Primary timeshare brands and their composition

[dougp26364]

Speak for yourself...



Some of these are still very separate entities even though they may be owned by the same company.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide

• Marriott Vacation Club
• Sheraton Vacation Club - Vistana
• Westin Vacation Club - Vistana
• Hyatt Residence Club
• Welk Resorts

Hilton Grand Vacations

• Hilton Grand Vacations
• Diamond Resorts International
• Embarc

Travel & Leisure Co

• Wyndham Destinations/Club Wyndham
• Shell Vacations Club
• Worldmark

Holiday Inn Club Vacations

Disney Vacation Club

Bluegreen Vacations

I had never heard of Ramada Vacation Club. I thought though that Holiday Inn Club Vacations sprung up out of Orange Lake Resorts.

We became familiar with Ramada when we first became timeshare owners with Diamond in the late 90’s. They had body snatchers out in front a a small strip mall, just north of MGM in front of what use to be the Coca Cola museum/store. They were selling what is now HICV at Desert Club Resort. That resort went through a LOT of changes, including a relocation from its original spot to where it is now after the developer of the Link made a cash/land swap to acquire the spot where The Link shopping area and High Roller currently occupy…… or something to that degree. There were a LOT of changes over the course of a decade for that one resort.

HIVC may very well have started out with Orange Lake, but they’ve had additional acquisitions. Tracing the lineage of single resorts can be difficult let alone a complete record of all the acquisitions.

Embassy resorts was acquired by Sunterra, which was eventually acquired by DRI, which has been acquired by Hilton. Some of the individual resorts in this lineage where merged, bought/sold or acquired a time or two before eventually ending up in one of the groups that was later acquired by the next group. The Point at Poipu on Kauai was at one time something other than a timeshare resort, as was Jockey Club in Las Vegas. In fact, I believe there are still one or two wholly owned condos in the Jockey Club building.

It gets complicated rather quickly if you go back further than the last decade. There’s been a lot of consolidation and there’s more than a few management companies that were players that many may not even remember

 

[dougp26364]

And then there’s these long forgotten anomalies in the timeshare world. Article is from 2003.

How many people even remember that Marriott’s Grand Chateau started out life as a planned Diamond Resorts project?

Marriott Vacation Club International and Diamond Resorts International Forge Alliance

LAS VEGAS, Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI), the recognized worldwide leader in the vacation ownership industry and a division of Marriott International, Inc. MAR , and vacation ownership pioneer, Diamond Resorts International (DRI) announced today the formation of a development and...

www.hospitalitynet.org

 

[PigsDad]

How many people even remember that Marriott’s Grand Chateau started out life as a planned Diamond Resorts project?

HGVC's Bay Club (Hawaii) and Sunrise Lodge (Park City) were originally planned to be sold as individual condos, not timeshares.

Kurt

 

[dougp26364]

@dougp26364 Wow thanks for all that history! It is fascinating how you show that DRI started with just one timeshare and how they grew.

DRI alone would be a lot of work to unfold it’s history.

Diamond started out with the Cloobeck’s (father and son), who originally took a position of some sort at Jockey Club. The story told by Stephen Cloobeck was he was jogging by the PoloTowers site one day and had the idea to buy it and develop it as a timeshare. He had big plans to go international, but later decided to bail out of the timeshare game and perused building malls and an eventual look at running for he governor of Nevada.

The. Sunterra began to have financial problems and either went into bankruptcy or was very near it. Stephen saw an opportunity and bought it for pennies on the dollar. Sunterra itself had acquired other management contracts prior to losing control themselves, including Embassy resorts, which was were the Lake Tahoe and Maui properties entered the picture (I never understood why those didn’t fold into HGVC back then). Cloobeck continued to acquire distressed smaller groups like Club Soliel in Vegas until he decided to sell out and move on.

It’s one of the more complicated stories I know of in timeshare, but there are others that are likely just as complicated. It would be difficult and time consuming to attempt to trace many of the origins of what we see today. Google and Bing really aren’t a lot of help as many of the old web sites were folded into the new companies and those sites don’t reference the history of each individual resort.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Holiday Inn Club Vacations also bought Silverleaf. I don't know if that also aquired Escapes or just part of Escapes. I do know that the Galveston Beach Resort was an Escapes resort.

 

[dougp26364]

Holiday Inn Club Vacations also bought Silverleaf. I don't know if that also aquired Escapes or just part of Escapes. I do know that the Galveston Beach Resort was an Escapes resort.

