What's really going on out there?  Here are the new survey questions.  Results will appear in early August.  Thanks for your input.

1)  Do you own 1 or more a timeshare?

2)  If yes, how long have you been an owner?

3)  If yes, why did you purchase?

4)  If no, what has stopped you?

5)  On a scale of 1-5 (1 being extremely negative and 5 being extremely positive) please rate your perceptions of:

       Timeshare Resorts           Timeshare Salespeople/Management    Timeshare Industry

6)  How many timeshare presentations have you attended?

7)  If more than one (1), why do you continue to attend?

8)  If you could change one thing about the timeshare industry, what would it be?

Thanks!

Its's been a busy few weeks as far as media inquires go.  CBS News, National Geographric Traveler, The New York Times, Associated Press and The Travel Channel have all contacted me in the past 5 weeks.  Some stories were killed, some have run and others will run.

Many of these pieces though talk about the "real estate investment" angle of timeshare.  And yet, a few of those still spell timeshare as two words, "time share."

I'm going to try to clear this mess up again;  Timeshare is one word, spelled "timeshare."  Timeshare is NOT a real estate investment, never has been, never will be.

Perhaps we could discuss mandating a Global Timeshare Sales License?  Or move into the 20th (yes, 20th) century and finally get timeshare developers to start marketing their product as if they are proud of it, instead of the "hook 'em in" strategy of two free attraction tickets?

And stay tuned for my report on a hotel vs. a timeshare stay.  Interesting to say the least, especially when the timeshare salesperson made my brother sign something that he was refusing to tour, rather than own up the fact that the salesperson refused to tour my brother!

Ever call a timeshare and ask what the price is?  Chances are you won't get anywhere.

Just Friday, I called a local timeshare resort and asked a very specific question...how much would a certain amount of points be at a certain location.  The person who answered the phone put me on hold for about 2 minutes.  When she came back, she asked for my name and number so that someone could call me back.  When I asked what would be a better time to call back to speak with someone, she informed me that it didn't matter when I called, because someone would have to call me back in any event.

I tried this before, some months ago, at another resort locally.  Were it not so sad, it would be funny...you can read all about it by checking out the entire article on www.holidaygroup.com and checking my old articles.

I'm curious why the timeshare industry won't answer a simple question from a consumer...why can't you get a price on the phone?  Why is it necessary to play games?  Why is it necessary to invite people in for a discounted stay?  Why can't you just get an answer to the question?

Can you imagine if every industry who sold something played this stupid game?  What is the industry...the developer side of the industry at least, so scared of?

Do yourself a favor and check out Time2Share.net, a new social networking site exclusively devoted to timeshare.  You'll find my ongoing blog as well as timeshare groups, discussions, informational articles, etc.

We'll be gearing up the marketing machine later on this month and early next month, but you should do yourself a favor, check it out, start up a group, ask a question, post your thoughts, etc.

Let me know what you think!

Good Morning From Las Vegas.

I wanted to share the newest timeshare numbers that were made public during the conference.

There are now more than 4.6 million timeshare owners and 6.7 million intervals owned.  That's a lot of owners!  The average price of a timeshare is now $16,126m, with the average maintenance fee of $602.

What I found most interesting was the profile of the average owner:

Median Age                 59

Median Income            $82,500

Married                          84%

No Kids In Household 78%

Why do I find this interesting?  Because many timeshare resorts (at least in Orlando, where I am most familar with) require a minimum income of $40,000 in order to tour a resort and receive the requisite "gift."

Why hasn't this minimum income gone up over the years?  10 or 15 years ago, the minimum income was $40,000 and it is still $40,000 today.  But statistics show that the income of the average owner was more than double that.

Does anyone but me see the chance to really do something different?

More later

In less than a month, I'll be attending the annual American Resort and Development Association (ARDA) conference in Las Vegas.  This is the one time of the year when developers, suppliers, industry insiders, members of the press and timeshare marketers gather to exchange information and share ideas for the future.

Unfortunately for everyone, the conference is not open to the public.-Please accept my sincere apologies for my lack of knowledge on this subject.  The ARDA conference is in fact, open to the public.  What I should have said is that the vast majority of consumers, owners and non-owners are not aware of this important conference and so consequently, do not attend.

I'd like to know what you would like me to find out and ask for you.  Questions about resales?  Questions about timeshare marketing?  Questions about why the industry has done less than a stellar job of sharing the good news about timeshare and making it more accessible?

