The post above is relating to an Independent resort that has a growing list of members requesting to leave through a life style challenge followed by another list of members concerned for the future if they are locked in. How this may affect their beneficiaries.
What to do? In this case lets paint worst-case scenario. Various aspects have been discussed over different posts so anyone with real interest can piece together something they could work with if they have some responsibility within their Timeshare Company that can help to influence change.
In this case the resort has no sales people or wishes to employ one. They have a high percentage of members that either want to exit now or in the near future.
Understand that your biggest challenge could become an opportunity! 1) The resort needs to establish where they are not just in terms of their own resources but where their most important asset is in this and that’s their members. The Timeshare Company needs to put together a simple survey that with will establish where they are with their members and their thoughts on their future holidays and exiting. There should be two slightly different surveys with one aimed at those members that have approached the resort wishing to leave with serious life style challenges. Then a less direct survey regarding exiting and more on their holiday plans to the remainder of your members.
Both surveys should also ask simple questions to establish if their members are familiar with best use of timeshare. As this may simply be a case of your members not making best use of their timeshare product and some education may be required. Where appropriate introduce another additional Exchange Company.
2) Review you’re existing product and consider how you can bring about a balance to make this more attractive to potential new members. If you don’t have an exit strategy with the poor PR so easily available then potential members will be seeking Timeshare Companies that will have this in place.
What should be strongly considered is how your product becomes a more flexible contract for existing members so they will have no further concerns about exiting or transferring their timeshare ownership to friends or family. The contract also needs to be updated to make this more attractive for selling privately or for legitimate resale companies to sell for your member or for the resort.
Your happy members will become your best ambassadors!
Next anything you consider within your product must also depend on your resorts personal situation. Exiting options should be considered to give times to allow the resort to adapt and protect its financial variability. Say the first exit option could be 3 years. This would allow the thinking Timeshare Company plenty of time to adapt and take advantage of new members joining if they take the right steps.
3) If the resort has no pro-active sales, then approach a thinking legitimate Resale Company that will work with you to help sell your own stock and that of your members. Review past posts to ensure that the Resale Company just does not charge for listing your resort weeks and does not just display a long list of weeks so that your resort looks like a problem
4) Establish your unique selling points as a resort so you can identify your ideal members. Also review past threads and how to promote low season weeks and those new members that would be ideal to consider them.
5) Work a simple marketing plan that enables an approach to your identified ideal clients. All this has been discussed on the other threads but as mentioned it is beyond this forum to take this to any real depth.
6) Set up agreed meetings with the Resale Company approximately every two months. This should be reviewing agreed targets and what can be done together to improve the selling opportunities with the resort weeks. This could be about upgrading the resorts website or allowing access to rental weeks on a try before you buy approach. Perhaps further surveys with an incentive to return them as your members with the right questions will reveal to you what would needs to be in place to make your resort and timeshare more attractive. You may be pleasantly surprised as some feedback may just need a little fine tuning by the resort.
7) Once your plan is up and getting results then the resort should allow all members that have a genuine proven life style challenge that wish to exit should be able to do so. This will be great P.R for your resort.

The right personalized plan could turn a resort from being a potential future liability into a resort just offering the type of product that appeals to existing owners and is attractive to potential new ideal members. If the contract has built in exit strategies with say an initial 3-year exit option and subsequent 5-year exit options and once say your members reach the age of 75 this is reduced to 2 years this would be a fair balance in my opinion. All exit options have to have 12 months notice the resort has the time to turn this challenge into an opportunity. This is just a suggestion and each resort needs to ideally come up with its own personalized plan
before I fear this decision is taken away from you!
9) Your members would no longer be scammed by Fraudulent companies enticing them to leave with schemes if your members feel that they are locked in.
The Timeshare Company that has no real fair exit strategy is just dodging bullets. Rather than talk about it action needs to take place and some real thought given to the alternative of doing nothing but treading water. This can only eventually get more complicated as the resort looks for more cost saving areas and how they can keep hold of their members as long as they can and find ways to extract extra monies from their existing memberships with upgrades or for them to pay to exit. That’s not a plan that will create good PR or entice new members to join.
The Internet has evened up the playing field and there are plenty of forums forming that are now easily found by a simple search by curious potential members. What message are you sending out now to new potential members and existing owners at your Timeshare Company.
If the leadership is there and pro-active you can be seen first as a Timeshare Company that has listened. With some simple marketing and good PR on the forums you will reap the benefits and be a Timeshare Company that will be considered first before those resorts who simply lock their members in and hound them with threatening letters.