To Get Your Share – Be Fair and True

These days, Fairshare Solutions hears from many clients who forget why consumers want timesharing.

These are challenging times. Our developer clients are disheartened when ‘exit’ purveyors steer consumers away from timesharing. Our HOA clients worry about legacy resort members ‘aging-out, and are unsure how to re-deploy defaulted inventory. Seasoned clients who have managed multiple projects generating billions in VOI sales are ignored by hedge funds that over-leverage and don’t understand the business. Our lender clients are disillusioned by ‘sales only’ organizations with no connection to fulfillment, and our management company clients are mystified when the ‘solution’ for resorts falling behind is withdrawing them from the race. Finally, Covid-19 brought massive disruptions to our industry, and this pandemic is a harbinger of more to come.

These are also rapidly changing times. The traditional homogenous VOI ‘American family’ market is shrinking, and more competitive. Many members are older, with less disposable income and different spending patterns. They can’t use their timeshares like they once did or don’t want to. Today’s VOI market is bigger but more fragmented than ever. Tomorrow’s VOI prospects, and many members who remain active today, have less time, less patience, and more vacation options. In fact, the whole concept of a ‘vacation’ has changed and will keep changing.

But amid these challenges and changes, the core reasons why consumers want timesharing still apply:

1. Fulfillment – Easy to access and fun to use.
2. Affordability – Fits within their limited budget.
3. Value – The total experience (accommodations, amenities, services, and personal interactions) is ‘worth more’ than alternatives.

Dennis Rogers reminds Fairshare’s clients regularly, “If they play and stay, they will PAY.” By re-focusing members on the reasons above, we recover clients’ customers, as well as their money. We work with resorts, HOAs, and lenders to offer enhanced fulfillment, affordability, and value to delinquent members. We establish positive contact, using (where necessary) some of the most sophisticated debtor location technology in the industry. Then Dennis and his team use customized ‘tools’, like specialty certs for curing delinquency, reloading inactive inventory to reinstated payors, and accelerating reservations and rentals when customers pay.

But because of limitations in many VOI and exchange regimes, there are only so many ‘tools’ at our disposal. A few months back, one angry debtor put it very succinctly: “Why should I start paying again, for something I wouldn’t buy again? If you want me to pay, get me something fair and true that lets me go anywhere and do anything, at a good price with no hassles. I’ll start payments again for that. I’ll pay you right now for that!” She was reminding us, albeit in a loud voice, of those three reasons again.

Since then, we have sought a product that does exactly what that lady wanted: Something fair and true, that lets me go anywhere and do anything, at a good price with no hassles. Something flexible enough to offer fulfillment, affordability, and value to virtually anyone, regardless of age, income, or travel preferences. We knew that such a product could generate millions in additional collections from delinquents who lacked enthusiasm for our clients’ traditional timeshares, and millions more in revenue from reloads or new prospects who didn’t want our clients’ leftover Intervals but liked travel. Dennis and I looked at several programs, met with a lot of people. As the fairy tale goes, “You have to kiss a lot of frogs…”

Finally, after sharing our vision with Go Travel Club, we were introduced to exactly what we were looking for, TruPoints Club. Located in Kissimmee, Florida, TruPoints Club is an affiliate of Interval International, and the VOI portion of their program is backed by inventory. But the TruPoints Club program is not a timeshare product.

TruPoints Club is everything timeshare should be (but sometimes isn’t), and more. It allows members to vacation, travel, exchange, shop, dine, and recreate – easily and economically. TruPoints Club members have far more flexibility in choosing their destinations, lengths of stay, accommodations, and vacation frequency. And unlike other ‘clubs’ we examined, TruPoints Club is affiliated with Interval International, not some nameless entity driven by breakage.

TruPoints Club is indeed fair and true. We’ll provide a demo so you can see it for yourself, but here is how it works:

• Delinquent Members – As an additional incentive to cure their delinquency, Fairshare buys them a TruPoints Club upgrade. Members must keep their existing intervals when they join the TruPoints Club. So, in addition to the past due monies Fairshare recovers for our clients, they can receive renewed maintenance fee (and/or loan) revenue for years to come.
• Defaulted Members – As an extra incentive to settle or to reinstate, Fairshare buys them a TruPoints Club upgrade. Reinstating members get a resort Interval when they join the TruPoints Club; Settling members don’t. Our clients benefit either way: a reinstated member pays-forward, or a former member finally pays-up and walks away happy.
• Legacy Resorts – In addition to using the TruPoints Club to exponentially increase net collections, Fairshare and Go Travel Club can enroll clients’ non-performing inventory in the TruPoints Club ‘Bonus Points’ program. This allows the sale of memberships to existing members, guests, or new leads, with the same vacation, travel, exchange, shopping, dining, and recreational benefits. This is a fantastic way for Fairshare’s clients to monetize defaulted inventory, because they are paid on the sale, and paid again as the Interval is used annually.

If you’re not already a Fairshare client, contact Dennis Rogers (dennisrogers@fairshare.solutions) or Holly Freeman (hollyfreeman@fairshare.solutions). We look forward to helping every client maximize collections, increase revenue, recover customers, and re-deploy non-performing inventory.

Fairshare Solutions (www.Fairshare.Solutions) is a Collections and Customer Recovery company headquartered in East Stroudsburg, Pa. When VOI developers, management companies, HOA’s, lenders, or service bureaus have delinquencies, defaults, or cash shortfalls – Fairshare is there to help. Fairshare works within hypothecation, securitization, and declaration parameters, and is always compliant with public registrations, FDCPA, and CFPB. Fairshare provides zero percent financing to debtors, rewards-based incentives for payment, and other innovations to ensure that clients get their money quickly, retain their customers, and re-deploy their non-performing inventory. Fairshare is very flexible, and also has created boutique programs for its non-VOI clients, including private schools, health clubs, and hedge funds.

Harry Van Sciver An Outside Director of Fairshare Solutions, LLC, Harry has a lifetime of experience in the hospitality industry and has spent 37+ years in banking, collections, and receivables finance. Prior to launching Fairshare with Dennis Rogers, Harry was an owner of several timeshare projects. He is the President of Whitebriar Financial Corporation and serves on the Resorts Group, Inc. Board of Directors. Harry encourages you to call him or Dennis Rogers anytime at 570.252.4044.