High-end timeshares push flexibility - Orlando Business Journal:

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The new product, which costs from the low $100,000s to allows buyers to own an interesr in severalvacation properties. Instead of givingb investors the rights to use a particulae property for a certain amountof time, the Ritz-Carltojn Destination Club gives them access to Ritz’s propertiees worldwide. The Orlando-based compan y is applying a strategy usedby less-pricey timeshare companies, amonyg them , in which investors get points that can be used like currenc y to buy vacation time. Ritz-Carltoh said the option should increase the appeal ofits high-end known as fractionals, by attracting people who don’r want to be tied to a single piecd of real estate.
“Points give you much more saidDavid Short, Ritz-Carlton Destination Club’ s regional vice president for sales. “They allow people to customize each trip to their own Howard Nusbaum, president of the American Resort Developers said the model fits well in the stressecd economy, when vacation schedulesa can be less flexible than in more prosperousx times, and wealthy buyers are becoming more concerned about value. “Pointds allow people to spend exactlyg the amount of money they want on Nusbaum said. In a traditional fractional ownership arrangement, an owner might have one monthg a year at afixed location.
With the points the buyer can apply credits to hotels or other timeshares in anytime configuration, decreasing the chance that time mighg not be used. Another In the traditional structure, an owner who wants out of a timeshars needs to wait until some elsebuys in. the required ratio is threer buyers forevery seller. “If 15 people wanted out, they would have to wait untik 45 peoplewant in,” Nusbaum said. “In this economicv environment, that’s tough.
” While Ritz-Carlton’s new plan allowss buyers to apply points to its other timeshare companies are offerint points packages that use a third partu to place owners in vacatiojn properties not connected to thetimeshare company. Pat Connolly, senio r vice president with , said his compangy offers the use of The Registry Collection a global luxury timeshare exchangeprogram — to buyerse in its high-end Signaturwe Collection.
The Signature which features 56 upscale villasa now under construction withinits 2,400-unitg timeshare project near , will open next Orange Lake, which offers buyers of lower-priced unitsa exchange privileges through its own Holiday Inn Club Vacation network, uses The Registry Collectionj to give luxury buyers access to comparable properties it doesn’ own. “The introduction of a high-end product is taking us into a new level of thetimeshard market,” Connolly said. which calls its pointes membership Portfolio, will sell interests in The minimum purchaseis $130,000, whicjh buys 5,000 points, with additional points sold in 2,500-pointf increments.
The company also charges annual dues rangingfrom $7,50p to $18,000. A points optionn will be available tocurrent owners, who are memberd of the company’s Home Club. “We’rr spending a lot of time working on programas for ourexisting customers,” Shor t said. “It’s good for them, and it shoulfd allow us to grow a littlew more quickly inthe future.”