Timeshare Leads and Marketing Technology Blog

Marketing your resort’s timeshare offerings can often be a difficult process because there are so many different directions you could take.  Whitecap’s cutting edge timeshare marketing software minimizes the difficulty by harnessing the advantages of several options and applying them in a simple, straightforward way.

One of the advantages to leveraging Whitecap’s timeshare tour generation technology is its ability to utilize several on-site mechanisms for generating tours.   We believe in optimizing our mini-vacation landing pages to target a span of potential customers.  After Whitecap hones in on a potential tour  by directing them to a resort’s mini-vacation page, it provides the customer several options to book:

1.  Call In Tours: This option is the least ‘invasive,’ allowing a potential tour to  call in to an easily accessible 1-800 number that re-routes the person to the resort’s phone room.  This potential tour has already had access to a variety of information about the package, including prices, rooms, pictures, and terms of use; giving the phone operator a good head start in booking the customer.

2. Pay Later Tours: This option allows for a potential tour to submit their contact information, booking dates, and sign off on the resort’s tour requirements.  The customer info is then entered into the Whitecap database, where a phone operator or administrator can access and process the submission.   Automated emails will notify any designated resort administrators about freshly generated tours.

3.  Complete Bookings: Whitecap provides a third option for those potential tours that prefer to handle everything online, allowing them to select dates, sign off on tour requirements, enter payment information, and fully commit to a mini-vacation. This option mimics modern day vacation booking sites like Expedia and Orbitz so that potential tours feel comfortable throughout the process.

After a booking is completed, an automated confirmation email is forwarded to the customer, reminding them of their tour date and location, as well as providing receipt of payment. Depending on the resort’s available inventory, the customer’s vacation dates are then automatically blacked out to prevent another person from overbooking those days.

Not only does Whitecap provide a resort several ways to book potential tours, it also provides several monthly pricing plans to accommodate the budgets of small to large resorts.

If you are a fan of the travel channel or any destination related TV programming, you should check out RCI TV.  RCI TV is a new online video service that was just launched by RCI, the global leader in vacation exchange.  The company’s new web TV platform allows anybody interested in owning timeshare to check out videos of many of RCI’s resort partner destinations around the world.

These videos aren’t your standard old-school timeshare marketing materials.  RCI’s cutting-edge timeshare video network allows viewers to select from various categories of resort videos, including beach, casino, city and spa.  When a viewer has selected a desired video they can then view a wide screen, high quality and informative video that details a resort’s various amenities, rooms, as well as local hot spots.

RCI TV even has it’s own travel host – “Dan, The RCI Guy,” who can help guide visitors through the many benefits of vacation ownership.  This online TV network is a great move by RCI to reach out to a younger generation of web-savvy potential timeshare owners.  This generation works and plays online, and is more than familiar with online video viewing through sites like YouTube and Hulu.  RCI TV is a great addition to the world on online video and is sure to only get better as RCI add more resort destinations to their content roster.

The Forum is a timeshare industry event that takes place in London on December 9-10.  The timeshare event will feature expert analysis on the state of the industry as well as where the future lies for the shared ownership market.  Generator Systems and Perspective Magazine are hosting the Forum, which will include debates and panels with timeshare industry experts from around the globe.

One of the big questions posed at the Forum will ask how fractional ownership will play its part in the future of timeshare.  An in-depth analysis on fractional ownership will allow timeshare marketers and developers to decide how they want to move forward with fractional ownership strategies.

Some of the big name speakers include Brett Archibald, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Group RCI, Peter Booth, Board Director at Group Pestana, as well as Darren Ettrdige,  the Vice President of Resort Sales at Interval International.

Check out the Forum site for more information on panelists and the event schedule.

ARDA (The American Resort Developer’s Association) will create a time capsule to be opened in 2019, 10 years from now.  This capsule will contain the thoughts, opinions and predictions of industry folk on where timeshare will be in the future.  This time encapsulating event is in celebration of ARDA’s 40th anniversary, as well as in preparation for their 50th anniversary ten years down the line.

