THE HOTEL INDUSTRY - Timeshare

TACKLES TIMESHARING

With lower occupancy rates, a sagging economy, and the changing demographics of travelers, hotel industry officials are constantly searching for ways to fill rooms. One hot topic is timesharing.

Long considered the bad boy of the hospitality business, timesharing is coming of age in both size and stature. The entrance of companies like Disney, Marriott, and Hilton has served notice that timesharing is a viable occupancy option for the hotel industry.

THE BASICS

Timesharing's image of past decades is quickly changing. Many vacationers now view it as a viable and economical option for future vacations.

The timeshare market is exploding. In the past two years, almost 500,000 households have purchased a total of more than 700,000 timeshare intervals. That means there are more than 3 million owners at more than 3,000 resorts worldwide. Contrary to popular belief, a recent survey showed that most of these owners are happy with their purchase.

"It is clear that timesharing is gaining in popularity, not only here in the United States, but also across Europe, Mexico, and in South America," says Tom Franks, president of the American Resort and Residential Development Association, the timeshare industry body. "We expect the industry to double in the next 10 years and the hotel industry will definitely be involved in a big way."

Timesharing is the most prevalent form of vacation ownership. Consumers typically buy one or more weeks at a specific resort and can return to that resort every year or exchange it for a week at another resort. Prices currently average around $9,000, with annual maintenance fees of around $300.

Vacation timesharing generally takes one of two forms: "Fee" timesharing gives the purchaser permanent rights--in the form of a deed--to the property. About 85% of timeshare resorts sell under fee-ownership agreements. "Right-to-use" timesharing grants the purchaser the rights to the use of the property for an established period of time, such as 30 years. Under this type of timesharing, the purchaser does not receive a deed.

Rather than return to their home resort every year, many owners opt to exchange to one of thousands of other timeshare properties worldwide. For a small fee, companies like Resorts Condominiums International or Interval International perform these exchange services for member resorts and owners. Many owners say this exchange privilege was a key reason for buying. Many hotel chains in the timeshare industry form their own internal exchange system to complement the exchange company services.

Hotel companies have found that the basics of timesharing are an ideal fit for filling rooms. They have accomplished this by using existing facilities and services, as well as developing new properties and support structures. Their success stories tell the tale of why and how the hotel industry is tackling timesharing.

THE MARRIOTT STORY

While timesharing has been in the United States for just twenty years, Marriott has been around for more than six decades. In 1984, however, it entered the timesharing business and has turned the move into a very successful venture.

"We looked into it and in theory it was a sound idea," says Bill Marriott. "But, timesharing in practice was often not up to our standards. If we weren't able to effect rigid controls on the quality of timesharing that Marriott offered, we weren't interested in doing it."

That opportunity came in 1984, when American Resorts--which had recently opened a top-of-the-line timeshare project on Hilton Head Island called Monarch--initiated talks with Marriott. American Resorts' concept of timesharing matched Marriott's, but the company's ability to carry that vision forward required major capital. Marriott had the capital.

Monarch's success was an encouraging barometer and Marriott looked to new markets. Orlando was a very logical choice, because Marriott was already constructing a 192-acre resort complex: Mariott's Orlando World Center.

Construction of Sabal Palms, the first of two timeshare resorts adjoining Marriott's Orlando World Center, began in February 1986. The resort offered Marriott's customarily luxurious surroundings and by the summer of 1987 the resort had sold all available weeks. Construction of Sabal Palms' sister resort, Royal Palms, began a year later and recently sold out ahead of schedule.

Marriott's fourth timeshare project was at Hilton Head Island's signature location: Harbour Town. Construction began in 1987 and was completed in less than a year. Marriott's Heritage Club at Harbour Town is keyed to the island's exceptional sports facilities. Ownership includes special privileges at three golf courses and the Sea Pines Racquet Club.

The 30-villa resort's 1,500-week inventory sold out in July 1988, just nine months after its initial offering. On the heels of this success, Marriott decided to build its third Hilton Head Island timeshare resort, Harbour Club at Harbour Town.

Marriott's newest resort on Hilton Head Island is Sunset Pointe at Shelter Cove Harbour, which has already sold out. The resort features 25 timeshare residences, in addition to 86 existing luxury villas. Marriott is also developing a 25-acre oceanfront site for a new timeshare property, which is currently the Hilton Head Inn. The 288-unit property is called Grande Ocean Resort and started with brisk sales in April.

Marriott's third Orlando timeshare resort, Cypress Harbour, is a 500-villa property near Sea World. It has carried forward Marriott's successful Orlando timeshare vision and is experiencing brisk sales.

