By HARRY EAGAR
Staff Writer - The Maui News
February 7, 2002
KIHEI -- The WorldMark resort at Kamaole One held its formal blessing Tuesday evening.
But the real blessing came on Sept. 15, when the first phase of 80 units opened.
“Four days after Sept. 11,” recalls General Manager Jeff Caminos. “Believe it or not, they still came,” and by
the end of the month the new WorldMark was 95 percent occupied.
“And it has stayed that way,” even after the remaining 120 units opened at the end of November.
WorldMark is the first large addition of new guest rooms on Maui since the Maui Coast Hotel, which is its neighbor,
opened in 1993.
WorldMark is a vacation ownership club, which is similar to but not the same as time sharing. Unlike a time share,
WorldMark managers have to compete with other WorldMarks for customers.
Caminos says some WorldMarks on the Mainland have low seasons, but the ones in Hawaii are typically 95 percent
to 97 percent full year-round, and 97 percent is his target for 2002.
Among the guests this week was the Whittaker family from Seattle. Chris Whittaker, who was preparing to take her
son, Bradley, and daughter, Allyson, to Sugar Beach for some boogie boarding Tuesday morning, says they have been
to all six WorldMarks in Washington and one in Oregon already. “We love it.”
Members — there are more than 118,000 of them — pay a one-time fee to join. But unlike in a time share, they don’t
get an interest in real property.
Instead, they get credits to use every year at various WorldMark resorts.
There is no difference in the charge against credits for ocean view, mountain view or interior rooms, says Caminos.
The only difference is the credit charged for studios and one-, two- or three-bedroom units.
Each is decorated exactly alike, and each has a full kitchen, washer and dryer and television. “A home away from
home,” says Caminos.
And guests treat it that way, he says. One of the most popular activities is the barbecue. There are grills scattered
all over the grounds.
There are also a pool, a gym and a clubroom, where each morning Caminos serves continental breakfast and gives
a briefing on activities.
A Kauai boy, he tries to get visitors interested in island culture, “the real thing.”
WorldMark is the operating part of TrendWest Resorts, which was founded in 1989 in Redmond, Wash.
TrendWest develops the resorts, then turns them over to WorldMark to operate.
Typically, a WorldMark resort concentrates its marketing in a metropolitan area within a two- to five-hour drive
away. But members can mix and match as far as their credits take them.
There are four dozen WorldMarks in British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon, California, Mexico, Nevada, Utah,
Arizona, Colorado and Missouri, as well as an associated WorldMark South Pacific Club with four resorts in Australia
and one in Fiji.
In Hawaii, there are WorldMarks in Kona and Kauai, and the company manages some of the rooms at the Valley Isle
Resort on Lower Honoapiilani Highway.
Caminos, who was managing a resort on Kauai until Hurricane Iniki blew his resort down, says the company is opening
another eight or nine resorts this year, though no more for now in Hawaii.
WorldMark at Kihei has 57 employees and, to mark its blessing, will donate $1,000 for the use of Neighbor Island
families at the Ronald McDonald House of Hawaii.
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