You may be asking the question, "Why would I want to know how the resorts attract buyers, I want to sell my timeshare!" This question is important because you will be in competition with the resort when you decide to sell your timeshare. So, you need to know.

For example, over the last several months you may have seen one of the major resort developers running television ads to attract discounted vacation travelers to their resort.  They offer significantly reduced rack rates in exchange for your time for a "90 minute presentation".  Unless you bought your timeshare on the resales market from an owner, you are definitely familiar with the sales presentation. The tour, the food, the gift, the pitch, the guilt, and the last ditch handoff to the sales manager who offers you a "one day only" drop in the price if you buy right now. All these things combined plus sales commissions, overrides, and overhead add up to about 50% of the sales price.  The television ads, phone rooms, meals, rooms, gifts, and so on are all very expensive.  So they roll all that advertising expense into their sales prices. That's what you, as a buyer, paid for.

When you get ready to sell your timeshare, you won't be able to offer the same pitch, pressure, or lures to attract a buyer. You will not be able to put a sign in the window, lockbox on the door, sign in the yard, or hold an open house.  The short answer to this dilemma is to check out the seller's options described at www.rpmls.com. A comprehensive list of timeshare selling solutions is available there. Take the time to read the timeshare resales study found on that website as well. Lots of good info: resales data, charts, average prices and more.

Audio version of the story plus a Westgate Timeshare Resorts slide show