Welcome to the start of another week in the crazy world of timeshare, we say “crazy” because that is what it looks like to those on the outside. They are mystified that a product which is supposed to bring joy, causes so much grief, compared to the way they book with tour operators, coupled with the question “Why would you bother buying a timeshare?”
Sit on a presentation and you’ll see why people end up buying, a picture of perfection is painted, along with all the other deceptive methods, including all the so-called benefits of ownership. The best one is “take control of your vacations, you “own” them”. But remember, you are “sold” it, you don’t buy it.
We can’t ignore the fact that the majority of “dedicated” timeshare resorts are high quality, although some are now looking to be a little dated and run down. This is especially true in Spain where timeshares sold contravened many laws, have taken the biggest hit. Resorts which were leased out to timeshares have folded and reverted to standard tourism, others built originally as timeshares are also making the same change, more slowly as the old members “die off”. All this reduces the number of resorts available,
Yet the link to the joint ARDA Skift article we published on Friday titled “How Research and Advocacy Are Transforming Today’s Timeshare Experience”, does make mention of the new “Demographic” of timeshare owners. Mr Gamel (ARDA CEO) makes this comment:
“This research provides clarity about the type of products and services our timeshare developers need to offer to meet the needs of this changing demographic of owners,” Gamel said. “It all ties back to providing flexibility, convenience, and ease of use, and also the unique experiences that younger travellers want.”
Somehow, I don’t think the “young travellers” of today, especially the ones I know can ever see how timeshare could change to suit their needs. Judging by the way timeshare works today, “flexibility, convenience, and ease of use” is definitely not on the list.
There is more in the ARDA article, but we will leave that it for now as it will be the subject of a forthcoming article on ARDA and the RDO in Europe.
It is not just timeshare that can cause confusion, during the preparation of our articles myself, Irene and a couple of others have great conversations on how sentences are worded. We are not just talking about the grammatical, it’s how they will be interpreted.
We do have to remember we are writing for three distinct audiences, two are “native” English speakers and the third are our European friends who have English as a second language. A comment in English-English, for example, which is intended to be sarcastic or humorous may not be readily understood by others, so compromises have to be made.
The same is true for our US-written articles, as George Bernard Shaw, the famous Irish writer once remarked, “The English and Americans are two peoples divided by a common language.” He couldn’t have been more correct.
Staying on famous quotes, this one from Sir Winston Churchill seems to sum up timeshare developers: “The Americans will always do the right thing…after they have exhausted all the alternatives.” That certainly appears to be the case with all the variations they come up with for selling timeshares.
That’s it for today, we hope you all had a great weekend.
Michelle Jabeur
The ARDA is trying to combat the negative publicity that social media provides for truth tellers, like myself who expose developers and their fraudulent tactics.
They use the big brand hotel names as credibility to make people perceive that its safe. IT IS NOT!
The bigger the developer, the bigger the scam. at least from my experience working for nearly 10 different companies. The bigger mire branded the company was- the deeper the dirt. They just have higher priced attorneys to protect them from the consequences. #BuyerBeware The ARDA is dirty too! Look who sits on the board and the positions they hold with the developers…. 🤷🏽♀️