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ResorTime.com looks to expand the market for timeshare rentals Flipbook PDF
ResorTime.com looks to expand the market for timeshare rentals Quality at affordable prices and flexibility of use – inc
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ResorTime.com looks to expand the market for timeshare rentals Quality at affordable prices and flexibility of use – including nightly stays – are key. According the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), about 25% of timeshare buyers rent before purchasing. A well-functioning rental program not only provides resorts with prospective buyers, it also fills beds and becomes a significant resource for the finances of HOAs. This helps enables HOAs to hold annual maintenance fees in check, thus creating a happier owner base. Today’s traveler/vacationer is inundated by Internet discounting. Battered by a poor economy, the consumer is seeking value above all – frequently last minute deals made on a convenient (and ubiquitous) online travel agency (OTA) like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. Why not involve timeshare in this process? The product has obvious advantages over hotel accommodation – space, privacy, and convenience (e.g. kitchens, washers and dryers) to name a few. But the large OTAs have either ignored timesharing or prioritized it very low, concentrating pretty much exclusively on hotel inventory. ResorTime.com, a Carlsbad, CAbased rental reservation service founded in 1999, offers consumers timeshare rentals as an alternative to hotel stays. Its management is confident that once consumers are exposed to and educated about the advantages of the timeshare vacation experience, more and more will choose to become owners. ResorTime.com. ResorTime.com rents to non-owners and timeshare owners alike. Its website (www.ResorTime.com. ) describes the company as “one of the largest and most established rental reservation services in the timeshare industry, offering travelers discounted condo rentals around the world, on a daily or weekly basis, without having to take a timeshare tour.” The ResorTime.com network consists of more than 300 resorts located in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, and Thailand. The company has in excess of two million nights of available rentals in their inventory. There are three memberships: Standard, Premier, and Owner. Standard membership is available to the general public. Average standard rental rates are $150 to $272 per night for a luxury one bedroom unit sleeping four. Reservations can be made up to one year in advance. Premier membership is available to the general public and timeshare owners. Average rental rates are $90 to $145 per night for a luxury one bedroom resort condo that sleeps four. Reservations can be made up to one year in advance. There is afee of $29.95 per year to become a Premier Member. This membership level comes with a discount card offering savings on restaurants and area activities. Owner membership is available to timeshare owners only. Average rentals are $75 to $110 per night for a luxury one bedroom resort condo that sleeps four. Owners can also add nights to their vacation weeks. Rates are available up to 30 days in advance. “ResorTime.com.com does not offer nights for rental from just any hotel or resort,” the company website points out. “The properties are part of an affiliation, and have been extensively screened to meet stringent ResorTime.com.com customer satisfaction requirements.” ResorTime.com.com is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, is a member of the American Society of Travel Agents, The California Travel Industry Association, extensive West Coast Visitors Associations and is currently partnered with the following timeshare developers: Wyndham Vacation Ownership, Starwood Vacation Ownership, Diamond Resorts, Grand Pacific Resorts, Shell Vacations, Universal Vacation Club, Platinum Interchange, Owners Resort Exchange (ORE), Fairfield Resorts, Professional Resort Operators, Northshore Realty, Gold Point Realty, and Alderwood Group.
