Berkley sold to Vacatia

[timeshare trader]

Vacatia Acquires The Berkley Group and Daily Management

/PRNewswire/ -- Vacatia, Inc., a provider of innovative, customer-centric solutions for timeshare resorts, announced today that it has acquired The Berkley...

www.prnewswire.com

 

[Eric B]

Interesting. Vacatia is the company that Ft Lauderdale Beach Resort contracted with for management services after choosing not to renew Capital Resorts following the VRI acquisition. They seem to be working okay so far.

 

[gravityrules]

So Vacatia will now have Daily Management as well as Berkley, the VV developer. So a new owner for all things VV? Isn't Vacatia being bought out/taken private?
How long before Vacatia begins selling a points based vacation product? That would be a business plan with a similar arc to Capital Vacations (another private equity backed 'wanna play with the big 3' publicly traded TS companies). I assume there's a lot of money to be made in this industry when private equity is getting involved.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Does that acquisition have anything to do with Vacation Village At Parkway's diminished presence on RCI ?

Just wondering what's up.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[dioxide45]

Isn't Vacatia being bought out/taken private?

You are probably thinking of Vacasa.

Vacasa being bought

https://www.koin.com/news/business/arizona-based-vacation-rental-company-will-take-over-portland-founded-vacasa

tugbbs.com

 

[rickandcindy23]

I believe this is the management company for Gold Point in Breck.

 

[gravityrules]

You are probably thinking of Vacasa.

Vacasa being bought

https://www.koin.com/news/business/arizona-based-vacation-rental-company-will-take-over-portland-founded-vacasa

tugbbs.com

Thanks, that is correct, Vacasa is being taken private. Vacatia appears to already be private.

@rickandcindy23 I think Vacatia does manage Gold Point. I found a 2021 Vacatia press release stating they managed 15 resorts at that time.

 

[youppi]

I believe this is the management company for Gold Point in Breck.

exact.
Gold Point won a Tripadvisor Choice Award in 2024 and Vacatia announced it in their blog: https://vacatiapartnerservices.com/...nners-of-tripadvisor-travelers-choice-awards/

There are many posts where they list their winning management contract: https://vacatiapartnerservices.com/blog/

 

[tschwa2]

You are probably thinking of Vacasa.

Vacasa being bought

https://www.koin.com/news/business/arizona-based-vacation-rental-company-will-take-over-portland-founded-vacasa

tugbbs.com

I didn't even notice that they were 2 different things. I also read them both as Vacasa.

 

[silentg]

Also, took over Enchanted Isle Resort Hollywood Beach, FL

 

[Mowogo]

Interesting. Vacatia is the company that Ft Lauderdale Beach Resort contracted with for management services after choosing not to renew Capital Resorts following the VRI acquisition. They seem to be working okay so far.

I had a pleasant stay at Ft Lauderdale Beach Resort last year. Even when I discovered that the AC in my unit was not working it was resolved quickly.

 

[Tamaradarann]

Vacatia Acquires The Berkley Group and Daily Management

/PRNewswire/ -- Vacatia, Inc., a provider of innovative, customer-centric solutions for timeshare resorts, announced today that it has acquired The Berkley...

www.prnewswire.com

Is Vacatia a company that can be expected to deal with the lack of Deedbacks for Vacation Village Properties so that owners that still want their timeshares are not saddled with paying the maintenance for those that no longer want their timeshares and are not paying their maintenance? I Know the maintenane on the Vacation Village Property that I own is $250 more a year due to delinquent owners!

 

[dioxide45]

Is Vacatia a company that can be expected to deal with the lack of Deedbacks for Vacation Village Properties so that owners that still want their timeshares are not saddled with paying the maintenance for those that no longer want their timeshares and are not paying their maintenance? I Know the maintenane on the Vacation Village Property that I own is $250 more a year due to delinquent owners!

I don't think so. Vacatia is simply a resort management company. They do help with resales, but I think the individual HOAs still need to agree to take deeds back. They differ in this regard compared to Capital Vacations. Capital Vacations has their own points based system. So they can take deeds, drop them into the trust and then sell the points.

 

[noreenkate]

So how will this affect owners? Will it make a difference to weeks or points owners or both?

Pros?
Cons?
Best guesses?

 

[STEVIE]

So how will this affect owners? Will it make a difference to weeks or points owners or both?

Pros?
Cons?
Best guesses?

I own at Vacation Village in the Berkshires. I Have not heard anything from them about this. How will this affect my ownership?

