[MERGED] T&L expands Sports Illustrated Resorts portfolio with New Vacation Ownership Destination in Nashville

[HitchHiker71]

Travel + Leisure Co. Expands Sports Illustrated Resorts Portfolio With New Vacation Ownership Destination in Nashville

Leisure travel company expands into one of the nation’s top sports and entertainment destinations ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Travel…...

www.travelandleisureco.com

Travel + Leisure Co. Expands Sports Illustrated Resorts Portfolio With New Vacation Ownership Destination in Nashville

Travel + Leisure Co. (NYSE:TNL), a leading leisure travel company, today announced plans for a new location for the Sports Illustrated Resorts brand in Nashv...

www.businesswire.com

 

[dioxide45]

I see too much fracturing of the product here. They never heard of KISS? Keep it Simple Stupid. Just some other product they need to try and sell to some different submarket? I understand they already don't sell hard on the Margaritaville product in Nashville. Our salesperson said they mostly sell Club Wyndham Access out of that sales center. I don't understand what they are trying to do here by licensing all these different names. Just build quality properties in places people want to go and keep access simple without a lot of different booking rules.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

Not that traveling to Nashville interests me, and if I did go, it wouldn't be for "sports", BUT
Selling TSs at developer prices is a highly emotional business. Nothing rational about the buying decision.
Sports fandom is a highly emotional past-time. Nothing rational about most things "REAL" sports-fans say or do.
Seems like a great fit.
I would think they deserve praise for actually buildign something rather than just recycling the junk.

 

[Floridaman76]

I remember hearing about this Sports Illustrated thing as a possibility at an update over a year ago, I think I even posted about it here, it seemed pretty far fetched to me because of some of the cities they touted, like "Tuscaloosa, AL"... really? Other than Alabama fans visiting that dump of a city for "Tide" games, I cannot see that as a destination that would have ongoing year round support.

 

[CO skier]

I think there are hotel brands touting their (new) college town and sports team locations. If that model is working, extending it to timeshares is a natural. It all seems like something that will be out of fashion in less than 10 years, and the timeshares will be voted out by owners and turned into condos.

 

[Rolltydr]

I remember hearing about this Sports Illustrated thing as a possibility at an update over a year ago, I think I even posted about it here, it seemed pretty far fetched to me because of some of the cities they touted, like "Tuscaloosa, AL"... really? Other than Alabama fans visiting that dump of a city for "Tide" games, I cannot see that as a destination that would have ongoing year round support.

Okay, while I can’t really argue your main point that it isn’t a destination city, I disagree that Tuscaloosa is a dump. It’s your average public university town. Everything revolves around the university with it’s academic endeavors and sporting events. It’s actually a very vibrant town if that is what you want, and one of the more progressive cities in Alabama (granted, that’s a very low bar). At one point in our lives, we thought we might retire there as we lived in Birmingham (an hour way) and held season tickets in three sports. It was just logical to be closer to the action instead of having to spend 2-3 hours in the car for every event. We eventually decided we wanted other things available to us, as well as, better medical care as we got older.

I will be very interested to see how the SI resort does there, as well as, other college towns. Nashville is already a destination city so I see that one doing well because of everything else Nashville has to offer.

 

[jp10558]

Personally I think while the sports themeing may inspire some purchasers, it might well also turn off others. I know I would have less interest in anything sports themed to stay at, forget about buying (unless somehow the MF/pt was amazingly low and I used it solely as a points generator resale). I also think that like @dioxide45 said, fracturing the club is a negative. I guess T&L feels like HGV and MVC have a good thing going with the incompatible systems, but I think that's because they bought entire systems, much like Worldmark for T&L. I don't think that's actually a sales pitch though maybe it does help repeat buyers cause you actually do have to buy something different to fully get access to the other systems. Though I guess all this mostly applies to educated buyers who aren't buying retail anyway.

I wonder how much the actual product even matters for the retail buyer - the salespeople can flim flam anything apparently, so it doesn't matter much if the system is that useful.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I see too much fracturing of the product here. They never heard of KISS? Keep it Simple Stupid. Just some other product they need to try and sell to some different submarket? I understand they already don't sell hard on the Margaritaville product in Nashville. Our salesperson said they mostly sell Club Wyndham Access out of that sales center. I don't understand what they are trying to do here by licensing all these different names. Just build quality properties in places people want to go and keep access simple without a lot of different booking rules.

Agreed. I’ve never been one to care much about branding and marketing. In Japan there’s no such thing as Acura and Infiniti, etc, it’s just higher end models of Honda and Nissan. Different kind of culture. Branding seems to be much more important in the US culture for some reason, though that reasoning largely escapes me. If you build or deliver a quality product or service that I like, that’s all that matters to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jp10558]

Agreed. I’ve never been one to care much about branding and marketing. In Japan there’s no such thing as Acura and Infiniti, etc, it’s just higher end models of Honda and Nissan. Different kind of culture. Branding seems to be much more important in the US culture for some reason, though that reasoning largely escapes me. If you build or deliver a quality product or service that I like, that’s all that matters to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My naive understanding is Japan culturally is less flashy / outgoing than the US by quite a bit. What might get you shunned in standing out in Japan is more likely to get you fawned over in the US. I was just listening to a podcast from some psychologists (not american though) who were talking about how people will often indicate their identity a bit via their possessions. So while a high end Toyota is probably the same as a Lexus, it's way less conspicuous to have just a model # vs a whole brand that says "luxury".