ResorTime.com’s approach. Sherri Weeks is ResorTime.com’s general manager. Her background has helped shape ResorTime.com’s approach. “My background is that I managed owner services and loan and maintenance fee collections for Grand Pacific Resorts for about ten years. Much of my time was spent educating owners how best to use their timeshare so they could maximize the value they were getting out of it, and, as a consequence, be much more likely to pay their timeshare loans and maintenance fees on time. Timeshare owners who are delinquent in their payments tend not to be using the product.” Considerable effort at ResorTime.com is devoted to communicating with non-owners and owners alike. “Non-owners still have misconceptions about renting timeshare,” Weeks explained. “People think you have to own it to rent it, or you have to stay for a week at a time, or you have to take a tour. We try and dispel these misconceptions in our communications and messaging. We emphasize our A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and the quality of our partners. We want to build up their confidence in booking through us. For owners it’s more about explaining to them the benefits of ownership so they’ll feel good about the product’s value.” Aside from educating members and warming them to the product, ResorTime.com benefits its partners by understanding how they operate. “We know how to work with timeshare resorts,” Weeks emphasized. “They don’t operate like hotels with, say, 30 units open every day. They might have two units open today and ten tomorrow. There’s a lot of last minute inventory that becomes available. We also work with resorts about how best to use their historical occupancy data to predict how much inventory they’ll have available for rental and when.” ResorTime.com built its business around timesharing. “Many of the larger OTAs are hotel based and so their rules and how their businesses are set up are more geared towards hotels so they expect certain minimal allocations of inventory or else they drop you down several pages in the search results. They want last room availability, direct connect, and they demand a certain amount of room nights available or else you are penalized for it. But we built our business around timeshare. We have an inventory team that works together with the properties in our system. We support their needs.” 2011. “Obviously the overall business conditions are challenging,” Weeks observed. “It’s necessary to take a more personalized approach – be more engaging, really communicate with our members, provide more personalized service. It’s important to send out the appropriate messaging. There are new travel behaviors; there’s been a shift in the way people plan their vacations. The travel industry is very dynamic and cutting-edge in its use of technology. Value is extremely important today. We are emphasizing the value and quality of the timeshare vacation experience. An example of the new travel behaviors is that timeshare owners are using their home resorts more so than in the past. Drive-to vacations are much more popular than vacations involving traveling a long distance. Our Bonus Time Network offers a lot of drive-to, affordable travel options. Short, last minute trips are preferred over longer trips planned far in advance.” She continued: “We’ve created a new family bundle program. The Baby Boomers are older now, their children are going to inherit their timeshare inventory – but how motivated are the children of baby Boomers to use their timeshare? The family bundle program gives them the opportunity to dip their toes in the water and experience timesharing first hand. If you are a timeshare owner in our network, your adult family members can sign up for the Bonus Time Network for a nominal fee ($20). They get their own accounts and can use their bonus time as they choose. They probably went with their parents on timeshare vacations as children. But that
could have been a long time ago. Now they get to experience the benefits of timesharing as independent adults.” The inventory and making sure it gets rented. When asked, ‘Where does you rental inventory come from?’ Weeks responded: “We contract with the resorts directly. The resorts control the rates and the inventory. They can place the inventory in our system or take it out as they see fit.” What about making sure it gets rented? “Online marketing is our primary method of marketing; we do a lot of organic SEO [search engine optimization],” Weeks said. “We’ve done some pay-per-click. We partner with different websites that send referrals to us. We use listing sites just like owners do, e.g. VRBO, to send referrals our way. We have what we call a remote agent program. We can set up travel agents as remote agents – just as if they were sitting in our office. They have the ability to book rentals to non-owners. We go to a lot of hotel industry shows that are geared towards travel agents and tour operators to expose them to timesharing as an option for their clients. We’ve made it possible for points clubs to use our remote agent site to actually book their members using points vs. cash. Many of our points based clients allow their owners/members to redeem their points for ResorTime.com inventory.” And, she added: “Our sales – rentals – are up 20% this year. We get a lot of repeat business from our members. They are using our service and they like it. About 40% of our members currently book exclusively online.” The ResorTime.com difference. “We benefit developers and associations by providing prospects and filling units,” Weeks asserted. “This means revenue. For resorts still in sales, we are an additional owner benefit that helps in the sales process.” Weeks also described specific benefits. “Traditionally condo rentals mandate a 7-day stay. However, due to the special relationships we have with our resorts, ResorTime.com members enjoy the flexibility to stay a night, a week, or a month at the resort of their choice. In addition, The Bonus Time network opens up lots of top quality timeshare inventory for our Premier members. We have over a million members with access to the Bonus Time network.” Weeks paused and then added, “I want to reiterate that we have a long track record with both our resort clients and our members. We are not just an OTA; we provide benefits for everyone we work with – the developer, the HOA, and the individual member. We built this business around timeshare. We make an effort to educate ResorTime.com members about the benefits of timesharing. This ultimately helps our developer clients sell the product. Rentals help us get owners to use more often so that they can really appreciate the value of their purchase. We are partners.” 2012. “We are planning some significant technology improvements in 2012,” Weeks related. “Technology is a crucial part of the travel business. Over the past few years many of us who have built our own technology now recognize the need to outsource and implement a completely new technology platform. It will make us more competitive and open many new opportunities. We are looking to grow significantly over the next five years and this is the first building block in that process. We are also working on a deal with a major developer – it’s too early to be more specific than that. But if everything goes as planned, it will greatly expand our inventory next year. Finally, we are putting a lot of effort into the social media. We’ll be launching some new initiatives. Right now we are reminding our resort partners of the importance of high quality
content: videos, photography, etc. This is all part of engaging their owners on Facebook and other social networking websites.”