Drop me a line through this website and I'll be reporting back when I return.  And whatever you do, don't forget to come back the week of April 13th when Timeshare Insights will be making the BIGGEST and BEST announcement we've ever made.  BIG CHANGES are afoot!

The response that I received from my call to action regarding the licensing of timeshare professionals that was published in the October issue of VENTURES was overwhelming.

Due to that and a number of other factors, I am pleased to announce that both consumers and salespersons will be able to benefit from a unique learning opportunity that will roll out in the Orlando area in the second quarter of this year.  More cities will be added later.

Look for full details and a Press Release here on this blog and everywhere else around March 1st.

It's going to be great!

Happy New Year!

I'm pleased to announce that starting in February, I'll have a "Crusader's Corner" where you'll be able to write in your general timeshare questions and receive answers at no charge at all!

We're working on the details right now, but that doesn't mean you have to wait untl we're done.  If you have a general timeshare question that you'd like to have answered, simply e-mail it to me at lisa@timeshareinsights.com and indicate that the question is for the "Crusader's Corner." 

Please include your full name and city and state in your e-mail.  Your privacy will be protected of course and all selected questions will be ID'd by initials and city and state only.

Also, I'll be the moderator for the next webinar put on by Holiday to be held in the first two weeks of February.  The guest will be a representative of a major timeshare exchange company.

Looking forward to your questions.  And as always, thank you for making Timeshare Insights THE NUMBER ONE SOURCE FOR UNBIASED INFORMATION ON TIMESHARE!

Happy Mid-November!

As most of you know there have been some major shake-ups at both RCI and II within the past week.  The Timeshare Crusader sincerely hopes that these changes will be part of a positive change for the industry as a whole.

More changes are coming...in early 2008, I'll be around the country (live and on the web) conducting a series of "Timeshare Boot Camps" for both owners and non-owners alike.  Don't worry, there will still be a strict "no-selling" rule...these Boot Camps are information in nature only.

Timeshare Insights will also have two new additions to our staff.  Two extremely dedicated and experienced people from New York will be helping our clients with their timeshare issues.

The website will soon be changed to include "MODULE 4" which is entitled "Getting The Most Out Of Your RCI Week Based Timeshare."  There has been much confusion over this, so for a nominal fee, you'll learn how to take what you already have and "upgrade" it.  More trading power, more trading flexibility, more trading options.  Although MODULE 4 is not yet listed on the website, it IS available.  Just drop me an e-mail.

I'm happy to report that I've completed the Sales chapter for the forthcoming "Introduction To Vacation Ownership" and am halfway through the Marketing chapter.  This textbook will be availabe in mid-2008 and will serve as the standard textbook for the more than 4,000 college students enrolled in a timeshare class.  The Sales chapter will also be available for resorts and resort personnel for training use.

Lastly, I've made some significant progress in making both of my books, "Surviving A Timeshare Presentation...Confessions From The Sales Table" and "Timeshare Vacations For Dummies" available to a much broader audience.  Details will follow soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Good Morning All!

I'm pleased to announce that in addition to rolling out "Timeshare Bootcamps" next year in conjunction with Holiday Group and the arrival of the college-level textbook "An Introduction To Vacation Ownership Managment", Timeshare Insights will also be expanding our expertise and our geographic range.

Details will follow soon, but our newest additions are brining years of experience as timeshare owners and a great background in the legal aspects of timeshare.

We'll continue to offer our very popular and low-priced MODULES 1, 2 and 3 and will be able to increase our offerings to you, our clients.

Stay Tuned!

If you are still confused about timeshare, or always have been, and wished there was a way to "try it before you buy it", your wishes have been granted!

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications from interested parties for a brand new "pre-timeshare" program that will give you access to the great benefits of both RCI and II without any long term obligation or long term annual fees.

E-mail lisa@timeshareinsights.com today to be among the first to gain access to this unique way to vacation and save money BEFORE you decide if timeshare is right for you.

The revolution has begun!  In the next few weeks, you can expect to hear about a major revolution in timeshare sales and the way consumers get their information about timeshare.  This venture is LONG overdue, and I am pleased to announce that I have joined forces with a group of talented individuals  that are willing to tel the truth about timeshare, while making the product available to more consumers than ever before.

It promises to be fun, revolutionary, interactive and will cause quite a stir in the staid timeshare industry.

