Executive Summary
The timeshare industry has experienced significant changes over the past decade as companies shift their business models, processes, and systems to adapt to the global digital economy and appeal to a wider array of consumers.
As the market opportunity and digital landscape shift, it has become essential that timeshare companies move to more digital processes in order to streamline operations, gain a competitive advantage and ultimately, maintain the positive customer experience that is so important to this industry’s success. With this in mind, leaders in the timeshare industry are now adopting solutions to expedite and digitalize the entire journey of a prospective buyer and owner, including the contracting process, facility management, marketing and sales.
With companies shifting towards systems that can manage the entirety of the owner journey online, it is important that they carefully consider the payment component of this journey, particularly as consumers increasingly expect fast, intuitive and familiar payment options. While other segments of the travel space have been quicker to implement such payment technologies, the timeshare industry has been slower to adapt, which can be attributed to legacy and homegrown back-office platforms and processes and the mistaken assumption that a clients’ payment experience is a negligible part of their journey. But thanks in part to client feedback and changes made in other sectors of the travel industry, timeshare companies are now understanding the importance of identifying and implementing convenient, secure and cost-effective payment infrastructure. This recognition is leading companies to not only meet consumer expectations and streamline internal processes, but also reducing churn and winning more business opportunities.
Flywire has found that the majority of timeshare businesses currently face some combination of the following major hurdles with their existing payment options:
Owner experience
The inability to offer valued members and owners a seamless payment experience with multiple, familiar payment options.
Confusing & costly fees
Confusing merchant fee structures and costly payment processing options.
Payment privacy & security adherence
The struggle to adhere to constantly changing data and security regulations coming from national and state levels to ensure the security, reliability and compliance of payments processed.
Inefficient processes
A lack of integration with third-party systems, creating more manual work for back-office and leading to inefficiencies in business processes.
Inability to process transactions in foreign markets
Complexity related to the collection of HOA and other fees due to increased international ownership. Challenges include being able to process payments in foreign currencies and with localized payment methods.
