Major Timeshare Players gather in Florida April 24 - April 28 2005

Nearly every major player in the business, The Walt Disney Co. and virtually every large hotel chain including Starwood, Hilton and Marriott will review their business year during break-out sessions and hear from marketing, sales and branding gurus about the future.

The Walt Disney World Dolphin & Swan hotels are home for the 11th annual American Resort Development Association (ARDA) convention and exposition.

More than 3,500 members and vendors in Florida's nearly $8 billion a year time share industry are meeting in Orlando this week at this convention.

The five-day convention opened April 24 and concludes April 28.

Featured are speakers such as keynoter Andrew Zolli, author of an upcoming book, "In Good Company." Zolli is a design strategist who consults with industry on emerging change. Other programs such as, "the fundamentals of fractionals," addressing high-end properties and "disaster planning for proactive professionals," are also featured.

Benefits to membership in a timeshare exchange company

There are many benefits to membership in an exchange company, in addition to the ability to exchange:

1. Sometimes called "Vacation Escapes" or bonus weeks, members have the ability to rent additional weeks, and weekends, on a space available basis, at very attractive rates. These extra weeks do not require the "banking" of a week, nor the payment of a maintenance fee. These weeks are more available during the off season, and on short notice, but the rates are extremely attractive and these weeks can be used as often as wanted.

2.Guest Certificates. Family and friends are allowed to use a member's accommodation as guests and the exchange company even provides a Guest Certificate to the guest. A week's vacation provides one of the most wonderful and appreciated gifts anyone could offer to loved ones!

3. Travel bargains. Timeshare exchange companies are also full service travel agencies, large agencies booking for millions of owners. As a result they often have extremely good rates on airlines and package condo/air packages.
If you wish to shop for lowest rates for air, hotel, or car rentals, a popular online travel site: click here to search airfare, hotels and city info worldwide.

4. Cruises. Most people don't know that RCI has a program whereby a timeshare can be used as a credit towards various cruises. If you are an RCI member, call RCI for details at 800-338-7777.

5. Supplements. As a part of their membership, RCI and I.I. members receive very high quality color resort directory supplements, every other month. These supplements contain the new resorts added since the publication of the main Resort Directory. Supplements are jam packed with vacation packages and information about the resorts and the geographical settings of the resorts, providing the vacationer with the ability to know what to expect. The articles are extremely well written and informative concerning the various regions of the world where one might want to consider vacationing.

In addition to RCI and I.I., there are many independent exchange companies who also perform timeshare exchanges. These companies exchange into many of the same resorts affiliated with RCI and I.I., plus a few more.