I think this also explains counterfit luxury bags for instance - I really don't believe there's a functional difference between a "superfake" $4,000 Birkin and a "Real, need an X-Ray machine to determine the difference" $50,000 one. TBH, I doubt if there's much of a functional difference between a "good fake" $600 one and the "superfake", just that an expert might not need that X-Ray machine to determine it's not "real". These are entirely about cultural cache and a sort of cultural statement, I might even go so far as to say "showing off". On the other hand, there's basically 0 counterfeit Porches - there would be way more places for obvious functional differences so you can't get a 1/100 discount and the same functions, at least depending on how you define functions (I guess you could get a $5,000 beater and claim it has the same function of driving you around, but that's really missing my point). And by the time you get competitive, you're at least at 1/4ish the cost and you could and people do just make competing brands.

Anyway, for whatever reason, people in the US are constantly taught that branding is important (make your personal brand, etc). We also tend to have brands promote lifestyle and political messages too, so whether we mean to or not, other people do infer things about the brands of stuff you own - you might well like offroading, but a Subaru says something different than a Jeep.

 

[emeryjre]

College Town Sports is a niche market
But if you are a supporter of your alma mater
It is a huge deal
Football stadiums with seating for 80K plus fans are sold out every Home Game
There is a market for this type of product
It is just not for everyone

 

[paxsarah]

College Town Sports is a niche market
But if you are a supporter of your alma mater
It is a huge deal
Football stadiums with seating for 80K plus fans are sold out every Home Game
There is a market for this type of product
It is just not for everyone

As someone who has lived in college towns almost my entire adult life, the hype is there for about 6-8 weekends in the fall and a handful of other big events, while vacation ownership is a 365 day per year business. The question is whether they can extend that hype to all 365 days, which is what vacation ownership requires. Ask me how exciting Athens or State College are in February.

 

[dioxide45]

College Town Sports is a niche market
But if you are a supporter of your alma mater
It is a huge deal
Football stadiums with seating for 80K plus fans are sold out every Home Game
There is a market for this type of product
It is just not for everyone

The problem is that it is also highly seasonal and also weekend heavy. How are they going to fill rooms Monday through Thursday?

 

[jp10558]

The problem is that it is also highly seasonal and also weekend heavy. How are they going to fill rooms Monday through Thursday?

Yea, where I live there's always a huge rush for each graduation weekend as well, and move in/move out days too. But again, these all feed the hotels - and in a lot of ways they're somehow keeping quite a number of hotels going. The rest of the year the hotels do not have a lot of business. I can't see something like this ever working for a TS though - they need the 80% occupancy.

 

[Rolltydr]

Agree with the last few posts 100%. However, could it be that something new like this could satisfy those people who like the quieter resorts in rural areas, as well as sports fans, so that the two combined could use the SI resorts enough to "replace" the legacy resorts that will be closed? While I would never go to Villa Rica or Fairfield Glade, I would definitely go to Tuscaloosa or Athens or many other college towns for a week. In fact, we used to travel to all the Alabama away games and I have been to all of those towns, sometimes staying in nearby Wyndham resorts (Branson MO, Sevierville, TN, Nashville TN, New Orleans LA, San Antonio TX and I'm sure I'm missing some others). I would gladly book a trip to a college town to stay closer to the game site and experience more of the local atmosphere, as well as, take the opportunity to rest and relax some prior to and/or following, the big game. I'm sure there are many more like me.

 

[emeryjre]

As someone who has lived in college towns almost my entire adult life, the hype is there for about 6-8 weekends in the fall and a handful of other big events, while vacation ownership is a 365 day per year business. The question is whether they can extend that hype to all 365 days, which is what vacation ownership requires. Ask me how exciting Athens or State College are in February.

To quote a top salesman
I just sell it
I just get people excited about it
I leave the boring details and actual implementation to someone else

I certainly don't bring up the fact that we sold 100 units to people expecting to use prime time
And we only have 10 units available for prime time

 

[WaikikiFirst]

My naive understanding is Japan culturally is less flashy / outgoing than the US by quite a bit. .... So while a high end Toyota is probably the same as a Lexus

Boy, it is a lot more complicated than that. Have you ever been to Tokyo ... Ginza, etc? It makes every place ,other than Vegas, in the US look like Nashville.
Have you ever seen a Japanese comedy show? Ever seen Japanese comedians? They make American ones look like Ma & Pa Kettle.
High-end Japanese car? They have this "fetish" for foreign stuff at the high-end. Honda made (makes?) a car called the NSX. It is basically a GT-style racing car like a Ferrari. I've seen as many of them in the US as I have in Tokyo, and I've spent a good amount of time in Tokyo.
You want to feel "special" in Tokyo? Drive a German sports-car, not a domestic.
You want to feel "young & special" in Tokyo? Drive an ITALIAN sports-car, not a domestic.

