Timeshare – grin and share it
The timeshare industry has discarded its tarnished image of dodgy operators and half-built properties. These days it's made up of world-class companies, and with new regulations on the way, it's set to go from strength to strength. Janet Harmer reports
Having worked hard to shed its tarnished image of the past, the UK timeshare industry is today dominated by major players offering top class accommodation.
And with a new European Union directive due to take effect in February 2011, which will put on to a legal footing the sale of timeshare and long-term holiday products, it is hoped that the industry will once and for all be seen as a cost-effective, quality holiday option, with greater consistency and choice than ever before. A key aspect of the new legislation will be a compulsory 14-day cooling-off period to ensure the consumer is fully aware of what they are buying.
"It is unfortunate that the unscrupulous sales and marketing practices of just a few companies had such a damaging impact upon the image of the whole timeshare industry," says Richard McIntosh, managing director of Hilton International Grand Vacations Company and chairman of the Resort Development Organisation (RDO), which is the European trade association representing the sector.
Formerly known as the Organisation of Timeshare in Europe, the RDO aims to promote the development of the timeshare industry throughout Europe and encourage best practice among its members who sign up to a code of conduct and arbitration scheme.
Today, few complaints are made about timeshare properties, also known as seasonal ownership or vacation ownership. Those that do arise tend to relate to fraudulent activities outside the industry, usually involving operators trying to sell holiday packs involving the right to buy a holiday for maybe a five or 10-year period where there is no asset involved.
"There is nothing concrete being sold with a long-term holiday product," says Mcintosh. "It is not the same thing as timeshare, although over the years the two have been confused."
RDO's enforcement department is now able to shut down companies that act fraudulently. It successfully closed 24 such operators in 2009, most of which were based in Spain.
Here in the UK, the timeshare product has never been stronger, with major hotel companies such as Hilton, De Vere and Macdonald - as well as world-class individual operators such as Langdale in the Lake District and Gleneagles in Perthshire - boosting its image.
There is still a long way to go, however, before timeshare assumes the same importance and standing that it enjoys in the USA, where it is firmly ingrained in the psyche of the American people. McIntosh says this is because the sales of timeshare in the USA have been regulated for much longer than in the UK and Europe.
"The major hotel brands - such as Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Wyndham - are also more established there, and the volumes of resorts and sales are much higher. Therefore [timeshare] is more commonplace and there is no stigma associated with it," he explains.
Hilton has three timeshare resorts in the UK, operating under Hilton International Grand Vacations Company, plus 46 resorts in the USA, with a total of 145,000 family members worldwide. The UK properties are all based in Scotland (see panel on page 24) and McIntosh is looking at the potential to develop new resorts in the Wirrall and southern England.
Worldwide, the company intends to open more traditional resorts, with extensive leisure facilities, like those in Scotland and Florida; and new urban timeshare properties. Having operated 78 timeshare apartments on two floors of the New York Hilton very successfully - all sold very quickly - the company opened its first purpose-built urban timeshare development in the city, West 57th Street by Hilton Club, in October 2009.
"Sales of the new project are on budget and we anticipate a complete sell-out by 2012," says McIntosh, who confirms that Hilton is looking at similar opportunities in London, but has not yet found the right property.
HIGH-QUALITY SITES
All the major operators in the UK timeshare market believe there is potential for growth, particularly within the four and five-star markets, where buyers can be guaranteed a consistently high quality holiday over a period of many years.
Seasons Holidays, which operates five resorts throughout the UK, is looking to acquire more sites around the country.
"The sites should ideally have at least 50 units, otherwise they will be uneconomic," says group marketing director, Leslie McCann.
"Our UK clients - 80% of whom are couples over the age of 42 - are looking for good on-site facilities and high standards of accommodation."
Offering exceptional facilities within the grounds of a timeshare resort is a key draw for prospective buyers. All four resorts operated by De Vere, for instance, are surrounded by stunning countryside and enjoy the benefits of championship golf courses, or multi-award-winning spa and leisure facilities.
"Across the group we have sold approximately 85% of our weeks available, although the Carrick, which is only four years old, has greater availability," says De Vere's seasonal sales executive, Sam Broster. Prices range from £3,000 to £40,000 depending on the time of the year and the size of the property, with the length of ownership varying from perpetual at Cameron House, 99 years at the Carrick and 59 years at Slaley Hall and Belton Woods.
The Langdale Estate in the Lake District was one of the first timeshare resorts to be developed in the UK in the mid-1980s and has succeeded because of the superior accommodation it offers within the woodland setting of the Langdale Valley, supported by the facilities of a 57-bedroom hotel, three bars and restaurants, and a spa. Out of the 100 timeshare properties on the 35-acre site, 99% of weeks available are sold.
"There is room for growth in the domestic timeshare market, but the accommodation and setting need to be right for the UK as there are many competitively-priced timeshare options available abroad where cheap flights make regular access a sensible option to the UK," says Langdale's director of sales and marketing, Dan Visser.
"The emergence of the staycation may be of some benefit to UK resorts."
A FLEXIBLE OFFERING
As well as offering good on-site facilities, timeshare properties linked to hotel companies do well as they provide the owners with an alternative venue and style of holiday.
"Certain ownership plans give customers preferential access to the 45 Macdonald hotels in the UK," says Simon Jackson, managing director of Macdonald Resorts, which operates five timeshare resorts in the UK and four in Spain.
