Timeshare Trends Blog

Interval International has revealed that its U.S. resident members reported annual household income greater than $125,000 per year, 88% are satisfied with their membership, 33% would like to purchase additional holiday time, and Interval International’s U.S. members spend about 23 nights away from home, taken as leisure time. Also determined in the profile, Florida, California and Hawaii are the most popular destinations members said they wanted to visit within the next two years, with New York City the most popular urban destination. The Caribbean is the number one “international” favorite destination for US residents. An official at Interval International said, “The observations and insights drawn from this research reinforce the value our members place on vacationing. This study also represents the latest in Interval’s continuing commitment to bring timely and consumer-centric research to the market.”

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Welk Resorts San Diego has recently won the Workplace Excellence Award in the large company category. Presented by the San Diego Society for Human Resource Management, Welk Resorts has earned the distinction of being San Diego’s “Best Place to Work”. It was proclaimed the winner out of a field of over 120 other nominated companies. What is most unique about this award is that only employees are eligible to nominate their company as a “great place to work”.

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The Grand Pacific Resorts will not increase the maintenance fees in the 2009-10 fiscal year. This California resort property located in Carlsbad is leading the charge in recommending to its homeowners board that there will be no increase in fees.

The decision to have no increase in maintenance fees came about after a careful analysis of operations and an implemented cost cutting on all fronts. In most years this would not be a newsworthy item, but many timeshare resorts this past year are facing serious criticism over huge increases in maintenance fees, especially in such economically difficult times.

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Marriott’s Shadow Ridge resort in Palm Desert, California, has completed phase 7 of a 14-phase development plan. Phase 7 construction at the timeshare resort included two buildings and 73 two-bedroom Marriott timeshare villas. Currently, 19 buildings have been completed, housing 523 timeshare villas of the planned 972 timeshare villas. Phase I development of this California timeshare property began in 1999, when a timeshare sales office and maintenance facility were started.

Today the property includes a clubhouse, restaurant, spa, registration center, 2000 square foot pool with bar, grill and children’s beach, along with the timeshare units. The golf amenities are considered outstanding and include a golf pro shop with swing studio, lockers, club fitting, and golf admin center, which adds to the pleasure of play and practice at the on site Marriott’s Shadow Ridge Golf Club and the Faldo Golf Institute by Marriott. Phase 8 at the 300-acre resort is scheduled to begin in 2010

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Still on schedule are 50 new units that will open later this year in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, along with three recently opened timeshare properties right in Disney World in central Florida. The ambitious growth in the Disney Vacation Club is coming at a time when sales at the Celebration, Florida based timeshare business fell during the last three months that ended on March 28. It is the first quarterly decline that Disney has recorded in its Disney Vacation Club timeshare arm in several years.

According to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, this has added more pressure at Disney’s worldwide them park division, which has relied on its vacation club to help fuel its profit growth in recent years. The new resorts in Disney World in Florida include the Kidani Village, Treehouse Villas, and Bay Lake Towers. In Anaheim, the Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is on schedule, the resort in Hawaii remains under construction and is scheduled to open in 2011. Finally, Disney has purchased 15 acres just outside Washington DC with plans to build a family resort and timeshare units.

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