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Tourists: If You Want
to Help Us, Book Your Trip Now
In the aftermath of 9/11
mayor Rudy Giuliani said that if anyone wanted to help New York they should go there and spend money. Get the economy
back on its feet.
The same is now true of the areas hit by the terrible tsunamis
on Dec. 26, where current estimates put the dead and missing count at around 220,000. For instance, in Thailand
less than 10% of their tourism infrastructure was damaged while the remainder of the country remains open for your
business-- and desperately needs it.
The Pacific
Asia Travel Association (PATA) wishes to emphasise that
most properties and attractions in Indian Ocean destinations have sustained little or no damage.
Of PATA’s 45 Asia Pacific member countries, the coastal area of only eight were affected by tsunamis. Of those
eight destinations, only the Maldives, Sri Lanka and
Thailand suffered significant travel sector losses.
PATA believes that to support the speedy recovery of destinations, local employment and local self-sufficiency,
consumers must be encouraged to proceed with their travel
plans to the region. PATA President and CEO, Mr Peter
de Jong, said: " The human loss of this tragedy is unprecedented. However, the negative impact will only be
exacerbated if tourists cancel or postpone their visits. Now more than ever, Indian Ocean countries want you to
come visit. Not only will tourism maintain jobs and boost local economies, it will also be a sign of support and
solidarity, giving new hope and confidence to those who have begun to rebuild their lives and livelihoods."
For more information, go to Tourists:
If You Want to Help Us, Book Your Trip Now
Email: street@thetimesharebeat.com
Back
in Dec. 2000 when Accor
first launched its Premiere Vacation Club, the following people were appointed to run things. Of course we know
that Marty Kandel
is now the head hoohah of APVC, but are any of these folks still with the company? If not, where did they go? And
who replaced them?
- Joe Sita, original CEO of Accor Premiè re Vacation Club
- Mark Stephenson, General Manager of Operations
- Susan Nelson, General Manager of Sales
- Mark Carriere, General Manager of Marketing
- Dave Emblem, Regional Marketing Manager – Queensland
- Kevin Sands, Promotions Manager
- Ron Harrison, Sales Manager
- John Rohman, Sales Manager
And while we're at it, what happened to Accor's big plans to
enter the United States timeshare industry?
- YOUR COMMENTS:
- Jan. 14: --" Jim
Sabot is the company's Chief Operating Officer,
Rob Martini is Executive Director of Sales, Nick Meredith is National Director of Sales, Myles Bryson is General
Manager of Marketing. Jim and Rob are past directors of Trendwest South Pacific, Myles comes from Starwood in the
US. The other persons mentioned haven't been with the company for quite some time-at least 1 ½ years-- with
the exception of Kevin Sands who is still doing a magnificent job as National Promotions Manager.
Under the present team, with Marty Kandel as CEO, the company posted record volume and profits in 2004 and is continuing
their expansion throughout both Australia and Asia. There are no short term plans to enter the US market."
- Jan. 19: --" Susan
Nelson and John Rohman left Accor couple
years ago and are now with Welk Resort Group in Escondido, California."
E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
PUNTA CANA: At the new
Sol Melia Vacation Club Punta Cana, Sergio
Garcia has come on board as Sales Director of a
40 sales rep line in Punta Cana, formerly from the Westin Club Regina and Fiesta Americana Vacation Club in Los
Cabos, Mexico.
Also joining the Punta Cana team from Los Cabos is Eduardo
Sicilia as Director
of Marketing, formerly from Mayan Palace group and Fiesta
Americana. He is already doing a bang up job with his all in-house marketing team, with 1500 hotel rooms to market
from.
The folks at Sol Melia Punta Cana have the lofty goal to " change the face of timeshare in the Dominican Republic"
and they are reportedly drawing top talent from the whole Dominican Republic and ALL the surrounding Islands with
what is said to be a Very Aggressive Pay Plan for top producers.
