Timeshare Trends Blog

according to the Florida Bar. According to a recent story in the Orlando Sentinel, Uhrig created another law firm outside of his criminal law practice to assist his (non-lawyer) son’s company. The company, Exchange International, allegedly assisted timeshare owners who thought or were informed that they were scammed by resale advertising companies and wanted refunds. The law firm created by Uhrig was known as Resort Advocacy Law, and provided form letters to clients for their use that were misleading.

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on Rosemary Beach in the Florida Panhandle. Overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, the resort is a 55-unit resort with almost all rooms featuring a private balcony, in-room spa products, refrigerator stocked with water and juices, and Kuerig Coffee and Tea Brewing system, as well as complimentary valet parking. Amenities also include the Intelity App enabling guests to book dinner reservations, room service or place concierge requests via an I-Pad available in each unit. The resort is also the first in the nation to offer in-room Apple TVs allowing guests to stream wirelessly from the complimentary high-speed wireless internet.

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a law that may make it harder for timeshare owners to dump unwanted properties. A provision of the law taking effect on July 1, is meant to outlaw controversial re-sale strategies known as “Viking ships.” Under the practice, a timeshare owner desperate to be rid of their unit will pay transfer companies to take the properties off of their hands. If the transfer company is unable to resell the unit, it will dump the timeshare into an otherwise asset-less corporate entity and then stop paying all dues, leaving the original resort with no option but to foreclose and take back the property. The American Resort Development Association has said that Viking ship sales have cost the industry at least $8 million in unpaid maintenance fees. The law also specifies that certain provisions relating to condominium board elections do not apply to timeshares, revises formula requirements for reserves, requires successor in interest to be listed as owner of timeshare interest under certain conditions, requires estoppel letter in certain resale transfer transactions, and requires resale transfer agreements to contain specified information with establishment of escrows for certain purposes, among other changes to restrict controversial resale strategies.

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One of Miami Beach’s iconic hotels is poised to make a comeback with new owners. The Blackstone equity group has sold the Miami Beach Resort and Spa for $117 million to the Chetrit group, a top Manhattan real estate investment company Complete renovations for the 1963 hotel are to include 424 guests rooms, public areas and meeting rooms, according to The Miami Herald. Formerly known as the Doral hotel, it is located on the 4800 block of Collins Avenue. It was once a popular location for stars vacationing in Miami and a movie scene location for the 1972 hit film The Heartbreak Kid.

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The vacation club has purchased one of seven buildings at the Island Grand Hotel from Tradewinds Island Resorts, the largest resort complex on Florida’s west coast. Tradewinds is using the proceeds to redevelop other portions of the resort. The Bluegreen at Tradewinds is located on the Florida Gulf Coast in St. Pete Beach. With its recent $20 million renovation, the resort has new guest rooms and units, meeting space, lobby, the Grand Palm Colonnade, and 11 onsite restaurants and eateries.

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Don Harrill, president and CEO of Orange Lake Resorts that operates ten resorts under the Holiday Inn Club Vacations brand, headquartered in Kissimmee, said “we are ecstatic that Holiday Inn Club Vacations is honored this year in every category from the ACE to sales and marketing to management and administration, advertising and interior design. Our people are at the heart of all we do as an industry, and this was their time to shine.” It was the senior director of recreation operations and resort activities for Holiday Inn Club Vacations at the Orange Lake Resort that was this year’s recipient of the ACE (ARDA Circle of Excellence) Spirit of Hospitality Award.

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Florida legislators are on the verge of passing legislation that restricts your ability to resell your timeshare. The developers’ lobbyists added an amendment to HB 7025 that will devastate your rights to transfer your timeshare. If the law passes, the only way you will be able to buy a timeshare is from the resort. Many owners are desperate to get rid of their timeshares, yet the resorts do not have a resale program and usually will not take back the timeshare. The law will add the following injustices on the backs of timeshare owners: Make the timeshare reseller liable for up to $10,000 fine if buyer does not pay the maintenance fees: make the timeshare reseller liable for maintenance fees after the closing (in addition to the fine); impose even more fees on timeshare resales (the resorts currently charge a transfer fee and now there will be an “estoppel letter fee”); would not prevent unreasonable delays to the transfer process; impose so many fees, restrictions and litigation risks on title companies that closing costs will skyrocket and no title company will ever want to perform a timeshare transfer unless it is for the resort. Finally, the new legislation, enriches the “big” timeshare developer at the expense of the “little” timeshare reseller.

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in revenue in the most recent quarter of 2012. The Orlando based timeshare operation’s increase in revenue was driven by the acquisition of Shell Vacations Club and higher timeshare sales and resort management fees. For the entire year, Wyndham reported $2.3 billion in revenue, compared with $2.1 billion the year before. Vacation ownership earnings for the year were $549 million compared with $515 million in 2011.

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approximately $5 million during the most recent quarter compared with the same period last year. For the Orlando based company, the gains came despite a slip in the originated contract sales and an average sale price drop in its vacation ownership operation. For the full year, earnings increased by $144 million from 2011.

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a $7 million loss based on a string of one-time charges. Revenue and contract sales actually rose during the quarter that ended on December 28, but the Orlando based timeshare company reported $39 million in costs related to litigation settlements involving a project in San Francisco. That, combined with other one-time charges drove Marriott Vacations into the red. The company was spun off from Marriott International Inc in November 2011 and saw its stock price fall more than 11 percent after the earnings release. The company’s actual profit for 2012 was $16 million compared with a loss of $178 million in 2011.

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