Vacation ownership, also known as holiday ownership or timeshare, is a real estate model that allows multiple client’s use of rights to a particular property (commonly resort condominium units) at a given time per year.

The timeshare industry began in the mid-1960s when European families who considered themselves avid vacationers came up with the idea of “sharing” the ownership of a holiday home to effectively cut costs. It was believed that they came to an agreed schedule on when to use the property. This evolved to the enterprise model now known as “timesharing.”

This concept expanded to the United States in the 1970s, operating mostly in the hotel industry in the Southern states. By 1974, the vacation exchange company RCI was established, successfully positioning itself as the world’s largest timeshare exchange brokerage with more than 4,500 affiliated hotels and resorts in over 100 countries.

Holiday ownership soon reached Eastern Europe and Asia, eventually attracting the interest of globally-recognized companies in the hospitality industry such as Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and Radisson Hotels.

Today, timeshare in the Philippines continues to grow as part of the multibillion-dollar industry offering vacationers around the world a chance to maximize their getaways.