Timeshare Trends Blog

The Emirates Vacation Club has recently announced it affiliation with Interval International. The resort is a planned private residence club located in the heart of Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Emirates Vacation Club’s first phase consists of 32 luxury units located within the 48-story Emirates Grand Hotel. Already a landmark on the skyline of a city renowned for its innovative architecture, the hotel’s Suites Tower has a rotating glass entrance and intricate, hand-crafted wooden wall panels in its soaring lobby. The studio, one- and two-bedroom units feature fully equipped kitchen and dining areas, along with modern conveniences such as high-speed Internet connection, LCD TV, DVD player, and IDD telephone. Most have breathtaking views from their floor- to-ceiling windows.

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Gold Key Resorts and Interval International have renewed their long-term relationship. It was recently announced that Ocean Beach Club, LLC, doing business as Gold Key Resorts, has renewed its affiliation encompassing four resorts in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The multi-year agreement extends the relationship established in 1990 when Bruce Thompson, company founder and chief executive officer, expanded his hospitality business into timesharing and selected Interval International as its exchange partner. Gold Key’s vacation ownership portfolio includes Beach Quarters Resort, Villas at the Boardwalk, Turtle Cay Resort, and its newest, Ocean Beach Club, a high-rise located in the north end of the beach community, known for its classic boardwalk.

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Westgate Resorts is attempting to eliminate $350 million in assets. Amid the nation’s real estate slump, Westgate Resorts under President and CEO, has listed a portfolio of properties with Carlton Advisory Services, an international real estate investment banking firm. A total of 60 assets are now listed for sale, and include two private aircraft, a 500-room Ramada hotel in Kissimmee, rights to land at the entrance to Disneyland in California, the Grenelefe Tennis and Golf Resort in Haines City, and the River Ranch dude ranch on 1,700 acres on the Kissimmee River. The sell off amounts to $350 million in assets and is virtually everything not needed for Westgate’s timeshare business.

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Holiday Inn Club Vacations received several “Gold” awards at the recent ARDA convention held in Las Vegas. It is the highest honor in the timeshare industry. Their “Gold” winners include marketing managers, sales and administrative managers, staff members, vendors, their Fall newsletter, and marketing campaigns. Ten awards were given to Holiday Inn Club Vacations. Holiday Inn Club Vacation’s flagship property is located in Orlando next to Disney World and was established in 1982 by Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson. The Orlando property is known as Orange Lake Resort and consists of a 1,450-acre golf, water park and sports resort, and 2,478 villas with plans for expansion to 4,500 villas. Other member resort locations include Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, Panama City in the panhandle of Florida, Brownsville in Vermont, Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, and Gatlinburg in Tennessee.

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Vacation Club’s first resort in Sweden has joined the RCI network of affiliated resorts. SkiStar, one of the Nordic region’s hospitality brands has affiliated two of its resorts, SkiStar Vacation Club Fjällhotell and SkiStar Vacation Club Snötorget with RCI. Both resorts are located in the popular Swedish ski area of Salen, which offers some of the country’s best skiing and snowboarding and is best-known for hosting the start of Vasaloppet, the world’s oldest, longest and largest cross-country ski race, which regularly attracts more than 15,000 participants. Salen is also home to Experium, Sweden’s newest leisure complex, featuring a number of indoor and outdoor swimming pools including an adventure pool offering indoor surfing and wave effects. Also at Experium are spa and sauna facilities, restaurants, cafés and bars, food court, 3-D cinema, children’s play area, bowling, conference facilities and more. The SkiStar Fjallhotell is comprised of studio and one-bedroom units with partial kitchens and two-bedroom units with full kitchens, while SkiStar Snötorget is made up of two- and three-bedroom units with full kitchens. The SkiStar resort properties join 17 more resorts in Sweden which are part of the RCI holiday exchange network, and will add to the exchange company’s extensive portfolio of resorts in ski locations.

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The Lifestyles Holiday Vacations Club in the Dominican Republic has commemorated its new state of the art, Austrian-designed member services and sales building. The four-story tower, Lifestyles Tower, has been built to provide personalized service for member vacation reservations, special needs and requests, as well as presentations of the latest membership developments. Located in Puerto Plata on the north cast of the country, the tower provides a 360-degree view of the Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Resort and its surrounding mountains, beaches and ocean. Lifestyle’s Supreme Members can make arrangements with VIP Services to fly in by helicopter and land on the roof f the tower. The third floor of the Tower houses the new AZUL gourmet restaurant and Anja’s Lounge. The Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Resort encompasses five distinct products: The Tropical, The Crown Suites, The Crown Villas, The Residence Suites and the new Presidential Suites. From hotel accommodations to stand alone villas, all guests have access to five swimming pools, nightly entertainment, spa, beach, tennis and more. VIP Members have access to “members only” facilities such as restaurants, bars, swimming pools, exclusive beach areas, as well as golf carts, limousine transfers and helicopter tours.

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Wyndham Vacation Resorts recently negotiated a deal to start selling units in Towers on the Grove, a 232-unit oceanside condo in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The developer will provide financing, while Wyndham will market and manage the timeshare community as one of its own for a fee. According to a recent Orlando Sentinel story, the fee-for-service approach, which Wyndham calls the Wyndham Asset Affiliation Model, takes advantage of the company’s marketing assets, which have suffered as timeshare developers find it more difficult to access credit and capital. According to the CEO of Wyndham Vacation Ownership, this method is a good solution for a developer or for a lender that’s foreclosed on an asset. With business slow in financing new timeshares at the resort, this may be an alternative.

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The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort has reached a major development milestone in construction with the building now topped off. It has been approximately two years since the implosion of the landmark Sheraton Bal Harbour. The St. Regis Bal Harbour is still scheduled for completion in 2011and is located directly across from the famous Bal Harbour Shops, which has made a significant contribution to the Florida coastline. The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort and The Residences at The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort include 205 elegantly appointed guest rooms, 270 private residences, 37 hotel condominium suites, a 12,000 square foot Remede Spa, signature oceanfront restaurant, St. Regis wine bar, state-of-the-art meeting and event space, and secluded beachfront access across approximately nine acres of lush landscaping. Each residence and guestroom boasts floor-to-ceiling windows and the residences feature expansive balconies measuring from 440 to more than 1,380 square feet to provide unparalleled views of the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.

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Timeshares By Owner attended the America Resort Development Association (ARDA) Convention in Las Vegas during the week of March 15th. Our radio show, Vacation Time on WDBO 580 AM was privileged to conduct interviews with some of the leading figures in the timeshare industry. They included Howard Nusbaum, President of ARDA, Franz Hanning, the President of Wyndham Vacation Ownership, and Rob Webb, Esq, Senior Partner of the Baker Hostettler Hospitality Group, and Jeffrey W. Frantz, CEO of Timeshares By Owner. These interviews provided valuable insight into the future of the vacation ownership industry, and the ways for timeshare owners to deal with financial hardship. A replay of radio show can be heard on www.wdbo.com.

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Mjejane Game Reserve in South Africa joins Interval International global exchange network. The property is a 10,000-acre reserve within the world famous Kruger National Park and overlooking the Crocodile River. Upon completion later this year, the resort will offer unparalleled “big five” game and bird viewing. It will feature a combination of two, three, and four-bed apartments and is adjacent to the exclusive Mjejane Safari Lodge. Among the planned amenities at the Lodge are an elegant restaurant, pub, spa, gym, and elevated viewing. At the resort, you can see hippopotamuses, giraffes, tortoises, more than 500 species of birds, herds of buffalo, elephants, lions, leopards, and numerous other game virtually at their doorstep.

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