As summer approaches, many families find themselves without a plan for their much needed and deserved vacation. School is almost out, kids are already day dreaming about sleeping late and having summer fun. Chances are at this late date, finding a good deal in a great place are dwindling fast. If you were a timeshare owner the plans would already be made and an awesome condo would be waiting for you in Destin, Tahoe, Cabo or even in Hawaii or Europe. Owning a timeshare can save you money buying tomorrow's vacations with today's dollars.

Most resorts offer far more amenities than your typical hotel in addition to much nicer units with full kitchens and even washers, dryers and fireplaces.

Timeshare is here to stay with Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Wyndham and Disney -- some of the major timeshare players in today's industry. Not only do you get your very own Condo year after year but you have access to try new places. Most timeshare resorts are included in an exchange company (Interval International or RCI) affiliated with hundreds of resorts to trade into when you want to try a new destination.

Don't let it happen to you again next year--when there are many excellent choices to choose from.

-Posted by Ed

If you are thinking of buying or selling your Wyndham timeshare, here's some valuable information! Over the years, Wyndham resorts have done well on the resales market.  Stroman Realty, Inc has published a list of their best selling Wyndham resorts.  Generally, these resorts are considered a great value and fine quality! The top selling Wyndham resorts include the Cypress Palm, Kingsgate, Westwinds, Fairfield Glade, Pagosa, Ocean Ridge, Star Island Resort, Sea Gardens, Branson, and Sapphire Valley.  In addition, these Wyndham timeshare resorts have shown great sales success: Royal Vista, Kona Hawaiian, Sedona, and Skyline Tower.

Many other Wyndham timeshare properties have been sold, but these have had the most activity in the resales market.  If you are ready to sell your Wyndham timeshare, go with someone who has had proven success.  See what the professionals at www.rpmls.com can do for you.  They will take the hassle out of selling - taking care of all the details.

Wyndham Star Island Resort, Kissimmee Florida

If you want to sell your Wyndham Palm Aire timeshare, here's how we just sold one for an owner in California. This sale of Wyndham 175,000 points deeded annual ownership came with an additional 175,000 points from the owner. The buyer paid all the closing costs and transfer fees. Apparently, the owner had never stayed at the Palm Aire timeshare and was relieved when the sale closed.

Wyndham Palm Aire is located in Pompano Beach Florida between Boca and Ft Lauderdale. This world famous golf resort is the ultimate vacation in luxury. As a member of the Wyndham family of resorts, it's best known for its spa and fitness center, but there are a variety of services with which to pamper yourself. Five on-site golf courses provide easy access and course selection and the Pompano Park horsetrack is nearby.

Wyndham Palm Aire offers studio, 1, and 2 bedroom units with amenities worthy of it's Gold Crown rating.

Other great deals on Wyndham Palm Aire timeshares for sale:

Wyndham Palm Aire timeshare - Week 2 (January) two bedrooms, annual use.

Wyndham Palm Aire timeshare - Week 47 (November: usually Thanksgiving week) one bedroom, annual use.

Wyndham Palm Aire timeshare - Week 36 (September: usually around Labor Day) studio unit, even years.

Great resort, great prices, no hassle.

Sell your Wyndham timeshare.

Buy a Wyndham timeshare.

Take a Wyndham vacation! We could all probably use a vacation!

Wyndham Palm Aire timeshare in Pompano Beach Florida

Even www.forbes.com is getting into the spirit of the season - promoting nine great timeshare destinations where you can stay for a greatly reduced rate. They describe these nine choices like this - "good news for cash-strapped and none-too-proud vacationers willing to sit through a two-hour presentation in order to enjoy up to a week's worth of deeply discounted fun in the sun or on the slopes. If you're in that camp, here are nine gambits worth a look. ' (read the story here) With a few of their recommendations like Wyndham, Marriott, and Silverleaf they don't specify which resorts to choose but describe incentives for a budget minded traveler to stay at their resort for a seriously reduced rate.