Also the Punta Cana team is gearing up to start their second
sales line at the already over pre-booked Paradisus Hotel
and Spa, with a marketing team already in place and
cranking, set to begin sales toward the end of January.
The 450 SMVC Punta Cana suites will be completed and ready for
occupancy by the end of March.
Plans for the Paradisus Palma Real luxury holiday Resort, the " ultra-all inclusive" brand of Sol Melia,
have been approved and construction has already begun. Also a huge shopping center mall, commercial center is in
the planning stages and rumor says it's approved also to begin construction November 2006.
All of this is happening across the street from the Cocotal
Golf & Country Club, a 27-hole Championship Golf
Course designed by Jose Pepe Gancedo tennis courts driving range an ecological park and beach club. All built
and ready to go, just in time for a mini-vac program that is rumored to boast 200 mini-vacs from the USA per week.
Sol Melia Punta Cana is on the move, very serious about expanding its horizons in the Dominican Republic and is
determined to be the leader in the timeshare industry in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and even on a Global scale.
We hear plans are in the works to open sales centers in many of Sol Melia's hotel sites around the world: Puerto
Rico, Costa Rica and Panama as an example in the Caribbean, and in Spain and surrounding islands as well as in
their other European sites.
E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com
•
Is there any truth to the rumor that Starwood took over the Raintree properties in Mexico as of Jan. 1?? If you've been following Street Talk International you
know that we've been reporting on this for several months- at least since August '04. Word is that Raintree, which
has been having financial difficulties for a long time, had stopped paying and that since Starwood owns the paper,
well...
We also expect Starwood to expand their brands into Mexico in
the near future. How about you?
•
How
many irate letters from former Sun Club members who feel they're being strong-armed by Palace Resorts would
you like to read? A dozen? More? Less? How about just one, then, which is typical of them all:
--" I am writing this post to tell you
about a horrible experience that me
and several of my fellow owners are currently going through with our ownership in Mexico.
We owned a high season week (week 8) at the Continental Plaza resort in Playa del Carmen. I say " owned"
because we have been forced by the financial squeezes from the " new owner" to give up that week in exchange
for a less beneficial membership.
We originally purchased our week from a membership known as Sun Club. Sun Club had several resorts scattered around
Mexico in Cancun, Playa, Acalpulco, Nuevo Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, etc. Due to poor management, this " club"
has gone through several different corporate owners, but each change in corporate ownership has pretty much left
our timeshare contracts intact (although quality of the resorts has dwindled).
However, all that changed this fall. The most recent owning company of our club, Sidek Situr, went bankrupt, and
4 of the properties involved were purchased by Palace Resorts. The 4 resorts are: Hotel Sierra Cancun Hotel Continental
Plaza Playacar Hotel Plaza Las Glorias Cozumel and Hotel Sierra Nuevo Vallarta.
With this purchase, Palace Resorts then decided to do extensive renovations to the resorts, closing them down for
a major chunk of this year during high seasons. These new resorts will all become " Palace" resorts, with
new names (Cozumel Palace, Playacar Palace, etc.) In addition, Palace has decided that these resorts will all become
mandatory All-Inclusive resorts.
So you ask, what kind of deal are they offering us poor disenfranchized owners? A pretty rotten one. Based on my
experience talking with various owners at Playacar, Sierra Nuevo, and Cozumel, at the very least we are getting
very poor communications and service from Palace, and at the worst, a huge manipulation scheme, designed to force
us into dropping our ownership entirely or moving to a less desirable membership system in Palace.
The manipulation comes from a letter sent to most owners in November 2004, stating that our maintenance fees are
more than doubling for 2005, and we also owe an extraordinary fee that is nearly 3 times our current maintenance
fees. This extraordinary fee is for the upgrade of the resort they are currently performing, and while its allowed
per our contract, it seems very unfair to be taxing current owners for this. The deadline for paying these fees
is the end of January, or we lose our ownership, per the letter.
