Timeshare As An Investment
Our Comments While we once again feel that the Belize government made a much needed step to stop timeshare sales people from ruining people's vacations, we take issue with timeshare industry people who on one hand seem to applaud the Belize governments actions for stopping timeshare abuses and then make statements that imply timeshares are something that they're not. We once again see those in the timeshare industry implying that a timeshare is a good investment - and as we all know, it is one of the worst investments that you can ever make.
The following is a press release and the statement that shows the timeshare industry's true colors is "...investment in a lifetime of vacationing, recreation, and relaxation—not" Notice that they don't say "financial investment" but the way it's worded and using "investment" at all is quite misleading.
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The Belize Tourism Board heard one complaint too many about the aggressive marketing practices of some timeshare operators on Ambergris Caye. They decided to take action to protect the laidback serenity of San Pedro, the quiet Caribbean town that is the major settlement on the one-mile wide, twenty-five mile long island strip.
Members of the San Pedro Town Council, including Mayor Elsa Paz, the Belize Tourism Board, and the San Pedro Police Department met on December 8, 2005 to address the problem. Present at the meeting were representatives of six major timeshare properties on Ambergris Caye.
The results were two ordinances, both effective immediately. The first requires, “all timeshare operators cease and desist from soliciting timeshare sales in public areas.”
The second required that timeshare operators obtain trade licenses for their booths or kiosks through the San Pedro Town Council, by December 31, 2005.
Tourism dollars from Belize’s nearly quarter million annual visitors, account for 15-20% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Belize, according to published statistics of the Belize Tourism Board. Undeniably, timeshare dollars make a significant contribution to this income, but high-pressure tactics and intrusive sales people benefit neither the timeshare industry, nor tourism in San Pedro.
Jason Tremblay, CEO of Sell My Timeshare Now, LLC. says, “when local governments get involved in regulating the actions of overzealous or unscrupulous timeshare operators and off-property agents, the timeshare industry across the board reaps the benefits. Ethical timeshare sellers want to see people purchasing timeshares because they recognize it as an investment in a lifetime of vacationing, recreation, and relaxation—not because they are victims of strong arm timeshare sales tactics.”
The following is a press release and the statement that shows the timeshare industry's true colors is "...investment in a lifetime of vacationing, recreation, and relaxation—not" Notice that they don't say "financial investment" but the way it's worded and using "investment" at all is quite misleading.
The Belize Tourism Board heard one complaint too many about the aggressive marketing practices of some timeshare operators on Ambergris Caye. They decided to take action to protect the laidback serenity of San Pedro, the quiet Caribbean town that is the major settlement on the one-mile wide, twenty-five mile long island strip.
Members of the San Pedro Town Council, including Mayor Elsa Paz, the Belize Tourism Board, and the San Pedro Police Department met on December 8, 2005 to address the problem. Present at the meeting were representatives of six major timeshare properties on Ambergris Caye.
The results were two ordinances, both effective immediately. The first requires, “all timeshare operators cease and desist from soliciting timeshare sales in public areas.”
The second required that timeshare operators obtain trade licenses for their booths or kiosks through the San Pedro Town Council, by December 31, 2005.
Tourism dollars from Belize’s nearly quarter million annual visitors, account for 15-20% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Belize, according to published statistics of the Belize Tourism Board. Undeniably, timeshare dollars make a significant contribution to this income, but high-pressure tactics and intrusive sales people benefit neither the timeshare industry, nor tourism in San Pedro.
Jason Tremblay, CEO of Sell My Timeshare Now, LLC. says, “when local governments get involved in regulating the actions of overzealous or unscrupulous timeshare operators and off-property agents, the timeshare industry across the board reaps the benefits. Ethical timeshare sellers want to see people purchasing timeshares because they recognize it as an investment in a lifetime of vacationing, recreation, and relaxation—not because they are victims of strong arm timeshare sales tactics.”
posted by savingadvice @ 3:40 PM
4 Comments:
At 3:12 PM,
Anonymous said…
Dear Timeshare Trap,
Posting someone else's content all over the global internet is, at this time and to the best of my knowledge, legal in most places, as pertains to the letter of the law. Nevertheless, I'd like to respectfully remind you that basic netiquette dictates that a blogger provide an excerpt, then link back to source materials, lest he/she be accused of plagiarism in the fickle court of public opinion. We've been through this with several business competitors, and though I am loath to promulgate unsavory comparisons, I will state that most automated splogging scripts and RSS scrapers, though impersonal in their method of operation, are far less rude in their methods than was your treatment of our press releases and blog posts.
But hey, if rudeness was a crime, we'd all be locked up, right? I can't blame you for blogging.
Everybody's trying to rank well in the timeshare search results, but indiscriminately blaming people who try to make an ethical living in this industry is not a reliable way of attracting quality link exchange partners. As anyone who has been watching the news lately will know, this industry generates quite enough bloodcurdling stories of theft and murder on its own. There should be no need to come gunning after one of the few good companies out there, especially a company that's trying to make an industry-wide difference, and has the track record to prove it.
