Timeshare Trends Blog

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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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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from the state of Florida for violating the state’s deceptive and unfair trade law. The companies listed in the lawsuits are A1 Marketing Unlimited, Access Travel Network, Inc., International Timeshare Exchange Network, and Travel Buy Owner/CFL Ventures. Attorney General, Pam Bondi’s office has received court orders to stop two companies from participating in any further timeshare resale activities and order all four to freeze their assets.

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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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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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The tourism and construction industries have both suffered from widespread economic hardship, especially in central Florida. However, that hardship is being alleviated with a sizable expansion at one of the region’s most popular timeshare locations. Westgate announced recently that they are building an additional 300 units at this popular timeshare resort. The announcement brought a welcome projected boost to the regional economy. The $6 million project is expected to be completed over the next 12 months, assuming no complications with units expected to sell for $20,000 each.

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Based in Celebration, Florida, the Disney Vacation Club is closing its “Doorway to Dreams” sales center on New York’s Long Island on November 3. The move comes a few weeks after Disney announced plans to shutter its other sales center in suburban Chicago. That sales center was the first to open away from Disney World. The Disney Vacation Club also operates a sales center art Tokyo Disney in Japan, which is a key market for the Aulani Resort, Disney’s hotel and timeshare in Hawaii.

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The Orlando based timeshare company has now added another 115,000 members and 19 managed resorts to Wyndham’s portfolio with the Shell Vacations purchase. Among the vacation ownership properties now under the Wyndham moniker acquired from Shell are Canadian resorts in British Columbia and Ontario, along with resorts in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Oregon, five in California, Las Vegas, two in Hawaii, three in Arizona, Texas, and North Carolina.

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The suit alleges the timeshare resort located in Orange County just outside the western entrance to Disney World, negligently repaired and modified electrical components in the pond where Ashton Jojo of Latham, New York was electrocuted on June 27. The suit also seeks damages for her parents and brother’s emotional distress.

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