Check back for more details!

Thanks to all the attendees of the Holiday Group's webinar "How To Get The Most Out Of Your Timeshare" which just concluded.  Great questions from everyone!  If there are any more questions out there, don't hesitate to write in.

Thanks to everyong at Holiday, especially Geoff, Andrew and Gail for their hard work and enthusiasm.

What topic would you like to see covered in the next webinar?

Happy Wednesday Everyone.  Wanted to talk today about getting out of your timeshare that you no longer want or use.

First and foremost...do NOT ever pay anyone to "list" your timeshare for you.  In 99 out of 100 cases, they are NOT interested in, or have any expertise in selling the timeshare.  What they are interested in, and experts on, is getting your listing fee.  You don't pay anyone ahead of time to "list" your house, why do it with a timeshare?

Secondly, DON'T simply hand over your timeshare to a company that tells you it will take it off of your hands.  Why, why, why would you ever do that?  You paid good money for your timeshare and just because you are not using it, doesn't mean you should walk away from your money, even if you are paying annual fees.  There is a company out there that is offering to "relieve" owners of their timeshares.  When you are done with a car, do you simply give the car to a company?  What do you think they will do with the car?  Sell it of course.  And that is exactly what this company does with your unwanted timeshare...they will sell it or rent it themselves after saying (on their website) that the resale market for timeshares is practically non-existant.

There are ways out dear people!  E-mail me at lisa@timeshareinsights.com and request MODULE 3.  Until Labor Day of this year, Timeshare Insights is  offering a 30% reduction for this service.

We look forward to helping you!

As some of you know, every once in awhile I venture into the murky waters of timeshare sales in order to keep current with what is going on.

I recently had a chance to speak with a married couple in their early 70s, good health, retired, with disposable income who told me that they vacation 6 months (MONTHS, not weeks) a year.  They were also the proud owners of 5 weeks of traditional timeshare.  One week in St. Maartin, purchased 20 years ago and 4 weeks on the west coast of Florida that they purchased resale about 10 years ago.

After finding out what they liked and disliked about their timeshare and how they would change things to make it better for them, I proceeded to tell them about RCI Points and how for a small fee, they could take their existing weeks and convert them into RCI Points on the years that they wanted to.  Their combined annual Points would be 161,500.

I then explained the fact that one of the benefits of RCI Points was that in limited areas, an entire week would only require 9,000 Points.  The gentleman was impressed with this, but I told him that would be a bit of an exageration, that I didn't feel that it would always work (always is one of the words to avoid in a sales presentation.)

At the end, I showed them what I felt was the best way in, i.e. the smallest number of points, on an every other year basis which would still give them access to RCI Points conversion every year.  The price was $6,500.

"Well," said the gentleman..."you're telling me that for $6,500 we would get 14 weeks vacation every year."  Again, I told him that might be a bit of a stretch and cut his 14 weeks down to 7 or 8.

He hemmed and hawed...he turned to his wife.  She hemmed and hawed and in the end they decided to NOT take advantage of the deal and I packed up my stuff, thanked them for their time and left.

And do you know WHY they decided not to do it?  If you do, you are one step ahead of me, because I have absoluely no idea why they didn't do it.  Neither do they...they couldn't give me a good reason for doing it OR a good reason for not doing it.

My gut feeling may annoy some people, but I'll put forth my thoughts and ask for responses.  These people drove 25 miles to listen to me talk about timeshare in exchange for a "scratch-off" card that offered prizes ranging from $50,000 in cash (yeah, right) to an 8 day land/sea vacation on some rust bucket of a ship where they'll have to endure 2 more timeshare presentations.  My point is, these people (unfortunately, as it was Father's Day) had nothing better to do, had no one better to talk to (and complain to) than me, and as they told me, they do this at least 5x a year.

When are the geniuses in the industry going to find a way to keep track of these people and limit the number of presentations individuals can do in any given time period?

Happy Memorial Day To Everyone!

Question to timeshare owners everywhere...why do you accept invitations from various marketing companies to attend yet another "Informative Resort Preview", which you know are timeshare sales presentations,  when you already own timeshare and in many cases don't use or don't know how to use what you already have?

Also, when you exchange your week for a stay at another resort and get the phone call inviting you to a "Resort Update" why do you accept the offer when you know it is a timeshare presentation?

