Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort dropping Capital Vacations as Management Company

[BM243923]

Received a letter from the board of directors of the Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort stating they are dropping Capital Vacations as the resort Management Company.
The previous contract with VRI expires December 31/23 which Capital took over.
The lease for their sales presentation center will terminate December 31/23
The letter said "it just didn't work out".
They are seeking a management company as of January 1, 2024

 

[jackio]

My timeshare in Hawaii, Hawaiian Sun Holidays, just went with Capital. Based on what I have read, I am concerned. I've been happy with my VRI resorts in the past.

 

[BM243923]

They sat in the lobby of our resort. You had to go and talk to them to get a parking permit.
They told lots of lies about the financial stability of the resort and pressured owners to go to their sales presentation. They wanted you to trade your unit in for membership in their vacation club. I did not attend their presentation, but heard from others around the pool, they wanted you to pay them $40,000.0 to get points, the price dropped considerably when you said no.

Last year I checked in end of January and they proceeded to call my cell phone twice a day. I kept blocking the numbers and they called on different extensions. It did not stop till I threated them I would report them for harassment. The calls have stopped.

Glad I will not have to go through them again this year when I arrive.

 

[bnoble]

I'm sure the Board has some ideas about who to go to next, but they could do a lot worse than Grand Pacific.

Management Services | Grand Pacific Resorts

Learn about Grand Pacific Resorts' Resort Operations, Association Services, Financial Services, Legal Services, and more.

www.grandpacificresorts.com

We own at a place that had GPR for a minute, and they were very good.

The one thing they do not do is sell timeshares. That sounds great ("no parking pass BS!") but it is less great at an older resort with a lot of owners in default. It's hard for such resorts to make that back via rentals in a crowded market with many brand names and newer resorts. The only way to get out of that problem is to resell the foreclosed weeks.

This is one of the reasons I was happy with the switch back to one of the larger developers, despite the fact that IMO they are not as good as a management company. They had a way of recycling non-performing intervals that is more likely to work. COVID accelerated the need to do that, and so far so good.

 

[klpca]

I'm sure the Board has some ideas about who to go to next, but they could do a lot worse than Grand Pacific.

Management Services | Grand Pacific Resorts

Learn about Grand Pacific Resorts' Resort Operations, Association Services, Financial Services, Legal Services, and more.

www.grandpacificresorts.com

We own at a place that had GPR for a minute, and they were very good.

The one thing they do not do is sell timeshares. That sounds great ("no parking pass BS!") but it is less great at an older resort with a lot of owners in default. It's hard for such resorts to make that back via rentals in a crowded market with many brand names and newer resorts. The only way to get out of that problem is to resell the foreclosed weeks.

This is one of the reasons I was happy with the switch back to one of the larger developers, despite the fact that IMO they are not as good as a management company. They had a way of recycling non-performing intervals that is more likely to work. COVID accelerated the need to do that, and so far so good.

We are happy with Grand Pacific too. The maintenance fees aren't the lowest but they keep the properties in good shape. I especially like their internal exchange system.

 

[Eric B]

Great to hear the news. I was happy with the job VRI was doing, but the Capital Vacations sales pitch I sat through was just plain annoying; I like going to resorts without sales.

 

[bchill]

Received a letter from the board of directors of the Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort stating they are dropping Capital Vacations as the resort Management Company.
The previous contract with VRI expires December 31/23 which Capital took over.
The lease for their sales presentation center will terminate December 31/23
The letter said "it just didn't work out".
They are seeking a management company as of January 1, 2024

We usually pay our maintenance fee ahead and deposit with II. Any idea Howe can do this?

 

[BM243923]

Nothing is different until Jan 1st 2024.

The board had their annual budget meeting Oct 21st and will do a mailing shortly. It will tell you your new maintenance fees and sure instructions about payments. They will probably announce new name of management company.

The resort is managed by the board who make all the decisions. The staff all work for the resort. The management company just looks after payments of maintenance fees and record keeping.

 

[Eric B]

FLBR has chosen Vacatia as their new management company effective January 1, 2024. Instructions on paying MFs for weeks 1-8 are in the attached - they are looking for payment by check prior to the due date.

Edited to add a scan of the form for MF payment.

 

[theo]

Being completely unfamiliar with “Vacatia” as a management company, any knowledge or insights into who / where / how big they are, or how they came to be selected as the new FLBR management company?

 

[Bwolf]

Theo: Vacatia now manages three east end Sanibel resorts: Shell Island Beach Club, Lighthouse Resort & Club, and Sanibel Beach Club II. It is possible the company may become popular with VRI Resorts in Florida that want to escape the nonsense that is Capital Vacations.

I have heard from a VRI employee that Vacatia is not a very good management company. However, it is not in any way affiliated with Capital Vacations.