Some members (not all) have been offered a chance to convert into the Palace membership certificate system (known
as Palace Club). I was offered this only after asking about it. The membership is a flexible certificate plan that
removes the obligation for a maintenance fee or the extraordinary fee. Instead, you get a certificate for a floating
week program and you pay the expensive all-inclusive fees at the Palace resorts. Some folks have no trouble with
all-inclusives, but I am one that wants the flexibility to say no to it. With Palace, you have no choice, you have
to take it, and its expensive.
So, either you pay tons of money to keep the current contract, or you pay tons of money to go to a Palace resort,
take your pick!
The only advantage is that I can trade my certificate weeks with RCI without a maintenance fee, just the RCI fees.
But according to most folks I've talked to so far, this is not an advantage, because Palace resort weeks are pretty
much worthless for trading at RCI, because Palace does so much bulk spacebanking of their rooms with RCI. And another
disadvantage - Palace has restricted us from trading into any other resorts in the area of our resort (Cancun,
Playa, Cozumel). So we either pay big bucks at a Palace resort, or try to get into a resort no one wants to go
to in the USA or other places. What a ripoff!
So, I've decided to go this route, this new membership, in hopes that RCI can find me trading places that are at
least somewhat reasonable, and I don't have to pay Palace a cent! But I'm angry about losing my high season week,
angry about forcing me out of my contract, angry about the manipulation and scare tactics, and wanted to write
about it and let you all know that Palace Resorts does not play fair with their members, so beware, beware, beware!"
Note that former Sun Club members have formed a group to
fight Palace, and they're dead serious. They have a
legal and media team already in place working on strategies. The group is called " Palace Resorts Perversidad" .
To join, you simply need to send an email to:
Palace_Resorts_Perversidad-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
- YOUR COMMENTS:
- Jan. 14: --" We,
too, have been given the runaround by
these thieves. They billed us as the others, and now you cannot get anyone to answer calls or correspond in any
manner. They have also dismissed Fernando Palayo, the guest services manager, who was my contact, so now there
is no one to go to. Other hotels in the area are not willing to honor Palace transfers, and will not take us if
we want to go that way."
- AND: --" We
also are in a quandary about this situation.
We have received a letter requesting the much higher fees mentioned in the letter you highlighted. We have received
no other communication and have joined the yahoo group trying to find a satisfactory resolution to this. Thanks."
- AND: --" What
are they trying to pull? We received
a brief two sentence letter in April 2004 indicating that the hotel Plaza Las Glorias (PLG) had been sold. No offer
of to whom or why. It did state that my rights and obligations remain the same as stated on my original contract.
But now apparently, I have no rights, but boy do I have the obligations. An obligation of 5 times my normal maintenance
fee.
I knew that my husband and I would not be able to be in Cozumel at the PLG on our normal week so I space banked
my week in February 2004 and received confirmation from RCI.
In October I began trying to use my space banked week and found that PLG was closed for remodeling. Who knew? I
never received notification that they would be unavailable, but I thought the new owners were painting and repairing
some of the plumbing and air conditioning that had deteriorated over the years. This was actually a good thing
for the hotel. The public areas were always in good repair, but the rooms had suffered over time. While we enjoy
our time in Cozumel, we just as often use the RED week to trade into other locations to play golf. At the time,
I was unable to trade into a location in the Yucatan peninsula area or into any other area that fit our time schedule.
We received no other communication than the March “brief” from PLG, Impulsora Y Promotora del Caribe SA, the Sun
Club, RCI or Palace Resorts until December 2004.
December 6, 2004 we received a letter dated November 14, 2004 from PLG explaining about the renovations, a need
for increased maintenance fees and a charge for an extraordinary fee. Imagine our surprise, when we had not received
any other communications, to see a bill for what amounted to 5 times our normal maintenance fee. Not only was I
surprised, but I was flabbergasted and rather angry at being charged for something without being able to give my
consent or to be given the option of “paying over time”. On top of which they wanted a photo copy, front and back
of my credit card. That just goes against the grain of someone who is sensitive to identity theft.
