Rotary Clubs Lead By Serving Others February 24, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : Charity , add a commentService clubs are part of the fabric of this country, with thousands of people volunteering their time each year in projects that benefit the community. Many of these acts and projects go unnoticed in the eyes of the general public, but service clubs fundraise and work their way into the hearts of people who are touched by their acts of kindness.
It is because of the great work that Rotarians do every year that I wanted to draw your attention to a ceremonial act that took place yesterday at the New York Stock Exchange. Rotary International President Ray Klinginsmith rang the closing bell at the Exchange during a ceremony with representatives from Rotary and the group Sanofi Pasteur, a leading provider of polio vaccine, in honor of Rotary’s 106th anniversary and in support of a polio-free world. Representatives of the two organizations also took part in opening bell ceremonies in four financial markets in Europe yesterday: Lisbon, Portugal; Amsterdam; Brussels, Belgium; and Paris.
Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority for more than 20 years and it boggles the mind that polio still exists when it can be avoided with such a simple vaccine. The “End Polio Now” campaign is underway as Rotary looks to raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families. According to Rotary International, the incidence of polio infection has plunged worldwide from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to fewer than 1,000 cases in 2010. More than two billion children have been immunized in 122 countries, preventing five million cases of paralysis and 250,000 pediatric deaths.
You may be asking what this has to do with timeshare? Our president and CEO, Wesley Kogelman, has been a member of Rotary since 2006 and he is part of a new Rotary chapter which just opened in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Rotary Club of Souhegan Valley celebrated its new beginning on Monday with a visit from Mr. Klinginsmith before he headed down to the Big Apple for yesterday’s ceremony.
In case you’re wondering, Wesley is the guy with the glasses wearing the red tie on the left in the back of the photo. Mr. Klinginsmith is the man holding the new charter on the left with new chapter president, David Williamson, holding the charter to the right.
So our company is connected to Rotary through our chief executive, which means we wanted to bring this issue to your attention in case you, your family or someone you know has been affected by polio and wanted to do something to help.
By clicking here, you will be taken to a webpage where you can make a contribution to help Rotary battle this debilitating disease. If you choose to do so, you have our utmost thanks and we appreciate the step you’ve taken to join us in the fight.
Robb & Stucky is the Latest Example of the Rollercoaster Ride of Timeshare February 21, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : ARDA, News & Events , add a commentThe latest example of the unpredictable nature of the timeshare industry these days can be seen through the eyes of Robb & Stucky Interiors.
Within a seven day span, Robb & Stucky was named as an award finalist for the Resort Design Division of the American Resort Development Association’s (ARDA) annual Awards Program, then announced they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
One week, you’re celebrating the recognition of one of the most prestigious industry award programs in the world. The next, you can’t even write a check to pay the bills.
Is there a more accurate scenario that describes the current state of the timeshare industry?
Industry spokespeople have been telling us for months that things are beginning to turn around. Indeed, tourism numbers are up and optimism has started to return to a timeshare industry that has seen sales numbers plummet by over 30% in one year, in 2009. The industry has started to stabilize. However, there are casualties of the recession and Robb & Stucky appears to be one of them.
Yes, it is too early to tell how this bankruptcy filing will affect the company, if at all. They may come out of it lean, strong and ready for growth. On the other hand, they may never reach the success they once had if the company is sold and new management takes over. This is a business that is dependent on the creative minds that help design the resorts of the future. Brain-drain could be a real problem for them if they cannot afford to keep their best people from leaving their ranks.
Who knows for sure? And that’s the rub for the entire industry at the moment.
According to a recent press release, Robb & Stucky claims that “the company’s Hospitality Design Division has completed domestic and international commercial design assignments for hotels, condominiums, timeshare and fractional resorts located from Denver to Dubai.” This is a well-respected company which has built up years of industry good will and designed some of the top creative projects in the world for name brands such as Bluegreen, Westin, and Hyatt. However, resorts hit the brakes on construction during the recession and new development has not returned. Judging from their latest announcement, renovation work has not been as brisk as first thought, as many of the design and construction companies have been relying on redevelopment to keep them afloat until the new projects are resurrected.
If it can happen to them, then who else could be next?
This is a symptom of an industry just coming off of life support after the train wreck of 2008 and we wish the good people at Robb & Stucky the best of luck.
However, the good news is that the lack of new sales activity puts a premium on the timeshare resale market and the weeks that are available at great prices.
People are still looking to buy timeshare and more potential buyers are discovering the deals to be made on the resale market. You can find those deals on the BuyaTimeshare.com website.
Marriott To Spin Off Its Timeshare Division February 17, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : Marriott Timeshares, News & Events, Ritz Carlton , add a commentBy now, you’ve probably heard about Marriott International’s plan to spin off its timeshare division, Marriott Vacation Club, into a separate business. If you pay any attention to industry news on the internet, it has been impossible to miss the subject and it blew up all over Twitter earlier in the week.
