Come Together (With Apoligies to The Beatles)

It is time for the various "do-gooders" and forward thinkers in timeshare to band together to bring some order and sense into the timeshare arena.

I've said it before and I will say it again...timeshare is a wonderful product and I believe that more people would benefit from it. Clear enough now for everyone who says that I am "anti-timeshare"?

There are however, some problems: marketing practices, sales techniques, the lack of transparency, the whole issue of "real estate" and all that it implies, rising annual fees, consumers' evolving vacation patterns, the entire resale issue, owners who don't take an active role in their ownership and the lack of centralized, realiable, non-sales oriented information.

Some resort developers have an open door policy, some publications and websites do offer great information, some organizations have some dedicated people running them and do their best to keep their members up to date. ARDA-ROC does a good job and some timeshare owners and resort personnel do their best. And some writers/bloggers have been trying for years!

But it is very fragmented and very sorry to say, ego-driven. This person doesn't like this person, so they stay on opposite sides of a room. One organization doesn't like the fact that the other organization charges an annual fee, so they don't cooperate with each other. One website doesn't like the fact that a certain person decided to become a full-time paid author, so allowed insulting comments to be posted for the world to see, causing said author lots of tears and anguish.

My goal for the next year is to bring all of these persons, companies, organizations, publications, etc. for the common good. We all have much more in common than we disagree on. And the bottom line is that the consumer doesn't know we are out there, the traditional media outlets don't know we are out there and frankly, none of us are large enough or vocal enough on our own to be the catylst for positive change that we can and should be.

Gather around people...it's time to make a positive difference and bring timeshare into the 21st century. Who is with me?