 

[Eric B]

Theo: Vacatia now manages three east end Sanibel resorts: Shell Island Beach Club, Lighthouse Resort & Club, and Sanibel Beach Club II. It is possible the company may become popular with VRI Resorts in Florida that want to escape the nonsense that is Capital Vacations.

I have heard from a VRI employee that Vacatia is not a very good management company. However, it is not in any way affiliated with Capital Vacations.

Wouldn’t be too surprised, but that could be influenced by conflict. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

 

[theo]

I have heard from a VRI employee that Vacatia is not a very good management company. However, it is not in any way affiliated with Capital Vacations.

Well, at least that's a "plus". I have yet to see, hear, or read anything positive about Capital Vacations / Capital Resorts / Capital Advantage --- anywhere.

I am genuinely grateful that Capital Vacations' influence and / or presence has not been evident in any way (...so far) at our one VRI-managed property.
No sales hyenas, no peddling of the alleged wonders of Capitals’ internal points program (...so far). I sincerely hope that it stays that way; only time will tell.

 

[Glenn2]

I too received all of the FLBR announcements in the mail yesterday. However I didn't wait for this paperwork to be mailed to me. Last week, prior to November 30th, I paid my maintenance fees for my 2 weeks online just as I had done last year. The owners portal had the same 2024 balance due as I now see on the Maintenance Fee Schedule that just arrived, for Type A 2 bedroom 2 bath units. I received an email payment confirmation for my payment. I will now need to check and make sure this payment stays with my account. I am sure others proactively went to the website to pay their 2024 balance. Personally, I rarely use paper checks for any sort of payment anymore.

 

[BM243923]

I also paid my maintenance fees through the Capital portal unaware of the procedure for this year

 

[Eric B]

I held off in order to avoid having Capital Vacations take a percentage as they annoyed me a bit my last trip there with the sales presentation.

 

[BM243923]

Today is December 6th and our mail has arrived for the day.

I live in Canada and still have not received the letter the resort sent out.

If Eric had not posted the letter, I still would not know of this procedure.

Thank you Eric for sharing the letter.

 

[Eric B]

Thank you Eric for sharing the letter.

You're quite welcome!

 

[pedro47]

Did Capital Vacations do a good of maintaining the resorts standards? I asked this question because the resort views by guests are all over from good to bad.

When was the last time the resort furniture and appliances were upgraded?

The one area that stands out as excellent is the resort location.

 

[Eric B]

Capital Vacations never had anything to do with the maintenance of the Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. All they did was buy out VRI, which was the resort's management company, and set up a sales site at FLBR.

 

[theo]

Capital Vacations never had anything to do with the maintenance of the Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. All they did was buy out VRI, which was the resort's management company, and set up a sales site at FLBR.

Capital Vacations did buy up 250 non-performing (i.e., HOA owned) weeks at FLBR at the end of 2022, thereby now paying $221,000+ per year in maintenance fees for 250 weeks that would otherwise collectively still be paying a total of exactly $0.00 per year. That certainly wouldn't seem to be a bad thing for the finances of FLBR.

 

[Eric B]

Capital Vacations did buy up 250 non-performing (i.e., HOA owned) weeks at FLBR at the end of 2022, thereby now paying an annual $221,000 per year in maintenance fees for 250 weeks that would otherwise collectively still be paying exactly $0.00 per year. That certainly can't be a bad thing for FLBR.

Agreed - that should be beneficial to the cash flow for FLBR. When I was there right after they had switched things over to Capital Vacations running the collection of maintenance fees, etc., the folks at FLBR made a point of posting a sign stating that Capital Vacations was not managing the resort, which I took to mean that the HOA is actually doing the decision-making on management of resort upkeep/maintenance/upgrading. I'm not terribly involved in the HOA other than reading the stuff they mail out.

 

[theo]

<snip>...the folks at FLBR made a point of posting a sign stating that Capital Vacations was not managing the resort, which I took to mean that the HOA is actually doing the decision-making on management of resort upkeep/maintenance/upgrading. <snip>

Yes, I clearly recall seeing that "notice" posted quite prominently at the front desk when we stayed there for a week on a rental. Having no familiarity with FLBR, I took that "notice" to subtly(?) communicate "Please don't associate us with those obnoxious sales hyenas who have set up shop over there across the room and on the top floor".

 

[BM243923]

It looks like Capital online portal for Fort Lauderdale Beach resort has now been turned off.
Tried getting in the past few days and cannot

The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.​

 

[Eric B]

It looks like Capital online portal for Fort Lauderdale Beach resort has now been turned off.
Tried getting in the past few days and cannot

The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.​

The link to Vacatia from the flbr.net site to Owner's Corner is now active. I was able to set up a log on and see my ownership info there but they haven't populated a payment option yet.