Hollywood Beach Tower should ditch Capital Vacations

[nellevad]

I am starting this thread because I am very worried about the direction that Capital Vacations seems to be taking Hollywood Beach Tower (HBT). I have been an owner since 2000. I have watched the resort pull itself up out of an area economic slump with a new renovation that made it easier to rent during the years we were not using or swapping. I have kept abreast of the management companies, the rental compaines, the boards, the area and boardwalk refurbishments, Margaritaville's development, etc. I was very happy when HBT passed a vote to continue as a timeshare, under pressure from outside influences to dissolve. I have read many articles about the Hollywood Beach Historic Resort next door, and I know its history and the controvery currently playing out and how it might affect HBT.
But nothing has worried me more than Capital Vactions managing HBT. I understand that they have helped restore maintenance fees to many of the defaulted units. The board seems happy with them. but I see some red flags. I was there in 2022 and experienced a horrible encouter with a Capital Vacations agent. I was not allowed to get a parking pass unless I agreed to a sales pitch on all the Capital Vacation owner benefits I was missing out on. I had to walk away without the pass (I got it later). The staff at the desk seemed unable to do anything without the approval of these agents. I have since done extensive research on this company and my fears are real. Apparently there is a consensus that they are liars and cheats and have roped many people into exorbitant contracts. Just the other day I received notice of the annual board meeting with a proxy to vote for new members. As I read through the bios, I was struck with how many choices I had, which has never happened before. There were 13 people vying for 5 positons--first redflag. Then I noticed only 6 out of the 13 were actual owners. The other 7 were professionals, including the past president of SPM Resorts (which used to be the managing company) that was bought up by Capital Vacations. That person is now a consultant with Capital Vacations. The others are professionals in such businessed as TS realestate, arbitrations, construction, buidling codes, to name a few. But the second red flag is that these 7 are not owners. So why do they want to be on the board of HTB? That is my burning question. Also, the Historic Hollywood Beach Resort, The Grand Old Lady next door, has been sold, closed and condemned. That is a massive bit of realeste to redevelop, and we sit right in the corner, in the way--the third red flag.

 

[theo]

I don’t claim to know anything at all about your particular resort, but gaining control of any Board by “stacking“ it with company-affiliated stooges has obvious advantages in steering / controlling future decisions and direction at ANY resort.

My sympathies regarding the arrival of Capital Vacations / Capital Resorts / Capital “Advantage“ at your resort. I have yet to see, hear or read even a single expression of satisfaction at any timeshare property anywhere after the unwelcome arrival and presence of Capital Vacations personnel or programs.

I can only wish you good luck — you will likely soon need some.

 

[nellevad]

Thank you for your good wishes, lol. The annual meeting is January 11th. I will post the outcome of the election here. I am hoping for the majority to be owners. It may be too late for HBT to move past this management company, but if I can at least alert other owners as to how this company works, I will feel better. HBT is a wonderful property, right on gorgeous Hollywood Beach broadwalk. I do not want to dissuade anyone from buying a unit here, but I want to warn them not to go through Capital Vacations. It is so easy to buy one directly from a previous owner on the web, at a fraction of the cost. So, I will put this information out there in perpetuity, (or as long as this wonderful site exists) hoping people with run across it.

 

[Maple_Leaf]

Just the other day I received notice of the annual board meeting with a proxy to vote for new members. As I read through the bios, I was struck with how many choices I had, which has never happened before. There were 13 people vying for 5 positons--first redflag. Then I noticed only 6 out of the 13 were actual owners. The other 7 were professionals, including the past president of SPM Resorts (which used to be the managing company) that was bought up by Capital Vacations. That person is now a consultant with Capital Vacations.

I'm surprised to hear that a past president of SPM Resorts is actively helping Capital Vacations take over your board.

 

[nellevad]

It's worse than just a past president of SPM (Bill Young). It is also the current president of Resort Capital Advisors, Inc., Henry M. Cairo.

 

[Bwolf]

Many timeshares require board members to be owners. Does HBT?

 

[nellevad]

I have read through the bylaws I was given when I purchased my units back in 2000. In Article 5, it states the Directors have to be members of the Association. But I do not know if there have been amendments since I recieved those bylaws. I used to be able to read past meeting minutes, and updates on the owner portal when SPM was managing. That website is now gone and the new CV owner portal that was initiated this year is a joke. No documents or news, just a link to pay MF's. Which by the way, does not connect anymore, so you cannot pay online with a credit card if you wanted. Our Association Bylaws has a terminatin clause that was ennacted last year, resulting in a vote as to whether to continue with Interval Ownership, or become Tenants in Common. The vote passed to continue Interval Ownerdhip, but every 10 years, there has to be another vote. I'm not sure how Capital Vacations Points owners are considered because I don't think they get a deed. I would be interested in learning more about that program, but not to join, just to be kept inform. So many questions...but I am not going to ask CV agents.

