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( It is spelled as one word, not two words: TIMESHARE. ) Timeshare at its core is essentially a group of people sharing the cost of a vacation home. The word "timeshare" has grown over the decades to include a wide variety of vacation products and plans. Also known as "vacation ownership" "holiday ownership" and "interval ownership" , its umbrella covers traditional deeded timeshare ownership, fractional ownership, private residence clubs, points clubs, and more. Some would even broaden the term further to include campground memberships and the " condo hotel" concept, in which a condo is purchased outright but the owner is only allowed to use it for a specific periods of time and it is rented by a hotel management company for the remainder of the time. Regardless of how loosely or rigidly you choose to define the term, the basic premise of timeshare is simple. You and a group of other people share the purchase cost of a vacation accommodation, in increments of one week (or more) per year of use, thus guaranteeing your ability to use that accommodation during the period of time you choose, either for life or for a specified number of years. Accommodations range from hotel rooms to condos, from cabins to luxury houses and castles, from yachts and cruise ships to RVs and houseboats.Owning timeshare in the traditional sense means a condominium/villa/house/hotel unit, etc. is subdivided into 52 separate units of time (52 weeks in 1 year), and usually sold to a maximum of 51 owners (leaving one week each year closed down for annual renovations and/or maintenance). Each owner would own 1/51 of the unit. Each share repesents one week of vacation. Each owner is entitled to ownership rights and privileges of the shares that they purchased. This system makes vacation home ownership possible for many people who cannot afford a second home or who otherwise would not be able to enjoy such resort facilities. It is important to remember that purchasing timeshare should never be viewed as a financial investment with the expectation of gaining a profit in either reselling it or renting it to someone else. Timeshare is an investment in lifestyle, in future holidays, in family time together, and when viewed that way it can be a good investment indeed. A ( very ) little history: Depending on how rigid your definition of the word is, modern timesharing was invented in either Switzerland or France.Hapimag, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, arose from Alexander Nette's desire for rent-free holidays every year. He and his partner Dr. Guido Renggli established a company named "Hotel- und Appartementhaus Immobilien Anlage AG" on September 23, 1963 and began to acquire resort properties, which were sold in a "right to use" share program as opposed to deeded real estate. Hapimag lays claim to the very first points program and the first timeshare rescission clause, ever. Hapimag is still a successful company today, and interestingly never has formally affiliated with the major exchange companies. You can read a fine history here: http://www.wae-online.com/pdf/Guido%20Renggli%20interview.pdf In France, Paul Doumier of the Socié té des Grands Travaux de Marseille development company created a timeshare concept for his firm’s SuperDevoluy ski resort in the French Alps. Doumier coined a catchy advertising slogan that advised people it was cheaper to buy the hotel than to rent the room, and it caught on. It is interesting to note that as important to the industry as this innovation was, the year of its introduction is in dispute. Depending on the industry history you read, it is placed variously in 1964, 1965, 1967, and 1968. The first timeshare sold in the United States... Was the Kaua`i Kailani on the island of Kaua`i in Hawaii. Bob Burns and Bob Ringenburg sold leasehold condos there in weekly intervals (with a forty-year lease), beginning in May of 1969. They went on to form Vacation Internationale, and also created the original " points" system to make the product more flexible for their owners. The first deeded timeshare program in the U.S. was offered in 1973 at Brockway Springs in Lake Tahoe, California. The developer was Innisfree Companies of Sausalito, California (a 50/50 joint venture with Hyatt Corporation) and the team who put it together was Carl Berry, Paul Gray, Greg Bright, Doug Murdock and Dave Irmer. It was that group of men who pioneered the word "timeshare" to describe the product in order to make it understandable to bankers, who were already familiar with the term as used in the sharing of mainframe computers. They got financing through Avco Financial and when they filed with the California Department of Real Estate they labeled their product 'timeshare' and then used the word 'timesharing' in their marketing materials. Do you know something we don’t? Please submit your feedback |
Timeshare Info 
