I worked for one of the major xchange companies...

[PerryM]

I was robbed

BB,

Way to hurt a guy - they stole my system!

I'll look into how close they match my specks. Thanks for the reference.

 

[BocaBum99]

Re: I was robbed

BB,

Way to hurt a guy - they stole my system!

I'll look into how close they match my specks. Thanks for the reference.

I forgot to mention, the 35% commission does NOT include the management fees. Those are separate. You must pay housekeeping and put $$$ in reserve for utilities, lawn maintenance, linens and towels, etc. Those are fixed costs that also come out of your take.

I agree it's a good system. And, they can market the properties and create a brand and they have relationships with other retailres to move product. For instance, Hotels.com offers resortquest managed properties.

 

[BocaBum99]

Re: I was robbed

I forgot to mention, the 35% commission does NOT include the management fees. Those are separate. You must pay housekeeping and put $$$ in reserve for utilities, lawn maintenance, linens and towels, etc. Those are fixed costs that also come out of your take.

I agree it's a good system. And, they can market the properties and create a brand and they have relationships with other retailres to move product. For instance, Hotels.com offers resortquest managed properties.

Oh yeah, you can use or rent your condo/house yourself as well. It really is a good model.

In my opinion, it is way better than the condo hotel business model.

By the way, did you know that the Florida real estate market has tanked? The peak was last summer, especially the condo market. I wouldn't rely on zillow to value your property. It is a lagging indicator since it doesn't accurately reflect the current state of the market.

 

[Carolinian]

I think you overestimate the appeal of renting. The Outer Banks has had a local timeshare rental/resale agency, Outer Banks Resort Rentals, about as long as there has been timesharing on the OBX. The late Marvin Beard did a great job with national advertising for his business, and it is now being ably run by his successor, Rhonda Williams. If you want to rent a week, particularly in high season, they can generally get it rented for you. They advertise in HOA newsletters, and are generally known to most OBX timesharers. But interest in rental is far below that in exchange, and together they are far below owning to use.

I find it difficult to believe that information about how to make an effective exchange will diffuse to the general timesharing public before information about the great deals available on the resale market presents itself broadly. After all, a price on a website is something a person can see. Trading power is abstract.

There is tremendous apathy amongst large numbers of timeshare owners. I think the underserved market is NOT for timeshare exchange, but for timeshare rentals.

Go to an HOA or an average timeshare owner and tell them you have yet another way to exchange your week and the likely response will be a yawn. Tell them that you will list their week and be able to recoup most of their expenses and maybe even provide a bit of a profit and that may get their attention.

This is especially true for people who own prime weeks and have traded down or let their weeks go unoccupied for years.

The biggest problem for creating a timeshare exchange is that you can't even begin exchanging until you have a ton of weeks on deposit. If you start a rental business, all you need is ONE week and you can list it for available to ANY person who wants to go on vacation.

 

[PerryM]

Zillow me this

BB,

We’re in Maui right now and in the Ka’anapali area prices are up 35% since last year this time. Zillow is spot on here (in terms of what local realtors AND the Maui board of realtors are claiming too). I’ll look at Florida and report back in 2 weeks.

Most condos here have doubled in 2 years here - no end to the growth - still cheaper than S. California.

This week we are at the Sands of Kahana and a 2BR OV 1,500 sq ft unit sells for $900,000. 2 years ago $450,000, 2 years before that $225,000. The timeshare sold has, of course, broken even (if lucky) in the mean time. (Developer sales)

 

[funtime]

Re: Start opening up the market

Good luck with your timeshare company. However, taking advice from tuggers may be counter productive. Most threads emphasized fine tuning points vs weeks for companies that have thousands -- if not millions -- of exchanges a year and by folks that are in the top 1% of knowledge re timeshares. You need to figure out how to bring new customers in, not just siphon off customers from rci or II. Also, look to the smaller exchange companies and see what they do right as they are your true comparators.
My ideas:
A telephone counselor -- at least one -- is a must. Someone to be helpful and cheerlead a really great trade. You need to make your new customers feel like they are part of a new family and you cannot do it merely online. Right now you seem to feel that there is a groundswell of folks that will flock to your company and go on the internet and do their ownt rades for a 50 trade and I think that is a false assumption.
Tap into groups or resources that should be into timesharing but may not be such as AARP - consider advertising in their magazine for example or writing an article for their magazine;
$50 for an exchange is too low if you want to stay in business; consider 69 for domestic red exchanges and $39 for shoulder seasons - april, may, september and october. The market for shoulder season needs to be untapped with new folks to the system;
Discourage last minute deposits - HTSE requires 90 days in advance and a red week. You need to protect yourself against last minute deposits.
Have a frequent exchange card -- exchange three weeks and the fourth is free.
Make the website people friendly but also have a people friendly telephone counselor as well. Good luck! Funtime

 

[akbmusic]

Is having a business that you can only access via the internet a wise move? In the past few weeks, both the RCI and II sites have been down on more than one occasion. Sometimes, my computer crashes too!
I really don't want to put in personal info like credit card numbers... on a computer that is more "public", like at an internet cafe or library (and I work at a library!) I would not be pleased if I was ready to plan my vacation and couldn't because a web site was inacessible. Computers are not infallible.
Just a thought.

 

[TUGBrian]

If TUG were to implement a new form of exchange program...it would likely be free for all TUG members.

Unbiased Exchange Community....nice ring to it...

 

[Amy]

I just got around to reading this thread, and I'm interested in learning if there are any updates?