Timeshare is selling real estate property by dividing it into units. This practice has become an extremely profitable way for developers to sell real estate – particularly condos in vacation hot spots.
Buying a timeshare means that you and other people are buying one and the same property but you share the time you spend in it.
According to some timeshare contracts an owner spends in his condo a week annually, while others allow for up to 3 weeks each year. The buyer pays a portion of the property value itself and a ‘common area’ cost for upkeep on the building and grounds. Most timeshare units are sold at a ‘presentation.’ There are almost always some attractive encouragements for positional buyers to attend the presentation. As a rule, such encouraging items may include weekend getaway packages, discount or free hotel rooms, or simply prizes one may win undertaking this or that ‘special’ offer. Some of them are legitimate. This is the case when the company promises a present if one simply attends the presentation and the company can afford to give away encouraging items because they profitably sell timeshare units.
There are also many timeshare frauds, and the encouraging items are the key point where real troubles begin. Timeshares that are scams offers everything from a new car or boat to a two-week luxury holiday as an encouraging item. A discount or free hotel room for a couple of nights and a free car or boat are completely different things. In any case, such presentations are held under very high pressure sales tactics. One should remember that scam timeshare providers do not fulfill their promises. Moreover, such companies are usually forced to ‘go out of business’ after they take the clients’ deposits.
Bluegreen Resorts. Bluegreen is one the numerous companies to sell timeshares. Although it is quite a legitimate agency, it was involved in a court hearing. Timeshare property in Hershey offered by Blue Green Resorts of Florida was concerned, and the lawsuit could top $100 million.
A consumer purchased a timeshare package with Blue Green hoping she was buying a condo in Hawaii. But after signing the agreement, she found out her timeshare package did not include Hawaii. The attorney general’s office investigated and filed a lawsuit. Many were lured by a promise of four free airline tickets if they sat through a 90-minute presentation. But the “free” tickets came at a cost – consumers got them if they first paid to stay at a Blue Green property, and they could only fly to those places.
A spokesperson for Bluegreen said the company is currently investigating the matter and is not able to comment on it at this time.
Travelers Destination Reference Blog 
My wife & I bought our bluegreen timeshare package last year. The folks at bluegreen were quite up front about what we were buying and how their timeshare business model works. At bluegreen you don’t buy a particular week at a particular resort. You are deeded a piece of a property somewhere in their network. It doesn’t matter where this deeded property is because you are buying bluegreen vacation points used to purchase days and weeks at any of their locations. There is nothing shady with their business model. I would think that the Hershey lawsuit is based more on the fact the customer didn’t ask the right questions or didn’t retain the information that was being given to her. She could use her points every year to vacation at any one of their Hawaiian resorts.
By: Allan on February 10, 2011
at 5:34 pm
Choosing Timeshare, families must be ready for some difficulties, as timeshare is a specific way of spending vacation. On the one hand, you get time for having a rest for good price. On the other hand, you have to share you apartment with other people and have vacation only in particular time. As for me if you are going to complain about timeshare companies, you shouldn’t deal with them at all.
By: Caryle Edwards on May 29, 2011
at 1:19 am