Timeshare Weeks

Last week, when a timeshare company partnered with a timeshare owners group to offer a members-only timeshare auction, it would have been understandable if some the timeshare owners stared feeling like Rodney Dangerfield claiming, “I don’t get no respect.”

During a three-day period, members of the timeshare group were allowed to bid on any of over 300 timeshare resale properties. While the timeshare weeks auctioned were priced from $800 to $2500 and up, there were no reserves on the bidding that started at 10 cents.

As the official press release for the event stated, “…the potential pitfalls of owner-to-owner auctions via eBay are many. Who transfers the ownership? Who takes care of the legal paperwork? How do I know what I’m really buying? What guarantees do I have?” This timeshare auction claimed to reduce the type of buyer risk associated with eBay property auctions, while offering deeply discounted prices for timeshare buyers.

Timeshare Auctions and Market Values of Timeshare Resales

Ironically, the timeshare owners group has historically been critical of timeshare resales companies, claiming that buying timeshare on the resale market, like buying timeshare on an eBay auction, is fraught with problems. Personally, I can’t think of a much bigger problem than owning timeshare property that has been devalued because it has been sold at an absurdly low price.

When the bidding at a timeshare resales auction starts at a dime per property, no one really wins. The timeshare owner who wants to sell timeshare that he or she no longer uses would do just as well (and maybe better) to donate that timeshare to charity or give it to a friend or family member rather than sell it at a price that is so low it is meaningless. And while the timeshare buyer may gain in the short term by purchasing timeshare weeks at a giveaway price, in so doing, the timeshare buyer may have directly contributed to the long-term devaluation of his own property as well as that of all the other timeshare units at the resort.

Timeshare Resales By Owner

For the timeshare resales market to stay solid there must be fairness for both timeshare buyers and timeshare sellers. It is just as detrimental to the value of the product to sell timeshare weeks for pennies, as it is to overprice it and gouge the timeshare buyer.

Look for good deals on by-owner timeshares resales; but expect to play fair. Fair market pricing is good for the buyer, good for the seller, and good for the timeshare resales market.

A Look Back at the Humor of the Late Rodney Dangerfield, With Our Respect:

Dial An Exchange Timeshare Exchange is expanding their offerings to timeshare owners with the addition of timeshare travel insurance provided by CSA Travel Protection.

The travel insurance will be available to timeshare owners to purchase when they exchange their vacation weeks. Fermin Cruz, VP North American operations Dial An Exchange, says, “When combined with our Cancellation Protection Option, we believe that CSA travel insurance is the perfect complement to any exchange transaction, offering the DAE member an inexpensive, yet valuable protection to cover their entire vacation experience.”

Les Maine, CEO of CSA Travel Protection says, “By purchasing travel insurance from CSA when exchanging or banking their timeshare with Dial An Exchange, timeshare owners can protect themselves from losing any of their vacation time already purchased as well as annual maintenance fees.”

Dial An Exchange Timeshare Exchange was founded in 1997. The company’s website says it is the largest privately owned timeshare exchange company with worldwide destination availability. Not only is there no charge to timeshare owners to be a member of Dial An Exchange, but timeshare exchange fees are not charged until the actual exchange is made.

Last week, in a blog post titled, Expansion of SFX Timeshare Resort Exchange Company, the Timeshare Owners Blog told you about the expansion and new services of San Francisco Timeshare Exchange. Like Dial An Exchange, SFX offers timeshare owners another choice in timeshare exchange or banking timeshare for future use or exchange.

RCI and Interval International are well known, but smaller timeshare exchange companies are really claiming a portion of the timeshare resort market, and in many cases, offer service that is as good as or better than the larger timeshare exchange companies offer.

If you have had a good experience or a poor one with a smaller timeshare exchange company, please leave your comments on the Timeshare Owners Blog. No one has better insights about timesharing than timeshare owners who are using their timeshare weeks or exchanging them on a regular basis. We’d love to hear your comments.

Do you have Bahamas timeshare weeks you want to sell or rent?

