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Timeshare
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The history of timeshares goes back to 1964 - 1968 and started with a french developer The Société des Grands Travaux de Marseille company. The first resort to benefit from time-sharing as SuperDevoluy, a ski resort based in the French Alps. Paul Doumier used the slogan “No need to rent the room; buy the hotel, it's cheaper!” to sell the first timeshares ever.
The first timeshare in the United states was Kauai Kailani on Kauai where Bob Burns and Bob Ringenburg started selling weeks on leasehold basis. They started selling these units around 1969 and subsequently started the company Vacation Internationale. There units were sold in 40 year increments, which is a common practice even to this day on international resorts. Vacation Internationale is also the first to sell point systems to give timeshare owners more flexibility.
Florida timeshares became the first in the continental US to be developed in the 1970's. Many resorts in the Fort Lauderdale, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico area started changing into timeshares during this time.
Deeded timeshares were put forward by Sausalito, California 's Innisfree Companies, in 1973. A joint venture with Hyatt Company and Innisfree, together they developed the first timeshare at Brockway Springs in Lake Tahoe , California. When Innisfree filed paperwork with the California Department of Real Estate, the term “timeshare” was used on the application, popularizing the term at the State administrative level. Using the term “timesharing” in promotional materials, Innisfree succeeded in making “timeshare” into a household word.
As timesharing became more popular a new concept was formed "timeshare exchanging". In 1974 RCI was formed to help Timeshare owners trade there week at there timeshare resort for someone elses timeshare week. RCI has grown into the largest timeshare exchange company in the world with offices worldwide with many offices all over the continental US.
During the oil crisis in the mid 70's many families looked for ways to make their vacations cheaper. Because of this timeshare grew faster and by 1976 had generated over $50,000,00.00 in timeshare sales. The timeshare industry continued to grow in the 80's and more resorts were converting to timeshare than ever. The high class indivudual was attracted to timeshares because of the promise of luxurious new resort properties in exotic destinations, while the less affluent liked the idea of spending less money on a vacation. By 1990 there were over 4 million timeshare owners at over 2300 timeshare resorts.
Marriott was the first hotel chain to emerge into the timeshare industry. They were followed by Sheraton, Ramada, Hilton, Disney, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Radisson and Westin all of which began offering timeshares in the 1990's. By the year 2000 timesharing was a multi-million dollar business in the us and worldwide. Today worldwide there are over 5,400 timeshare resorts.
The US currently accounts for 45% of all timeshare owners worldwide. More than 1500 resorts are located in the US comprising of 29% of all timeshare developments worldwide.
Today timeshares generate over 2 billion dollars each year and this is not including sales from the timeshare resale industry which is becoming the next industry tide to timesharing. With little to no help with selling timeshares a bunch of companies were formed when the internet became big. With the amount of timeshare owners worldwide it is no surprise that the Timeshare resale industry will become a multi-million dollar industry.
See Also Buy a Timeshare, Rent a Timeshare, Sell a Timeshare
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