The letter included contact information for an Elizabeth Ibarra, to whom I sent an email with a copy to Alfredo
Davo, and Domna Luna on 12-21-04 and again on 1-8-05. I was not provided the courtesy of a response. Fortunately,
I had an email contact from a fellow neighbor at PLG. Had she not been in touch with me, I may not have discovered
a myriad of inaccuracies, lies and deceptions that the Palace Resort is attempting to pull on the former timeshare
owners of PLG, not only in Cozumel, but in the other three resorts recently purchased by Palace Resorts. Without
the courtesy of a return communication, I feel like a mushroom – in the dark and _ _ _ _ upon. Other timeshare
owners have been given offers to change their contracts to a low value floating week at an all-inclusive with very
high per head rates. I haven’t had as much as a “Boo” out of the people to whom I was to address my communications.
Not only does Palace Resorts offer floating weeks, but they have an ALL INCLUSIVE policy. My husband and I travel
to enjoy the local flavor of a region, city, village or country. If a location is “secure” as is the case in Cozumel,
and in proximity to the heart of the city, with decent transportation, why would an individual “need” to have an
all-inclusive atmosphere.
Unfortunately, this is a Mexican business so the opportunity of calling the Better Business Bureau or Ralph Nader
or any other United States activist group is unavailable. My best prospect at this time is the power of the pen,
or in this case the power of the keyboard and internet.
My feeling is that they want us to relinquish our contracts, so that they have more space and less obligations
to honor contracts with individuals, families or businesses who count on their precious time away to relax and
recuperate from the day to day stresses of life and business."
- Jan. 15: --" We
are owners of two weeks at the former Plaza Las Glorias in Cozumel.
We were sent a short memo last April informing us the hotel had been sold but our " rights and obligations"
would remain the same under the new ownership - the memo did not name the new owner. We had no other correspondence
until the now infamous Nov 15 letter/bill introducing Palace as new owners and that they were in process of remodeling
hotel to their higher standards and our maintenance fee went from $306 to $600 per week, AND we were supposed to
pay an extraordinary fee of $993 PER WEEK for the remodel. What a lovely welcome - LOL. On top of all those ridiculous
fees we would still be charged mandatory All-Inclusive fees upon arriving at the hotel - oh, but wait... the hotel
is still under construction so we don't even have a hotel to go to during our weeks (8 and 9). Rumor has it Palace
would put us up elsewhere - most likely cancun - but they haven't contacted us, even though our weeks are coming
up fast, in fact returning emails, phone calls, and faxes is not their strong point. I believe Palace Resorts is
hoping the existing timeshare owners give up and go away - freeing up space during valuable high season weeks.
They have given the option of becoming Palace members and converting to their floating week system - where we are
not guaranteed a room during high season or any season and we are forced into vacationing all-inclusive (not our
preference). It also restricts us from trading through RCI into any other resorts in Cozumel, Cancun, Playa del
Carmen... Oh, but wait again - they have taken that option off the table for now, or so they say. Well, we're not
ready to give up yet!"
- AND: --" Being
a time share owner at PLG Cozumel for 20 years,
I feel violated by the heavy handed approch taken by Palace Resorts. They want previous owners out so they can
resell or rent these units. Honoring our contracts is not on their agenda. I don't intend to give in to this bunch
of thugs. Hopefully, with hearings being held by Profeco, we'll see how much weight they carry and how much clout
the Palace Group has."
E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com
SAUDI ARABIA:
MECCA: In a radical move
for the Saudi property scene, which does not allow purchase by non-residents, Saudi firm Manazel Al Haramain
is planning to offer a 20-year lease on timeshare apartments 50 metres from the Grand Mosque and its Ka'ba - the
sacred, cubic, stone structure within it that is the focus of pilgrimage for every Muslim.