Marriott's first resort in the west was Desert Springs Villas at Palm Desert, Arizona. The 236-villa resort is adjacent to Marriott's Desert Springs Resort & Spa. Streamside at Vail in Colorado features 150 villas within two miles of Vail Village and North America's largest ski mountain.

Its Paradise Island Beach Club in the Bahamas was Marriott's first venture outside the U.S. The property offers 44 two-bedroom villas with an oceanfront location. Additional villas are planned. Marriott also recently announced that it plans a new timeshare resort on Barbados, next to Marriott's Sam Lord's Castle. It is called the Barbados Beach Club and started sales in February. 

With so many successful timeshare properties, Marriott serves as an ideal example of hoteliers involved in timesharing. Marriott now has over 40,000 owners, with annual sales of more than $100 million. It offers many travel programs for their owners, including an excellent internal timeshare resort exchange program, exchanges throughout Marriott's hotel and resort system, exchanges through one of the large exchange companies, one of the largest resale operations in the industry.

Marriott also recently announced that it had signed an agreement to manage a timeshare resort where it had no direct capital investment. The company expects this management contract to be the first of many. Other hotel companies already involved in timesharing or considering involvement are expect to follow suit.

Bob Miller, MORI's executive vice president and general manager, feels that Marriott and other hotel companies can bring much to timeshare resort management. The advantages include: volume purchases and preventive maintenance for the property; collection of receivables and servicing of loans; a national rental program; access to the company's reservations system; owner communications, systems support, and development; strong management; and much more.

HILTON TAKES ON TIMESHARING

In one of the most exciting timeshare industry developments since Marriott entered the business, Hilton Grand Vacations Company was recently formed. Though Hilton will probably not begin the construction of new timeshare properties until later this year it is already entering into the market aggressively.

As part of HGVC's formation, it has joined as partners with a successful timeshare company in Florida, Mariner, and thus, already has 15 timeshare resorts and more than 22,000 owners. In addition to excellent resort properties, Mariner also runs many rental programs and a resale operation that has one of the highest volumes of any timeshare company in the United States.

As with many hotel companies entering the business, Hilton's timeshare objectives include: creating a system of high-quality timeshare resorts throughout the world; establishing property management and hospitality services that include reservations, resale, and rental segments; and establishing a club to provide exchange services and access to its frequent guest program and other hotel industry programs.

Another key player in this joint venture is Ed McMullen Sr. of American Resorts. Mr. McMullen has been highly successful in timesharing and he brings much experience to Hilton. Both Mariner and McMullen have had great success with high-quality two-bedroom, two-bath units of about 1,200-square-feet and this policy will continue with Hilton and future construction.

Many resorts may be built on or near already-existing Hilton hotels and resorts throughout the world (e.g., the Caribbean, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Hilton Head Island, and Orlando). Owners will be able to enjoy all of the hotel or resort amenities and services. They will also have access to the Hilton HHonors program and other vacation packages offered by Hilton.

Hilton's timeshare ownership program will be based on a points system, which has become very popular in the industry. The firm also plans to interface with Conrad Vacation Ownership, Hilton's other timeshare program.

OTHER BIG NAMES IN TIMESHARING

Many other hospitality companies have reviewed the advantages of timesharing and are entering the business. Among many, two perfect examples are Disney and Ramada.

Disney Vacation Club (DVC) recently opened its first units at Walt Disney World. As with many companies in the industry, DVC tackled two major consumer concerns: flexibility and "hard-sell" sales techniques.

By purchasing a real estate interest in Disney Vacation Club Resort, guests automatically become members of the club and are entitled to a variety of exclusive benefits and privileges. Members also receive an annual allotment of vacation points, which may be used on vacations at the resort or at more than 100 worldwide resorts currently offered through a "Member Getaways" program.

"The flexibility of choosing among several different vacation experiences is what sets the Disney Vacation Club apart from many similar plans," says General Manager Mark Pacala. "The vacation points system allows members to select the type of vacation best suited to their needs, particularly as those needs change from year to year." Each year, members choose how to use their vacation points, either for one long vacation or a series of short getaways.

For a one-time purchase price and annual dues, guests may purchase a real estate interest in the resort, which expires after 50 years. The minimum purchase price is currently $11,730.

According to Mr. Pacala, the Disney timeshare project is substantially ahead of projections. The entrance and success of Disney serves as more proof that timesharing is a viable option for many hotel companies.

This past spring, Ramada International also entered into the timeshare business in the Bahamas. Through the purchase of a Divi timeshare resort near Nassau, Ramada is testing the waters to see if timesharing should be a part of a larger program for them. Divi recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with plans to concentrate on its five Caribbean resorts and ten timeshare locations.

