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For Sale > Wyndham Worldmark South Pacific Club Membership Wyndham Worldmark South Pacific Club Membership International Adelaide to Zurich   14,000 Credits in the bank. Holidays up your sl...

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Get a Babysitter on Your Next Vacation

For working parents, quality time with your kids typically revolves around dinner, bedtime, and the weekends. So when you’re on vacation, it’s all about family bonding. Right? Well, try and imagine this scenario: You’re on day five of a seven-night family vacation and you just realized that while you’ve created a ridiculously fun-filled vacation for your kids, you and your spouse haven’t had one minute alone. After all, this is your vacation too.

Wouldn’t it be nice to eat at a restaurant without crayons on the table? Maybe you and your wife want to stay out past 8 pm? Heck, maybe you even want to have a conversation without being interrupted by little Jonny who wants to play another round of Angry Birds on your iPhone.

So you’re on vacation, you want alone time with your spouse and you need someone to watch your kids but you don’t know where to look. Well, fear not, for I’ve been through this myself and would like to pass along what I’ve learned.

1) Plan ahead

Hopefully, you’re not reading this while actually on day five of your vacation, flustered and at your wit’s end. OK, I know, you have little kids and planning ahead is not always possible. After all, you’re going away to spend time together. But, if you know you’re going to want some adult time, then be sure to do a little research before boarding the plane.

2) Use social media to find a babysitter

Throw it out there to your “friends” and see what comes back to you. For all you know, the girl you sat behind in math class now lives in San Diego and has a teenage daughter who is all about babysitting. This is probably your cheapest and safest option as you won’t have to pay agency prices and the babysitter will come with a personal referral.

3) Check with your hotel or resort

Many hotels provide babysitters or will refer you to a local agency. Call the concierge and ask if they provide sitters, how they hire them, and what experience, training, or security checks are required. If they use an agency, check it out online beforehand. If you can, try and get references from other parents who’ve used it in the past. I always go on Yelp for any service I’m about to book. Of course all online reviews are not created equal so trust your instinct when reading reviews.

4) Check out an online babysitting service

There are a lot of websites that offer this service. Each site provides pre-qualified sitters that are ready and willing to sit in your hotel room while you and your better half sip wine and watch the sunset. The downside is you have to pay for membership in order to contact the sitter. The upside is you can find the right sitter ahead of time and you don’t have to rely on the hotel. Check out care.com and sittercity.com. Both offer multiple membership rates depending on your needs. Again, it never hurts to spend some time on yelp.com to make sure these agencies are providing quality service. Some may even offer deals on the review site.

5) Find a resort with a kids club

I recently booked a week-long vacation with my family and one of our requirements was to find a resort with a kids club that accepted kids as young as three. We wound up going with the Hyatt in Huntington Beach. Not all clubs take kids that young. Check with your resort and see what types of activities they offer for the kids and what their day rates are. If you can’t find a sitter at night (or feel uneasy about using some random agency), you can usually drop your kids off at the club for an afternoon and sit poolside with your spouse, sipping margaritas and reading US Weekly magazine. Maybe you could even sneak in a nap. Now that’s vacation!

6) Bring your nanny with you

This is obviously your most expensive option as you’ll have to pay for additional airfare, accommodations, and daily expenses. With that said, it’ll provide the adults an easy way to enjoy alone time at various points during the vacation. You work hard and this is your vacation too. So enjoy it. As we say in my family, if you're willing to spend enough money you can always get exactly what you want.

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To recap, always remember that family vacations aren't meant to be stressful. In some respects, vacationing with your family can be more tiring that going to work five days a week, especially if you have young children. So in order to make sure everyone comes home feeling rested and relaxed, be sure to treat yourself to some alone time. Do your research, find the best scenario that works for you, and book a babysitter during your next vacation. You deserve it!

Source:

Posted by Eric Rubin on June 26, 2014

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Help with planning your vacation.

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Key Highlights from ARDA’s Survey of Timeshare and Resort Management Companies

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 - 18:30

The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) recently posted a review of the report State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry: United States...

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The year that was 2013

Key Highlights from ARDA’s Survey of Timeshare and Resort Management Companies

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 - 18:30

The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) recently posted a review of the report State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry: United States Study, 2013 edition. The report highlights the industry overview, health and outlook for the year 2012.  The main source for the report comes from an Ernst & Young LLP survey of resorts and timeshare management companies on behalf of ARDA International Foundation (AIF).

The report covered the vacation timeshare industry’s size.  At the end of 2012 there were 1,551 timeshare resorts across the nation with an average of 122 units and about 8.3 million weekly intervals owned.  There was a 6% increase in sales.  This is the largest growth in sales volume since the economic downfall.  Developers sold an estimate of 366,200 intervals with an average of $18,700 per interval.  

  The health of the industry was also considered.  Timeshare owners have shown a steady use of their properties as the occupancy rate was around 77% with 14% of this coming from rentals.   Maintenance fees were up 5% at $822 per year which reportedly does not include what’s collected for property taxes, special assessments or contributions to reserves.

  The beach resort is the most common, theme park and golf resorts are the largest and island resorts have the highest occupancy and maintenance fees.  Florida is still in the lead for the most and largest resorts while Hawaii has the highest average sales price and occupancy rates.  Half of total sales were for intervals priced between $20,000 and $29,999.

  This was the first year participants disclosed information about the management of resorts.  The focus was on special assessments, reserve balances and contributions.  Fifteen percent levied at least one special assessment with the majority used to pay for a resort refurbishment.  The median reserve balance varied across the nation.  The median was $14,300, however in Hawaii 50% of resorts have balances of more than $25,000 per unit.  In South Carolina 14% of resorts have a higher balance than that. 

  The outlook is promising as there is an interest in new developments.  Respondents estimate that they will build 7,900 new units in 2014.  This is a drastic growth in comparison to last year’s prediction when it was expected at 1,900.  The timeshare industry is working through inventory collected from the economic downfall.  This expected trend past the downfall provides an encouraging future for resort and timeshare properties and resort management companies.

  Number of Resorts1,551

Number of Units189,200

Average Resort Size122 Units

Intervals Owned8.3 Million

Sales Volume$6.9 Billion

Intervals Sold366,200

Average Sales Price$18,700

Annual Maintenance Fees$822 per Interaval

Occupancy Rate76.9%

Rental Revenue$1.6 Billion

  Read the full Developments article here and ARDA members and non-members can purchase the full or executive summary here.

#timeshare #tkhc #holidayclub

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The High-Roller: World's Largest Observation Wheel Opens in Las Vegas Giant Ferris Wheel. The 550-foot-tall High Roller, touted by Caesars Entertainment as t...

There is not a single minute for visitors to be bored; before the ride, they are taken through a pre-ride experience which has great views of the Las Vegas Strip.

•The wheel is made out of a whopping 7.2 million pounds of steel and boasts 112 cables.

•Each cable has a breaking force of 550 tons. Not sure how much that is? It’s the equivalent of 100 elephants.

•The wheel was assembled from parts constructed in China, Japan, Netherlands and from nearer home in Colorado and California.

•We already mentioned that the wheel takes 30 minutes to do 1 revolution. To help you see it even more clearly, you are moving into the sky at the rate 1 ft every second.

•It has 2,000 LED lights that create the dazzling night display.

•The wheel’s construction started in 2011.