TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #142, Jul/Aug 2015 | Page 21

TimeSharing Today

Page 21

owned businesses that relied on tourism —
the Cape’s foremost industry.
Hundreds of family-owned hotels, motels, restaurants, and gift shops actually had
only one season, which began on Memorial
Day and ended on Labor Day.
Some businesses operated a few extra
months on either end of shoulder season, but
only by offering substantially reduced rates
and specials. Regardless, all were subject to
the market discipline known as diminishing returns. By November, the exodus was
complete. “Vacancy” signs gave way to
“Closed for the Season,” and the sidewalks
rolled up tightly.

Enter Timesharing
Fast forward to today and the Cape has
evolved into a far more robust year-round
community. Its economy still depends heavLO\RQWRXULVPEXWDVFRQ¿UPHGE\SRSXODtion statistics and the number of resorts and
restaurants that are now open year-round,
the seasonal highs and lows have been
smoothed out to a certain extent.
Many factors contributed to the growth
of Cape Cod’s winter economy, and the
introduction of timesharing starting in the
early 1980s was certainly one of them.
Unlike their hotel/motel counterparts,
many timeshare developers assumed burGHQVRPH ¿QDQFLDO REOLJDWLRQV WKDW GLG QRW
allow them the luxury of closing for the season. “Green” and “blue” weeks (aka winter
and/or off-season weeks) had to be sold.
Developers could literally name any price
for a prime summer “red week,” so they
were often rationed out to the sales team.
Quotas of off-season weeks had to be
PHW¿UVWDQGWKHVDOHVSHRSOHZHUHKLJKO\
incentivized to achieve them. In fact, a common tactic was simply to tell prospective
buyers that all the summer weeks were sold
out. As a result, thousands of timeshare buyHUVZHUHFRQYLQFHGRIWKHYDOXHDQGEHQH¿WV
of owning an off-season interval.
While a number of people truly prefer winter se \