Central Florida Investments, Inc, parent company of Westgate Resorts, Inc, has closed their Houston sales office and laid off 106 employees. (source)  This office has been doing "off-site" sales of timeshares for their network of Westgate Resorts.  Their office, located on Richmond Ave, featured a full sized model of one of their timeshare units to present to their buyers. They called this their preview gallery. The reason they gave the Texas Workforce Commission for the layoffs was that they "experienced an unforeseen business emergency brought on by the collapse of the credit markets." They were not able to sell their notes to their usual buyers, and the cash flow stopped. So far that all sounds like a normal by product of a severely tight credit market.

The reason this story caught my attention was because of the sales tactic of "off site" sales. I know that Westgate would not have kept the office open for the last 4 years if it were not successful. But, how hard must it be to sell a timeshare (at a top retail price) that may be actually sitting hundreds or thousands of miles away? Richmond Ave in Houston is nice, but it is not as popular destination as Las Vegas, Orlando, Hawaii, or others. So what kind of confidence can the consumer have when buying a timeshare in Vegas without going there? And how hard must it be for a sales person to close a deal when the buyer is not able to enjoy all the benefits and excitement of the terrific destination? Then, I'd wonder how high is their rate of cancellation compared to on site timeshare sales?  You'd think it would be harder to hold a buyer in this kind of deal.

I'd love to hear from any of you who used to work there or who have done "off-site" sales for timeshare developers!

Take a look at how we sell timeshares with no hassle, no pressure, and always "off-site".

Polo Towers Timeshare in Las Vegas