This time of year, the Raintree's Club Regina Los Cabos looks especially enticing:

Especially with this stuff swirling around the midwest and northeast:

Palm trees, beaches, and warm ocean water sounds appealing!

In their article they mention Island One, Orlando Florida, a great fractional in Destin Florida - Emerald Grande, Consolidated Resorts Tahiti Village Las Vegas, and the Westin Maui Resort and Spa. All terrific destinations - especially if you want to dodge that blue and pink stuff in the above radar image....

Happy traveling in 2009!

Great beach and tropical timeshare deals for Cabo San Lucas Mexico are here.

The Village at Steamboat Springs, a Wyndham timeshare development in Colorado, is loaded with the amenities that any family would crave for their ski vacation!  With 144 new condos at the timeshare ski resort, Wyndham owners will have several new choices: "Wyndham Vacation Resorts Steamboat Springs is assigned 71 units, as is the WorldMark Steamboat Springs. In addition to their standard one-, two- and three-bedroom condos, each has a couple of presidential units that feature higher finishes such as granite counters and wood floors in a two-story townhome configuration." (source)

In addition to the Wyndham ski timeshare, Intrawest has Copper Mountain, Winter Park, and Steamboat Springs timeshare resorts right in Steamboat Springs. Steamboat, also known as Ski Town USA, gets it's name from springs that are located near the town's library. There are also two hot springs in town that are open to the public featuring pools and slides. Even though Steamboat Springs is a small town (about 10,000 population 2001) it has quite a name among skiing enthusiasts. Steamboat Springs also hosted the 1989 and 1990 Alpine Skiing World cup.

There may still be lodging ready for booking. As always, renting a timeshare, or owning a timeshare there would be the most cost efficient way to do it. Especially if you buy a timeshare on the secondary market from an owner. You can save a huge amount of money that way and get the same benefits. Look as some Colorado timeshare deals here.

From the Associated Press via www.forbes.com comes an update about the timeshare giants Wyndham and Marriott. Wyndham announced it is laying off 4,000 employees, (they called it "cutting 4,000 jobs") in response to a decline in their timeshare sales projected for 2009 of $1.2 billion from $2.0 billion in 2008. Wyndham's projected $1.2 billion in timeshare sales still sounds fairly strong with all things considered. Credit continues to be the issue with Wyndham financing about 70% of their sales. They will no doubt raise the bar when qualifying their buyers. So far this year, Wyndham's stock has plummeted 75%.

I look in on Marriott's blog from time to time. The Chairman and CEO of Marriott International writes on their blog fairly often. Yesterday a guest writer, Arne Sorenson, Marriott's chief financial officer, seemed quite positive in saying "Today, we're increasingly nimble in responding to demand trends. This includes our timeshare business, which we believe will weather the downturn just fine." This is likely due to a good balance sheet and a $1 billion line of credit still in place for Marriott. These days, it is all about the credit.

If you have ever had the experience of being in the "wheel house" of a big ship, you know that if you want to make a sharp turn, you have to have some speed going into the turn, and turn the helm at the right time. Our economy, like a big ship, cannot turn on a dime, but sectors of our economy whether it is hotel and tourism, manufacturing, or oil and gas can make the changes they need to survive. Let us all hope that their respective "helmsmen" are making the changes they need to keep up in this rapidly changing economy.

Ships in San Diego Bay, courtesy of www.PDPhoto.org

Southern California has long been an area ripe for timeshare development. But because of limits placed by local governing authorities and the price of land, timeshares have been slower to develop than Las Vegas, Orlando, or other areas. After two years of construction Wyndham has opened their WorldMark Anaheim 14 story timeshare resort. They will offer studio, one, and two bedroom units. The tower also boasts two-, three- and four-bedroom luxurious “Presidential” units for a total of 241 timeshare units.

