I spend a lot of time criticizing timeshare resorts, TATOC and Timeshare companies which is a bit like a chastisement at “speaker’s corner”.
Dare I get up and grandstand an idea, so as to expose myself to rebuke?
Why not? We all want change and it’s ideas which bring about that change.
Its new blood, new thoughts this industry needs and umph to do it.
It’s an idea which has not been subject to the endless scrutiny of TATOC etc.
It is not an unvarnished, truthful declaration it’s not groundbreaking or momentous? It’s a simple idea and from a simple man.
Here we go. What I would do…….?
The problem is not perpetuity. The problem is a stagnant pond.
The resorts need money (I accept that). That money could and should pay for good, effective maintenance in the entire resort and put it back to the dream every timeshare owners bought into.
Where does the money come from? Maintenance fees? That’s the clubs entire income stream.
That income stream is very much depleted (a lot of weeks have been handed back to the resort by disgruntled ex timeshare owners).
So we have a stock of weeks.
My idea is to sell them all and when sold the club has a stream of maintenance fees.
The problem now is no one will buy them. To solve that problem you have to determine why can’t the club sell them? The answer is simple – blight.
Therefore, diminish the blight, give a consumer choice and freedom and the blight is gone.
The primary consideration is to get the resort full, which will get the maintenance fees in and stop the cancer.
You sell all the weeks for say £2,200 to new consumers. When they are sold you hold the money in a bonded arrangement on trust for the new buyer with a bonded promise that the £2,200 they paid will be returned in full after 2 years and if that consumer wants to exit; a money back guarantee. The consumer gets a way out and the resorts get its maintenance fees.
After the 2 year term end, give them more rights in exchange for the money they paid in, but permit them to leave whenever they choose.
If that works the resort should create a refundable barrier of entry. Backed by a re selling agent working on a tendered price. That sale will be actioned on incoming buyer solvency principles.
The incoming consumer will abide by the terms of the club so that he can get his money back.
Reduce transfer fees to a nominal amount and open the resale market up to all.
Not bind them to “you have to be an owner first before you can buy another”.
Re tender all services, employ a manager whose primary responsibility is to the club, not its servants and agents (MRL).
Within the first 3 years, amend the club rules so that the club becomes a limited company by guarantee and dissolve the underlining trusts transferring the entire resort assets to the club where they belong. The remaining club fixed members then become equity members, whilst new members become non equity members.
After all, the present members have stuck with the resort through thick and thin.
This is as simple as it gets.
No committee member can honestly vote against it as the entire plan will benefit each and every club members, it will give them stability, their asset as it should be, independent control and proud gift in an estate.
In science
Occam’s Razor: For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there is always an infinite number of possible and more complex alternatives, because one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypothesis to prevent them from being falsified; therefore, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are better testable and falsifiable.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk