Buy something in the future, pay at present

Timeshare – a type of owning the right to stay at luxurious resorts for a certain period or forever, first appeared in Vietnam one or two years ago. However, the ownership mode remains unfamiliar to many people.

Than Thanh Vu, Secretary General of the Tourism Real Estate Association said that in fact, timeshare is not a new mode any more in the world. In Vietnam, it has become more popular recently. Clients spend money to buy the right to own luxurious resorts for a certain period or the right to stay at the resorts, which is something like they spend money to buy the cards to play golf or buy membership cards at luxurious hotel chains in the world.

The clear benefit of the behavior of “purchasing something in the future and paying once at present” is that clients can save up more money in comparison than buying things at different specific moments.

With the room rate hovering around 150-200 dollars per room per night at luxurious resorts in Vietnam, a four member family with two adults and one child will have to spend 1000 dollars for the accommodations if they have a 5-7 day holiday a year. If they have holidays for 10 consecutive years, they will have to spend no less than 10,000 dollars.

Meanwhile, with timeshare, they will have to pay much money at once, but in fact, the average room rate will be tens of percent lower than the room rate they have to pay with other types of spending holidays. Especially, clients will be able to save more money if they purchase ownership for longer time

According to a consultant of a resort chain which includes 4-6 star resorts in Vietnam, if purchasing the 17-year product package, clients will have to pay 8800 dollars for 119 nights of stay (7 nights a year) in 17 years, the average room rate would be 74 dollars per night. Meanwhile, with the 27-year package, clients will have to pay 12,100 dollars for 189 nights; the room rate would be 64 dollars per night only.

According to Nguyen Thanh Vu, Deputy Director of the Ninh Van Bay Holiday Club, which is considered the pioneer in applying this new model. Since the service was first launched in October 2010, the 100 first clients who own 17-year cards, could purchase at 6600 dollars. Meanwhile, three years ago, in January 2011, the price rose to 8800 dollars. As such, the first clients could save 2200 dollars per card.

Vu said that the club is considering adjusting the price for the second time when issuing cards at the end of the third quarter of 2011.

“This is really a good investment channel for the investors who want to disperse their investment capital instead of focusing on certain channel,” Vu said. “It is clear that the investment rate here much lower than spending several hundreds of thousands of dollars, or millions of dollars to own a villa while the actual use value is not high”.

Timeshare – the symbol of the rich

Those people, who own or going to own the resort cards, all say that they have to transfer the ownership by selling cards, but they do not intend to do this. It is because these people are all super rich people, who have the demand and time for relaxing, and timeshare is a tool which shows which class of the society they belong to.

A survey has shown that in the world, 40 percent of people use the products for personal consumption, while 44 percent plan to share holidays with others, and the others plan to re-lease the resort rooms or villas to others.

In Vietnam, the buyers are mostly rich businessmen, who always choose 27-year cards.