Timeshares

Is It About Time For That Swiss Alps Vacation?

A timeshare is a form of vacation property ownership. With timeshares, the use and costs of running the resort are shared among the owners. While the majority of timeshares are condominium vacation resorts, developers have applied the timeshare model to houseboats, yachts, campgrounds and motor homes. The notion of a timeshare was originally created in Europe in the 1960s. A ski resort developer in the French Alps innovatively marketed his resort by encouraging guests to stop renting a room and instead buy the hotel. The developer was successful in increasing occupancy and the idea spread worldwide. While a useful tool for many, the timeshare industry has also become a magnet for attracting illegal and barely legal methods for the sale and resale of property.

Timeshare owners may elect to:
• Use their usage time
• Rent out their owned usage
• Give it as a gift
• Exchange internally within the same resort or resort group
• Exchange externally into thousands of other timeshare resorts

Timeshare is a business model whereby a company buys something and sells small slices of it to customers. This concept is most frequently used for vacation condominiums/homes, but it has also been used for high end private jets. In general, timeshare refers to the former rather than the latter.

Timeshare owners can elect to stay at their resort during the prescribed period, which varies depending on the nature of their ownership. They can rent out their week or give it as a gift to friends and family. Timeshare offers owners the possibility to exchange their week, either independently or through several exchange agencies, to stay at one of the thousands of other resorts worldwide. The two largest exchange agencies are Resort Condominiums International (RCI) and Interval International (II) and there are several independent exchange agencies. RCI and II both have resort affiliate programs and members can only exchange to affiliate resorts. It is rare to find a dual affiliate resort; it is more common for a resort to be affiliated with only one of the larger exchange agencies. RCI is the largest with over 3,800 resorts split between its weeks and points programs. II has more than 2,000 resorts. It is important when considering timeshare ownership to consider which locations and resorts you may want to travel to before making your purchase, because the timeshare resort you purchase at will determine which of the major exchange companies you can exchange through. Both RCI and II charge membership fees and exchange fees. They also bar members from renting weeks they have exchanged.