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Street Talk Archives |
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If erroneous information is inadvertently
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PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY "If you don't want it printed, don't let it happen." --unknown June 16, 2000 Here's what The Street has kind of figured out about the goings on in the valley. We're sure you'll let us know if we've gotten anything wrong. Epic resorts lost Jim Guyser and John Archuleta from the Scottsdale Links, gaining in their place John Murphy and his crew from Sunterra's Villa Mirage. Starwood/Vistana's Embassy Scottsdale, with Rich Miller and Gary Dufresne, is running like a machine and doing well in spite of the "if it can breathe, tour it" rule of thumb. Jerry Murphy was running the night line at Embassy, having been with the company for a long time in various top positions (recently produced their best month ever at night we're told)-- but The Street is now hearing that Jerry has left the auditorium. Don't know why or where to. Shell Vacations' Orange Tree and Legacy are both pumped up and back on track with fresh blood, seasoned pros and victims of the other lines. ILX and Trendwest are selling their clubs in offsite offices in the valley. ILX (Los Abrigados) in Sedona and Choice Vacations' Sedona Pines (pre fab 400 sq. ft. cottages) are doing well, and Fairfield in Sedona is selling at their new resort as well. We also hear that Starwood intends to set up timeshare at the Kierland before it does the same
at the Phoenician. And everyone is wondering if all the Vistana resorts will be rebranded as Sheratons
and Westins? Cendant owns and licenses, among other things, RCI and Avis Rent-A-Car. In 1998 Avis Southern Africa (under current group deputy chairman Glenn van Heerden) bought a 75% stake in RCI Southern Africa, with RCI SA chief executive Ian Sandler and his management team retaining a 25% interest in the business. RCI SA thus became a subsidiary of Avis SA. (Avis Southern Africa is a holding company.) Late last year, AVIS Tourism & Leisure was formed, a new division of Avis SA and RCI SA, with the
intent to drive the expansion of the group's businesses to include a range of tourism and leisure services in southern
Africa. One element of the group's expansion into tourism services is "to gain entry into unique facility ownership to acquire key tourism-related assets which are desired by tourists." Now, then, let's look at Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and RCI Oceania. RCI Oceania is a 50/50 joint venture between Cendant (RCI LLC) and RCI SA. (RCI SA bought a 50% stake in late 1998, for US$2.5 million, cash.) RCI Oceania plans to buy into (or already has?) The Links development, a $120 million estate featuring
a golf course, resort and residential component in Port Douglas, Australia. According to an article earlier
this year in the Australian Financial Review, "The exclusive far-north Queensland enclave of Port Douglas
looks set to house the first of Australia's new breed of timeshare products under the auspices of RCI Oceania." But even if RCI LLC has changed its mind, that doesn't have to mean that Cendant or one of its other affiliates backed away, does it? And here's an interesting aside, which you may take or leave as you choose. The Street was advised some weeks ago that, having gotten RCI Oceania under its control, RCI SA would be making a move on RCI Europe. Earlier this month RCI announced the resignation, effective July 31, of Nelson Hitchcock as Managing Director of RCI Europe and also the retirement of Colin Collins, the director responsible for the CRI points system, on medical grounds. We do not know yet who will be replacing them, and we don't know if there is any connection with RCI SA. Also announced was the appointment of Brett Archibald as Director for RCI Eurasia - a joint venture
of RCI Europe and RCI Asia-Pacific. Brett Archibald was previously with RCI SA. "Why does RCI\Cendant endorse and support a Timeshare resale service that has no phone number?/no human touch/no visability at ARDA resale guidelines committee? Since the largest exchange company promotes this service (along with coldwell banker.com & C-21 but not ERA) then shouldn't RCI have the responsibility to inform the industry of sales to listings, average price, days listed, etc. (the same as ARDA requests from others?). Rumor has it that the Coldwell Banker trust fund originally funded Success in Time. How are they making money at such a low commission (15%\Min $500.)? Note that S in T has access to RCI pics & verbiage besides being in Endless Vacation magazine (to about 2 million Timeshare owners). Do you think it is another attempt to sweep the problem under the rug? Why do you fax Arizona broker contracts to a Florida number? How do they deal with interstate commerce issues? Are there states that have issued C&D to them? Why does RCI really do this other than Ron Jackson (formerly with RCI) originally championed this 'service'." The Street is now accepting responses to the above... Does this mean that the tales of Quintus' financial woes are seriously true? Has Walton Street Capital cut Quintus off? And let's not forget, in terms of Starwood and Maui, that the Sheraton Maui and the Westin are
both less than 2 miles from the Embassy. Maybe Starwood will work on more than one Maui property for timeshare... And has Carlson picked up Preussag's 50.1% shares of Thomas Cook?