SILVERLEAF! That’s the name of the company I couldn’t remember. Holiday Hills was just a resort managed by Silverleaf in Branson, MO.

Holiday Inn Club Vacations® Brand To Double Its Resort Properties And Add Seven Sales Centers In Four New States

The Holiday Inn Club Vacations® brand, developed and exclusively operated by Orange Lake Holdings through a first-of-its-kind marketing alliance with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), is experiencing a historic growth period – doubling its resort properties and sales centers as it continues...

www.hospitalitynet.org

 

[dioxide45]

We became familiar with Ramada when we first became timeshare owners with Diamond in the late 90’s. They had body snatchers out in front a a small strip mall, just north of MGM in front of what use to be the Coca Cola museum/store. They were selling what is now HICV at Desert Club Resort. That resort went through a LOT of changes, including a relocation from its original spot to where it is now after the developer of the Link made a cash/land swap to acquire the spot where The Link shopping area and High Roller currently occupy…… or something to that degree. There were a LOT of changes over the course of a decade for that one resort.

HIVC may very well have started out with Orange Lake, but they’ve had additional acquisitions. Tracing the lineage of single resorts can be difficult let alone a complete record of all the acquisitions.

Embassy resorts was acquired by Sunterra, which was eventually acquired by DRI, which has been acquired by Hilton. Some of the individual resorts in this lineage where merged, bought/sold or acquired a time or two before eventually ending up in one of the groups that was later acquired by the next group. The Point at Poipu on Kauai was at one time something other than a timeshare resort, as was Jockey Club in Las Vegas. In fact, I believe there are still one or two wholly owned condos in the Jockey Club building.

It gets complicated rather quickly if you go back further than the last decade. There’s been a lot of consolidation and there’s more than a few management companies that were players that many may not even remember

Going back further, best I can tell is that Embassy Resorts, Hampton Resorts and Homewood Resorts sprung up out of the old Vistana. This is dating back to the early days of Vistana before Starwood ever entered into the picture.

 

[dioxide45]

And then there’s these long forgotten anomalies in the timeshare world. Article is from 2003.

How many people even remember that Marriott’s Grand Chateau started out life as a planned Diamond Resorts project?

Marriott Vacation Club International and Diamond Resorts International Forge Alliance

LAS VEGAS, Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI), the recognized worldwide leader in the vacation ownership industry and a division of Marriott International, Inc. MAR , and vacation ownership pioneer, Diamond Resorts International (DRI) announced today the formation of a development and...

www.hospitalitynet.org

And Marriott's Newport Coast Villas was once slated to be a Disney Vacation Club property;

Yesterland: Disney’s Newport Coast Villas

 

[dougp26364]

And Marriott's Newport Coast Villas was once slated to be a Disney Vacation Club property;

Yesterland: Disney’s Newport Coast Villas

As was the property in Paris if my memory serves me correctly

it certainly doesn’t take long for this to get complicated. Creating any sort of “family tree” for timeshare resorts could be fun but challenging.

 

[nomoretslt]

And Marriott's Newport Coast Villas was once slated to be a Disney Vacation Club property;

Yesterland: Disney’s Newport Coast Villas

Now that is something that I never knew.....I’ve been DVC since 1997. I think Disney has come to realize that their DVC resorts are much better off being attached to one of their parks. Vero Beach, although loved by many, was a bad idea. Many people purchased cheap points there but with the intention of using those points at a Disney World property at the 7 month reservation mark. But have been hit with high maintenance fees due to hurricane damages. I’m sure they will sell it when the expiration date comes up (2042 I believe). Their Hilton Head property is wonderful and extremely popular, but I see them selling that too.

I’ve been tempted many times by the “free” timeshares offered, but remember my bad experience with a timeshare a friend gave me near Disney. It was not the best place and after three years of maintenance fees of almost $1,000/year I was able to give it back to its new owners (DRI) for a small fee of $250 thanks to finding TUG on my search for trying to offload a timeshare. DVC is probably one of the few timeshares where you can actually make a profit selling it, even after years of use.

This has been a very interesting thread to read...so thanks to all.

 

[RunCat]

And then there’s these long forgotten anomalies in the timeshare world. Article is from 2003.

How many people even remember that Marriott’s Grand Chateau started out life as a planned Diamond Resorts project?

