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Resort Trades: January 2016
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Loren Gallagher, President Vacation Resorts International and Trading Places International
We anticipate continued growth in 2016 in number of resorts managed and net revenue generated from ancillary programs. We’re very bullish about 2016!

This year, we’ll accelerate our introduction of sustainable resale solutions to our legacy resorts to ensure their continued viability and sustainability. We’ll be introducing several new programs and will provide details once they’re ready for roll-out.

Francis Taylor, CEO DAE
We’ve had a solid year, and look forward to continued growth in 2016. Recently, we’ve worked to create greater consumer and industry brand awareness – most importantly in the North American market – positioning DAE as the “go to” service provider of exchange and vacation options. We’re also a strong partner for HOA’s, management companies, developers, and marketing and sales organizations.

As part of the brand roll out, we’re enhancing our internal reservations and exchange systems, our consumer-facing website, and online services for resort and industry partners. These long-term projects will stretch past 2016, however they’ll bear fruit this year, delivering new benefits for both consumers and industry partners. That’s all we can say for now, but watch this space!

Mike Pnematicatos, Chief Architect Merlin Software
The New Year is looking great! Last year, we concentrated on delivering an exceptional experience to each client. This year, we’re launching two exciting initiatives that do just that. The first provides live chat plus screen-sharing functionality within our software. When clients request live help, a screen-sharing session instantly begins allowing our Support Team to view the client’s screen while conversing. This saves time and eliminates frustration. (more)

The Resort Manager: Master of All Trades (by Kelley Ellert)

There is an immense amount of responsibility for the General Manager of a resort. Unlike most jobs or departments that have their unique specialization or focus, a general manager is responsible for overseeing ALL departments that have anything to do with the resort and its well-being.

To start out the new year these are just some of the things that General Managers have on their plates and some tips to make 2016 your resort’s best year yet!

Staying Within a Resort’s Budget
This is one of the most important things for a resort General Manager simply because failure to do so would be detrimental to the entire resort causing an inability to keep functioning and pay the bills such as payroll and utilities. Some of the top tips, from Defender Resorts President and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Westbrook include:

• Planning is everything. Making sure everything is included in the budget from the beginning of the year is crucial. Budget planning meetings often involve many people and take hours to fully have an all encompassing budget.
• Constant review. You have to continuously monitor what you’ve spent to make sure it’s on track with the budget or if adjustments need to be made throughout the year.
• Smart shopping
• Quality improvements that last

Estoppel Procedures: How Can We Do Better? (by Sharon Scott, RRP)

Operating a timeshare resort efficiently requires a multi-disciplinarian approach, requiring resort operators to not only be versed in human resources management, interior and exterior property care and maintenance, plus rental and resale marketing expertise; but they must also keep themselves current with legislation and regulations concerning several facets connected with their project. This can be particularly challenging whenever managing financial matters comes into play.

The issue of how to handle estoppels was one such challenge that recently presented itself to Vice President of Stonebridge Management LLC, Natalie Bobsin. Headquartered in the Branson, Missouri, area, Stonebridge Management is a full-service property management company seeking to provide HOAs, resort developers, timeshare owners, and guests the most comprehensive administrative and financial services, immaculate surroundings, and accommodations conceivable. The company promises the delivery of customized service that will relieve clients of any ‘hassles’ and offers a wide array of à la carte services to fit their needs.

The Challenge
Stonebridge executives are focused on growing their management portfolio of independent, ‘legacy’ resorts. While their back office is equipped to deal with the phone calls, faxes, emails and mailing involved with the normal transfer of a timeshare property interest between sellers and buyers/heirs, the resort group’s management felt there must be a better way to handle the estoppel process. Additionally, they recognized they were required to be concerned about the data security of their owners’ credit card and personal contact information as long as they depended on non-secure transmission of information.

“We needed the ability to automate the estoppel process to ease the burden our team was experiencing,” says Bobsin. (more)

About Resort Trades
The Trades was established in 1987 and distributes approximately 7,000 copies monthly to every U.S. vacation ownership resort, to a voluntary subscriber base of resort professionals of all walks and at all the industry’s important conventions and conferences. Resort Trades adds value to the industry as a whole with an enormous volume of informative content to assist resort operators in running their properties more efficiently, raising revenues more effectively and making better-informed buying decisions. www.ResortTrades.com | Digital Edition

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Media Contact:
Sharon Scott, RRP
SharonINK PR & Marketing
www.SharonInk.com
310-923-1269