 

[amycurl]

Isn’t Vacatia the management company that fired everyone at some resort that had started working with Lemonjuice and the resort had to close suddenly? Active threads on this recently


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[dioxide45]

So how will this affect owners? Will it make a difference to weeks or points owners or both?

Pros?
Cons?
Best guesses?

I own at Vacation Village in the Berkshires. I Have not heard anything from them about this. How will this affect my ownership?

It is far too early to know the answers to any of these questions.

 

[Tamaradarann]

I don't think so. Vacatia is simply a resort management company. They do help with resales, but I think the individual HOAs still need to agree to take deeds back. They differ in this regard compared to Capital Vacations. Capital Vacations has their own points based system. So they can take deeds, drop them into the trust and then sell the points.

Looking at the entire picture, you are correct. The HOA's really are the ones that need to deal with the taking back of Deeds. I believe it is in the best interest of all the maintenance paying owners that the HOA takes back the Timeshare and sell it rather than having delinquent owners. However, the HOA's are in the business of approving the operation of the Timeshare; they are not set up to market and sell timeshares like Vacation Village does so well. That is why I keep mentioning that Vacation Village needs to allow Deedbacks for $0 since then they can resell the timeshare.

Hopefully Vacatia can conceptualize the above into a comprehensive business plan to help out all of the resorts that they will be managing.

 

[dioxide45]

Looking at the entire picture, you are correct. The HOA's really are the ones that need to deal with the taking back of Deeds. I believe it is in the best interest of all the maintenance paying owners that the HOA takes back the Timeshare and sell it rather than having delinquent owners. However, the HOA's are in the business of approving the operation of the Timeshare; they are not set up to market and sell timeshares like Vacation Village does so well. That is why I keep mentioning that Vacation Village needs to allow Deedbacks for $0 since then they can resell the timeshare.

Hopefully Vacatia can conceptualize the above into a comprehensive business plan to help out all of the resorts that they will be managing.

A deed that is taken back as a deed back by the HOA is the same as a delinquent deed. That is unless the resort can resell it or rent it out. If it can't do either of those two things, it is the same as a delinquent week. By not taking back weeks just because someone wants out means there is still a good chance that the fees will be paid.

As for Vacation Village taking back weeks, a lot probably depends on what inventory they are currently sitting on. I understand there is at least one entire building at Vacation Village at Parkway that is not even opened yet. This seems to indicate they have a lot of inventory they are sitting on. Taking back weeks just means Berkley or Daily Management has to pay the fees until they can resell it. Why take weeks back if they still have lots of their own inventory they have to sell?

 

[Tamaradarann]

A deed that is taken back as a deed back by the HOA is the same as a delinquent deed. That is unless the resort can resell it or rent it out. If it can't do either of those two things, it is the same as a delinquent week. By not taking back weeks just because someone wants out means there is still a good chance that the fees will be paid.

As for Vacation Village taking back weeks, a lot probably depends on what inventory they are currently sitting on. I understand there is at least one entire building at Vacation Village at Parkway that is not even opened yet. This seems to indicate they have a lot of inventory they are sitting on. Taking back weeks just means Berkley or Daily Management has to pay the fees until they can resell it. Why take weeks back if they still have lots of their own inventory they have to sell?

I agree with what you are saying in both paragraphs. With that said I will offer the following:

As people get older and more and more fed up with paying their maintenance and the word gets out about not using timeshare exit companies more and more owners will just stop paying their maintenance. We have deeded back some of our timeshares and are still using some so we are still paying some of our maintenance. However, when we no longer need or want the timeshares we will stop paying our maintenance unless we can sell them or Deed them Back. You are correct that if the resort can't resell it or rent in out then why take it back. While that is true; it is a sad commentary on that resort.

The point that Vacation Village has a building that hasn't opened yet so they have lots or inventory leads to my point that perhaps the Timeshare Development Companies need to STOP BUILDING MORE TIMESHARES and concentrate on Deeding Back timeshare units and reselling them. Why spend the money to build more when they can get free inventory by Deeding Back for $0 units that they sold in the past.

 

[Eric B]

There are currently at least 376 Vacation Village weeks available for free on Timeshare Nation, going by those names I recognize. Those are weeks that the owner is willing to foot the bill for transfer to a new owner and in many cases the maintenance fees for the next year. Every time I go to a sales presentation at a Vacation Village resort, I bring a print out of the stuff that's available for free - it tends to shorten the time I spend there. When I owned at The Colonies and at VV Williamsburg, I saw in the budgets that the delinquency rate was around 15% - despite those being decent trading weeks in Interval, that prompted me to divest those weeks to someone else wanting to use them for exchanges. They were good summer weeks, which I don't see available at TSN. I wouldn't hold my breath hoping that Vacatia will decide that taking deed backs for free is in their best interest as a business because it would result in the maintenance fees coming out of their bottom line profits and not being borne by the remaining owners in the HOA budget. It would be nice for folks desiring to divest if VV took deed backs under Vacatia's ownership, I don't really see the incentives lining up to make that happen.

