The «hard» sales techniques, unexplainable price drops, and low-quality resorts are generally disappearing. That means many vacationers now view timesharing as a viable and economical option for future vacations. But they need to know much more to make an intelligent purchase. With the entrance of companies like Disney, Marriott, and Hilton into the field, the timeshare market is exploding.
In the past two years, almost 500,000 households have purchased a total of more than 700,000 week-long units at timeshare resorts.
That means there are more than 2 million owners at more than 2,000 resorts worldwide. Contrary to popular belief, a recent study by leisure survey experts Ragatz Associates showed that more than 80% of these owners are happy with their purchase. «It is clear that timesharing is gaining in popularity, not only here in the U.S., but also across Europe, Mexico, and in South America,» says Tom Franks, president of the American Resort Development Association, the timeshare industry body, based in Washington, D.C. THE BASICS In timesharing, consumers typically buy one or more weeks at a specific resort and can return to that resort every year or «trade» it for a week at another resort with an exchange company. Prices currently average about $9,000, with annual maintenance fees of around $300. Vacation timesharing generally takes one of two forms: «Fee» timesharing gives the purchaser permanent rights–in the form of a deed–to the property. About 85% of timeshare resorts sell under fee-ownership agreements. «Right-to-use» timesharing grants the purchaser the rights to the use of the property for an established period of time, such as 30 years. Under this type of timesharing, the purchaser does not receive a deed. Rather than return to their home resort every year, many owners opt to exchange their week for a week at one of thousands of other timeshare properties worldwide.
For a fee (usually less than $100), companies like Resorts Condominiums International (317/876-1692) or Interval International (305/666-1861) perform these exchange services for member resorts and owners. Many owners say this exchange privilege was a key reason for buying and have had much success with the exchanges. The keys to successful exchangers are: buying at a popular resort (this increases exchange power); «depositing» the week with an exchange company as early as possible (this gives the exchange company more time to find a user for the week being exchanged); and being flexible on the desired destination, resort, and dates of travel. SOME SPECIFICS The Orlando, Florida area serves as an ideal example of what’s available. It’s a huge market for vacationers from throughout the world in search of a piece of that Orlando «magic.» There are dozens of options available and the area is a great place to own one or more weeks, if you know where to go. Well-established possibilities include: Island One (407/859-8900); Marriott (813/688-7700); Orange Lake (407/239-1082); and Vistana (407/239-3008). At these and other resorts, you’ll find a full host of amenities, often including kitchens, decks, pools, restaurants, golf courses, tennis courts, and much more. These timeshare resorts are more like fully-equipped apartments or suites, rather than standard hotel rooms. Walt Disney World recently opened their first timeshare resort, the Disney Vacation Club (407/939-3100). As would be expected, they have developed some unique features for their timeshare concept. Disney tackled two of the major issues in the timeshare industry today: flexibility and aggressive sales techniques. Along with many other timeshare properties, Disney has moved to improve these two areas and the early reviews give them high marks. By purchasing a real estate interest in Disney Vacation Club Resort, guests automatically become members of Disney Vacation Club and are entitled to a variety of exclusive benefits and privileges. Members also receive an annual allotment of vacation points, which may be used on vacations at the resort or at more than 100 worldwide resorts currently offered through a «Member Getaways» program with RCI.
«The flexibility of choosing among several different vacation experiences is what sets the Disney Vacation Club apart from many similar plans,» says General Manager Mark Pacala.
«The vacation point system allows members to select the type of vacation best suited to their needs, particularly as those needs change from year to year.» Disney has also attacked the overly-aggressive sales techniques that used to plague the industry. They don’t provide any incentives or awards for prospects attending the sales presentation and their sales force mostly receives a fixed salary, rather than high commissions for high volume. For a one-time purchase price, guests may purchase a real estate interest in the resort, which expires after 50 years. Prices currently run from $11,730 to around $16,000. The points system, which is becoming much more popular in the timeshare industry, is much easier to understand than it first appears. Let’s say that with your Disney Vacation Club ownership interest you have 270 points to use each year. You could reserve a two-bedroom home for a week’s stay in June or enjoy a five-day family reunion in July in a three-bedroom Grand Villa. Other options would be to reserve a two-bedroom home for a nine-day stay in September or an incredible stay of several weeks in a studio unit. Disney’s timeshare operation is typical of the exciting future for the industry and astute timeshare buyers.
There are timesharing options throughout the U.