Are the offers that good?  Do you attend to find out about how to use what you have?  Do you find the presentations a large waste of your time, and if so, why do you still attend?

Just wondering...let me know!

Thanks to everyone who particpated in Budget Travel's live, on-line webchat on May 8th.  I was pleased with both the large number and the scope of timeshare questions I received and hope that I was able to help everyone out.

If you'd like a transcript of the questions and answers, just send me an e-mail at lisa@timeshareinsights.com.

When was the last time you listened to an entire timeshare sales presentation?  As as former timeshare salesperson and sales manager and now as a consumer advocate, I've heard thousands of them.  I even went "undercover" at two resorts to film for a Penn and Teller cable television program.  What I've seen and what I've heard is not always pretty and is the reason that I am leading the effort to require all timeshare salespersons in the United States to hold and regularly renew a valid timeshare sales license.

While it is true that most states require a license of some sort, Florida for instance requires a general real estate license, that license is mainly in place for one of two reasons:  a)  to categorize the person for payment, i.e. commission status or b)  the state doesn't really know where else to place these people.

The Florida real estate class and exam contains about 500 pages worth of material, of which one (1) page deals with the timeshare...and the only question concerning timeshare that is likely to appear on the test is "what tis the legal cancellation or recession period for a new timeshare?"  There are no questions on trading power, the real difference between weeks and points, HOAs. maintenance fees, legal forms of ownership, etc.

In a recent survey that I conducted, a full 78% of people report4ed that their impression of the timeshare industry, and salespeople in particular was "not trustworthy" and/or "not knowledgeable.:  I recently had the good fortune of spending an entire day with hundreds of timeshare owners and the vast majority of them reported that when they attended timeshare presentations they inevitably knew more about the product and industry than the salespersons and managers that they spoke with.

I propose that the Federal government implement a national timeshare sales license course which would be required of every salesperson, sales manager, Director of Sales, exit or leasing salespersons, sales trainer, closing or verification officer, sales broker and project director.

The course material would cover such relevant information as:

            *  the difference between fixed week, floating week, points, right to use, etc. ownership

            *  HOA rights and responsibilities

            *  the history and differences between RCI and II

            *  what are the "other" exchange companies out there and what do they do

            *  how trading works, when a red week really is a red week

            *  how and why location doesn't make a difference when trading some point timeshares

I am not advocating that all of this information make its way into a sales presentation.  I am however advocating that before any person involved with any aspect of selling any timeshare get in front of a consumer or manage those in front of a consumer, they know all of this information and more.

I'm not anti-salesperson by the way.  There are plenty of hard-working, knowledgeable professionals out there.  However, there are more non-professionals out there---people who have no knowledge of what they are selling or closing, or representing.  People who know nothing about using the product, people who don't know (or don't care) that a September week in Orlando is not the same as a July week in Myrtle Beach.  People who claim that consumers can get 12 Bonus Weeks at the same resort in Hawaii at the same week so that they can take their entire extended family.  People who, when asked about the HOA respond, "what's an HOA?"

While it is true that the American Resort and Development Association (ARDA) does have a catalog of classes open to everyone in timeshare that can lead to earning an APR or RRP designation, many timeshare resorts intentionally keep their sales force in the dark about these matters and in some cases, expressly forbid them from even attending an ARDA convention.  There are exceptions of course, but at the latest ARDA convention going on right now in Orlando, you'd have to look long and hard to find a timeshare salesperson among all the "big-wigs."

Since the consumers' perception of the product and the industry is largely controlled by the timeshare salesperson, it is high time that consumers demand more from the timeshare industry and the timeshare salesperson.

If you own a timeshare, I strongly advise you to either join an existing Owners' Group or start one yourself.

I had the privilage of spending an evening with the founders of the Maryland Timeshare Owners' Group and was pleased to find out that they asked for and got a meeting with the head of (one of) the resorts that they own in to talk about changes to the resort and other issues of concern to them.

Timeshare is, in many cases, a fine product.  However, there are those cases where consumers have paid thousands of dollars for a timeshare and then found out that the resort is not being kept up to date, or the annual fees continually rise with little or no explanation or worse, that the trading power that they were promised doesn't exist.

Timeshare is a HUGE business, generating more than $9 billion in 2006.  I'm not against big business---I am however against big business that doesn't answser to consumers.

E-mail me if you need assistance in finding or starting your Owners's Group.