This will give Muslims worldwide the chance to have a stake
in one of the planet's most valuable areas, where land is worth £ 51,000 per square metre. (Non-Muslims, who
are not allowed into either Mecca or Medina, will not be eligible.)
The company is still in negotiations with a five-star contractor, but promises the plushest of decor. " There
will be a splendid choice of studios, apartments and penthouses for up to eight people," says Khaled Yamak,
Manazel's general marketing manager. " We will have Arabic design throughout the buildings - pillars, domes
and calligraphy."
Over the next three years, almost 6,000 properties in Medina and Mecca will enable 260,000 families to treat themselves
to a patch of sacred land to call their own – for a limited time.
Prices have still to be confirmed, but they are expected to range from £ 1,200 for a 20-year lease of a one-week
stake in a two-bedroom apartment in Medina, to £ 60,000 for a three-bedroom penthouse overlooking the Ka'ba.
Manazel Al Haramain is planning to open a UK sales office, most
probably in the Midlands, in the near future. But, following a press campaign in Arabic and English-language papers,
there has already been a very good response.
For more details, contact Manazel Al Haramain: 00 966 2 622 4444.
E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com
IRELAND:
KINSALE: Xces Projects, Hyatt
International and PGA Golf Management are collaborating
on Ireland's first Integrated Tourism Complex, the Kinsale
Harbour Resort. A €200 million project located on a
650 acre site near Kinsale, County Cork, it will include:
- 200-room, 5-Star deluxe Hyatt Hotel and Holiday resort lodges
(20 of them) with conference facilities and a Destination Spa.
- PGA Golf Management operated, 18-hole, 260-acre Championship
Golf Course, capable of hosting major International Events, Clubhouse and state of the art Golf Academy. (The course
was designed by European Golf Design, a joint venture between the European Tour & IMG)
- International-standard Indoor and Outdoor Equestrian Complex,
together with a 500-seater Indoor Arena capable of hosting International Events.
PGA Golf Management will operate, maintain and promote all golf
related facilities on the site including the clubhouse operations and state of the art golf academy. Hyatt will
be the overall Resort Operator, including the Equestrian facility and clubhouse food and beverage. The question
is, will those Holiday resort lodges be timeshare?
PORTUGAL:
THE ALGARVE: In 2004 the
Algarve suffered its worst tourism year since 1993, according to the president of the Algarve Hotel and Tourist
Resorts Association (AHETA), Elidé rico Viegas.
According to statistics, the region received 5.5 million tourists
in 2004, but only half of these stayed in hotels. On average, hotels were only 44.6 per cent full, 10 per cent
less than the desired figure. Albufeira, Lagos, Sagres, Vilamoura, Quarteira, Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago suffered
the worst falls in guest numbers.
Most worrisome has been the decline of British and German visitors
(a decrease of 63 per cent of Germans over the last eight years).
Not specifically mentioned were stats for timeshare resorts.
Good? Bad? How was the tour flow?
ITALY: Veteran Italian film maker
Carlo Vanzina
has made a " genial" comedy concerning timeshare. Called " In
This World of Thieves" , we probably won't see
it in the USA, but you might have the opportunity. Variety critic Jay
Weissberg found it entertaining. He says: " A group of time-share investors discover they've been duped into
buying non-existent property. For most of them, it's the final straw after years of being screwed, so when nerdy
bank clerk Fabio (Carlo Buccirosso) devises a scheme to rip off his nasty employers, he recruits them, including
not-so-dumb bombshell Monica (Valeria Marini). Problem is, Fabio seeks advice from con artist extraordinaire Gastone
(Ricky Tognazzi), who proceeds to swindle the swindlers until they clue in and seek revenge. Good ensemble perfs,
and amusing set-ups that feel like Neil Simon meets " Ocean's Eleven," are helped by top-notch tech credits."
E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com
| Quotable quotes:
" Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity.
Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong."
-James Bryce (1838-1922) |
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