Ah, social media strikes again, although not quite with the flair of an Egyptian revolution.
Initial reports have been favorable of the move, with Marriott International’s share price up about 5% at the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the announcement.
Under the new scenario, Marriott International will become more of a hotel management and franchise business, looking to get away from the type of capital-intensive business structure that timeshare presents. The new Marriott timeshare business will continue to operate under the Marriott and Ritz Carlton brands, presumably continuing the MVC brand for timeshare and fractionals to proceed under the Ritz Carlton name.
“Marriott Vacation Club owners and guests and The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club members should see no change in the branding or quality of their properties, services, usage options, use of Marriott Rewards points, or access to Marriott International’s hotels,” said Marriott International chairman and chief executive officer, J.W. Marriott, Jr. “The companies will continue to work together to provide outstanding vacation experiences, similar to the relationship between Marriott International and the franchisees of its hotel properties. After the split, both companies will remain dedicated to the highest standards of quality and value and the brand promise for which Marriott and Ritz-Carlton are well known and widely respected.”
In 2010, Marriott said its timeshare segment reported revenue of around $1.5 billion. At the end of last year, it operated 71 timeshare and fractional resorts with more than 400,000 owners and some 10,000 employees.
It also held $1.5 billion in unsold inventory, which brings me to the question that no one seems to have asked yet, although it is still early.
How does this affect the resale market?
This, obviously, is the question that is nearest and dearest to our hearts, especially following the release of our Buyer’s Choice Top 20 List earlier this week which revealed that 11 of the top 20 timeshare resorts most requested from buyers were Marriott timeshare resorts.
Some estimates have as many as 60,000 unsold Marriott weeks currently on the market and speculation has begun about how a stand-alone company can afford to support this kind of available inventory.
More to the point – will the company provide an exit strategy for owners, would resale companies be involved and what would such an option look like? The Marriott buy-back program has been unreliable at best in recent years, not that Marriott would want to promote such a program themselves.
For now, all we can do is wait and see if Marriott makes any changes to deal with low new sales volume and the thousands of resale transactions that take place with Marriott timeshare every year.
Fortunately, there are a number of Marriott timeshare weeks on our website at BuyaTimeshare.com and you can check them out by clicking here.
BuyaTimeshare.com Releases Its First Annual Buyers Choice List for 2011 February 15, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : Hawaii timeshare, Marriott Timeshares, News & Events, Timeshare Resale , add a commentHave you ever wondered which timeshare resorts are the most popular and where they are located?
Well, you don’t have to wonder any longer. We’ve announced our first annual Top 20 Buyer’s Choice List, which consists of the twenty most requested timeshare destinations, as determined by the number of offers submitted for these resorts by prospective buyers through the BuyaTimeshare.com website in 2010.
This is an objective, independent list compiled by our IT department based on requests from the people who are the most qualified to judge these resorts, prospective buyers.
“This is an exceptional list of world-class resorts that anyone on vacation would love to experience,” said Wesley Kogelman, president and CEO, BuyaTimeshare.com. “These properties prove what we’ve known since we started in this business 10 years ago, that timeshare resorts offer the best possible value for a vacation.”
“The buyers who put in offers to buy timeshare at these resorts were looking for great value that can only come from buying direct from another owner on the resale market,” added Kogelman.
As you will see below, Marriott timeshare properties dominated the list, taking 11 of the top 20 positions and clearly showing that the Marriott name is the brand of choice among people looking to buy timeshare.
Hawaii and Orlando, Florida, were tied for the most popular destination, with four properties from each location making the list. Three Aruba resorts were ranked, followed by two each from Las Vegas and southern California.
WorldMark by Wyndham came in at number one, but WorldMark is a brand made up of multiple destinations so it is almost a given that it would be at or near the top of the rankings and nearly impossible to separate for the purpose of creating this list.
