Why More Consumers Don’t Buy Timeshare, Part 2
April 1, 2009
Filed under Lisa Ann Schreier
I’m reading a terrific book for the second time, “Watch This Listen Up Click Here: Inside the 300 Billion Dollar Business Behind the Media You Constantly Consume.” Fascinating book, I highly recommend it.
Chapter 15 is titled, “Why Honda Hates the Internet . . . and Those Who Haunt It.” The first two paragraphs read:
“In the dark ages of the early 1990s, before Web sites such as Edmunds.com began publishing the invoice prices of cars for all to see, dealers maximized their profits by shrouding the deal. It wasn’t an especially daunting task, as most new-car buyers involved a welter of variables including trade-in value, interest rate, different loan terms, and a bevy of fees. In the old way of moving metal, salespeople practice psychological tricks on “ups” (as customers who strolled into the showroom were called) to stoke their excitement for the car, and employed numerical legerdemain on the “four-square” worksheet used to negotiate a typical car deal, starting with the sticker price and working down and angling to squeeze more from the back end, such as in higher finance charges.
“Once the Internet pulled away the cloak, a car shopper could find the invoice price, add the requisite 2 or 3 percent profit, and make an offer, take-it or leave-it. Today, more than four out of five of Ford’s US customers have gone online before going into the showroom. Most come to the dealer with a spec sheet showing just want they want and what they’re prepared to pay for it.”
Sound familiar? The first paragraph details exactly what happens when customers enter a timeshare presentation at a resort in 2009. The second paragraph sums up, clearer than anything else that I’ve seen, why more people don’t buy timeshare–at least from the developer.
The first company who clearly unveils the “sticker price” of the timeshare, is going to win the timeshare wars. Who is smart enough to step up to the plate?
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Lisa Ann Schreier, The Timeshare Crusader, is the author of Surviving A Timeshare Presentation, and Timeshare Vacations For Dummies, and blogs for Holiday Group.