The annoying thing to me about the whole situation is that I was paying for an extra 15% of resort usage that I wasn't getting. The old Massanutten trading power boost program at least gave folks paying their maintenance fees early some extra usage, which seems a fairer way of dealing with the problem since they were already paying for it anyway. It would be nice if that were started up again.

 

[Tamaradarann]

There are currently at least 376 Vacation Village weeks available for free on Timeshare Nation, going by those names I recognize. Those are weeks that the owner is willing to foot the bill for transfer to a new owner and in many cases the maintenance fees for the next year. Every time I go to a sales presentation at a Vacation Village resort, I bring a print out of the stuff that's available for free - it tends to shorten the time I spend there. When I owned at The Colonies and at VV Williamsburg, I saw in the budgets that the delinquency rate was around 15% - despite those being decent trading weeks in Interval, that prompted me to divest those weeks to someone else wanting to use them for exchanges. They were good summer weeks, which I don't see available at TSN. I wouldn't hold my breath hoping that Vacatia will decide that taking deed backs for free is in their best interest as a business because it would result in the maintenance fees coming out of their bottom line profits and not being borne by the remaining owners in the HOA budget. It would be nice for folks desiring to divest if VV took deed backs under Vacatia's ownership, I don't really see the incentives lining up to make that happen.

The annoying thing to me about the whole situation is that I was paying for an extra 15% of resort usage that I wasn't getting. The old Massanutten trading power boost program at least gave folks paying their maintenance fees early some extra usage, which seems a fairer way of dealing with the problem since they were already paying for it anyway. It would be nice if that were started up again.

I agree with just about everything you are saying here including not appreciating paying 15% more for maintenance due to delinquent owners. I figured recently that it was about $250 more in maintenance which is about 20% on the vacation village resort that we own.

The point I am making is that Deeding Back Timeshare Weeks whether it is to the HOA, Management Company, or Developer is getting the week back into the "system" to be sold again or rented. If owners just stop paying their maintenance then it is a hidden cost for the remaining owners to absorb without anyone doing anything about it.

 

[dioxide45]

I agree with just about everything you are saying here including not appreciating paying 15% more for maintenance due to delinquent owners. I figured recently that it was about $250 more in maintenance which is about 20% on the vacation village resort that we own.

The point I am making is that Deeding Back Timeshare Weeks whether it is to the HOA, Management Company, or Developer is getting the week back into the "system" to be sold again or rented. If owners just stop paying their maintenance then it is a hidden cost for the remaining owners to absorb without anyone doing anything about it.

But how long will it be till that week is sold again? The developer is probably sitting on a lot of their own inventory they still have to sell. They would rather the burden of the unpaid fees fall on other owners than it to fall on their bottom line.

 

[Tamaradarann]

But how long will it be till that week is sold again? The developer is probably sitting on a lot of their own inventory they still have to sell. They would rather the burden of the unpaid fees fall on other owners than it to fall on their bottom line.

I agree with you that is why I made this comment earlier: "Vacation Village has a building that hasn't opened yet so they have lots or inventory leads to my point that perhaps the Timeshare Development Companies need to STOP BUILDING MORE TIMESHARES and concentrate on Deeding Back timeshare units and reselling them. Why spend the money to build more when they can get free inventory by Deeding Back for $0 units that they sold in the past."

 

[mountainboy]

Looking at the entire picture, you are correct. The HOA's really are the ones that need to deal with the taking back of Deeds. I believe it is in the best interest of all the maintenance paying owners that the HOA takes back the Timeshare and sell it rather than having delinquent owners. However, the HOA's are in the business of approving the operation of the Timeshare; they are not set up to market and sell timeshares like Vacation Village does so well. That is why I keep mentioning that Vacation Village needs to allow Deedbacks for $0 since then they can resell the timeshare.

Hopefully Vacatia can conceptualize the above into a comprehensive business plan to help out all of the resorts that they will be managing.

From a recent ARDA report...
Some quotes from co-founder of Vacatia... (they were just founded in 2013)...
Let's see...

https://www.arda.org/sites/default/files/media/file/navigating-the-future-of-timeshare_2.pdf?utm_source=Skift&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=White%20Paper%20Reshare