Timeshares for Nudists

The Valhalla Vacation Club, a timeshare community featuring a nude swimming pool and spa area, was once a 390 unit, family community. Originally called The Arbors at Branch Creek, this apartment complex in sunny Florida has had difficulty attracting tenets.

The apartment complex was slated to become condos with a European theme. Apparently the market for condos isn’t any better than it is for apartments. Eric Dukes, who is the director of sales for the Valhalla Vacation Club, says plans have changed and the units will become timeshares. Timeshares targeted to attract nudists.

Eric Dukes is also the owner of Attraction Realty. According to the St Petersburg Times, Attraction Realty’s website claimed that its number one goal was to help create wealth in real estate. The website has recently expired.

I’m all for nudity. However, when nudity is exploited as a means to promote timeshares, I think perhaps someone is not telling the naked truth. Do I see a cover-up? - M. Beddingfield

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Timeshares and the Bad Economy

The bad economy will have an affect on any timeshares that you own, and that affect will not be good. Even if you have been responsible and have always paid your timeshare fees and timeshare loans on time, you are going to end up paying more because of those people who don't:

1. Your fees will increase. When people stop paying their timeshare fees and their timeshare ends up getting foreclosed on, the timeshare resort loses money. They have to make up that lost money somewhere and it is usually in the form of higher fees for all the other timeshare owners.

2. You will Likely see timeshare surcharge fees: With less of a base to support the timeshare and a credit crunch that is making it hard to finance the timeshare projects the timeshare resorts already have going, you will likely see special surcharges added to your yearly bills to help defray these timeshare resort costs.

3. Your timeshare is worth less: It wasn't worth a whole lot before, but it is worth even less now. Very few people want to buy (or can afford) a timeshare in a bad economy and that means prices of timeshares are falling like a rock to the ocean floor.

These are some of the reasons that the faltering economy will mean your timeshare costs you even more money...

Timeshare Inheritance

One of the biggest shocks that many people receive is when they inherit a timeshare from their parents. They assume that they are inheriting something of value and not something that will suck money out of their bank account. It doesn't take them long to figure out that the timeshare isn't what they had expected.

What many people don't realize is that they don't have to accept a timeshare that they have inherited. It's perfectly within your rights to refuse it:

You have to file your Disclaimer of Interest within a certain time period, usually nine months from the date of the death of person you inherited the property from; unless you are under the age of twenty-one, then the time period begins when you turn twenty-one.

It doesn't stop there of course. If you refuse it, it goes to the next person in line so each person in the family must disclaim it. For more information you can read
How to refuse a timeshare inheritance.

Richard Petty is not Selling Timeshares

If timeshares were a decent deal, it wouldn't take the sleazy efforts that timeshare resorts go to to try and get you to hear their pitches. Since they aren't, they use anything they can to try and take your money and lock you into lifetime payments. One of their latest below the belt tricks is using the good name of Richard Petty.

There’s a new scam circling the racetrack. It’s a telemarketing ploy. If you get a phone call saying that you have won a Richard Petty Driving Experience, don’t get behind the wheel! What the telemarketers are really selling is a timeshare presentation. They are taking advantage of a real Richard Petty sweepstakes that does exist and trying to confuse potential customers. Remember -- don’t ever give any personal info to an unknown telemarketer, especially your credit card information. -- M. Beddingfield

http://contests.about.com/b/2008/11/01/warning-about-timeshare-calls-disguised-as-richard-petty-sweepstakes-wins.htm

Trainshares - an idea as bad as timeshares

If you like train travel, there are a lot of different and exciting vacations that you can take in the US and around the world while travelling by train. What's a good way to take this exciting experience and force you into paying for it for life? Why none other than trainshares! (timeshare for trains)

Ride a train once a year and pay for the rest of your life. Prices range from $3970 to $6670 per person for the simplest package, and then add on yearly variable maintenance fees which pay for car operations, planning, management, the Association Administration and other costs. Add to that something called all-inclusive fees which pay for variable and consumable costs like the engine to pull the cars, housekeeping, food, crew and activities. Then, trainshare owners are expected to also pay for personal costs such as beverages and services. There are surcharges and other fee too.

Wow! You really have to pay extra for the engine to pull the train? -- M. Beddingfield

Timeshare Companies Selling Themselves Out of Business?

