in the new addition has Hawaiian inspired furnishing and décor, themed in yellows, greens, and reds providing a rich contrast to the deep mahogany finish of the furnishings and cabinetry. The villas include fully equipped kitchens with stainless steel appliances, large living and dining areas, and private balconies. Vistas from the balconies are spectacular, with glass paneled railings to ensure uninterrupted views.

These beautiful Marriott timeshare villas includes flat panel televisions, DVD players in the living area and bedrooms, and in-unit washers and dryers. Free high-speed internet is available throughout the resort, making it easy to stay connected. But when you are ready to relax and ‘disconnect,’ the beachfront, private lagoon, and multiple swimming pools surrounded by tropical gardens and expansive ocean views make it easy to enjoy being away from it all.

Edgar Gum, Regional Vice President Hawaii Operations, Marriott Vacation Club, says, “Ko Olina Beach Club is a magnificent resort set in one of Oahu’s prime beachfront locations. “The availability of these beautiful villas comes at just the right time when our occupancy will reach nearly 100 percent through the summer months and the attention to detail and relaxing views will make for many memorable vacation experiences for our Owners and guests.”

An Ideal Hawaii Timeshare Resort Destination

Onsite, Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club features Longboards Bar & Grill, offering oceanfront casual dining and Chuck’s Steak & Seafood, named for the legendary owner of Hawaii’s first steakhouse. Weekly entertainment includes the Fia Fia Polynesian Dinner Show featuring Hawaiian cuisine, fire knife dancing, drums, and more. Other on-property amenities include a fitness centers, the Spa by the Sea at Ko Olina, and the famous championship golf course at Ko Olina Golf Club.