 

[gravityrules]

I don’t claim to know anything at all about your particular resort, but gaining control of any Board by “stacking“ it with company-affiliated stooges has obvious advantages in steering / controlling future decisions and direction at ANY resort.

My sympathies regarding the arrival of Capital Vacations / Capital Resorts / Capital “Advantage“ at your resort. I have yet to see, hear or read even a single expression of satisfaction at any timeshare property anywhere after the unwelcome arrival and presence of Capital Vacations personnel or programs.

I can only wish you good luck — you will likely soon need some.

Capital Vacations (CV) has taken over several independent resort management companies over the years (they acquired VRI in May 2022 and SPM in Dec 2018, and I think there others as well).
I see them as blurring the lines between managing independent resorts and taking over independent resorts through various 'products and services' offered to deal with the resorts defaults and underutilized inventory. That's why they have such aggressive sales pushing their 'points' trusts (CV controls the voting for whatever intervals end up in their points system). You can bet the interval owners not buying into their 'Advantage' points system will still pay dearly for major resort renovations and upgrades designed more to up 'Advantage' sales than to benefit existing owners. This is not a new approach, I think Diamond was a case study in this approach.

A related question, has anyone with a resort managed by VRI noticed changes since CV has taken over?
At one time VRI had an excellent reputation as a resort manager but I'm wondering if that is quickly going away after the acquisition.

 

[theo]

…has anyone with a resort managed by VRI noticed changes since CV has taken over?
At one time VRI had an excellent reputation as a resort manager but I'm wondering if that is quickly going away after the acquisition.

We have long owned a few fixed weeks at a small independent FL property historically (and very well) managed by VRI. However, due to extensive damage from Hurricane Ian in September, 2022, that resort has been closed and is still under repair. Since this occured just a few months after CV‘s acquisition of VRI, there has not yet been any opportunity for CV to be on site to try to peddle its’ snake oil program / products there, so it’s just too early to tell yet. Fortunately, our Board is well aware of (and very dubious about) the well established m.o. of CV, so my hope and belief is that the Capital Vacations sales hyenas and their “Advantage” internal points program will never even get a foot inside the door there. Only time will tell, however.

P.S. You make a very astute (and likely very accurate) observation regarding Capital Vacations “blurring the lines between managing independent resorts and taking over independent resorts”. At Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort for example (where we are not owners), CV bought up 250 HOA owned weeks (for $220k). Although Capital Vacations been given “the boot” from FLBR since then, CV obviously takes the voting power of those 250 weeks with them on their way out the door. CV may even have acquired more weeks than those aforementioned 250 while still on site at FLBR, aggressively peddling those “Capital Advantage” conversions to “points” to existing FLBR owners of deeded weeks. One has to reasonably assume that Capital Vacations has “long range” plans / schemes in mind for the future, not only at FLBR but at any other independent timeshare property where they can acquire ownership of a significant number of weeks from HOA-owned inventory and /or or by hoodwinking existing owners out of cash and into "conversion” of their deeds to Capital Advantage “internal points”.

 

[nellevad]

Yes, long range schemes. I think CV was given 250 units ,twice, at HBT from what I can recall from association news letters over the past couple if years. But they probably have more now. I'm thinking they are planning a move with the board. And that is why CV president, Henry Cairo wants to be on it. If CV retains the deeds, then is he considered an owner?

 

[gravityrules]

We recently stayed at Bay Club of Sandestin which is managed by VRI (there is an adjacent building, same resort name but managed by Wyndham - I'm not referring to that). No issues with staff or condo during our stay other than a difficult to use sliding door to the balcony. They are currently renovating the stucco exterior and replaced those sliding doors and windows. Our unit was clean and well maintained although older construction. Sofa and upholstered chairs could use replacement.
This resort was originally sold as fixed prime summer weeks and all other weeks as floating.
I asked the front desk if the POA had any weeks for sale (in the past the Bay Club website had a list of these weeks) and was told CV bought all those weeks. I was also told floating weeks owners are complaining about not being able to reserve their preferred or any decent weeks.

 

[gravityrules]

Since many owners choose to not vote in the election of their POA board members, what % of weeks would a trust need to acquire to stack the POA of a formerly independent, owner controlled resort with their chosen board members?

