How did timesharing begin?

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Just curious if anyone knows the history of timesharing.

How did it all begin?

I saw a plaque in my most recent TS stay that said it began in Ft. Myers beach.

Does anyone know if this is true?

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Timeshare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jya-Ning

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Maybe the plaque I read was for the first US timeshare not the first worldwide timeshare.

I guess that might make sense as I remember all the motels being converted in the 70's to timeshares when I was a kid.

Our favorite motel at the time LaHaina was converted and then we couldn't go there anymore and started going to Pink Shell. Should have bought a week back then we'd have saved a ton of money over the years if I'd discovered TSing earlier.

[billymach4 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close billymach4]

FWIW the Aruba Beach Club was the first TS in Aruba back in 1977!

http://www.arubabeachclub.net/


http://www.historiadiaruba.aw/index....mid=39&lang=en


"Since 1974, there were plans to build a hotel that would be located south of Punta Brabo, and another one between Divi Divi and Manchebo hotels. These plans were realized and in December of 1975, Tamarijn Hotel opened up and in 1977, Aruba Beach Club (ABC). Guests to this hotel had to be members of a corporation that owned the hotel. This was how the first co-called ‘timeshare hotel’ on Aruba came to be. Between Aruba Beach Club and Manchebo, Casa del Mar Beach Club was built and opened in 1986."

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Just curious if anyone knows the history of timesharing.

How did it all begin?

I saw a plaque in my most recent TS stay that said it began in Ft. Myers beach.

Does anyone know if this is true?

Hapimag was the first over in Europe in th 60s. You'll hear battles about the history of timesharing if the right people join in. Most of it is weighted one way or another.

Resort ID # 0001 for RCI is Shawnee in Pennsylvania's Poconos which in no way determines if it was first here.

JLB knows quite a bit about the westcoast of Florida's timeshare beginnings.

An interesting question Christine and not one I know the answer to. I've never seen it asked before so I hope we get some interesting feedback on it.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Just curious since I saw the plaque in Beach Club I and was just curious if it was really true. Might be? I don't know why they'd lie.

Hopefully someone who remembers those days will chime in as I was a kid in the 70's and wasn't really paying too much attention except that we lost our yearly beach pad.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Check this link. Don't know if it is true though

Timeshare History

But you get 2 version, a common whisper one and someone claim credit.

Do you want to know which US timeshare company come the point system? I heard 2 rumors, either Disney or Fairfield (aka Wyndham)

Jya-Ning

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Jya,

That says hotel timeshare, what about just plain Jane timeshare?

Could it be true it was all started in Ft. Myers beach?

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

you mean this?

Time sharing? - Yahoo! Answers

Remember, you are dealing with a sale's industrial that try to sell a high profit margin product. Any history can be just sale pitch

Jya-Ning

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Heard several stories, but none with a start in Ft. Myers beach.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I heard it started in the French Alps in the 60's for skiers who wanted to share costs of condos or whatever they called them back then.

[PHILL12 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PHILL12]

I always heard the timeshare idea started in Arkansas!

I heard the story that a farmer was tired of every person walking by stop to use his out house and started charging by the use.

He found they didn't stay long and he could rent it many times in one day because of its location.


PHIL

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Timesharing began in France sometime between 1964 and 1968 by Paul Doumier at the Superdevoluy Ski Resort in the French Alps (probably very close on on the border to Switzerland). Hapimag began acquiring properties in 1963 but they sold shares that entitled purchasers to resort accomodations and technically this wasn't considered timesharing
First American timeshare was in 1969, Kauai Kailani.
Continental first was Brockway Springs at Lake Tahoe- 1973.
Early Florida timeshares did not mention FT. Myers.

Just found a link to verify the above(if you can believe RCI): http://rcivip.com/2007/the-history-of-timesharing/

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Timesharing began in France sometime between 1964 and 1968 by Paul Doumier at the Superdevoluy Ski Resort in the French Alps (probably very close on on the border to Switzerland). Hapimag began acquiring properties in 1963 but they sold shares that entitled purchasers to resort accomodations and technically this wasn't considered timesharing
First American timeshare was in 1969, Kauai Kailani.
Continental first was Brockway Springs at Lake Tahoe- 1973.
Early Florida timeshares did not mention FT. Myers.

Just found a link to verify the above(if you can believe RCI): The History of Timesharing, Timeshares in History, How Timeshares Began

Swiss developer Hapimag created the first timeshares, and their system has always been a points-based mini-system. They are still quite active today (see Startseite - Hapimag ) but until recently traded only internally. Earlier this year, they became a trading partner of DAE.

The French developer you refer to created the first weeks-based timeshare, which approach became much more popular in the market than the older points system, and thus it was the weeks timeshare concept that crossed the Atlantic.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I think the answer depends a bit on how you define timesharing.

I don't think anyone knows when the first people got together and decided to buy a property jointly and set up some procedure to allocate usage and operating expenses. I'm sure that such arrangements were done quite some time back.

Now maybe you say that timesharing started when someone started selling that type of arrangement to the public. Well, again I'm sure that at some point well before 1960 one of those shared usage arrangements I referenced above was marketed to fill out the ownership roster. Perhaps ads were run in the newspaper, flyers were posted in a resort area, real estate brokers in the area were advised of availability, etc.

I would be surprised if some of those types of projects used a quasi points system to assign usage. It would be something such as being able to use the property more weeks if you use it during less popular times, or setting up auctions where members could bid on usage at certain times. I'm sure the people involved in some of those cooperatively owned projects were quite creative in deciding how to allocate time or allow members to rearrange their usage schedules.

Hapimag may be the first recognized "project", but I don't think there was anything done by Hapimag that hadn't already been done elsewhere. Hapimag likely only took things to a higher level and promoted the concept more visibly.