-by Scoop
December 2, 2011 — Timeshare developers, executive management, PD’s, DOM’s and SM’s, etc. could learn an invaluable lesson from United Parcel Service (UPS) CEO Scott Davis, who told a CBS reporter during a recent televised interview that his company discovered that “a five-minute delay for every UPS vehicle every day costs the company [...]

-by Scoop
November 25, 2011 — This Thanksgiving weekend, whether you are a timeshare developer, a seasoned marketing or sales veteran, someone new to the ‘biz’ or a timeshare owner vacationing in superior accommodations around the world we all have a lot to be thankful for and one of those blessings is our industry and all the people who made it possible.
Going back to our humble beginnings in the 1960’s, beginning in Europe [...]

-by Scoop
November 18, 2011 — “Capital Punishment The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist”, the new book just released by convicted ‘Super’ lobbyist Jack Abramoff who served ‘time’ for conspiracy and fraud, etc. is quite the read. And that topic, lobbying, brings me to this week’s ‘thoughts’.
Reading a recent ARDA (American Resort Development Association) Press Release distributed by the AP [...]

-by Scoop
November 11, 2011 — According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information the “Childhood-onset” of the disease Schizophrenia that affects millions of children “is a complex mental disorder that makes it difficult to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences”.
For youngsters who are Schizophrenic it seems that as the untreated [...]

-by Scoop

November 4, 2011 — Remember back a few decades when the industry wanted to shed the word ‘timeshare’ and/or ‘timesharing’ and great debates were held industry wide as to what word or theme should be used to replace a ‘tag’ that had by then already been associated with negative perceptions by consumers?
All sorts of catch phrases were tossed around and some stuck, such as vacation ownership, fractional, club(s), private-residence, etc. [...]

-by Scoop
October 28, 2011 — Despite what some in our industry are willing to accept, consumers the world over are purchasing boats and yachts, second (or third) homes, 1st Class airline tickets, expensive automobiles, private aircraft, luxurious jewelry, 40 ft Motorhomes, rare art, investments, etc. They are doing so because they are thriving and [...]

-by Scoop

October 21, 2011 — By a “mole” I mean an employee possibly working for the Exchange giant who may have access to confidential information about RCI members and who may be passing that information along (or selling it) to one or more third parties (companies or individuals) who then use the private info to defraud RCI members.

According to one family of RCI members that is what may have [...]

-by Scoop
October 14, 2011 — As many readers are well aware Shari Levitin is a sales training professional with a long record of successes who is rightly admired for her many accomplishments in the timeshare industry. But when a reader stumbled across one of Levitin’s training videos (featuring herself) titled “I Have A Headache” [...]

-by Scoop

October 7, 2011 — Although the following true story has been repeated countless times over many years I’ve decided to pass this one along as timeshare developers rarely hear directly from their owners. And since most developers read ‘Inside The Gate’ perhaps this documented situation will give some developers additional thoughts regarding the plight of many of their very best ‘clients’. [...]

-by Scoop

September 23, 2011 — In the early 1980’s some timeshare developers had an annual household income requirement (for a prospect to tour a sales center) of $25,000. Adjusted for inflation, in 2011 that same household now needs to earn about $59,940.

And thinking about inflation, did you know that an $11,000 ‘week’ back in the early ‘80’s needs to sell today for about $26,400 in order for the reps in 2011 [...]