Below is the Buyer’s Choice List for 2011:
1) WorldMark by Wyndham (Multiple Destinations)
2) Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club (Aruba, Caribbean)
3) Marriott’s Aruba Ocean Club (Aruba, Caribbean)
4) Marriott’s OceanWatch Villas at Grande Dunes (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)
5) Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas (Newport Coast, California)
6) Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club (Maui, Hawaii)
7) Manhattan Club (New York, New York)
8) Sheraton’s Vistana Resort (Orlando, Florida)
9) Marriott’s Grande Vista (Orlando, Florida)
10) Planet Hollywood Towers by Westgate Resorts (Las Vegas, Nevada)
11) Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club (Oahu, Hawaii)
12) La Cabana Beach & Racquet Club (Aruba, Caribbean)
13) Marriott’s Grand Chateau (Las Vegas, Nevada)
14) Marriott’s Ocean Pointe at Palm Beach Shores (Palm Beach Shores, Florida)
15) Harborside Resort at Atlantis (Bahamas, Caribbean)
16) Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa (Orlando, Florida)
17) Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas North (Maui, Hawaii)
18) Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort (Orlando, Florida)
19) Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club (Kauai, Hawaii)
20) Marriott’s Shadow Ridge (Palm Desert, California)
You can see the latest timeshare weeks for sale for each of these resorts by going to the BuyaTimeshare.com website. Once at the homepage, you’ll find the search box at the upper left corner of the page. Just enter the name of the resort, click on the search button and the great deals and bargains for that resort will appear for your review.
Timeshare Units in Massachusetts Destroyed by Fire February 10, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : General, News & Events, silverleaf , add a commentI read a report regarding the fire at the Oak ‘N Spruce Timeshare Resort in Lee, Massachusetts, and I was struck by one particular part of the story.
According to WWLP.com, an entire building was taken out by the fire and, thank goodness, with no reported injuries. Firefighters from several different towns were called to the resort just after 6:00am Monday morning to find a two story building on fire.
The website reported that “firefighters had difficulty fighting the fire because there is only one fire hydrant in the area. They were forced to truck water in from a nearby lake using tanker trucks. One building collapsed during the fire. Another had severe water damage.”
Take a guess at which part of the story you think is amazing to me?
One fire hydrant. For the entire area. Heck, I just walked 20 yards in front of my house, looked down the street and saw two fire hydrants. And having to pump water from a lake in February in New England to try and put out the fire?
No wonder they had problems.
Look, this is a beautiful area of the country, the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, which is a fantastic area of New England and has activities and amenities for all four seasons. But this is one of the older timeshare resorts in the region, having been bought by Silverleaf Resorts in 1998.
I don’t pretend to know the building codes in this area of the country, but I’d have to think that the developer got away with the bare minimum when they only had to put in one hydrant.
Such liability should probably be on the radar of the homeowners association since, in the long run, it would probably be cheaper to put in more hydrants than to fix the type of damage that a fire can cause.
Talk about a special assessment!
What may come as a surprise is just how many timeshare resorts there are in Massachusetts. The state is home to 44 timeshare resorts, which is #11 out of the 50 states and the most of any state north of North Carolina. Only Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina have more timeshare resorts east of the Mississippi River. It is an excellent area for such resorts because of the proximity to Boston, the Berkshires in the west and Cape Cod and the beaches to the east.
For people living in the northeast and looking for some great vacation choices, you’d do well to check out the options to buy timeshare in Massachusetts. You’ll find them on the BuyaTimeshare.com website by clicking here.
Just be sure to ask how many fire hydrants they have.
Higher Visitor Numbers are a Very Good Indicator for the Timeshare Industry February 8, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : General, News & Events, Travel , add a commentGetting a grasp on the condition of the timeshare industry is tough, since many times people just look at the sales figures and try to come to their own conclusions about the health of the industry.
On the surface, the fact that new sales have plunged to 2003 levels could lead people to think that demand for the product has dropped off and that potential owners are not happy with timeshare. The facts say otherwise, as 84 percent of owners are satisfied with the product and occupancy rates hover at the 80 percent mark.
People are using their timeshares and are happy with the product.
The low sales volume has more to do with the financial sector, as most lenders stopped giving money to developers (and just about everyone else) following the 2008 economic meltdown. Without the funding to make consumer loans, developers couldn’t finance timeshare purchases, which led to cutbacks in their sales and marketing departments and, well, you get the idea.
When looking for indicators about the health of the industry, keep in mind that the timeshare sector is really just a sub-group of the travel industry, so looking at how travel and tourism are shaping up will give us a better idea of the potential for growth. For example, if you are an Orlando timeshare owner, chances are that you were on vacation first before buying your first timeshare. That would have made you a tourism statistic long before you became a timeshare statistic.
Looking at tourism stats for Orlando (since Orlando is the capital of the timeshare industry), final air-traffic figures released last week by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority showed passenger traffic rose by 3 million people in December, up 5.7 percent compared with the same month in 2009, according to the Orlando Sentinel. That helped boost airport traffic by 3.5 percent for the entire year.
The Sentinel also reported that hotel-tax collections for Orange County (which is where most of the Orlando hotel industry is located) rose 15.4 percent during the month of December compared with December, 2009. The county collected $14.3 million for December, $1.9 million more than the same month a year ago. The increase is the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year gains for the “tourist development tax,” which is charged on short-term rentals, mostly hotels and motels.
