By Earl Daniels, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville
July 26, 2000
In a move designed to bring added visibility to the timeshare resort complex at the World Golf Village, the resort
has undergone a name change.
The Vistana resort at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine is now named Sheraton's Vistana Resort at World Golf
Village, St. Augustine.
The name change comes less than a year after Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. of McLean, Va., acquired
Orlando-based Vistana Inc. in October 1999. Starwood owns the Sheraton brand name.
The move was intended to give Starwood, a publicly traded company, a presence in the timeshare ownership market.
Starwood's action reflects a trend that is sweeping the hotel and resort industry, as hotel management companies
are entering the timeshare and vacation resort markets and renaming the resorts.
"When you start to attach a brand name to something, whether it is a can of soft drink, an automobile or a
hotel, it tends to add a sense of legitimacy," said Bill Crow, an analyst at Raymond James Financial Services,
an investment banking firm in St. Petersburg.
Starwood has created Starwood Vacation Ownership Inc. to oversee the timeshare properties that have been acquired
and will be constructed.
"The next step was to generate much more interest in the property," said Dave Matheson, a spokesman for
Starwood Vacation Ownership Inc. in Orlando, formerly known as Vistana.
"In order to compete on a global level, we had to have some brand names attached to the products," Matheson
said.
"Like it or not, we live in a brand-name society and people recognize and respect names instead of a unknown
brand," he said.
In about 90 days, the signs at the timeshare resort in St. Augustine will change.
The timeshare resort is part of the World Golf Village, located about 25 miles south of Jacksonville in St. Johns
County, which is home of the World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum, IMAX theater, a retail shopping center, hotel
and convention center, residential developments and golfing.
Other Vistana resorts that will see name changes are in Port St. Lucie, Orlando, and Avon, Colo.
"The Westin and Sheraton family of brands are some of the most recognizable and respected in the hospitality
industry and we are eager to leverage the equity of these brands in the emerging vacation ownership market,"
said Raymond "Rip" Gellein Jr., chairman and co-chief executive officer of Vistana Inc.
The name change is likely to give the St. Johns County resort more visibility.
Starwood has established a track record in the timeshare industry.
"Marriott and Starwood have spent years and years to develop a brand name that represents quality, consistency
and somewhere that is a safe place to go," Crow said.
"Timeshares had a bad reputation as a gimmicky kind of deal that was not as straight up as they should be,
but that has changed," Crow said.
Timeshare ownership allows an owner to buy time at a resort in perpetuity. The owner can stay at the resort or
use the purchased stay time to vacation at other affiliated resorts.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. manages and owns the hotel and resort brands of St. Regis, Luxury
Collection, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points and W. It has about 700 hotels in 80 countries and employs 120,000 at
its properties.
Headquartered in Orlando, Starwood Vacation Ownership Inc., formerly Vistana, operates 11 timeshare resorts: five
in Florida, including at the World Golf Village, two in Colorado and Arizona and one each in South Carolina and
the Virgin Islands.
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