Timeshare Trends Blog

The Las Olas Beach Club in Cocoa Beach continues to be successful. As featured in a recent Orlando Sentinel story, this resort is completely sold out, their owners are happy, and yet it is based on the old formula from when timeshares first started in the 70s– when timeshare buyers purchased the same week in the same unit at the same resort each year. Now many timeshare companies sell points that may be exchanged for different resorts and weeks at locations around the world. Big developers such as Marriott and Wyndham have crowded out many of the old single site developers. Las Olas with its 28 units and 1,000 owners says it considers their longtime owners to be an extended family and they work with each owner to resolve ownership problems, which is one reason why they continue to be successful. The American Resort Development Association is now looking at some of the best practices of legacy resorts like the Las Olas to utilize in the big development timeshare companies.

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Holiday Inn Club Vacations properties are expanding. The Orlando based company has recently announced that a transaction has been officially closed with Summer Bays Resorts to add two new destinations to the Holiday Inn Club Vacations brand of resorts. The Desert Club Resort in Las Vegas and the Sunset Cove Resort in Marco Island, Florida will become Holiday Inn resorts, Sunset Cove is scheduled to join the brand in October and Desert Club Resort will join in the Spring of 2012. Both properties are “gold crown” resorts and add to six properties already under the Holiday Inn name.

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The Fisherman’s Paradise Resort is scheduled to open on September 9. The resort is actually a boat and is moored 15 miles off the Clearwater, Florida coast. It is a barge that after six years of construction has been converted into a five-story $25 million floating palace and boasts a helipad, marina, two-floor gym, a sports bar, a wine cellar, and a movie theater. It will loop between the Gulf of Mexico, Panama, and Belize and its cost will include a helicopter ride and a charter fishing tour. To check in, guests must dock boats in the barge’s marina and take a shuttle boat or go by helicopter from the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.

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According to the Orlando Sentinel, the top business story in Orlando in 2010 was the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando, which opened in June. As the top business story, Harry Potter was Orlando’s economic salve boosting Universal’s attendance by 37 percent and it put heads in hotel beds for miles around, which had the added benefit of increasing local tourist tax collections by double-digit percentages. Harry Potter also gave Disney World some heartburn because its summer attendance remained flat and in some reports attendance was reported to be down by almost 6 percent. People flocked to town presumably under Harry’s spell.

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Tempus Resorts and some of its affiliated companies have already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida in order for the acquisition to start immediately. Diamond Resorts is known as one of the most successful vacation ownership companies in the world. Its global headquarters is located in Las Vegas, Nevada and it has more than 177 branded resorts in over 26 countries, including the continental United States and Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. It offers properties to more than 385,000 owners and members through the service of more than 5,500 team members worldwide.

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Starwood Vacation Ownership has expanded its Sheraton Vistana Villages, located on the south end of world-famous International Drive in Orlando. The current expansion phase includes 200 new villas, a new swimming pool complex, a new recreation building that will house a second fitness center, game room and arcade, as well as an activities desk with sports, pool games and equipment. The Sheraton Vistana Villages is the second Sheraton vacation ownership property located in Orlando. The first property is the Sheraton Vistana Resort, one of the Orlando’s largest timeshare properties.

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Florida passes new law on timeshare foreclosures. The governor of Florida recently signed into law a measure that gives much needed relief to timeshare owners associations and developers from the lengthy judicial processes for timeshare interest foreclosures. The “Trustee Foreclosure” bill promises to help reduce the time and cost involved in reclaiming timeshare interests from owners who are delinquent in paying their maintenance fees, assist timeshare developers in recovering inventory from owners who are unable to make their mortgage payments, and prevent thousands of timeshare foreclosure cases from being filed with the Florida courts already overwhelmed by residential foreclosure cases. The trustee foreclosure will shorten the time to complete a foreclosure action from as long as 18 months to as little as 90 days.

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Holiday Inn Club Vacations At Orange Lake Resort has been recognized as one of the Orlando Sentinel’s “Top 100 companies for working families.” The resort and Holiday Inn Vacations is proud to be considered a family-friendly workplace. The Sentinel newspaper presented the 17th annual awards at a special ceremony on August 6th. Each year, the Orlando Sentinel invites companies who promote family-friendly workplaces to submit their application for consideration as one of the “Top 100.” Employers are recognized in two categories: 250 employees and above and 249 employees and below. A series of questions help judges score core benefits, family-related benefits, work environment, communication and training. Orange Lake is one of the largest vacation ownership properties in the Orlando area and spans 1,450 acres with a location adjacent to Disney. Guests have access to four resort villages featuring seven pools, a 1,200 foot lazy river, an 80 acre lake with beach and watersports, four golf courses, four stores, seven restaurants, two mini golf courses, three fitness centers, basketball, tennis, racquetball courts and more.

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Timeshares By Owner celebrates the grand opening of its new corporate offices at 8578 Palm Parkway in Lake Buena Vista, located very close to the entrance to Disney World. The new state-of-the-art offices are officially opened to the public and its employees on June 4 with ribbon cutting ceremonies in the presence of dignitaries including State Senator Dave Aronberg, Ambassadors from the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce, CEO Jeffrey Frantz, President Jana Lee Klimek and General Manager, Michael Klimek.

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TSBO Hispanic Expo Booth

The Hispanic Business and Consumer Expo arrived in Orlando April 15th-18th. With Orlando holding the title as the timeshare capital of the world due to its numerous tourist attractions, bustling city life, and beautiful Florida sunshine, it seemed fitting for TSBO to set up a booth. It proved to be beneficial as hundreds of visitors and local Orlando residents passed through the Expo doors and approached the TSBO booth. Overall, the Expo was a fun and successful event with many of the visitors mentioning their interest in timeshares!

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