by Richard Marquette - Orlando, Florida
As the timeshare industry continues to evolve into points based ownership systems, the relative usage value of affiliated resorts has become an incredibly important factor for consumers of vacation ownership products. As developers add new resorts to their portfolios, the location and accessibility of these new resorts can pose a major threat to the future usage and satisfaction of current owners.
Regulation varies by state, but most points based timeshare programs in the United States are restricted from overselling the total capacity of its affiliated resorts. However, consumers may find that developers are able to oversell the relative usage of their system by adding resort affiliates in low demand destinations, or by increasing the number of points required to make reservations at new resorts.
By adding low demand affiliates, or by adding affiliates that require much higher point usage for reservations- a timeshare developer may continue to sell points even after the most popular individual resorts are effectively "maxed out" for reservations. Consumers who expect to reserve summer weeks at the beach may instead find that demand is so high for those weeks that only a small portion of owners can actually obtain those reservations while winter weeks in Wisconsin for example my go entirely unused.
Whenever a consumer thinks about buying a points based or flexible usage timeshare product, special consideration should always be given to determine what are the "relative usage values" of the affiliated resorts. The only true determination of a timeshares worth lies solely in its usage and enjoyment, and if you cannot obtain the reservations that you want- you may find that your timeshare ownership becomes just an annual fee you pay to NOT go on vacation!
source: http://online.wsj.com
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