S., with huge multi-site options like Hilton Grand Vacations (813/482-7766); Fairfield Communities (800/251-8736); and the Lawrence Welk Resort Group (619/485-5556); as well as small and intimate single-resort operations. You’ll find apartment-like accommodations in a resort-like atmosphere. WORLDWIDE OPTIONS Timesharing is not limited to the U.S. at all. This worldwide industry is very popular in Mexico, South America, Europe, and several other parts of the world. More than 100,000 weeks were sold in Mexico last year at more than 100 different resorts. Prices tend to be lower than the average $9,000 purchase price in the U.S. Potential buyers should consider Cancun and Cozumel; Puerto Vallarta; Acapulco; Ixtapa; and Manzanillo, a regional resort area for Mexico City, which is favored by Mexicans and generally features even lower prices (less than $5,000). To get started in Mexico, contact reputable multi-resort operator COSTAMEX at 305/267-7855. South America is a relatively new hot-spot for timesharing, but the industry there is growing quickly. The Argentinian coast and mountains (skiing during the U.S. summer) are currently the most popular spots for development. Visitors to Argentina should explore the options in Buenas Aires, Mar del Plata, Miramar, and the Cerro Catedral ski area.
The Uruguay coast resort area of Punta del Este is also becoming a timeshare hub. Timesharing actually started in Europe, before blossoming in the U.S. There are hundreds of options throughout Western Europe, the Mediterranean, and Scandinavia. As can be expected, resorts are most prevalent along the coasts and in the Alps. Southern Spain is probably the leader in sunny European timesharing. Dozens of timeshare resorts dot the Costa del Sol area. It’s easy to comparison shop along the coast, but definitely check out several of Club Riviera’s options (011-34-52-831252). Other timeshare hotspots include the Canary Islands, Portugal, the French Riviera, Greece, and Turkey. The Alps appeal to many timeshare buyers and for good reason. A timeshare unit can save lots of money on ski trips or a summer vacations in the mountains. There are several options in the French Alps, Switzerland, and Germany’s Bavaria, but Austria seems to have the best overall bets. Timesharing Ferienclub Jausern in Sallbach-Hinterglemm (011-43-65-41-503) is typical of Austria’s club-like mountain resorts. BUYERS BEWARE Timesharing isn’t for everyone. It’s not a true real estate «investment» and the resale market is tight. Simply put, plan to b
uy it, keep it, and enjoy it. The industry body ARDA (see below) has many excellent publications about timeshare purchase. Their office is a great starting point for interested buyers.
www.eliasg.com The prospect of a profitable work-at-home business is incredibly attractive. Every year, millions of people investigate and implement various moneymaking strategies in hopes of building their own successful work-at-home career. Unfortunately, most of them fail to realize a profit. Those failures can usually be traced back to one of three primary causes. Let’s look at what dooms so many ventures and how one may be able to work around those obstacles. First, most people hate selling. Most home-based business strategies require making sales to other people.
Whether online or offline, selling is often the very foundation of these opportunities.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t like to sell. In fact, many people find the process of dealing with prospects completely unnerving. It can be hard for people to conquer their distaste of sales and this leads many to give up on their dreams of operating a winning home business. Second, most people can’t sell. Those who can get past their reservations about selling are still unable to close deals. Even though some home business packages will claim to “teach anyone how to sell,” the ability to successfully market and to convert prospects into buyers is an art form. Not everyone is a natural salesperson and learning the tricks to successful selling can take years and years. The lack of sales skills kills many home-based ventures. Third, most people lack time and time management skills. All of us are burdened with long “to-do” lists. Many of those pursuing a work-at-home career do so while maintaining a full-time job, too. Home-based business opportunities can take a great deal of time to build and operate. The clock is always ticking, and twenty-four hours per day isn’t always enough time to manage one’s life and a business. Countless work-at-home plans become victims of the clock. So, if one wants to operate a successful home-based business, they will need to get over their distaste for selling, develop top-notch sales skills, and find a way to put in late night after late night in order to make things work, right? Well, that is one approach.
However, most of those interested in controlling their own financial future would prefer to work smart instead of working hard. That’s why they seek out proven home-based business models that don’t require making sales or massive time commitments. Instead of trying to climb over these obstacles, many successful entrepreneurs have found ways to avoid them completely. Some great work-at-home opportunities don’t require selling or staying up all night just to get things going. By finding these non-intensive passive revenue streams, one can maximize his or her chance at home business success.
