vacation ownership

Yesterday we looked at 7 words with which consumers may not be familiar but that crop up when they  sell, rent, or buy a timeshare. Some of the words we defined are used in other industries or other types of real estate transactions. Others are specific only to timeshare and vacation ownership.

Here are a few more to add to the list:

• Biennial timeshare ownership: When you own timeshare use in alternate years (every other year), you own biennial ownership.
• Developer’s price: This is the full sale price when you buy a timeshare from a developer. It is marked up to include a percentage of marketing, advertising, and sales costs by the timeshare developer, including the cost of presenting to prospects who accept timeshare vacations or other “gifts”, attend a presentation, but never buy. In contrast, the price to buy a timeshare on the resale market is the true market value—the price consumers are willing to pay—without the mark up a timeshare developer adds to the sales price of a timeshare.
• Mini vac: Although this sounds like a tool for cleaning your car, it is actually an industry specific term used to describe the practice of gifting a prospect with a mini vacation in return for his or her attendance at a timeshare sales presentation. In reality, the cost of this gift is factored into the price of all timeshares a developer sells.
• Sinking fund: This is a portion of the timeshare management fee that is allocated to all portions of a timeshare property to ensure that the resort property maintains its “like new” condition throughout an owners period of ownership.
• Space bank or space banking: When you save or carry over the use of your timeshare from one year to another, you have space banked your timeshare. This typically applies to the practice of “depositing” the use of your timeshare with a timeshare exchange company, with intent to use a different (but comparable) timeshare at some date in the future. Space banking is not a guaranteed right of timeshare but varies by your terms of ownership, resort policy, and timeshare exchange company guidelines.
• Trading power: The value of your unit, interval, or points as a timeshare exchange is your “trading power.” This value may be set by the resort, but is in fact driven by demand for a specific resort, unit type, or season.
• Week 53: Approximately once every seven years, the days of the week fall in such a way as to create 53 weeks within a year. Week 53 is almost exclusively held by a resort for maintenance use; in fact, most timeshares are not sold in 52 weeks of ownership either, as time is necessary each year for repairs, renovation or refurbishing of each unit.

Hopefully, timeshare and vacation ownership as a whole is getting away from the practice of using language that is not commonly understood.  The more user friendly we can make timeshare, the more responsive the market and prospective market is likely to be.

Be sure to check yesterday’s The Timeshare Authority blog for Part I of 7 Terms Used When You Sell, Rent, or Buy a Timeshare. You’ll find more timeshare industry definitions on our Sell My Timeshare NOW website under the Timeshare Glossary.

Like most industries, timeshare and vacation ownership comes with its own industry-specific language. Too often, those who use these terms daily lose sight of the fact that others may not intuitively “speak their language,” when it comes to the terminology of timeshares. Here are definitions of a few of the words and phrases you may run into when you sell, rent, or buy a timeshare.

• Accelerated Use: Some resorts permit you to “accelerate” or speed up the way you use your timeshare. For example, you may own the right to vacation every year at a resort for a 20-year right-to-use period. If your resort, the terms of your contract, and availability permit, you may be able to use four weeks per year, every year for five years instead.
• Bonus Time: This is one of the great advantages of timeshare and one that too often goes unused. Through your resort (or through your timeshare exchange membership), you may have the option to rent additional weeks of timeshare use at discounted prices. In the case of Developer Bonus Weeks, you may even be able to purchase unsold developer owned timeshare intervals that may or may not be discounted, but will never be as competitively priced as the same week on the timeshare resale market.
• Check-In Date: Your check-in date is the assigned date and day of the week when your timeshare interval begins. Typically, timeshare check-in dates are Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. If you check-in later than your scheduled day, you are not extending your check out date beyond your original schedule.
• Escritura: This is a Spanish term for the registering of your timeshare “Deed of Title.” Never sign a contract to buy a timeshare if any of the terms of the contract appear in a language you do not fully understand.
• Escrow: Escrow is a safekeeping transfer of funds. Using a secured account, money to buy a timeshare or timeshare resale is held by a third-party until all transfer of documents is completed, assuring both the timeshare seller and the timeshare buyer that there is a secure transfer of property ownership and funds.
• Fee Simple: Describing deeded ownership, fee simple ownership means that the timeshare owner holds a deed in his or her name to a percentage of ownership (typically measured by intervals of one week) to a resort property.
• Lockout or Lock off Unit: Timeshare units are typically a studio unit, 1-, 2- or 3-bedroom (occasionally 4-bedroom) condo or villa, most with a living area, kitchen, and one or more bathrooms. But a lockout or lock off unit could be described as a “unit and a half”, meaning that it can be used as a whole unit or is purpose-designed to be used as two separate units.