 

[theo]

Since many owners choose to not vote in the election of their POA board members, what % of weeks would a trust need to acquire to stack the POA of a formerly independent, owner controlled resort with their chosen board members?

Too many factors at work for a solid answer. How many total weeks exist at the property? How many are HOA-owned? How many different candidates (legitimate or otherwise) seek election to the Board in any given election? Entirely too few owners even bother to vote at all in most timeshare Board elections --- anywhere.

In the final analysis, a simple majority of votes in any given election is all it really takes for "victory" in getting a candidate onto a Board. Capital Vacations having a large block of votes firmly in hand to distribute among their hand-picked company stooge "candidates" is certainly a huge advantage for them toward successfully "stacking" a Board.

 

[nellevad]

HBT annual meeting is Jan. 11th and I will attend through zoom. I will try to ask some pertinent questions during the meeting. If anyone has some good suggestions, I am all ears. I will post what happens. I also plan on using my unit in April, so I can do sleuthing. The parking lot attendent is always friendly and chatty.

 

[nellevad]

Well the meeting came and went, without much real info. They did not receive a quorum and have moved the meeting to tomorrow, but I could not hear the details b/c sound quality was bad. Capital Vacations representative said she was holding the meeting out of good faith to those who had signed up. The budget was reviewed. Some typed questions were not answered. Capital Vacations was accused of bad salesmanship by some attendees, but Captial was defended by their rep. She said that CV has resold 879 since 2015 units and will receive 150 more this year. I asked about the resort nexxt door and the parking garage on the corner. That resort has been petitioned by the owner for a tear down, but is waiting on the city's decision. The owner is also trying to buy the garage but has not come to an agreement with that owner. I asked if they made an offer for The tower, and did not get an answer. Questions were asked why documents are no longer available, not ansered. Now i guess I wait a few days and call the resort for an update on the election.

 

[nellevad]

New meeting schedules for February 8th to vote on BOD, but no information on whether there will be zoom access.

 

[nellevad]

Doing more research, and yes Capital Vacations, with their other entiites: Capital Resort Group Acquisitions, LLC, /Capital Club Trust, Inc/ and Capital Resort Group Develeopment, buy up deeds, add them to their trust, and then sell off the mortgage to the Development group to hold when they "sell" the unit to the indebted party. So it looks like all units eventually land into the trust that Capital then can use to vote as a block. This is what I think happens, but I could of course be wrong. But that is what it looks like to me. Today they have their meeting to choose BOD. I will try next week to call HBT and see if they can give me the results. CVs owner portal no longer has any documents available, plus my dues account page is now blank. No history of payments made.

 

[MAC64]

They are doing the same thing in Branson Mo.. They bought TPI which was our management company. Now everything is going downhill. They have a couple class action lawsuits and I see more in their future. They don't care about the rules because they have money and attorneys. It is just sad.

 

[kc01075]

Yes, I would agree with all the comments previously made about Capital Resorts and VRI. We see the same thing in Branson, Mo. The real question is how do you stop this company?

 

[nellevad]

I would say that people should file complaints to the Attorney General. But, it seems CV's contracts have a clause that states that what is written in the contract supercedes any verbal agreement. Hence, you get these salesperson lying like rugs with impunity. I read through their catalog online where they explain all the levels, fees, club perks, rates to buy points, etc. There are so many places for salesperson to lie because it is so involved. I think the best way to stop them is getting proof that they give out non working contact numbers that prevent people from reconsidering their purchases within the legal cancellation window set by each state. Also, the HOA boards have to be smart enough to toss them out early on. I think it is going to take a few years for their shenanigans to catch up with them.

 

[MAC64]

Yes, I would agree with all the comments previously made about Capital Resorts and VRI. We see the same thing in Branson, Mo. The real question is how do you stop this company?

Where do you own in Branson? We are at Carriage Place Resort

 

[nellevad]

---

 

[kc01075]

Where do you own in Branson? We are at Carriage Place Resort

Text me your phone number 816-536-4212 and I'll give you a call tonight or tomorrow.

 

[theo]

…it seems CV's contracts have a clause that states that what is written in the contract supercedes any verbal agreement. Hence, you get these salesperson lying like rugs with impunity.

I have no use whatsoever for Capital Vacations, but this is actually a very common phenomenon in developer contracts; CV is hardly an “outlier”.

 

[nellevad]

Still working on finding out who was elected. Called this morning and was told the documentnts were now online through the owner portal. When I looked, they were all either 2022 or 2023 documetns. Nothing for the Jan. 11, 2024 meeting or the Feb. 8th, 2024 meeting. I will keep trying.