Owner/CEO's Name & Business's Name
Sean Osafi - PandaShares.com
Year Established
2010
Why is your business unique and what's your pitch?
At PandaShares.com, we have changed the travel industry by offering people timeshare resort condominium accommodations instead of traditional hotels, for a lot cheaper. The best part is that we never get involved. We let the timeshare owners and the prospective buyers or renters come to a rental or resale agreement on their own.
Our business is unique because we are the first to offer timeshare travel to non-timeshare owners on a very user friendly and simple travel site.
Our service is free for a limited time. People can now sign up to view the features of our site and browse through our timeshare listings.
What led you to start the business?
I was a timeshare salesman at a timeshare resort three years ago, and after a year of working in sales, I realized that there is a tremendous demand for the resale and rental market of timeshares.
Ever since then, with the help of a few professional people, I have been able to come up with a simple to use website that allows people to experience the world of timesharing.
The biggest benefit of our site is that it produces a win-win situation for the seller and the buyer. People love timeshares, because they are convenient and included a lot of amenities that you would never find in a traditional hotel.
The way it works is even more simple. People that own timeshares and can't use their timeshares for whatever reason, can put their timeshare for rent or sale on PandaShares.com. Then anyone with internet access can come to our site, sign up, and view all of the timeshare listings. Once they find the timeshare that suits them best, they contact the seller of that timeshare through our site and settle on agreements to close the deal.
PandaShares.com went live in January of 2010, and has since experienced great feedback from timeshare owners. We have decided to perfect the site based on customer feedback through the year.
Panda Shares is in its beta phase, and therefore, our features will be completely free until we build a large user base of happy timeshare owners.
We are confident that PandaShares will soon become a household name, because it is very different than other travel websites. People will soon realize that they should not pay more for less. Our goal is to help more people travel using timeshares instead of hotels, because timeshare traveling is not only luxurious, but with the help of PandaShares, it is simply more affordable.
Lessons Learned
- I ran into a lot of problems at first, because opening a travel website is far from easy. I kept myself motivated all the time so that I never thought about quitting.
- I realized that I can't even think about having a paid plan until I perfect the site through customer feedback.
- I thought about getting help and venture capital from elsewhere, but realized that there is nothing I can't do by myself.
- Building relationships with the right people is the best tool anyone can have.
- I realized that you can't do anything unless you believe in it, and mostly yourself!