In my last post, I discussed that the industry needed to get back to making the timeshare experience exclusive...that is something that could only be experienced by timeshare owners.
The easiest way to accomplish this is to address the rental issue.
I'm not talking about limiting an individual owner's ability to rent their unused timeshare...that is a valuable benefit.
I am talking about putting strict limitations on a resort's ability to rent out inventory to a non-owner...particularly for less than the annual maintenance fees AND enforcing a "one time only" policy...meaning that a non-owner will be able to rent a timeshare once and only once at a specific resort.
And while I feel strongly that the entire marketing paradigm HAS to change, putting prospective owners in a timeshare and giving them attraction tickets for 4 days for $99 accomplishes absolutely NOTHING.
Today's consumers are deal oriented like never before. If a consumer knows that there is no restriction to the number of times they can take advantage of these "deals" without ever buying a timeshare, they'll keep taking advantage of the system. And who can blame them?
Timeshare needs to focus on the differences between a timeshare vacation and a hotel vacation. If resorts continue to make their wares available to just about anyone, for a minimal price, they face some serious issues.
Timeshare can be great for some people. The industry and the individual owners need to "own" the fact---no pun intended---that it's reserved for owners. Relish that, appreciate that and consumers will in fact desire it.
1 comment:
In order to make their timeshare sales, the salespeople in several resorts make fraudulent promises that you can rent your weeks for unrealistic prices, such as $2500 US per week for a 1 bedroom suite.
Upon investigating online, many clients realize that the market value for their timeshares are often less than $500 US. If you visit sites such as EBay, non timeshare owners are able to rent weeks at the same resorts for a lower price than timeshare owners, so why would they pay exorbitant prices for something that they can purchase online for very little.
Sometimes full timeshare contracts that were purchased for thousands of dollars are for sale online for less that $500 US as many people just want to get rid of their financial obligations. In addition, there is an overwhelming amount of rental availability, making it virtually impossible to rent the timeshare as promised by the salespeople. The claim that rentals are guaranteed and there is a great demand for room rentals is another lie used to close timeshare sales.
To make matters worse, the resorts often rent weeks in their hotels for as low as $199 per week to entice people to come to the resort and purchase a timeshare. The resorts state that they will help people rent their timeshare weeks for inflated prices, but then they practically give away weeks to entice more potential consumers into buying. By doing this, they are creating a conflict of interest and continuing the vicious cycle of timeshare scam.
If you'd like to read to whole article go to: http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/57-timeshare-rentals-timeshare-fraud/
Post a Comment