While this isn't good news for those that own these timeshares, having the entire timeshare industry disappear would be a positive development in my book. The poor economy seems to be hurting timeshare resorts full force although (surprise, surprise) they don't want you to think they are.

Timeshare companies, Westgate Resorts and Wyndham Vacation Ownership, are sending out mixed messages. They claim that sales are still going strong and growing but say they are selling themselves out of business because they can’t trade customer financing for funding.

Wyndham Vacation Ownership is cutting its workforce by one-fourth in an all out effort to restructure. The company relies on asset-backed securities to fund the building of new timeshares.

Westgate Resorts is also laying off more employees. Dave Siegel is working hard to quell the rumors that the company is on the verge of bankruptcy. -- M. Beddingfield

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Don't Buy A Timeshare, Rent a Timeshare

I'm getting sick and tired of pro timeshare people telling me that timeshares are a better value than hotels when it comes to a vacation. There is just one little problem with their argument which is that you can rent a timeshare unit for far less than it costs to own one and avoid all the risks that come with owning a timeshare. It's easy to rent a timeshare because there are so many people that can't use theirs and want to make at least a little of the money they have put into it back. It's crazy to own a timeshare, pay all the fees and other costs when you can rent the exact same timeshare the exact same week at the exact same resort 99% of the time for far less. Just one more reason never to buy a timeshare...

Selling Timeshares Through Family Guilt

Timeshare salespeople are selling the concept of family this holiday season. With sales growth down, salespeople are hitting the public where it smarts the most, in the guilt department. They are pushing the idea of family vacations, family holidays, spending more time with your family and so on.

I’ve perused several timeshare websites and they are really promoting the family value message. One said that vacations are a necessity for stressed out families and that timeshare owners take more vacations. Another quoted that during tough economic times we need to bring the family together more than ever and that if you owned a timeshare that would be easier to do.

I don’t disagree that family is important, but it’s just wrong to use the idea of spending more time with your family as a way to sell timeshares. This is just another example of how they use hard hitting, underhanded sales tactics that play on the emotions. If timeshares are so great, wouldn’t they sell well without high pressure methods? -- M. Beddingfield

Timeshare Owners Deceived

According to a recent federal audit, timeshare owners were billed for political contributions along with their tax and maintenance charges. The owners weren’t told that the contributions were voluntary and in some cases might not have even been aware they were paying them.

Timeshare owners in Florida and other places contributed tens of thousands of dollars in small amounts. These improperly solicited contributions were funneled into a political action committee set up by the American Resort Development Association.

The auditors say that the ARDA political action committee violated other federal election laws as well by accepting thousands of dollars from foreign nationals and other corporations. Criminal probes have been launched by the Department of Justice.

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The Risks of Renting Your Timeshare

Most people think that renting out their timeshare will be easy if they aren't able to use it. Not only is it more difficult than they expect, it also comes with some risks. For example, most people forget that they could be responsible for any damage, no matter how slight, the people renting their timeshare cause while on vacation. There are plenty of other timeshare rental issue you need to consider which you can find at the risks of renting your timeshare

Timeshare Developers Ask For Bailout

By M. Beddingfield

I find this so ironic. Timeshare resorts will put individuals through a ringer if you don't pay your fees on time and show no mercy at all, but then the go to Washington with hands extended asking for free money. The nerve...

Basically, this is what happened:

The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) approached Washington in October looking for a helping hand. Timeshare developers, who borrow against the mortgages they issue to buyers, are frozen like the cold credit markets. Their multi-million dollar transactions are falling through.

The ARDA says that timeshare sales continue to be made but they have a serious liquidity crisis that threatens the industry’s continued ability to survive. The ARDA is asking the Treasury Department to support developer’s short-term company loans in exchange for insurance backed by an industry fee.

Thus far, the ARDA is getting little support from the Treasury Department, though they have been asked for documentation to back up the statements being made.

Maybe they should spend some of the money they set aside for lobbying on Capitol Hill. Just this year, the ARDA spent $540,000 opposing mortgage reform and truth-in-lending requirements to timeshare buyers. They also paid Tallahassee lobbyists $270,000 and made campaign contributions, to both parties, of over $814,000.

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