Forgive me for assuming you haven't read our content, but I figured that if you had, you'd realize that we're on the same side. Educating our customer base about timeshares and how the industry works has helped us get more sales than anyone else in the industry, while ensuring that these people stay away from our less-scrupulous competitors. It also ensures that I can look at myself in the mirror every morning and feel good about myself because I make a living from helping people rather than conning them.
Given the success of this business model, lately we've been looking for impartial timeshare content. Unfortunately, a corporate blog, as should be obvious, is clearly not impartial. We would be much better off hosting and promoting someone else's blog in addition to our own, while at the same time disavowing any responsibility for content found therein. This way, we distance ourselves to a degree (in terms of legal liability) from the new blog while we enhance the old blog's credibility by association. In this light, I would much prefer to broker an alliance between the two of us rather than respond to miscellaneous misstatements based on misinformation. If you're interested in getting your unadulterated message out, and can target your ire towards those most deserving, perhaps we can help you.
You display experience with timeshares, strong opinions and good writing ability. We specialize in online marketing, dominating search engine results pages, navigating the timeshare multiverse and general internet ninja stuff. As we are scouring the internet for guest bloggers, I'd like to invite you to contribute your own content to our very own high-visibility web site.
Let me make this quite clear from the getgo: I am not offering you any money. I am offering you exposure. Your own online column. A chance to make a difference in an industry that you clearly care about. A way to position yourself as a valuable source of unbiased information about timesharing, and to eventually be recognized sharing the same dias as the most credible voices in the industry. All we would ask is that you login and contribute unique content, on a regular basis, to a blog page -or possibly another web site, if needed. This page will be hosted by us. We could even handle pinging or other technical aspects, if you'd like. The only censorship we would impose is that we'd ask you to adhere (loosely if need be) to the blogger's gudelines found at: http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/ (which is probably a bunch of stuff you're already doing) and that you occasionally say something positive (which may or may not be necessary, or even desirable, depending on how we introduce you to the online public).
Check out my company. Read a few of our blog posts. Understand that, even if we wanted to, we could not transform our corporate blog into a fountainhead of impartiality, no more than we could invent a machine which turns a goose into a hippopotamus. We're not out to scam people, and our record reflects this, but we need independent contributors in order to make a real difference.
If you're interested, contact me at ianparker[at the domain]sellmytimesharenow.com and we'll work out the details. If not, I'm sure I'll read your reaction when I get around to finding it.
Regardless of the nature of your immediate reaction, my offer stands firm indefinitely.
Kind Regards,
Ian Parker
SellMyTimeshareNOW LLC
At 5:45 PM,
Anonymous said…
If your information had been on a website, you would have received a link. The information was a press release which makes it fair game to use as I wish. Unfortunately, I didn't quite use it as you imagined. As you can see, I link back to all articles which I take from other media sources.
I did not see a copyright with your press release. If there is one that I missed, please let me know and I will take down the post immediately.
My post only appears to be rude because it points out something that you don't like - and I certainly didn't "indiscriminately blame people" as you state, but pointed out that you made a misleading statement that timeshares are a good investment. They are not. Had that statement not been there, I would have been unexpectedly surprised and praised the piece. Unfortunately, this was not the case and I pointed out the misleading statement.
If I were in any way trying to attract quality link partners within the timeshare industry, I certainly would not be writing the blog that I am. lol.
You are correct that I had not read your content and we may very well be on the same side, but that still doesn't mean that I will let a misleading statement slip by. You may be the greatest thing since sliced bread for the timeshare industry, but a misleading statement is a misleading statement no matter who it comes from. By referring to timeshares as investments, you did this.
And had I believed that you were "one of the few good companies out there," I would have been even more scathing in my opinion. For a good company to propagate that timeshares are a good investment makes it just that much worse.
As for your offer of a wider audience, I would be more than pleased to syndicate my content to your site. Of course I will be positive when it is due (I praised the Belize government didn't I?) I have sent an email to see if we can work something out.
At 1:09 PM,
Anonymous said…
SellMyTimeShare. I'll give you an honest rant about them!!!
The have to you fill out this advertisment then they call you and want money upfront, for them to sell a timeshare, over the phone.
Fool me once, (Fairfield Resorts) shame on you, fool me twice (SellMyTimeShare) shame on me!!!
Oh and their people will call you over and over and over again!
To the consumer, do not even post your information on this site unless you like being hassled even more!
At 8:19 AM,
Anonymous said…
Are you sure you have the right company? It could be one of those weird sites that come up when people type in commonly misspelled URLs - hackers and other questionable types register domains like this to grab traffic away from legitimate sites. For a good example of what I'm talking about, go to somewhere like "ebbay.com" (just make sure you're running a good antivirus, cause sites like this are a baaaaad neighborhood! I recommend Kaspersky).
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