I know we still have a way to go, but I’d like to give my two cents on the Timeshare Industry in 2019:

• Independent Resorts become more Independent: Many independent resorts currently rely on third party marketers to generate tours for them.  I believe  that because of downturns in the market and third party suppliers going out of business, independents will need to become more ‘independent’ and begin to generate their own tours.  This is a good time to start, as services like Whitecap can be utilized by independent resorts to easily and efficiently generate timeshare tours on their own.

• Timeshare Marketing Improvements: Timeshare marketing is on the cusp of a new generation of hyper targeted, cost effective technological improvement.   New timeshare marketing software like Whitecap provides a resort the ability to leverage online marketing channels to find the perfect potential buyers.   Our ability to target potential qualified tours will continue to improve as we expand within these online marketing channels.

• Timeshare Management Software Improvements: Timeshare Management packages such as Quick Merlin will continue to improve and take advantage of Web 2.0 software structures.  Social networking phenomenons like Facebook are big for a reason, they provide millions of users the ability to easily keep track of their social groups.  Timeshare management software is going the same direction as social networking – easy online access and to-the-point updates.

If you would like to contribute your own opinion to the time capsule, visit the ARDA site and email the representative.

Also, to celebrate ARDA’s 40th anniversary here is a video promo:

Very often software design companies claim to have designed the perfect interface for a specific industry.  Once the software reaches the hands of the target users however, its design fails to live up to expectations.   The reason this occurs is because the software designers and developers are not usually a part of that industry.  Although there is a feedback loop with industry users, much is lost in translation and the final product ends up reflecting that.

Whitecap displays a different breed of targeted software design.  Our team is made up of the best of both worlds:  first-hand experience in the timeshare industry combined with cutting edge Web 2.0 design and marketing credentials.

Whitecap realizes what the needs of resort developers are.  We know why it’s integral to have an easy-to-use interface for administrators to sift between mini vacations within resorts.  We know why it is important for resort administrators to be able to set qualifications for their timeshare tours, such as minimum income and geographic requirements.   We realize a lead or tour needs to be able to be ‘flagged’ for review if it has a bogus phone number or name.

Whitecap has a multitude of other features targeted specifically for timeshare sales, carefully planned to create an efficient and simple administration process.

The Whitecap team also has a deep experience base in internet marketing, allowing us to effectively target potential qualified timeshare leads with accuracy and efficiency.  Our experience in Web 2.0 has enabled us to create a modern vacation portal that allows consumers to browse and book mini-vacation packages with ease.   Our search engine optimization expertise lets us target the vacation specific keywords that consumers are searching for.

All in all, Whitecap has been targeted specifically and only for timeshare industry users.  We don’t have an umbrella software package that spans several industries like many other companies do.  Our single goal is to satisfy the tour and lead generation needs of the timeshare industry.

Bloomberg.com reports that Timeshare sales may be at their lowest since the industry’s inception in the 1970’s.  Experts attribute this steep decline in sales (30% since 2008)  to the recession and consumer reluctance to make a commitment to regular vacationing.

Timeshare is an industry  built around the simple concept that if you go on vacation regularly, it makes sense to invest in vacation ownership.  Vacation ownership can save a customer money, hassles spent on booking trips, and also provide a wide array of exchange programs to travel anywhere in the world.  Now that the timeshare industry is currently feeling the burden of the economic downturn, they need to seek new ways to generate potential buyers.

The Internet is an incredible marketing tool that the vacation industry is just beginning to fully realize.   Using the Internet, resort developers can pin-point target their marketing towards any specific demographic, age range or geography.  Whitecap Lead Generation is leading the charge as a timeshare tool that takes full advantage of the web’s marketing potential.

Whitecap’s innovative and user-friendly interface allows a resort to generate leads based on any specific qualifications.  Utilizing a front end marketing portal, Vacation-Offer.com, Whitecap is able to attract potential buyers at a fraction of the cost of 1st generation lead generation solutions.  Not only is the Whitecap platform affordable for resort developers in a time of trim budgets, it also is extremely flexible in terms of supporting existing marketing infrastructure like phone rooms and online advertising content.

Whitecap provides a free 30 day trial of their software as a service product in order to allow resort developers to test drive the solution before making a commitment.