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Bill Ford - PD Mountain Side Rick Owen - PD Newport Coast Andy Harris - PD Kauai Richard Culkin - Western Region Director of Marketing Ron Hensel - Vice President Pacific Region And some of the MVCI alumni who graduated from the Dave Broderick School of Timeshare Leadership: Murray Bryant - President KSL Vacations Russell Gilman - Vice President KSL Vacations Jamie Klein - Regional Project Director Four Seasons Resort Clubs Jeff Yamaguchi - Regional Operations Director Four Season Resort Clubs Neil Freiberg - Director of Administration Four Seasons Resort Clubs Steve Williams - President and CEO Levitin Williams International Brent Ferrin - President Brent Ferrin and Associates Shari Levitin - President The Shari Levitin Group" Bob DeBellis - Director of Sales for HGVC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So let's see if we've got this straight. A company would rather pay high attorney fees and drag something like
this out in court, making itself look stupid and greedy (in public), than to set the dangerous precedent of paying
a sales agent his or her legitimate commissions? But The Street has received some questions that can stand an airing. For instance, nobody seems to know anything
about the true number of members of TUG, since no one has ever seen the books. We are told that whenever anybody
asks Bill Rogers about this, he responds "about 3,000." And we are told that this is the number
he has been quoting for years. One questioner writes, "I suspect the retention rate of paid members is very
low, because there is little incentive. The only thing nonmembers can't do is look at reviews..." And we hear
the password hasn't been changed in two years. (Sure, it's a little extra work and an annoyance when people forget
the password, but there is such a thing as an autoresponder...) So we guess that if you don't pay up, you can still
look with last year's password? Is that how it works? The Street thinks they've been hanging out around timeshare types too long, and have contracted a serious dose of suspicious nature. RESPONSE: "I don't know who you are since you only quote "The Street" but
I'll tell you who I am. Yes they have. Joe Viola has been running that track since its inception in 1993, as was noted last week. With a sales staff of almost 200, Vacation Village at Weston is the 8th phase of the RCI Vacation Village at Bonaventure resort. All but phase 1 are purpose-built 2-Bdrm lockoffs. It's amazing how much business some of those quiet, independent companies can churn out. The company also manages Royal Palms, Tempe Mission Palms and Hotel del Coronado near San Diego. Then I looked more closely at the content of the site, to see exactly what it is that they're selling. Are they a resale company? Well, there are resales listed on the site at incredibly low prices, but there is no real information about any of them, and no way to get any except by calling up to ask. How current are the listings? Who is selling them, the owner of the Web site or someone else? And what is all that talk about trading your old, unwanted timeshare in for a newer and better one? On the opening page it says this: "Experience the benefit of Time Share without paying developer prices. When buying timeshare on a marketing tour, you are paying for all those "free" gifts. Those gifts and the high cost of marketing means that you are paying as much as 50% of the purchase price to cover marketing costs. The mark up is similar to buying a new car from a dealership. Once you drive it off the lot, the value decreases. Resale inventory pricing does not contain these marketing costs. Why pay more if you don't have to?? (This company) works with a number of developers and financial institutions as a liquidator of vacation ownership intervals. We have been authorized to offer these incredible values for a limited time only. Any of the fabulous resorts included in our inventory could be yours for thousands less than developer pricing! You get the same exchanging benefits no matter how much you pay for your week." So here is a timeshare-related company, which spells the word timeshare two different ways in the same paragraph, equating timeshare to car sales, and resale inventory to a used car. So who owns this company? (Did they think we wouldn't find out?) I clicked on the Company Information link and all it gave me was a PO Box in Las Vegas, a toll free number and 2 anonymous email addresses. I got suspicious. The Beat did some investigating. And here's what we learned. The URL was registered to this company in May last year. The address listed for the company is on Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas. The administrative and billing contact information is for a person who lives in Hawaii and who is affiliated with a certain timeshare developer in the islands, and the fax number listed is a fax number that goes straight to that developer's offices in Hawaii. Further research for woman-owned businesses showed this company to be owned by the administrative and billing contact person mentioned above. Address and residential phone number in Hawaii. Then I noticed that among the Hawaii properties listed for sale on the Web site, none were properties at this particular developer's current resort. And I noticed that they really wanted me to either call that toll-free number or fill out a form with lots of my personal information, without giving back any information about themselves. It all seemed a bit on the shady side to me, particularly the lack of any name or other identifying marks for any human person on the Web site. And the fact that the address is listed as a PO Box in Vegas, while the person/people involved live in Hawaii and are selling timeshare, fractional interests and full ownership real estate in Hawaii. And who do, in fact, accept trade-ins. Whassup? And sorry, but I'm not even going to give you the name of this company nor its URL, nor the developer with whom
the owner of this company is affiliated. Because we're still looking into... things... |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Half the things I said, I never said them." -- Yogi Berra "If you don't have anything good to say about someone, come sit right here beside me." - Alice Roosevelt Longworth ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What do you know that you'd like to anonymously pass along? Did we get something right or wrong? Send it on in... All tips are treated with utmost confidentiality, and no one's identity will ever be revealed by The Timeshare Beat. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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