Marriott Vacation Club International and Diamond Resorts International Forge Alliance

LAS VEGAS, Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI), the recognized worldwide leader in the vacation ownership industry and a division of Marriott International, Inc. MAR , and vacation ownership pioneer, Diamond Resorts International (DRI) announced today the formation of a development and...

www.hospitalitynet.org

Sheraton Mountain Vista in Avon was originally a "Points of Colorado" timeshare project (Think Eagle Point in Vail and Falcon Point in Avon). Starwood bought it to develop for their program.

 

[dayooper]

HGVC was created as a partnership of Hilton Hotels and The Mariner Group. The Mariner Group was a company that was building and selling timeshares along the Florida Gulf Coast. When Hilton wanted to start their vacation club, they came to the Mariner Group to guide them in setting it up. The 1st HGVC resort was The Flamingo in Vegas. At the time, The Flamingo Casino was a Hilton property so they built the timeshare there. When they finished The HGVC Flamingo, they set up the deed to points system they have now. Since the only resort HGVC had was The Flamingo, they needed more resorts for owners to "spend" their points at. That's when Hilton absorbed The Mariner Group and all of their resorts. It's why today many of those SW Florida HGVC Properties have fixed weeks. The memberships to the HGVC's system was voluntary for those resorts so many owners didn't enroll their weeks. There is still a good chunk of those prime weeks that are still not enrolled. While HGVC trades with RCI, many of those Mariner Group resorts can trade in II as well.

Anderson Ocean Club in Myrtle Beach was originally built as full ownership condos. When Strand Capitol (the developer of Anderson) was having a hard time selling the condos, they partnered with HGVC to convert many of the units into HGVC timeshares. You can still purchase the full ownership condos from owners that are selling theirs. They run anywhere from $200,000 for a 1 bedroom all the way up to $450,000 for an oceanfront 3 bedroom. This partnership continued as HGVC partnered with Strand to build Ocean 22 and Ocean Enclave in Myrtle Beach, Liberty Square in Charleston and Ocean Oak in Hilton Head Island. Without the Anderson Ocean Club partnership with Strand, those other resorts may have never been built!

 

[PigsDad]

Here is an interesting article that discusses the history of Wyndham / Fairfield Resorts:

History of Wyndham Timeshare - How Did Wyndham Vacation Ownership All Begin (buyatimeshare.com)

Kurt

 

[joestein]

DRI alone would be a lot of work to unfold it’s history.

Diamond started out with the Cloobeck’s (father and son), who originally took a position of some sort at Jockey Club. The story told by Stephen Cloobeck was he was jogging by the PoloTowers site one day and had the idea to buy it and develop it as a timeshare. He had big plans to go international, but later decided to bail out of the timeshare game and perused building malls and an eventual look at running for he governor of Nevada.

The. Sunterra began to have financial problems and either went into bankruptcy or was very near it. Stephen saw an opportunity and bought it for pennies on the dollar. Sunterra itself had acquired other management contracts prior to losing control themselves, including Embassy resorts, which was were the Lake Tahoe and Maui properties entered the picture (I never understood why those didn’t fold into HGVC back then). Cloobeck continued to acquire distressed smaller groups like Club Soliel in Vegas until he decided to sell out and move on.

It’s one of the more complicated stories I know of in timeshare, but there are others that are likely just as complicated. It would be difficult and time consuming to attempt to trace many of the origins of what we see today. Google and Bing really aren’t a lot of help as many of the old web sites were folded into the new companies and those sites don’t reference the history of each individual resort.

Sunterra is how I got into TS. My wife and I were staying in Williamsburg early in our marriage when we were relatively broke. We had a very tight budget for the trip. We were offered free passes to Busch Gardens for going on a tour. As we could use the savings we went for it. They took on a tour and SOLD US a timeshare at Powhattan Plantation. I asked the salesperson that since we bought, could they let us stay at the resort for the rest of our trip. They arranged it. At the end of the week, we decided that we had no business buying a TS when we hadn't even bought a house yet, so we rescinded in person after checking out.

A few years later, we got an opportunity to stay at Powhattan Plantation for a few days with free Busch Garden Tickets when the girls were 2 or 3. I did my homework and took listings from EBAY that were for 10% of what they were asking. I asked why should I buy at your price, when I can buy at this discount price. They told me that if I buy resale - I could only stay at the resort I buy in and the week I own. Whereas if I buy through the developer, I would have access to the 'club' and a point system. Well, we didn't buy. I came home and found TUG. I learned about Wyndham and we bought a TS resale.