Be sure to check tomorrow’s The Timeshare Authority blog for Part II of 7 Terms Used When You Sell, Rent, or Buy a Timeshare. You can also find more timeshare industry definitions on our Sell My Timeshare NOW website under the Timeshare Glossary.

Sell My Timeshare NOW and VacationOwnership.com congratulate Donna Hisel of Travel To Go, recipient of C.A.R.E.’s prestigious Richard Gallardo Award. The award given to Hisel was presented to honor her outstanding volunteer service to C.A.R.E. (Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers).

Hisel, who is an eleven-year employee of Travel To Go, received the award during the 56th Semi-Annual C.A.R.E. Conference recently held in Myrtle Beach, S.C. This award has been presented only 15 times in the past to individuals who distinguished themselves with their selfless volunteer commitment. It is presented by the C.A.R.E. Board of Directors.

Debbie Sansom, Awards Chairperson says, “Donna gives selflessly with only the best interests of the organization in mind. She epitomizes all that the Richard Gallardo award stands for.”

Hisel has been a regular attendee of C.A.R.E. conferences for the past five years and an active participant within the organization. Starting as a receptionist at Travel To Go, Donna Hisel has also worked in administration, in sales, and is currently a fulfillment specialist. She explains, “I had not even considered that I would be receiving the award and when the award was announced, I was completely surprised. It is definitely an honor to receive the award since I was just doing what came naturally which is to help in any way that I can.”

Each year, members of the timeshare, travel, and vacation ownership industry actively participate in C.A.R.E.’s volunteer programs, donating hundreds of man-hours to projects and programs in need.

Resort Trades, a true news journal of the timeshare and vacation ownership  industry, will publish a Special Edition August issue.

Resort Trades publisher Tim Wilson explains, “We are currently engaged in an enormous research project to identify and list every single company providing goods and services to the timeshare industry, today.”

In the publication’s August 2013 issue, Resort Trades will list the company name and anniversary date of every vendor, management company and other entity currently doing business with timeshare resorts.

Wilson says, “It’s a lot of work, but we think this will be one issue every reader will want to keep on their shelf all year long. Vendors will be listed according to categories, so if a resort professional has a specific need, they will be able to read a comprehensive list of every provider offering them a solution, regardless of whether they have ever been advertisers.”

In April of this year Resort Trades was redesigned to enhance its readability and user appeal as the timeshare and vacation ownership industry’s most widely-read news journal. Since 1987 has always been to provide current and relevant information directly to resort personnel.

“To ensure they are properly listed, vendors and suppliers should contact (931) 484-4136 or [email protected],” says Resort Trades Sales Executive John Bunch. “Our goal is to fairly list every single company as accurately as possible. Of course, advertisers will be given additional recognition and space to discuss their specific goods and services.”

The publication was redesigned in April for greater readability as the industry’s most widely-read news journal. Resort Trades is published in a tabloid format because it is the Business News Journal of the timeshare industry.

The mission of the Resort Trades is: “Provide readers with unbiased and supportive information that will contribute to their knowledge and be of benefit to them as they seek to provide their owners and guests with perfect vacations.”