The Association of Vacation Owners (AVO) originally formed in 1997 and based in America, was created as a social purpose organisation dedicated to arming timeshare owners with knowledge. Their goal has always been to create a community type relationship between timeshare developers and members.
The Association was previously called the National Timeshare Owners Association (NTOA) until their name change at the start of 2018. This change was made with the purpose to extend their services further to support more owners in North America.
In a 2018 report from thetimeshareauthority.com they stated that CEO of AVO, Gregory Crist shared the organisations views on the transition. “We are very pleased to expand our alliances to include credible organizations that share our vision to improve education, engagement and support for timeshare and vacation owners. AVO is also attracting thousands of vacation owners by continuing its twenty-year history of dedication and focus on providing owners with the tools and information they need to strengthen their ownership experience.”
The Association of Vacation Owners is a Benefit Corporation, which means it should be a traditional corporation with modified obligations committing it to higher standards of purpose, accountability and transparency.
According to an article from insidetimeshare.com AVO’s top 5 priorities are;
- Resale
- Rental and Exchange
- Trade and Transfer
- Divestment
- Redevelopment
The AVO is also involved in the leadership of the Canadian Vacation Ownership Association (CVOA). The ‘About Us’ section on their websites quotes;
“CVOA is an industry association that is dedicated to furthering the ownership-based vacation and resort development industry, both at home and abroad. The association was founded in 1980 as “The Resort Timesharing Council of Canada” in response to the public’s demand for more information about vacation ownership. Since then, CVOA has become the preeminent industry association representing all forms of Vacation Ownership in Canada.”
It is possible that the AVO has phased out as since the end of 2013 they appear to have been posting religiously but they stopped posting news stories in September 2018. However, their Twitter feed is currently up to date. CVOA has too stopped updating their news with their last post being from October 2019.
The Timeshare Consumer Association are also driven to help consumers avoid falling into timeshare related traps, our readers should feel free to contact us regarding any timeshare exit or timeshare resale companies. Although European based, we have helped consumers Worldwide. Privately, we have acquired a black and white list to keep track of who’s who and are happy to share our advice to consumers about these companies.
Read our previous article Timeshare Fractional Ownership Explained.
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