McIntosh says timeshare owners have changed the way they use their accommodation from the days when they always returned to their own property for the same week every year. "Now, using the points-based system [see panel on page 23] they can choose to stay in a hotel, go on a driving holiday or take a cruise," he says.
"Flexibility is what drives people to buy timeshare products today and having the security of a name like Hilton behind them is very important."
A demand for more flexibility from customers has contributed to the decision taken by Robert and Lucy Dorrien-Smith to demolish the 48-bedroom Island Hotel on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly and replace it with a mix of timeshare and self-catering properties.
"The hotel was in need of refurbishment and we had to make a decision about its future," says Tresco Estate's finance manager, Keith Marshall.
"Taking into consideration the high cost of staffing a top-quality hotel, compared with running a timeshare/self-catering resort, combined with the fact that guests don't want to be tied to the facilities of a hotel for a whole week, we decided to redevelop the hotel."
Together with existing properties on the island, by the time the new development is complete in 2012, there will be a total of 61 timeshare and 40 self-catering properties on Tresco, plus three restaurants. Potential purchasers are already showing an interest.
McIntosh says it would be wrong for timeshare developers to sell properties on the lure of offering a financial investment in property or a route to a cheap holiday.
"It is, however, a value-for-money purchase. Timeshare from the key players provides guaranteed quality over a long period of time and ensures that people take a holiday, even in a financial downturn," he concludes.
THE TIMESHARE INDUSTRY - FACTS AND FIGURES
â- There are 6.7 million timeshare owners worldwide; more than 1.5 million in Europe.
â- Instead of booking a week or two at a resort every year, or buying a holiday property outright, timeshare offers holidaymakers the ability to buy rights of occupancy in a property, usually in multiples of one week, for either a set period or in perpetuity.
â- Initially, the timeshare product lacked flexibility in terms of when and where it had to be taken. Now owners can exchange their week for another at the same resort, or for a week in another resort within the exchange network in more than 5,400 resorts in 90 countries.
â- The popularity of exchange has led to the formation of vacation clubs where consumers buy points instead of a slot in a particular resort. These points act as a holiday currency and each time the consumer wants to take a holiday, they choose the size of a property, duration and location they want and pay with their allocation of points.
â- A new development is the introduction of fractional ownership, aimed at an elite market, offering units of property in chunks of weeks - sometimes four, eight or 12. De Vere is believed be one of only a few companies in the UK to have developed fractional units. It has five at the Carrick in Loch Lomond, which it originally offered in blocks of 12 weeks and is now offering four weeks at £50,000. Six owners have already bought units in blocks of 12 weeks each.
MAJOR UK TIMESHARE OPERATORS
Hustyns, Wadebridge, Cornwall 37-bedroom hotel and 28 timeshare lodges
Trenython, near Fowey, Cornwall 22-bedroom hotel and 37 timeshare lodges
Duchally Country Estate, Auchterarder, Perthshire
13-bedroom hotel and 55 timeshare lodges
Belton Woods, near Grantham, Lincolnshire 136-bedroom hotel and 32 timeshare lodges
Cameron House, Loch Lomond, Dunbartonshire 128-bedroom hotel and 86 timeshare lodges
The Carrick, Loch Lomond, Dunbartonshire 29 timeshare lodges and apartments, and five fractional units
Slaley Hall, Hexham, Northumberland 142-bedroom hotel and 37 timeshare lodges
HILTON INTERNATIONAL GRAND VACATIONS CLUB
Hilton Craigendarroch, Ballater, Royal Deeside 45-bedroom hotel and 99 timeshare lodges
Hilton Dunkeld, Dunkeld, Perthshire
130-bedroom hotel and 22 timeshare lodges
Hilton Coylumbridge, Aviemore, Inverness-shire 180-bedroom hotel and 61 timeshare lodges
Macdonald Elmers Court Country Club, Lymington, Hampshire 54 timeshare apartments and houses
Macdonald Plas Talgarth Health & Leisure Club, Pennal, Snowdonia 77 timeshare apartments and lodges
Macdonald Dalfaber Golf & Country Club, Aviemore, Inverness-shire 95 timeshare lodges, apartments and chalets
Macdonald Forest Hills Lochside Resort, Aberfoyle, Stirlingshire 48-bedroom hotel and 65 timeshare apartments and lodges
Macdonald Lochanhully Woodland Club, Carrbridge, Inverness-shire 52 timeshare chalets and apartments
Brunston Castle, Dailly, Ayrshire 88 timeshare properties
Burn Park, Bude, Cornwall 34 timeshare properties
Clowance, Cambourne, Cornwall 112 timeshare properties
Laugharne Park, Laugharne, Carmarthenshire 76 timeshare properties
Whitbarrow Village, Keswick, Cumbria 150 timeshare properties
Glenmor Village A development of 53 luxury two-, three- and four-bedroom timeshare homes set around its own village green within the grounds of the 232-bedroom, five-star Gleneagles hotel in Auchterarder, Perthshire.
A total of 100 timeshare properties - made up of 80 Scandinavian lodges, two cottages and 18 apartments - situated within the heavily wooded 35-acre Langdale Estate near Ambleside, Cumbria, which also includes a 57-bedroom hotel.