With 50 units, the Ramada International timesharing project is part of the 295-suite Ramada South Ocean. They offer both floating-time and fixed-week units.

With this kind of company, the timeshare industry is really coming of age. Hotel officials obviously consider it an excellent way to fill rooms with happy vacationers. 

GIVE A LITTLE - Book Review

This 310 page saga is Scott Underhill's second superbly written novel. I have had the pleasure of reviewing both of his books - and they are equally outstanding, yet profoundly different pieces of fiction.

Give a Little certainly provokes empathy for each of its characters. It is an emotional roller-coaster ride for the reader, while the family members in the book heal old wounds and the father battles alcoholism.

When the back cover states "Come meet Jaden and Simmeon Randel, two brothers you won't forget" - they were not exaggerating. These two identical and opposing twins are the main characters in this novel.

One boy is a handsome football star that shares a love of the sport with his father. The other boy is portrayed as a deformed shadow. Both twins are struggling to find out who they are as individuals, and where they wish to take their lives in the future. Both make heroic sacrifices out of love for one another.

Never rivals (except for their father's love), Simmeon and Jaden depend upon each other for their successes - until they fell for same girl. Events unfold that help these boys to see each other as individuals and as an inseparable entity. Give a Little portrays the deep connection twins feel through deep level psychic connections where they can actually feel when the other is distraught or in pain.

Get this book – you won't regret it.

ISBN#: 0975357182
Author: Scott Underhill
Publisher: WordPro Press

ELECTRIC GUITAR TABS EXPLAINED

Tablature as a means of writing music down has been with us for hundreds of years, but many people today look down on tabs as a third rate method of musical communication. In fact, tablature is not a dumbed down version of conventional musical notation, rather what we call sheet music grew from a need for more versatility in notation as music became more complex in medieval times. Electric Guitar Tabs have been a great help to the many people who have taken up the electric guitar and who wanted to get down to the business of playing as quickly as possible.

Conventional music notation has much more to communicate than tabs, but if you already know more or less how the song sounds, and are prepared to work at your own interpretation, then there is nothing wrong with using tablature.

Guitarists composing music using tabs and sharing the results of their work on the internet have brought a wide range of music within reach of amateur musicians who never learnt to read music. To some guitarists learning to read music is a waste of time that would be put to better use expressing their feelings through music. This attitude is at odds with the idea that the more theoretical knowledge you have, the greater the pool of resources at your disposal for expressing your ideas.

Tablature, on the other hand, allows the guitarist to get to know the basic piece of music in his own way, and use his musical intuition and flair for improvisation to produce a musical work which will be as much his own work as the original composer's. For that reason electric guitar tabs are a boon to the electric guitar player who does not want to just produce a copy of someone else's work. 

You can find electric guitar tabs in music stores along with conventional written music, but the quickest and best place to look for electric guitar tabs is on the internet. Even though there's a legal dogfight going on about tab publishers infringing the rights of the original composer, many tabs are still available for free. However you need to exercise your discernment when making use of tablature produced by amateur guitarists. You might need to change things around a little if they don't sound right.

As for the electric guitar player who wants to broaden his musical knowledge, tablature also allows the guitarist to learn new chords, scales or modes very quickly.

Finally a reminder that using electric guitar tabs to learn new material is not a walk in the park - you need to supply some of the information which is otherwise written into sheet music. You need to have some idea of the note values and a basic understanding of time signatures and tempo. What that boils down to is that you can hear the music in your head, and you just want to know where to put your fingers on the fret board. That is what guitar tabs were originally made for. 

MIDDLE EAST PEACE IS AN OXYMORON

The phrase Middle East and the word peace are so contradictory that when put together they become an oxymoron. An oxymoron, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined". There are very few things in this world that are more contradictory than the words "Middle East peace."

As long as there are Christians and Jews in this world, the fundamentalist Islamic Arabs will never allow peace. The Koran states, under 5:54, "O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Those of you who make them his friends is one of them.", under 8:39, "Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme.", under 9:123, "Believers: Make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Let them find harshness in you.", under 2:191, "Slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out.", Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it.". As long as there are Muslims that believe in these orders, there can not and will not be 'Middle East peace'.

Even if the fundmentalist Islamics managed to destroy every Christian and Jew in the world, there would still not be peace in the Middle East. Islam has several sects, ie: Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Kahrijite, Wahhabi, Nizari (also known as "Assassins") and more. Many sects believe that followers of other sects are non believers because they follow the wrong sect. The only thing that keeps them from destroying each other is the old saying, 'an enemy of my enemy is my friend'. As long as there are Christians and Jews to hate, they will, pretty much, leave each other alone.

