Your week or mine?

HOSPITALITY: Timeshare is coming up with increasingly unique offers to defer the resistance associated with a "standard" holiday.

Timeshare at a newly created resort in the hills you can understand, but in the heritage segment? But that's exactly what RCI now has on offer as it becomes more aggressive in its range of property and holiday options for Indian (timeshare) travellers who want a wider range of experiences to choose from.

RCI's first heritage timeshare affiliate is Bal Samand Lake Palace in Jodhpur. According to Radhika Shastry, director of RCI's global vacation network in India, it is the beginning of building a portfolio in the heritage segment.

"A lot of domestic and international RCI clients have been demanding heritage properties," she says. And though the demand is largely seasonal, the timeshare strategy can help heritage hotels sustain themselves during off-peak months when a lot of domestic RCI clients travel.

But don't heritage hotels have their own client base? "Yes," says Shastry, "which is why we never recommend that a heritage hotel offer all its rooms for timeshare. It has to be a good mix of regular hotel and timeshare business. Timeshare is a resilient product and helps during bad times," she says.

Nor is that the only diversion on RCI's radar, which has set its sights on religious tourism circuits next. With religious tourism being popular across all segments, it is looking at creating a religious circuit with properties in Rishikesh, Hardwar, Tirupati as well as other religious destinations.

Club Mahindra Holidays, too, has announced plans to expand its resort portfolio across India and foray into new territories. The Indian vacation ownership player plans to set-up theme-based resorts in Kumbhalgarh in Rajasthan, Lonavala in Maharashtra, Kollam in Kerala and Corbett in Uttaranchal, expanding its resort offering to 19 from 15 currently.

After a nebulous start in India, timeshare is now growing at 18-20 per cent a year, and with it travellers' consumption for known brands is increasing. "People are ready to buy timeshare but they want a recognised and credible brand which they can relate with," Shastry says.

Among newer buyers of timeshare products are non-resident Indians from the Middle East, since timeshare in India is cheaper in comparison with other countries. Eight-five per cent people buy timeshare only to exchange, so buying a cheaper timeshare in India to exchange with properties outside makes sense.

RCI recently introduced its high-end luxury brand, called the Registry Collection, in India. Registry Collection has 450 top-of-the-line properties worldwide.

"Registry members are of a different class," Shastry says, and in India its equivalent would be the Vilas brand from the Oberoi group, or the likes of Umaid Bhawan "" both of which she intends to peruse for possible collaboration.

Meanwhile, there's an equally exciting alternate "" the Premium Exchange. Properties under this are aimed at offering unique experiences rather than just hospitality.

For instance, homes on a tea estate, a coffee estate in Coorg or an old kothi in Rajasthan retain the original ambience of these homes, and the owner provides personalised hospitality.

According to B S Rathor, chairman and principal advisor, All India Resort Development Association, 80 per cent of timeshare is domestic tourists driven. He claims that most timeshare resorts are running full at most times.

"The segment is growing at over 20 per cent at the moment and as hotel occupancies stabilise with increasing supply in the market, it will not be long before international hospitality chains start to offer different extensions of their products (including timeshare) for a healthier mix," he says. That'll be the day.