Original Message:
Re: Timeshare Companies Report Record Sales Again (by R P.):
I don't know how developers project future sales, but I cannot believe that developer timeshares sales will rise in the future (ie: 1 billion dollars next year). On the contrary, I believe that the coming years will be the worst in developer timeshare sales history. Vacation ownership will be the last thing on the consumer's mind as they're trying to stay afloat financially with the high cost of gasoline and all products delivered by gasoline will pass the higher cost on to the consumer. Just look at the airline industry ... airfares have skyrocketed and layoffs have been numerous. I read just yesterday that Wachovia Bank is laying off thousands of people at the end of this month ... it's all about the ecomony = high cost of gas/oil.
People will not be buying 5 figure developer timeshares ($10,000 - $35,000) since vacations will be put on the backburner. People will be vacationing closer to home and not necessarily in luxury accomodations such as timeshares. There will be thousands of maintenance fees from current owners that will go unpaid in the coming years as people will need that money to put food on the table and buy gas to get to work and those lost maintenance fees will affect all resorts in a big way as maintenance fees are their bread and butter.
Any developer that thinks that sales will continue to rise at the phenomenal rate of earlier years is hiding their head in the sand, period.
With the internet in almost every household in the USA, you would think people would research timesharing backwards and forwards and in and out before committing themselves to a major purchase in the thousands of dollars, but I do realize that salespeople are very good at what they do and many will stretch the truth in every direction in order to make a sale.
Below is a quote I made on another thread here concerning lies in the timeshare industry from developer sales to upfront fee resale company lies and everything in between.
"This is why I would love for an investigative journalist to take on the task of outting all lies told by salespeople in the timeshare industry. It would certainly be a major coup for the journalist's career and a major eye opener for the public."