Page 14 - Jan 2012


Loan in 1986,” says Rowley. “After sell-out, management came under the control of Pro Management, which had been formed in 1990 by Jerry Sikes.”


Scottsdale Camelback’s offerings are packed into 11.35 acres of some of the highest-priced land in the country. Its 111 villas (50 studios, 52 two-bedroom and nine three-bedroom units) are so well maintained that it has retained RCI Gold Crown status every year since the inception of the designation. How has a 30-plus- year-old resort managed to achieve this, in addition to consistently high customer satisfaction ratings? Our host reveals the staff settled on a basic customer-oriented strategy early in its development, and has stuck to it for what will soon be three decades.


“Our mission has always been that when we invite a guest to visit, we take complete responsibility for their happiness. We live this,” says Rowley.


Rowley, who has worked at the resort for 25 years starting as a night auditor and then quickly moving into guest services before being promoted to a marketing position, probably deserves a great deal of the credit. While he will quickly point to the strength of a powerful team beginning with Jerry Sikes as president of Pro Management and including Lori Entwhistle, general manager; Eric Downey, director of operations; Robin Freese, director of guest services and other team members, the responsibility for marketing the resort’s non-maintenance fee revenue is his.


“I am responsible for any department earning revenue other than from the annual assessments,” says Rowley. “This includes rentals, food and beverage, banquet and catering, meetings, events and the spa. Annually, these other areas add $1.4 million to the general fund. Our objective is to make sure owners aren’t paying for any additional amenities out of their assessments.”


In essence, Scottsdale Camelback owners are getting one heck of a deal. The resort has a salt water pool, 15-person spa and child’s play pool, three lighted championship tennis courts and its 1.1- mile Kokopelli walking trail, which cleverly snakes throughout the resort’s grounds. Despite these advantages, Rowley says they experienced a decline in rental and additional revenue during the last few years.


“Our occupancy (68 percent of which is exchange) regained strength last year and the year before, but we noticed a decrease in spending. People were staying for shorter periods and we did notice fewer rentals.”


Under Entwhistle’s direction, the resort has excelled at recruiting, training and communicating with their board of directors. “Educating your owners and keeping them informed is really vital to maintaining your resort in top condition,” says Rowley.


Pro Management recently hosted the inaugural meeting of the Timeshare Board Members Association (TBMA), a newly formed non-profit organization with the objective of educating and providing leadership to those owners who volunteer to assume a leadership role. For more information about TBMA, visit tbmassoc. com. “Jerry is very committed to providing ways for owners and board members to become better officers. After all, we are asking these individuals to run multi- million-dollar corporations. In many cases, this is more responsibility for them than they might have undertaken, previously.”


Rowley, too, is an avid ARDA volunteer. He is currently vice chairman of ARDA- Arizona and chairman of the ARDA Educational Committee. He is a member of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, the Valley Hotel and Resort Association and the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association.


What does he see as the industry’s major upcoming challenges, from a management point of view? “First, the resale and transfer company issue is a huge threat,” he says. “But other big concerns of ours are the rising cost of health insurance and what we see of ADA legislation that is likely to be proposed in 2012.”


Thankfully with its management team on- board, revenue to pay for these programs is less of a problem for Scottsdale Camelback than for many other resorts. Rowley’s final advice for management teams in other resorts:


• Manage your reserves by anticipating extraordinary expenses


• Educate your board


• Challenge yourself to continue thinking out of the box


Closing remarks: Jason


Tremblay, CEO, Sell My Timeshare Now


While investigating the proposed introduction of timeshare resale legislation in Florida, Resort Trades caught up with the owner of the resale firm Sell My Timeshare Now, Jason Tremblay. As he puts it, “Resales and transfer companies are topics about which I certainly have a lot of passion. No entrepreneur wants to hear the government is going to impose an increased burden on their business and obviously, compliance with additional regulations will cost Sell My Timeshare Now time and money. However, we are supportive of regulations that are reasonable and which can be enforced fairly.”


Tremblay compares the current abuse of consumers by resale operators who behave unethically and unlawfully to the situation in which timeshare found itself in the early ‘80s prior to the introduction of timeshare regulations: Then as now, there were a few bad players using clearly unethical marketing practices that threatened the very foundations of the industry.


“We hope to see that Florida Attorney General Bondi will carefully review ARDA’s Timeshare Resale Model Act while crafting her proposed bill with an eye to ensuring that regulations will be enforceable. For example, we understand that one portion of her draft legislation calls for all third- party advertisers to be able to disclose past success rates, regardless of whether they solicit customers (which we do not). For those of us who frequently connect buyers directly with owners, we have no way of tracking the success of those contacts once they are conversing independently. So we do hope this proposed legislation will understand the need for practicality in their requirements for advertisers.” “But overall,” says Tremblay, “we are very glad to see some legislation being considered that will reduce consumer fraud. It’s been a space that has been unregulated for too long. And it will be far easier to stop someone who is clearly breaking the law than it would be to prove the intent to commit fraud as things stand today.”


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