In one of our recent posts we cited some signs that some timeshare companies are continuing to expand operations despite the recession of recent history. In that post “Signs of Hope for Wyndham”, we cited a recent interview with the CEO of Wyndham Stephen Holmes stating that Wyndham was considering purchasing some older resorts and turning them into timeshare properties. During the interview Holmes went on to say that the conversion rate of promotional timeshare tours was up from the same time period in the previous year. Being part of this industry we try to monitor the happenings of all things concerning timeshares and especially the major players in the industry, today I have read a few articles that further display the tides could be turning for the timeshare industry as a whole.

Earlier in the week an article concerning the Lawrence Welk Resorts was published providing an overview of a recent agreement between Wellington Financial and the Welk Resorts Group. Wellington has agreed to loan Welk $10 million to help finance sales to new timeshare owners. Recently banks and other institutions have been very leery about lending money to timeshare related operations, hopefully this action shows that credit will again be extended to help fund the operations of various timeshare resorts and ownership companies. Given the recent lending history I think this transaction shows a great amount of trust in the company and signs that Wellington has enough faith in this industry to begin lending out money again. Another story involves Disney Vacation Club and Citigroup, perhaps the largest company in the financial sector. Around the beginning of the decade Citigroup had agreed to purchase timeshare mortgages from Disney, due to the recent recession Citigroup was unable to continuing purchasing these mortgages. In an effort to retain this partnership Disney has agreed to assume $200 million of the liability for the transactions made. Under the original agreement Disney was required to cover only 18% from the principal in the event of any losses, however under the new agreement Disney is responsible for up to 70% of the total amount of losses. When a company with as many stakeholders as Disney has agrees to assume risk like this it normally means that the company leaders feel there is a bright outlook for the future of the company, after all it boils down to the company taking a calculated risk in order to preserve this relationship in the long run. The last story that shows signs of promise involves Marriott Vacation Club; recently Marriott has announced the opening of an expansion for their resort Marriott Maui Ocean Club and plans for the expansion of another resort Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club. The newly opened expansion phases added 71 new villas to the property including both two and three bedroom units. Again the expansion of any timeshare property involves a certain amount of risk, with a bleak outlook I do not think this company would be willing to take on the risk, however with a strong outlook the risk will yield rewards in the end.

With the major players in the industry beginning to make moves to align themselves for the future now is certainly the time to buy a timeshare resale. Currently units are selling for an all time low in the secondary market; rest assured though when the market picks back up the prices will begin to rise. Please visit the following page to search timeshare sales while it is still a buyer’s market.

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