Vacation Ownership is Turning Toward Text as Travelers Opt for All Things Mobile

If I want to surprise my wife with out-of-town concert tickets to see one of our favorite performers, I reach for my smartphone. At the same time, I’ll see if the venue is close to a timeshare resort, and just like that, we’ve got a quick getaway weekend planned.

I’m not alone. Mobile devices have become the preferred tool for booking most types of travel, according to new research from PYMNTS. Nearly 6 in 10 U.S. consumers (59%) purchase long-distance travel and rental cars using a mobile device rather than a laptop or computer. The mobile-first trend is significantly stronger for travel compared to other categories, including retail and groceries, the research found.

To cater to these changing consumer behaviors and preferences, leading timeshare resorts and management companies are looking for the best ways to capitalize on mobile and digital technologies to engage owners and make it easier to transact.

Timeshare ownership is shifting to digital and mobile natives. The average age of recent timeshare purchasers is 39, and 57% of timeshare owners are either Gen Z or Millennials, according to ARDA’s recent Vacation Ownership Report. Gen Z is the generation that spends the most time on smartphones, followed closely by Millennials.

They use their mobile phones for all stages of the vacation ownership experience, including booking and receiving confirmations and other communications. In addition, more than half of Gen Z and Millennials opt for digital payment methods, according to marketing data and analytics firm Kantar. It’s not surprising, then, that timeshare industry professionals talked to Rich O’Rourke and me about text messaging and digital payment opportunities more than anything else at ARDA’s Spring Conference.

While a high percentage of owners reports satisfaction with their timeshare experience, proactively engaging with owners is essential for long-term success. Texting is becoming an increasingly important channel for connecting with and satisfying owners.

60% of timeshare owners strongly agree that nothing is going to stop them from taking a vacation, 54% higher than travelers overall.

ARDA Vacation Ownership Sentiment Index, March 2025

Texting payment reminders is a service owners appreciate while improving cash flow for resorts. It’s effective for infrequent bills, such as annual maintenance notifications, which are easy for someone to forget is coming or is due.

Consumers also increasingly rely on text alerts for regular statements. Texts that notify owners their bill is available to pay, due soon or past due prompt action because these messages are likely to be opened and read quickly. Text messages can contain a link to an online portal where the owner can complete the payment with their phone, which translates to faster payment. For a more leading-edge option, there’s a lot of industry buzz around Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), a more visual way to send text messages with images including brand logos and resort photography, different fonts and longer messages up to 1,000 characters. MMS is a great way to promote unique experiences to owners through targeted communications.

Another new option is text-to-pay, which doesn’t even require the timeshare owner to access a portal for payment. If the consumer has set up a payment method in advance, they can reply to a text requesting payment with ‘PAY’ to submit a payment immediately using their stored payment method.

Texting, both MMS and traditional Short Message Service with up to 160 characters, is a key part of an omnichannel communications strategy that delivers personalized experiences in communications and billing. It takes a cloud omnichannel customer communications management platform such as Expresso® to meet each owner’s preferences and improve customer engagement while streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency.

It’s crucial to optimize for mobile payments as well. It starts with ensuring self-service capabilities on digital portals and websites leverage responsive design and conform the content to fit the smaller screen size of a mobile device. Once consumers log on to the secure portal, they expect to be able to manage their accounts beyond making payments, including viewing current and past statements, setting up payment plans and arranging automated recurring payments.

These capabilities are built into leading electronic bill presentment and payments (EBPP) systems such as ExpressoPay®. Also key is integrating online, mobile and IVR payments in a single system and accepting a variety of payment options preferred by your owners, including credit and debit cards, ACH, or even newer alternative payment channels like ApplePay and PayPal. Leading EBPP systems also enable vacation ownership companies to finetune payment experiences by tracking consumer behavior by key performance indicators leveraging the portal’s reporting capabilities.

CCM and EBPP platforms enable timeshare companies to proactively appeal to generational preferences, including a desire for flexibility and ease of use that more consumers associate with mobile and digital options. Leading vacation ownership companies are focused on driving more personalized experiences in communications and billing and enabling self-service payment capabilities with seamless functionality that works well on mobile devices.

Please contact us to easily add text messaging capabilities to your communications and payments channels.