Of course, Tokyo vs rural Japan presents a larger gap than NYC vs the rural US does. It is kind of like in France. Paris is the center of basically everything modern / important. Tokyo is almost the same. USA doesn't have that. DC is the govt. NYC is NYC. LA is entertainment. etc.

I had to bleeping LMAO at the recent thread where someone called OSAKA the "most livable" city in Japan. I emailed a couple of Japanese I know. They're not relatd and from different parts of Japan. THey LTAO too. What does Osaka have? Comedians. Illegal immigrants. Scams. Yakuza. Yaki niku. Awesome place to live if you want to smell greasy, smoky, garlicy and go to a wacky, more physical than thinking, comedy show with dozens of other people who smell the same. (and have to lock your doors when you leave home)

 

[WaikikiFirst]

Y'all have to stop thinking like Peter "Buy What You Know" Lynch.
They're not trying to sell it TO YOU, and they're not yet worried about the impact of shoulder-season on exchanging.
I agree with everything Hitchhiker said above and I know that is the exact wrong way to think about selling things to "Americans". If I had used myself to invest using Lynch's advice, I'd be poor.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

To quote a top salesman. I just sell it. I just get people excited about it

Mic drop

 

[Sandi Bo]

I quote a top salesman
I just sell it
I just get people excited about it
I leave the boring details and actual implementation to someone else

I certainly don't bring up the fact that we sold 100 units to people expecting to use prime time
And we only have 10 units available for prime time

Haha. One of my favorite stories. I'll show my age. I worked in IT publishing the yellow pages (which used to be the most profitable area for the Ma Bell's). Ads in the yellow pages cost beaucoup dollars. Salespeople would sell stuff we couldn't print (graphics weren't supported type stuff). We would literally stop the mainframe processing mid-stream, manually tweak the print files, and then continue the mainframe processing / print functions. No matter what anyone said, sales would sell stuff we couldn't support yet were contractually obligated to deliver.

 

[dioxide45]

To quote a top salesman
I just sell it
I just get people excited about it
I leave the boring details and actual implementation to someone else

I certainly don't bring up the fact that we sold 100 units to people expecting to use prime time
And we only have 10 units available for prime time

That is how the industry operates. It just seems in this type of situation it is more extreme.

 

[jp10558]

Boy, it is a lot more complicated than that. Have you ever been to Tokyo ... Ginza, etc? It makes every place ,other than Vegas, in the US look like Nashville.

It's like you don't even read what I write. I hedged it as naive because I don't have an undergraduate degree in Japanese culture, nor have I spent time there. Of course there's complications - no broad statement is going to ever capture nuance of a complicated thing like a culture. I was literally shooting the *bleep* making a guess about why "Branding seems to be much more important in the US culture for some reason" - it's kind of crazy to go off like this like I was making some huge point that I felt I had 100% the info on.

High-end Japanese car? They have this "fetish" for foreign stuff at the high-end. Honda made (makes?) a car called the NSX. It is basically a GT-style racing car like a Ferrari. I've seen as many of them in the US as I have in Tokyo, and I've spent a good amount of time in Tokyo.

Yes, I've heard of the NSX. And the GTR. Somewhat irrelevant IMO as to why Toyota doesn't also have a Lexus luxury brand in Japan.

You want to feel "special" in Tokyo? Drive a German sports-car, not a domestic.
You want to feel "young & special" in Tokyo? Drive an ITALIAN sports-car, not a domestic.

So this proves me wrong how? Like, aside from being an ass - what are you showing here? What is the cultural reason branding doesn't seem as important in Japan? Or are you flailing to try and poorly say the original thought (not from me) was completely wrong and it's some other reason Toyota doesn't sell Lexus in Japan? I don't get the feeling anyone claimed branding was irrelevant to selling in Japan, just that their methods do not include spreading out the brands like car companies do in the US, and my follow up was that I think the US puts quite a premium on branding in general, pointing to "personal brands" as described in various self help books and influencers posts.

 

[jp10558]

They're not trying to sell it TO YOU,

Wow, better never claim out preferences about anything on this forum - of course they're not trying to sell it TO ME. And of course logic goes out the window with the way retail TS sales work. I think they can probably sell cardboard boxes on the street as TS to some people. It's still relevant for people to comment that it doesn't really increase the desirability of the system as a whole, especially as they're obviously re-arranging the whole system (see the resort closing thread). Does T&L care if TUG is excited? Almost certainly not. But people reading on TUG care if it's a "wow, this is a great addition to the system" vs "this is a wet fart".

 

[Sandy VDH]

So is this actually a new product in Nashville, or it is a just a rebranding of inventory in one of the other two Nashville locations?

 

[dioxide45]

So is this actually a new product in Nashville, or it is a just a rebranding of inventory in one of the other two Nashville locations?

Based on the article indicating it will be on Music Row, it looks like a new property. The Margaritaville property is near the historic district and the other one isn't even anywhere close to downtown.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Based on the article indicating it will be on Music Row, it looks like a new property. The Margaritaville property is near the historic district and the other one isn't even anywhere close to downtown.

The Original resort is over by Grand Ole Opry