John Beavis Everybody’s got something to lose with any risk they ever take. Equally, everybody who is prepared to risk something stands to gain so much. Life’s a gamble and there’s little that’s predictable or certain. That’s what makes it so exciting! So why do so many internet entrepreneurs risk so little and seem to be so satisfied with such scant rewards? Especially when you consider that there is a mountain of opportunity out there. And it is there, all over the world, sitting right at the end of your fingertips. Want some of it? Of course you do – who wouldn’t? So why are you still doing what everybody else seems to want to do? You’re risking nothing simply by copying others. Whether it’s their copy, layout, graphic styling, headlining, offers and even typeface – it’s very likely that by following others, you’re just buying into their mistakes. Why not do what those powerful ads command and: «challenge everything»? Headlines Whoever said it was a good idea to pan people over the head with «Secret this», «Discover that», «Unlock, unleash, un-whatever»! I got bored just writing that, let alone trying to read any of it. Scorn, derision and spades of scepticism are not the results you’re after! And 36 point, 36 word headlines? Whose idea was that? On many websites I visit, you get half the headline, in your face, in an unreadable type size all spouting pretty much the same unhinged hyperbole. Say goodbye – there goes your client, off to find somewhere sane and inviting! Take a risk. Pare the headline down to 6-10 words that challenge the reader, wrap your arm round their shoulder and invite them into the body copy. They’re banging on your door. Now bring them in for the sale! Layout Look out, there’s a good layout about! Trouble is, you’ve got to trawl through some awful rubbish to find it! So many layouts that I see are so confusing! Offers here, offers there, bonus here, bonus there, affiliate offers, early bird offers, totally unconnected adverts – it’s a visual explosion of bewildering befuddlement! Why do it? «Everyone else seems to do it!» Every year, Bill Gates and lots of other hugely successful entrepreneurs give away billions of dollars to charity, … and I don’t see everyone else doing that, do you? Take a risk.
Break the mould. Do it, differently, but just make sure you do it brilliantly well. By that I mean do it cleverly and simply. Walk the reader through your store. Show them everything. Tantalise, intrigue, excite, entice and lead them gently and persuasively to doing just what you want them to do – buy, subscribe, enlist, enrol – it’s your call, but it’s their choice and, remember, it’s also their money. Offers A wise old gentleman once told me that you should never give away your product or service – and don’t discount it either! He was a marketing guru, worth millions and I guess he never gave anything away, except that he gave me a chance to become a copywriter for his company. For that, I’ve been grateful ever since. But apart from the quality of your list of customers (absolutely vital), the offer you make is the single most important element you have to play with. Take a risk. Use it to your advantage. There are truckloads of books out there about successful internet entrepreneurs who pitched a brave offer to their eager audience. They gave something away, for free, and yes – it was the crown jewels! Why? Well, they knew that once a customer bought into the buying cycle, they would be hooked … and ready for more, usually at a much higher price – provided that the product delivered all of the promise it had made. Net effect? The customer got a smashing freebie, told their friends, blogged it and viral methods substantially increased the entrepreneur’s customer list … with people who were hungry, eager and waiting for the offer. Instead of sticking out for just one sale that may or may not come, the entrepreneur took a big risk and not only doubled, trebled or even quadrupled their earnings – their profits soared through the roof and put their businesses on a stellar footing with virtually an iron grip on the future. «Challenge everything» Risk requires that you «challenge everything».
Do it differently and you begin to make the world work the way you want it to and the bottom line read the way that you think it should. It isn’t difficult and we all remember the story of the Pied Piper. All the children disappeared, except the one that was different. I don’t know how that good old story ended, but the child that was left probably grew up to become a hugely successful online entrepreneur … and made himself a couple of fortunes!
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Internet marketing is the new face of marketing strategy. It is phenomenon taking place everywhere these days. However doing marketing online is not all about just having a website. Of course this is the first step towards internet marketing online, but there are numerous other elements to this. In this age of mounting competition, it is imperative to have a web presence to sell your goods and services. Internet marketing online is one of the paramount techniques for you to optimize your website. Literally internet marketing means buying, selling and advertising of goods and services in the internet. A recent study undertaken by a principal research organization shows that more and more people are making use of search engines to find the product or information that they are looking online. Such finding makes it all the more important for your website to feature at the top of search engine rankings. Your internet marketing online site must be able to bring prospective clients to your site. There are different ways which you can adopt to make your website presence felt everywhere in the World Wide Web. Writing articles and submitting them to website is one easy method to advertise your online site. You can write an article about your online business and at the end of it advertise about your product or service. One more way which you can carry out is to advertise about your site in other websites. This is an extremely effective internet marketing strategy.
All you need to do is find a good website where you want to advertise about your site. Most websites will charge a certain sum for advertising your site. Visitors to the website will in reality see your advertisement there. This will surely prompt some visitors to check out your site. There are many benefits of having a website as part of your marketing strategy. First of all internet marketing is instant. No body likes to wait for later or tomorrow for anything they are searching for or want to buy. Visitors will come to your site, see your product and buy it instantly if they like it. Instant purchase and gratification is what customers look out for. Second of all internet is accessible to anyone 24/7. All the prospective buyer needs is access to a computer with internet connection to buy your products. So your online storefront is practically open to customers any time of the day. Internet marketing online works round the clock for you and helps in generating business leads. Internet marketing is also very cheap compared to the other methods of marketing. Internet marketing has a global reach. So now you can have global customers for your products. Internet marketing online is not a sure shot marketing strategy for your business.
On the other hand if you undertake internet marketing in the proper way, you are sure to gain heaps of profits from your business.
Internet marketing is here to stay and setting up your storefront online is surely going to bring profits for your business. More and more people are entering to the field of online internet marketing, so it is all the more important for you to have a distinctive website for your products.
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