Joe

 

[DrQ]

We became familiar with Ramada when we first became timeshare owners with Diamond in the late 90’s. They had body snatchers out in front a a small strip mall, just north of MGM in front of what use to be the Coca Cola museum/store. They were selling what is now HICV at Desert Club Resort. That resort went through a LOT of changes, including a relocation from its original spot to where it is now after the developer of the Link made a cash/land swap to acquire the spot where The Link shopping area and High Roller currently occupy…… or something to that degree. There were a LOT of changes over the course of a decade for that one resort.

Ramada Vacation Suites (RVS) was its own brand when we entered timesharing. We got took^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpurchased at RVS in Orlando. It was an older property and I suspect that Ramada just licensed their name to another company. We were noobs.

A few year after we purchased, the whole system was sold to an under capitalized outfit which I believe was named Celebrity as the brand and they bought out resorts to add to their system. Our resort became the "RVS Leisure Resort in Orlando".

I believe the Vegas deal is what sunk Celebrity. Hell, it almost sunk David Segal (Westgate). After a few years, that imploded into bankruptcy and the resorts were parted out through the bankruptcy court. Our resort was bought by the dark overlord, Westgate, and became the Westgate Leisure Resort.

Silverleaf was a regional timeshare company out of Dallas. Their business model was to find a wooded area within a days drive of a major metro area and build a resort with multiple accommodation tiers. They were originally located in:

• Dallas
• Houston
• St Louis
• Boston
• Atlanta
• Chicago

They would aggressively market via giveaway registration card programs and other means.

They opened "Destination" resorts which were more upscale in:

• Texas Hill Country
• Galveston
• Branson
• Orlando (later)

This provided an upgrade conveyor line for their sales department and worked until they got caught in a credit crunch and were acquired by Cerberus Capital (another dark overlord).

They were eventually sold to Orange Lake Country Club which also operated a system about the same size as Silverleaf. Since OLCC was founded by Kemmons Wilson who also founded Holiday Inn and I suspect IHG financed the deal, the new brand became Holiday Inn Club Vacations and we are survivors of both events.

 

[dioxide45]

I believe the Vegas deal is what sunk Celebrity. Hell, it almost sunk David Segal (Westgate). After a few years, that imploded into bankruptcy and the resorts were parted out through the bankruptcy court. Our resort was bought by the dark overlord, Westgate, and became the Westgate Leisure Resort.

Very interesting. I often drive past that Westgate Leisure Resort and wonder what it is. I see it in the II directory but never thought I saw it available for exchange or getaways. Lolking now, they call it "Westgate Leisure Orlando" in the II directory but "Westgate RVS at Orlando" in inventory. Interesting that the name RVS is still being used there.

 

[dioxide45]

@TUGBrian This seems like a pretty interesting thread for the weekly newsletter... The history of different timeshare systems.

 

[vikingsholm]

Is GPX considered a full timeshare system, or mainly a management system for independently owned properties? Does anyone know how its affiliations work?

I find it a little odd when I see the small but diverse mix of properties that are included in its internal trading system, but which don't necessarily seem to be fully incorporated into GPX as owned or managed resorts of theirs.

This one has always seemed interesting but a bit confusing to me.

 

[dioxide45]

Is GPX considered a full timeshare system, or mainly a management system for independently owned properties? Does anyone know how its affiliations work?

I find it a little odd when I see the small but diverse mix of properties that are included in its internal trading system, but which don't necessarily seem to be fully incorporated into GPX as owned or managed resorts of theirs.

This one has always seemed interesting but a bit confusing to me.

Does GPX develop and sell timeshare inventory?

 

[vikingsholm]

Does GPX develop and sell timeshare inventory?

I'm not sure if GPX is just the exchange medium or the umbrella company (or perhaps subsidiary) that develops and sells those timeshares under the name Grand Pacific Resorts, such as Carlsbad Seapoint, Carlsbad Inn, Grand Pacific Palisades, etc. It seems they've taken on exchanges using GPX for Channel Islands Shores and Mandalay Bay in SoCal as well as several others in Tahoe, Hawaii and elsewhere.

But the specifics of the system and its organization elude my understanding.

 

[skimeup]

I initially bought in Sedona at Los Abrigados, a member of an group of eight timeshares, under the name ILX. I then bought into the group, all of which was scattered around Arizona. Then it went bellyup in the great recession, and was purchased by Diamond. I got out in a hurry!