No Minimum Income Required

Some new statistics were recently published about the average timeshare owner. They clearly indicate that this person is a) married, b) 52 years old, c) has no children under the age of 18 living with them and most importantly, ) has an average annual household income of $81,000.


Nothing new or exciting here...with the average price of a timeshare in 2009 over $20,000, it is clear that timeshare is not an inexpensive vacation alternative.


What continues to stun me along with some other professionals on the so-called "fringes of timeshare" e.g. not employed by the traditional timeshare developer, is that the timeshare developer continues to market their product to people who clearly don't fit the demographics of the average owner. They continue to play the numbers game. For every 100 people that are in a typical sales center in the US, a good 70% of them shouldn't even be there.


And the marketing companies, the ones that I affectionately refer to as "body snatchers" continue to rake in $300, $400 or more per client that they send in and are laughing all the way to the bank. Even stranger is the fact that some of these marketing companies have sold timeshare developers on the idea that clients don't need a minimum income. They only need to be employed full-time. Wow...what excellent salespersons these marketing companies are...or is it that someone is getting paid on the back end for taking these clients?


When, if ever, are traditional timeshare companies going to wake up? And no, I don't mean the higher end properties or the fractionals, who long ago realized this lesson. Perhaps it is already too late for them and the resellers are going to beat them at their own game.


The writing has been on the wall for timeshare developers who play "same old, same old" for years now and I really won't feel much sympathy for then when they are forced out of business.