Even hotel occupancy was up, as Smith Travel Research data showed that Orlando hotels recorded an average occupancy of 63.2 percent for the year, up 6.3 percent from the 59.5 percent occupancy recorded in 2009.
The numbers show that more people are flying into Central Florida, staying in resorts and spending more money than they did in 2009. Once this takes hold for a longer period of time, and the financial markets continues to thaw, then it’s only a matter of time before the timeshare industry begins to grow again at a substantial pace.
Our hope is that those people traveling to Orlando and other major timeshare destinations such as Las Vegas and Myrtle Beach check out the timeshare resale market before paying too much for a “new” timeshare through a resort.
Great deals can be found for Orlando timeshare here at BuyaTimeshare.com, so for more information about how to buy timeshare on the secondary market, click here.
Reaction to Proposed Timeshare Tax Increase in Hawaii February 4, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : ARDA, Hawaii timeshare, News & Events , 1 comment so farLast week, I blogged about the Governor of Hawaii’s call to increase taxes on timeshare in the Aloha State. More information has since surfaced regarding the proposal and it didn’t take long for reaction from the industry – in full force against the idea of any additional taxes on timeshare.
According to the American Resort Development Association’s Resort Owners’ Coalition (ARDA-ROC), legislation has been introduced in the state House of Representatives and the state Senate which would increase the accommodation tax rate from 7.25% to 9.25% and increase the amount subject to the tax from 50% to 150% of the daily maintenance fee.
To put this into perspective, ARDA-ROC uses the following example that “under current law, a timeshare owner with a $1000 maintenance fee pays a TAT (transient accommodation tax) of $36.20. Under the new legislation, the TAT payment for the same owner would be $138.70. For an owner with a $2,000 maintenance fee, the TAT would go from $72.50 to $277.50.”
“Enough is enough,” said ARDA-ROC Chairman, Ken McKelvey. “We have a responsibility to the more than 1 million timeshare owners who contribute to ROC and the hundreds of Home Owners’ Associations (HOAs) who volunteer and financially support ARDA-ROC for this very reason – to make sure that ’the tax the visitor rather than voter’ mentality doesn’t overtake the rights of timeshare owners.”
This is not only a feeble attempt to help close the $700million state budget deficit, but it’s just a bad business decision. Since when is it a good idea to make a tourism-related product more expensive during an economic downturn?
Oh yeah, I forgot. The economists tell us we’re no longer in a recession. I guess that settles it, then.
ARDA has been fighting against increases to the accommodation tax since its inception in 1998 and has a battle on its hands this time.
The ARDA-ROC Executive Committee has requested that ARDA staff and legal counsel make recommendations of a course of action to fight this legislation and says it will pursue all options to fight this proposal, including litigation.
We applaud the efforts of our industry trade association to fight against these tax increases and ask Hawaii timeshare owners to lobby the state legislators in their resort’s districts to vote against these proposals. You can find information at www.ardaroc.org about how to get involved in the debate.
If you own Hawaii timeshare, don’t be discouraged about these proposals since they have been successfully defeated for a number of years now. Hawaii timeshare is still one of the most sought-after vacation ownership products in the world, with a number of great deals available on the BuyaTimeshare.com website. Click here for more information.
Account Executive at Buy a Timeshare Helps Save a Life February 1, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : News & Events , add a commentMost of the time, what we do is not a matter of life or death. After all, we’re not surgeons or paramedics. We don’t fight fires or capture criminals. We help people sell their timeshare.
Which is why the event that took place in our New Hampshire office last Friday was so amazing.
One of our Account Executives, Peter Flanagan, arrived at work on Friday just like any other day – looking forward to putting in a good day’s work and heading into the weekend.
Suddenly, he was faced with a life or death situation.
Flanagan was on the phone with a lady from Jacksonville, Florida, who had requested information about how to advertise her timeshare for sale. In an instant, the woman collapsed while she was on the phone with him and went into diabetic shock. Rather than panic, Flanagan conferenced in a 911 call, with the authorities alerted in Florida. Flanagan stayed on the phone with the woman and reassured her that help was on the way. The fire department arrived at the woman’s house and had to kick her door in so they could help her. Only when the emergency services personnel picked up the phone did Flanagan know that the lady was going to be OK.
Many of us will never know what it is like to be on the phone with someone fighting for their life on the other end. Understand that this lady could have gone into a coma or could have lost her life if it hadn’t been for Peter’s actions.
Due to privacy laws, we are unable to release more information about this situation and we trust that you understand the delicate nature of this topic. However, we wanted to publicly recognize the actions of Peter Flanagan and what a tremendous act he performed to help save this woman’s life.
Sometimes, we just need to pause, thank the Almighty for what we have and remember just how precious and fragile life can be.
And sometimes, as in Peter’s case, that reminder is only a phone call away.