Early Days of Timeshare

The concept of time-sharing was first developed in the 1960s by a German developer, Alexander Nette. He was marketing the Devoluy ski resort in the French Alps, and was faced with a dilemma as the escalating price of real estate kept diminishing the number of consumers who could afford to purchase a resort condominium.

The solution he came up with was to divide the ownership of the units into a weekly basis, thereby making them affordable to a much larger demographic. A popular sales campaign at the time was, "Why rent the room? Buy the hotel, it's cheaper!". Using this type of subdivided ownership, a much larger number of consumers could afford to purchase a vacation property. They would purchase the right to use a fully furnished room at a luxury resort for a very specific period of time. (This is the concept of the fixed week fixed unit system that we still find sold in the United States today). In Europe, the majority of properties were originally sold as a leasehold product, with the developer retaining ownership of the actual resort.

Although the idea began with a ski resort, it quickly spread to other regions. Soon, timeshare resorts were being developed at popular beaches and were beginning to spread across Europe. Two developers began creating a flexible usage system by operating a number of resorts and allowing owners reservation privileges throughout the family of properties. Hapimag (which is still an active timeshare developer today) was one of these early pioneers of a flex system.

This genius marketing strategy finally reached the United States in 1969, when the first US timeshare was developed at the Kauai Kailani resort. This resort also adopted the leasehold concept that was popular in Europe, and sold a 40 year right to use ownership. Soon after, developers on the mainland also embraced the concept of timeshare marketing and soon began selling resorts in Florida and California.

Timeshare Present Day

Today, you will find the timesharing concept has spread to include a wide variety of luxury items including jet airplanes, cruise ships, sailboats, luxury automobiles, houseboats, and even campgrounds. Virtually any luxury item can be made affordable, although admittedly for a limited usage period- and all thanks to an ingenious German entrepreneur who just wanted more people to share in the beauty of the resort lifestyle and travel the world.