Ever since the State Of Israel was recognized by the United Nations, the Arab countries have been trying to "push Israel into the sea". Many Arab leaders have publicly stated that "they will not be satisfied untill Israel no longer exists". Many Arab leaders openly support the Palestinian terrorists that use homicide bombers, car bombs and rockets to maim and kill innocent Jewish women and children. They even consider the killing of Westerners an added bonus. Since many fundamentalists believe that "unbelievers are enemies of Allah and they will roast in hell" and that "the idolators are unclean", they believe that 'unbelievers' and 'hypocrites' are less than human and that their lives are worthless. The fundamentalists believe that it is their duty to punish the unbelievers wherever they find them.

I realize that not all Muslims are fundamentalists and that many Muslims would embrace peace. The problem is that the fundamentalists are so harsh and so ruthless that most peace seeking Muslims in the Arab world are afraid to cross them, afraid that they will be considered 'friends' of the unbelievers or 'hypocrites' and punished accordingly. Therefore, they keep quiet and the fundamentalists continue to rule the Arab world. The few Arabs that do attempt to stand up for true peace usually end up in prison or dead.

Some Arab countries are considered to have secular governments, ie: Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria, and, as such, would presumably be free of fundamentalism interference. The fact is, none of these governments could stay in power without the assistance of, or at least the tacit approval of, the fundamentalists. Each of these countries is rife with fundamentalism, note all of the homicide bombers and terrorists that are exported from these countries. If the leaders of these countries did not have the approval of the fundamentalists, they would be assassinated and new leaders would be elected or installed. Saudi Arabia claims to be our friend and ally, yet many of their religious schools preach terrorism and a large number of terrorist leaders come from that country. Egypt has a signed peace accord with Israel, yet arms are smuggled in to the Palestinians every day from Egypt. Syria is the largest supporter of the Hezbollah group and is also one of the largest exporters of terrorists into Iraq.

The United States has been trying to "win the hearts and minds" of the Arab people for decades. We provide aid in the form of money, we gave Arafat huge sums of money in order to 'help' the Palestinians and he kept most of it for himself, we gave Hussein money to help feed his people and he used it to line his pockets and to pay the families of homicide bombers and we give billions of dollars in aid to Egypt and although they talk peace they still support terrorism. We pour money by the bucket full into Iraq and they elect an Islamic based government instead of a secular government. In addition, we pressure Israel, our only true ally in the Middle East, to give up land and security in the name of peace, even though we know that the Islamic fundamentalists will never make peace with Israel.

I may be wrong, but I don't believe that the fundamentalists will ever allow the United States to "win the hearts and minds" of the Arab people. We can and probably should make them fear us. We can't and won't make them love us. The fundamentalists will never allow their people to love us any more than they will allow 'Middle East peace'. It goes against their religious principles. They are fanatics and will fight to their last breath. As far as they are concerned if they die, fighting us, they will go to Paradise. If they live they can go on fighting the 'unbelievers' and 'hypocrites' thereby fulfilling Allah's wishes. 

SCUBA DIVING IN COSTA RICA

Costa Rica is an eco-tourism paradise with rain forests, exotic wildlife, volcanoes and much more. This little Central American country is also an interesting place to scuba dive. Most of the diving in Costa Rica is done on the west coast Pacific Ocean side with an area up in the Guanacaste region located in the northwestern part of the country and another south of the capital city of San Jose near the middle of its west coast. If flying into San Jose, one would have to do some internal traveling to get to either of these two locations.

The Guanacaste area is a bit easier to get to especially if one could arrange a flight right to the town of Liberia in northern Costa Rica. There are some seasonal charter flights from North America directly to Liberia. The town of Playas del Coco which is used as the main base for divers is a short cab ride from the Liberia airport. There are restaurants and small hotels in Playa del Coco including a few American owned scuba dive operators. These dive operators usually have special package deals available which include both diving and accommodations with one of the local hotels. Everything in town is within easy walking distance.

I made a trip for scuba diving here during the late fall season. The operator I used was Rich Coast Diving. The local Costa Rican divemasters from Rich Coast they took all of the scuba equipment including tanks down to the beach every morning by pickup truck.

The dives ranged from about 60 feet to 85 feet with mild to moderate currents. One thing that all divers will notice here is that the diving in Costa Rica is very different from the usual Caribbean reef diving. The visibility is a lot poorer and there are some noticeably colder thermoclines. The poor visibility is due to higher amounts of plankton in the local waters compared to the Caribbean Sea. In some dive sites, we had to swim through sections of water which turned into an almost brown color soup. This cut the sunlight from the top drastically. However, there is a huge plus side to this poorer visibility. The plankton attracts larger marine animals and if divers came here to see the big ones, they will not be disappointed.

