Dear Editor,
St. Maarten continues to work on what has been generally referred to as timeshare owner consumer protection legislation. Any such legislation that the island considers should be drafted by people who are familiar with timesharing from a consumer protection perspective. The St. Maarten Timeshare Association, though it is a venerable organization and one of integrity, is nonetheless an association of timeshare developers and resort owners — not individual timeshare owners, who are consumers of the product offered on the island.
It looks to us as though this legislation does not involve timeshare owners at all, and that it does not adequately address their needs and their perspectives. To us, that is a huge flaw and one glaring deficiency that will be painfully obvious to timeshare owners.
In fact, it may be worse than that. Timeshare owners could easily regard such legislation as window dressing -- something that insults their intelligence, and in practice would not adequately protect them. That perception may not be reality, but at this point to timeshare owners perception is reality.
Tens of thousands of former SXM timeshare owners have walked away over the last several years. They have been replaced by people, who bought their former timeshares for pennies on the dollar, and who, many Front Street business owners say, window shop, and buy and eat in their rooms instead of going out to dine. In other words, they do not contribute to the SXM economy, which is major fallout from inattention (or inadequate attention) toward timeshare owners in the past. That fact also means less turnover tax collected than would otherwise be possible. What is good for timeshare owners is good for SXM -- and the opposite applies equally.
Although St. Maarten's timeshare product today is one marked by quality, one only has to look at the recent past to see numerous issues, which the government seemed to politely ignore. The worst, of course, was the situation at Caravanserai, during which hundreds of timeshare owners protested to the government in St. Maarten’s media, and to which there has never been any impactful, effective, and forceful government response.
Sarah Wescot-Williams is correct when she says the island needs timeshare owner consumer protection now. We are simply saying it must be the real thing. Anything else would be counterproductive and further damage to the island's economy.
Jeff Berger
CEO JMB Communications