There are a few other timeshares in Southern California worth mentioning. Located between Oceanside and San Diego is Four Seasons Resort Aviara. This has been one of the very best timeshares on the resales market for this region. Four Seasons Aviara offers the very best amenities and luxury vacationing. Nearby is the Carlsbad Inn Beach Resort. More affordable than Four Seasons, it is set on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This ideal location puts an entire realm of oceanfront activities at your doorstep. The Coronado Beach Resort, located between San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, is well known as an upscale vacation destination.

Also, be sure to check out Riviera Beach and Spa Resort, San Clemente Cove Resort, and another top seller Marriott's Newport Coast Villas.

Marriott's Newport Coast Villas timeshare in Southern California

I often visit the www.cnn.com/travel website to see their ideas about travel, exciting vacations, and new deals being offered for the budget minded traveler. A very recent article there "Where the Travel Deals Are" highlighted places like Iceland, London, South Africa, and Hawaii. Their Hawaii section captured my attention the most when they described how generous and affordable they are making hotels and airfare.

Apparently the Hawaii tourism market has dropped 9% this year so they have taken drastic price reduction measures to attract more people. Now would be a great time to rent a timeshare, find a discount airfare and Go To Hawaii!

For example, you can find a five star resort with magnificent amenities, two bedrooms, totally furnished and with a brand name like Marriott or Westin for less than $1,000 a week.  That's less than $150 a day for a condo - lots of room and loaded with quality and luxury. Some of the top timeshare resorts we have rented out in Hawaii include Marriott's Maui Ocean Club, Wyndham Waikiki Beach Walk, Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas, Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club, and more.

I'd say, go ahead and take the plunge: Go to Hawaii, rent a timeshare, save a lot of money, and have the vacation of your life.

Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas, Maui Hawaii Timeshare

In a word, nothing. The value of your timeshare will not be determined by the price of the timeshare resort developers stock price. Just because Wyndham's stock dropped by 7% on Monday, does not mean you should panic. The same goes for Marriott timeshare owners. The quality of service you receive as a timeshare owner will not likely be affected either.

These companies are still very profitable and any cuts they make in the short term will have more to do with new sales and new developments than current operations.  From the Associated Press, "Wyndham's stock has dropped more than 20 percent since Marriott International Inc. (nyse: MAR ) said Thursday that its timeshare sales have dried up amid the tight credit market and cutbacks in business and consumer spending." Large timeshare developers who have significant hotel business depend on the steady cash flow of timeshare sales. This cash flow is stopped when other businesses will not buy their loans. The emerging strategy is to focus their marketing on buyers with a higher credit rating.

As a side note, Starwood has taken a similar hit on their stock price but maintains an "outperform" rating by Oppenheimer. Starwood resorts include big names like Westin and Sheraton.

Chances are, when this economic storm passes, the big players in the timeshare world like Wyndham, Marriott, and Westgate will once again "lower the bar" to make more sales.

"History teaches us that we never learn from history."

PS: Anyone know if this has stopped resorts from exercising their "right of first refusal" on a timeshare resale?

MAR - Marriott, WYN - Wyndham, HOT - Starwood

"Wyndham Hotels and Resorts has announced that construction of its 400-room luxury resort in the Bonnet Creek Resort complex adjacent to Walt Disney World® at Lake Buena Vista, Fla., which began this month, is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2010.

It is anticipated the complex ultimately will total 1,594 vacation ownership units, the most at any Wyndham Vacation Ownership location." (source)

In the press release, they describe something a little different: Be Together Suites. They describe them as oversized rooms designed to sleep a family of six comfortably with a king-size bed, bunk-bed alcove with game station and sofa bed. About 20% of the timeshare units will be this type of suite.  That is different.

The obvious prediction of success will come because of its location: as close to Disney as you can get without being inside the park in a Disney Resort.  In addition, these accommodations will have all the amenities that timeshare owners have now come to expect: high speed internet access, LCD TV's, and gaming stations - that's inside the rooms!

Many older timeshare resorts in the region need to get up to speed to compete with the new resorts being built today.