|   |

Author:
Charles Cater

Alright so that salesman on the free-trip got to you and you purchased that timeshare unit. So now what do you do with the unit, the salesman said that this would reduce my yearly expenses and pay for itself in the first five years of ownership.
How do I make this new investment work for me to get the most out of it. You have several options at this point in your vacation club ownership. You could rent your Timeshare, as the week that you own belongs to you just as your home belongs to you. You could use your week as your yearly vacation destination. Or you could post your timeshare with one of the major trading companies (Interval International, or Red Week). Just what to do.
If you enjoy the location of your timeshare, which you had better because you own it, the best thing to do at the start is to use this unit. You are evidently making payments on the unit and probably can't afford the additional expense if the unit should not rent as it was advertised to do, this will also give you the ability to talk with authority on the benefits of your chosen destination to later renters.
Your second option should be to trade the timeshare into Interval International or one of the other major trade companies. By trading in your week you will be allowed to select other destinations to visit. This is an extensive listing of locations and will afford you a different view than your home resort. Visit http://www.travelblogger.info to see current destination trends and rebates.
So you have now traded your week last year and are not really interested in going to your “Home Resort”. Your timeshare company only allows trades on alternating years. What can you do? exercise option number 3, renting your timeshare. Be aware that you only have about a 50% chance of the unit renting so if this is your option please don't bank on the incoming money.
Now do a little research by looking up your resort on http://www.redweek.com and finding what other owners are currently renting their weeks for at your resort. Then be prepared to post your timeshare on the local rags for your resorts. Also list your timeshare on http://www.RedWeek.com, and begin your wait on the rental.
Following any of the routes above will allow you to enjoy your timeshare ownership. Selecting carefully you can plan on only visiting your home resort once out of every three years. You can also allow the timeshare to pay for itself if you master the art of renting your week. Get this rental about 75% occupancy and you will be able to make the salesmans story ring true.
Charles Cater

About The Author

Charles and his wife own two timeshares in Hilton Head, SC. Charles spent years researching these purchases and deciding on the direction to move with the purchases. This article may be reprinted freely as long as all links remain active. http://www.bridalblog.info http://www.thewebllama.com http://www.travelblogger.info

|   |    Article Keywords: Timeshares

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Timeshares... The Concepts And History Of Timeshare The Concepts And History Of Timeshare The vacation ownership (Timesharing) industry can be traced back to its European origin in the 1960's. A ski resort in the French Alps know as "Superdevoluy" is the first know vacation ownership program in the world. The multiple ownership of individual weeks brought with it the guarantee of reservations for those who wanted to ski in the area. It was an immediate success. By the 1970's some faltering condominium projects in St. Thomas, Fort Lauderdale and Puerto Rico were converted over to vacation ownership and thereafter timesharing became a viable vacation alternative. Once the concept of vacation ownership was embraced by the United States it began to gain wide acceptance by the public. Sales jumped to over 50 million by the mid 1970's and has climbed to more than 2 billion annually today. Vacation ownership has enjoyed substantial growth over the years with approximately 3.3 million timeshares sold since 1980. Currently there are over 5,000 vacation ownership resorts in over 75 countries around the world. Exchanging a vacation ownership week in one resort for that of another resort was introduced in 1974 and thereafter timesharing offered variety and flexibility in the vacation experience. Although there are many exchange companies available which provide excellent service, the two major forces are Resort Condominiums International (RCI) which has approximately 3,250 member resorts and Interval International (II) with approximately 1,600 member resorts. Combined, these two companies provided over 1,600,000 exchanges last year. During a 30 year span, the industry has grown from small (15-20 unit ) hotel conversions to the high quality condominium resorts of today. The evolution...