Coming soon to a hotel near you: Timeshare, the Horror Story, featuring Dodgy Dave and Shady Sam and suitable only for those over 18. Once in, you'll never get out. Well, not until you sign your life away on the dotted line, that is.
That's how timeshare used to be: full of shady characters on the Costa Brava hounding tourists until they agreed to sit in a long presentation from which it was hard to escape. Fortunately, things have changed dramatically. Timeshare has cleaned up its act and put systems in place to make it harder for the sharks to do business. As a result, it has started to attract interest from many parties, including well-known hotel companies from both the private and corporate sectors. Take Gleneagles, for example. Who would have thought a few years ago that one of the best-respected names in UK hotels would go down the timeshare route?
What hoteliers have realised is that timeshare makes financial sense. By selling right-of-use developments they can turn debt into equity, take a further slice of the action by managing the property and, at the end of the tenure, either sell the asset or start again. They get high occupancy levels, do not have to prepare for the peaks and troughs of normal trading and attract a greater amount of spend from customers who are relaxed about money because they don't face a bill at the end of their stay. And they have made a customer for life, one who is tied in to a hotel for a long time to come.
The image thing is still a problem, of course, and you'll often find timeshare under other names, such as seasonal or vacation ownership. Call it what you will, in a market where conditions are tough, hoteliers need to look at all options open to them to restructure the business and make it profitable. The important thing to remember is that timeshare is not a panacea for an ailing business but an alternative revenue source for well-run operations, from either the independent or corporate sectors.
And it can only get better. Timeshare is in its infancy, and as more reputable companies enter the timeshare arena, so its image will be boosted. Timeshare, the Horror Story, is about to become Timeshare, the Universally Accepted - suitable for all, and especially for hoteliers.
Plateau discovered
After 10 years of searching for a suitable location in Canary Wharf to open a restaurant, design god Sir Terence Conran has settled on the fourth floor of Canada Place to launch Plateau Restaurant and Plateau Bar & Grill. In the week that the restaurant opens, we look at the design concept and talk to the restaurant's front men, Tim Tolley and Bertrand Pierson, of Vong fame, about how they plan to make their mark.
Amanda Afiya, Chef Editor
Railway cuttings
Overheard on the train - plummy old lady: "Excuse me, young man, is there a restaurant car on this service?" Cockney-geezer train guard: "Bloomin' 'ell, love, what do you think this is - the Orient-Express?" It may surprise you that on many major routes the romance of on-board dining is still alive. On page 38 we take a closer look at what the future holds for railway caterers and their suppliers.
Ben Walker, Deputy contract catering editor