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

[paxsarah]

Although this does make me wonder if, assuming the market is parents, if there's going to be competition for whatever college "weekend" before the schedules are published? I.e. maybe you have to get online and book immediately after the schedules are published, but if there's no other draw very few non parents will be competing with you right?

For football, alumni as well (which vastly outnumber current parents). For move-in/out, parents. Depending on the university, family weekend may coincide with a home football weekend (as does my alma mater and my kid's current school) or avoid a home football game (as UGA does).

 

[jp10558]

For football, alumni as well (which vastly outnumber current parents). For move-in/out, parents. Depending on the university, family weekend may coincide with a home football weekend (as does my alma mater and my kid's current school) or avoid a home football game (as UGA does).

Sure, but presumably no one can book a football weekend till it's scheduled right? Though you're right this is going to be incredibly hard to book for the weeks/weekends that "anyone" cares about.

 

[Floridaman76]

Having worked for Universities for a few decades I can say that the market for parents not wanting to stay in a tiny hotel room is pretty large. Many parents who can afford to send their kids off to Vanderbilt want to get a place large enough that their student can come stay with them and their siblings at a nice resort with pools and amenities. We had a non-stop stream of parents asking about this.

A timeshare is in most cases a multiple decades long commitment. Your kids go to school for what, 4-5 years unless they are complete slackers or end up going to grad school. And if that's the case, a lot of students don't even go to the same school they went to for undergrad.

Taking into account a parent's desire to visit their kids maybe a couple times a year, does this make sense? An AirBNB/VRBO type rental would make more sense without the commitment.

Also, RE: Football games and Homecoming. As I previously mentioned I went to Univ of Florida which has insane Alumni draw for football and homecoming weekend, but for SEC schools you will have IMMENSE competition and will be "up at midnight 13 months out fighting with all of the other crazy alumni". This will no doubt leave MANY frustrated owners because demand for certain dates will be HUGE, and the rest of the year will be virtuall nil.

And Vanderbilt has literally no sports following. I remember being able to get tickets to away games at Vanderbilt easily. Tuscaloosa not so much.

I still don't see this as a successful model. Huge demand a few weeks out of the year and low occupancy the rest. Pissed off owners who have a really small window of ownership need, if you can even call it that. Once the kid graduates, then what? Especially in a place like Vanderbilt.

 

[Arimaas]

A timeshare is in most cases a multiple decades long commitment. Your kids go to school for what, 4-5 years unless they are complete slackers or end up going to grad school. And if that's the case, a lot of students don't even go to the same school they went to for undergrad.

Taking into account a parent's desire to visit their kids maybe a couple times a year, does this make sense? An AirBNB/VRBO type rental would make more sense without the commitment.

Also, RE: Football games and Homecoming. As I previously mentioned I went to Univ of Florida which has insane Alumni draw for football and homecoming weekend, but for SEC schools you will have IMMENSE competition and will be "up at midnight 13 months out fighting with all of the other crazy alumni". This will no doubt leave MANY frustrated owners because demand for certain dates will be HUGE, and the rest of the year will be virtuall nil.

And Vanderbilt has literally no sports following. I remember being able to get tickets to away games at Vanderbilt easily. Tuscaloosa not so much.

I still don't see this as a successful model. Huge demand a few weeks out of the year and low occupancy the rest. Pissed off owners who have a really small window of ownership need, if you can even call it that. Once the kid graduates, then what? Especially in a place like Vanderbilt.

I think what you are missing is that the majority of people that buy into time shares, in general, are not educated consumers. Your points, all make sense, however, I can assure you, Wyndahm sales folks are not going to be highlighting all you speak about, and are hoping that by the time folks figure all this out, it's way too late. Just my two cents.

 

[Floridaman76]

I think what you are missing is that the majority of people that buy into time shares, in general, are not educated consumers. Your points, all make sense, however, I can assure you, Wyndahm sales folks are not going to be highlighting all you speak about, and are hoping that by the time folks figure all this out, it's way too late. Just my two cents.

I get that, trust me, but at least with a large system like Club Wyndham you have many places you can indeed go to vacation.

We don't know all the details yet, but how compelling is a sytem with just inventory in a few college towns? This will lead to owners stopping paying, foreclosures and system collapse in a not very long timeframe.

Add to this there will be no doubt some "RENTER" type people who buy into this, book all the football game weekends, then people see these on AirBNB when they cant book it themselves.

 

[Arimaas]

I get that, trust me, but at least with a large system like Club Wyndham you have many places you can indeed go to vacation.

We don't know all the details yet, but how compelling is a sytem with just inventory in a few college towns? This will lead to owners stopping paying, foreclosures and system collapse in a not very long timeframe.

Add to this there will be no doubt some "RENTER" type people who buy into this, book all the football game weekends, then people see these on AirBNB when they cant book it themselves.

I agree with all. Except the foreclosure. My guess is folks sending their kids to college AND buying a timeshare in a college town, are likely higher on the education and socioeconomic scale then your average timeshare owner (no offense intenteded), and likely, won't want a foreclosure on their credit. Actually, the more i think about it, the more genius it is by Wyndham. Sell timeshares in a college town, to uneducated timeshare consumers, who are somewhat well off and can afford college + disposable income of a timeshare, and will just continue paying even though they aren't getting the usage they want.

Also, I imagine they will get usage across the Wyndham catalogue, not just SI resorts, like all the ridiculous different tiers of Hilton timeshares, but I guess we won't know until it's out.

 

[Floridaman76]

I agree with all. Except the foreclosure. My guess is folks sending their kids to college AND buying a timeshare in a college town, are likely higher on the education and socioeconomic scale then your average timeshare owner (no offense intenteded), and likely, won't want a foreclosure on their credit. Actually, the more i think about it, the more genius it is by Wyndham. Sell timeshares in a college town, to uneducated timeshare consumers, who are somewhat well off and can afford college + disposable income of a timeshare, and will just continue paying even though they aren't getting the usage they want.

Also, I imagine they will get usage across the Wyndham catalogue, not just SI resorts, like all the ridiculous different tiers of Hilton timeshares, but I guess we won't know until it's out.

Something else they could do is, if this really is a separate system is, they could pull a "well, we also have this much larger system called Club Wyndham, you can use your equity you have in Sports Illustrated and buy into the much larger Club Wyndham for the small fee of $$$$"

It's literally like "grooming" for timeshare owners. Get them whem their kids are in college, once they realize it's useless to them in a few years, sell them on the "well this is a bigger system you can vacation anywhere, lock in vacation prices now, pass it down to your kids when you retire"... We have heard this line of BS in a different way before. This is just one more way to sell it to a new generation of unsuspecting victims.

I guess you could call it genius if it wasn't so sleezy and predatory

 

[Arimaas]

Something else they could do is, if this really is a separate system is, they could pull a "well, we also have this much larger system called Club Wyndham, you can use your equity you have in Sports Illustrated and buy into the much larger Club Wyndham for the small fee of $$$$"

It's literally like "grooming" for timeshare owners. Get them whem their kids are in college, once they realize it's useless to them in a few years, sell them on the "well this is a bigger system you can vacation anywhere, lock in vacation prices now, pass it down to your kids when you retire"... We have heard this line of BS in a different way before. This is just one more way to sell it to a new generation of unsuspecting victims.

I guess you could call it genius if it wasn't so sleezy and predatory

Yes, genius from a sleazy and predatory timeshare industry sales point of view. Believe me, I am no fan of timeshare sales industry (see my replies on the 63 page and counting Wyndham pulling out thread).