Even some of the reef fish here are larger. For example, the trumpet fish we saw down here are significantly larger than the ones found in Caribbean waters. Also, there are much more porcupine puffer fish here. Previously in Caribbean waters, I've seen only a few porcupine fish and they are usually alone. Here in Costa Rica, I saw large schools of them. We encountered large schools of other fish types on a regular basis as well 

The local divemasters here definitely work in a different way compared to their counterparts elsewhere. In many Caribbean locations, the divemasters would promote a 'look only, no touch' rule. Here, the divemasters actively turned over every rock to find interesting creatures for us. They would catch them in their hands and pass them over to the other divers. Over three days of diving, I held a seahorse, an octopus, a spotted eel, an orange color frogfish and a puffed up porcupine fish. Of course this practice of handling marine wildlife is debatable in terms of ethics but it was certainly an interesting experience holding these creatures in my hands. The divemasters were certainly hard working for sure though as they were eager to make sure that the guests had good dive trips.

Large animals such as giant sea turtles, stingrays and white tip sharks were also spotted. On one occasion which I will never forget for the rest of my life is when a very large school of cow-nose rays headed straight for our group of divers. They looked like a huge squadron of alien spaceships. They went right through and past us while we watched in wonder. Then they disappeared. This memorable experience was much too short lived.

So for a very different type of scuba diving compared to the Caribbean without traveling too much further, Costa Rica is an interesting destination for divers to consider. There won't be crystal clear visibility but the marine life will be different with more large animals to see. The diving itself is also very reasonable in cost being significantly lower than in premium priced locations such as the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. In addition, there are many other things to see and activities to do on land besides the scuba diving which makes Costa Rica a very full vacation. 

MOVIE REVIEW - The Brave One

Following in the footsteps of the Death Wish movies and this year's earlier Death Sentence, Neil Jordan's The Brave One tries with every bit of skill and talent it's got to bring more complexity to the themes of vigilance and revenge. Instead of merely attempting to make the viewers complicit in the enjoyment of watching the wronged protagonists stepping outside the legal system and taking matters into their own hands, it uses a great actress like Jodie Foster to see the conflicted emotions such actions can yield. Ultimately, however, even this story loses its worth as it cowers from examining the real social consequences involved.

Like the first Death Wish, the movie sets itself in New York City where we meet radio personality Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) who happily lives with her fianc

COMPUTER NETWORKING FUNDAMENTALS

A computer network is a collection of two or more computers with communication between them through a medium. The communication medium can be through radio waves, wires, infrared, optical fibers etc.

Computer network is an integral part of our daily lives, with the most important reason being that of communication. The use of computer networking is to share resources like fax machines, printers, modems, files etc., and its other uses are database server, computer server, email, chat, internet etc. The computer to which the resources are attached is called the server and the other computers that access the resource are called clients. In peer-to-peer computer networks there are no servers.

The sharing of fax machines, printers, and modems amongst many computers and users reduce the operational cost. A database on a computer network is a very important application as it stores and runs many important data and jobs. Emails and chats can be used for instantaneous communication and sending of files on a computer network.

The computer networks are classified, depending upon the size, as Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) and Personal Area Networks (PAN). The topology (topology is the way the computer networks and network resources are connected) of the networking can be classified as Bus Network, Ring Network and Star Network.

The networking hardware basically consists of wiring, network cards and a hub. Computer network cards are required so that one computer can understand what the other computer is "talking". Network cards have a unique MAC address to identify computers on a computer network. Hubs connect all the computers in the network. Hubs can also be used to connect to other hubs to increase the size of the computer network. Two computers can be connected using Ethernet cards or phone lines or power lines for communication, with hardware kits available at roughly a cost of $100. 

As the number of computers in an office or a home increases, so do the number of cables, so wireless networking is a viable solution. In wireless networking radio transreceivers or infrared signals are used to communicate between computers and devices. Examples of wireless networking include Wi-fi and Bluetooth technology, though there may be security issues involved in wireless networking. However there definitely is a stronger preference towards wireless networking nowadays among consumers.

Computer networks have added a new dimension to the 21st century. Today the cyber world is much faster and wider than the real world. This has all been made possible due to computer networks. Computer networks have revolutionized business, communication, travel, research, defense, society and almost all human endeavors. The evolution of computer networks has helped the technological revolution take a big leap forward.