If so, you may benefit from this information. According to an article that appeared in The Freeport News, January 11, this month is bringing record numbers of visitors to the island of Grand Bahama. Logic says, the more the Bahamas develop into a highly desired tourist destination, the easier it could be to sell your Bahamas timeshare resale or use it as a Bahamas timeshare rental. And the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism is doing everything they can to move the Bahamas up the preferred vacation destination charts.

Tourism to Grand Bahama Island recently benefited because high winds in other parts of the Caribbean rerouted some cruise ships to Freeport Harbor. Yet much of the tourism Grand Bahama is enjoying is simply the result of people who have selected the Bahamas as their target destination.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is working hard to improve the island’s desirability factor. According to the Executive Director of the Ministry, Kerry Fountain, (as quoted in The Freeport News) the plan is to, “Create your product, deliver on the experience in terms of service and the attitude, get your guests here affordably, and promote it.” He adds, “It has to happen in that order, but we have to keep our nose to the grindstone in order to get it done.”

The Ministry of Tourism anticipates being able to successfully weather even a tight US economic market because many US vacationers will still be taking trips, they will just be looking to travel closer to home. Additionally, the Ministry is working hard at recruiting and training better hospitality industry workers, unrolling programs in the high schools to promote careers in tourism. Efforts like this will help the long-term tourism market in the Bahamas as well as Bahamas timeshare resales and Bahamas timeshare rentals.

Creating immediate boosts to the tourism market in Grand Bahama are recently discounted airfares to Freeport and Nassau. US Airways and American Airlines are currently both offering special pricing on island airfares or vacation packages.

And now that things seem to be turning around for the Royal Oasis timeshare resort with plans to renovate and reopen, popular Bahamas tourist destinations like the International Bazaar may actually return to their former glory. Harcourt Developments Limited, the purchaser of the Royal Oasis timeshare, is expected to invest some $400 million dollars in their Bahamian resorts over the upcoming years.

To learn more about how to sell timeshare or rent timeshare you own in the Bahamas, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW. If you are interested in becoming a Bahamas timeshare resales owner, Sell My Timeshare NOW also offers an excellent inventory of vacation ownership properties.

When you want to sell timeshare and you put your vacation property on the market as a timeshare resale, it may surprise you which features make it most attractive to people looking to buy timeshare. The rule is the same for timeshare real estate, as it is for residential homes, commercial property, and vacation housing: location-location-location.

Timeshare at highly sought vacation destinations is attractive to people interested in timeshare condo resales and vacation club memberships. But timeshare resales have one huge advantage over other types of real estate when it comes to the subject of location because so many timeshare resorts offer exchange privileges at other resorts, or through timeshare exchange memberships like Interval International and RCI timeshare. In fact, frequently, when people buy timeshare, they look for properties – not at the destination they want – but at a destination where they think other people will want to make a timeshare exchange.

The second factor that strongly affects salability of timeshare resales is the dates or time of the year you own. Many people who buy timeshare must plan their travel and vacation dates around school calendars. However, despite the fact that timeshare sales are increasing rapidly among younger buyers, the largest market for the purchase of timeshare weeks is still among Baby Boomers – the demographic that is the least likely to be concerned about school holiday schedules.

Of course, the features and amenities that your timeshare resort offers, also makes a big difference with attracting people to buy your timeshare resale. Beachside access always attracts buyers, as does a location near popular ski sites. But also attractive are what is known as “drive to” destinations, which may not be on the beach or near the slopes, but do offer the advantage of being geographically located within easy driving distances for large populations of people.

At the resort, it has long been the standard that location at a golf course or with golf access makes timeshare resales more desirable. But according to recent information released by M.I.C.E, (an acronym for MEETING – INCENTIVE – CONFERENCE – EXHIBITION , a professional organization for meeting and event planners) interest in tennis between the years 2000 and 2005 increased by more than 12 percent. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, tennis is experiencing the highest growth rate of the 114 traditional sports tracked in the United States. So if your timeshare resale offers tennis courts on property or nearby, be sure to make that point known to potential buyers. In these tighter economic times, the cost of playing tennis as compared to the cost of playing golf, is bound to be a consideration by some vacationers.

For more information about the easiest and most effective way to sell timeshare, visit the timeshare resales experts at Sell My Timeshare NOW.