We are a hospitality company that does not own or buy resorts but exists purely to provide a variety of services to Timeshare Vacation Owners by affiliating several resorts and registering Vacation Owners into our network. In the stress-filled 21st century, Vacations are becoming the need of every person and for want of economical and yet magical solutions the Timeshare concept has proved as a tru
ly viable answer to satisfy this need. Over the past 20 years FSE has fulfilled this need for over 95,000 valued members. You could be one of them too…
Close your eyes and let your imagination roam to all the places you would most like to go to… exotic hills, white beaches, snow capped peaks, valleys, lakes and the very latest attractions… Discover the lasting value of Vacation Ownership, and the endless variety that FSE has to offer. TIME SHARE - Then & Now
Over a couple of decades ago the Timeshare concept was introduced to the Indian sub-continent. Though the holiday ownership industry is well established in the West, it has taken time to catch on in India. In the beginning of the 1990s timeshare resorts mushroomed in few pockets across the country with the promise of offering multiple destinations to holiday at. However, with the promises by resort developers remaining unfulfilled, members of these resorts were limited to holidaying at their home resort only. They clearly harbored desires to travel to other destinations as well. However; this was not possible as they needed to buy memberships of other resorts to fulfill this desire. In addition, there were several incidents of start up hurdles that caused a lot of grief to the holiday timeshare investor. Farrukh Shaikh the Director of Four Seasons Exchanges (established in 1991) realized the need to link all the timeshare resorts and their members into one chain through the "Exchange" concept. Today FOUR SEASONS is India’s leading Holiday Exchange Company that works like a bank; wherein you deposit your domestic week in exchange for a week in an affiliated Indian or foreign resort -- subject to availability and depending on the 'trading power' of the week you own. Therefore, if you own a peak season week in a popular destination, you are more likely to be able to exchange it for the foreign holiday you want than if you owned a 'blue' week in a not-so-happening location / resort. We started with a soft opening of 5 resort affiliations and 300 members and today we have affiliations with more than 240 resorts / hotels and more than 95,000 satisfied exchange / rental members. Our repeat customers make us believe that our unique service of 'Holiday Exchanges' has been very satisfying to all timeshare members irrespective of their parent resort being affiliated with us. The exchange concept at Four Seasons has considered member benefits while designing its schemes. This has added true value and has changed the ’Timeshare’ concept in the minds of people. Four Seasons Exchanges has won the prestigious "Accommodation Times Trophy", which honored us as the Best Holiday Exchange Company. Over the year’s, evolution of the industry in terms of flexibility, more resort developers, economic growth, rising affluence and the rise in the average hotel room tariff in the country have helped in the acceptance and growth of timeshare holidaying as a concept for the ardent Indian traveler. Rathor, Chairman of the All India Resort Development Association (AIRDA), a body of timeshare resort developers, today puts the industry's compounded annual growth at around 20 per cent. While the number of properties to be offered for timeshare is expected to double within 2-3 years, today the organised timeshare industry is valued at Rs.200Crore (Rs.2 billion) with over 2 Lakh members. For the uninitiated, the TIMESHARE CONCEPT simply put spells; signing up for a basic membership by blocking any one week in a year, at a resort of your choice and availing your holiday week at the resort for a pre-decided number of years. Your Timeshare week in turn becomes like the currency that you use every year to take your holiday at a resort of your choice. The membership is usually for 10 - 25 years wherein the membership amount depends on the location, the week of the year you choose to buy and the size of your accommodation which can be small, medium and large sized units. In addition, the member pays an annual fee towards maintenance charges like the upkeep of the property and utilities. As the owner of a unit for a specific week at a specific resort you can split the week, exchange the week for a week in another resort, transfer the week to another entity, rent the week and also sell the week at prices that vary depending on the time of the year you own, the size of your apartment/unit and also the resort at which you own it. Since there are only 52 weeks in a year, a resort can have a maximum of 52 members for a particular apartment / unit. Most resorts sell a specific unit for only 50 weeks, and leave the balance two weeks for maintenance and repair work, which become essential with the amount and different kinds of people that vacation at it during the span of a year. The value of your week is graded based on the type of season you buy into.
- PEAK SEASON is marked in red in the timeshare calendar); Apr - Jun i.e. Summer vacations, Nov i.e. Diwali vacations, Dec i.e. Christmas or winter vacations and long weekends for close by destinations
- MID SEASON is usually the less than ideal times for a vacation (marked as white) Jan - Mar and Oct - Nov
- Low Season (marked as blue). Jun - Sep
So, a small one room apartment in a small hill station during a 'blue’ week will cost much less to buy and rent than a two-bedroom large unit in the same resort in summer or over a Christmas / New Year’s week. The true essence of this concept is that by pre-booking your holidays through vacation ownership you can maintain your average room tariff at a fixed, affordable level for a period of around 10-25 years and also enjoy a variety of memorable vacations with your loved ones.
