Back in the 1960′s, a ski resort developer in the French Alps came up with a novel idea to boost attendance and revenue at his resort. He simply suggested to his many customers to buy “fractional” ownerships in the resort. This would allow them not only a week each year, but ownership of that week at his resort instead of renting a hotel each year.
From this idea, revenue, attendance, and popularity boomed at his ski resort. The rest of the world was quick to catch on and started offering their own fractional ownership opportunities. Thus, the industry of timeshare ownership was born.
Since its inception, the timeshare industry continues to grow with sales of 9 billion dollars annually among more than 5,000 resorts.
As the industry has evolved, the use of timeshares also has continued to evolve with many options available for the timeshare owner.
1. Use Of The Timeshare
Owners purchase a week out of the year at a resort. So the most basic use of a timeshare is for the owner to use it for their annual vacation.
2. Timeshare rentals
Over the years, timeshare rental increased in frequency due to the accommodation needs of travelers and adventurers. Along with demand comes opportunity for business men owning timeshares but not necessarily always needing them.
3. Gifting A Timeshare
Instead of renting, sometimes it is easier to make it a gift. Owners can give the gift as a honeymoon present to newly married friends. Owners can also use it as a business networking device and give a week to a valued colleague or prospective client.
4. Timeshare exchanges
Exchanges have answered the desire to own a timeshare but have the flexibility to not be locked in to a specific week or a specific destination. Exchanges can be done in two ways:
a. Internal exchange
b. External
b. External exchange
This is an “out of network” type of exchange. If you belong to resort group A and desire to obtain a timeshare in resort group B, then this would be an external exchange.
This means the larger the group, the more options available for internal exchange. This brings me to the second half of the article: a discussion of Resort Condominiums International, or RCI. RCI is the largest timeshare group in the world. Here is some other information on RCI:
One of the largest timeshare groups is the Resort Condominiums International group, or RCI. I am specifically writing about this as many people have heard of RCI and are usually looking for more objective information.
RCI has almost 4000 destinations within their group. The second largest is at 2,000 (Interval International, or II). This means RCI has a huge advantage for internal exchanges over any other group in the world.
A RCI timeshare owner also have varied resort affiliations. Members of this program of RCI can, however, only exchange with the affiliate resorts of RCI. A RCI timeshare is only available for exchange to a RCI resort.
It is important to note that many condominiums and resorts can only belong to one resort group. That means if your resort belongs to RCI, it cannot belong to another group such as II.
RCI uses an interesting system of points purchased rather than deeded weeks. Each destination within RCI is assessed a point value. When you choose a resort for your vacation, you simply redeem your points for that destination week and location.
So if you are looking right now at timeshares, and you want a lot of flexibility in your travel dates and locations, RCI is definitely worth checking out. As an example, my wife and I purchased our Honolulu timeshare with Hilton. We plan to take a vacation almost every year in Honolulu so this type of ownership worked for us.
On the other hand, our grandmother loves taking vacations to new places every year. This past year she had a luxurious stay in Las Vegas. The year before she took a cruise to the Riviera. If this is you, then having a large exchange program at your disposal is more suited for your lifestyle, and RCI timeshare ownership may be just the thing you’re looking for.
Want to find out more about how to Buy A Timeshare Or Sell Timeshare? Come visit Emil’s Hubpages Hubs for tons of helpful tips and information on timeshares!
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