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

jp10558 said:
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?
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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).
 
paxsarah said:
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).
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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.
 
dsanner106 said:
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.
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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.
 
Floridaman76 said:
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.
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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.
 
Arimaas said:
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.
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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.
 
Floridaman76 said:
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.
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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.
 
Arimaas said:
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.
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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
 
Floridaman76 said:
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
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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).
 
Still a real lack of details. Until they start selling the product with Nashville apparently later this year, we probably won't know much. Even when they do start selling we probably won't learn a lot unless they update the directory to indicate when or if Club Wyndham owners might be able to book SI resorts.
 
One would think this is just going to end up being some units in an existing structure, not a new development. I don't see them having the jack for that right now. Did Nashville turn out to be a floor or two in a redeveloped existing building?
 
Floridaman76 said:
One would think this is just going to end up being some units in an existing structure, not a new development. I don't see them having the jack for that right now. Did Nashville turn out to be a floor or two in a redeveloped existing building?
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According to the article, Chicago will be a redeveloped hotel. I don't have the bandwidth to track down what hotel it might be.

Nashville is likely more than just one floor - someone found the purchase that included just one floor (2nd) of the building, but it was plausibly posited that that's going to be the sales floor and they'll use the just in time model to transfer more units as sales ramp up.
 
It is a happenin place. Just saw this
Shares of Lyft are at a three-year high ... announced partnership with Alphabet's Waymo to bring robotaxis to Nashville.
 
I find it interesting that although the initial talk and publicity of Sports Illustrated timeshare resorts centered around traditional college towns, everything since then has been major cities that also happen to have universities (because what major city doesn't, really?). Maybe the true college-town concept will die with Tuscaloosa. :ROFLMAO:
 
Nashville is not a sports town (they do have a college, Vanderbilt, who has always sucked and the one pro team they have is mediocre). Chicago can be considered a sports town, but not because of their colleges, but rather their pro franchises.
 
Floridaman76 said:
Nashville is not a sports town (they do have a college, Vanderbilt, who has always sucked and the one pro team they have is mediocre). Chicago can be considered a sports town, but not because of their colleges, but rather their pro franchises.
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I agree that Nashville is not a sports town, but I do want to point out that Vandy is coming up in the college football world. Go ‘Dores, Anchor Down!
 
TheHolleys87 said:
I agree that Nashville is not a sports town, but I do want to point out that Vandy is coming up in the college football world. Go ‘Dores, Anchor Down!
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I slightly quibble that it isn’t a sports town and suggest that it isn’t only a sports town. It has truly become a destination city with so much to see and do and, obviously, a great music scene. Vandy has, at times, had very good baseball and basketball programs. Also, the city does an excellent job hosting the SEC Basketball Tournament every year. I’ve been to that event several times and its in a perfect location. Granted, the Titans are down right now but have had some very good teams in the not too distant past, and they have an NHL team. And, if Vandy truly turns the corner in football and can keep Clark Lea as coach (and maybe keep Pavia for several years) I would suggest it will be a great sports town!
 
Vandy will always be an "also ran" in the SEC, let's be real. They might be getting better in that they aren't the doormat they used to be, and also coincidentally Alabama is having an off couple years.
 
Basic research. Cliff notes: it's a 1920's era building, purchased by Virgin in 2013, which renovated it into a 250 room hotel. A very expensive and time consuming remodel.

"The Old Dearborn Bank Building was constructed between 1926 and 1928 with ornate medieval and mythological terra-cotta decoration that was typical of movie palaces that were its contemporaries"

"The final layout of 250 rooms includes 40 single-room suites and two penthouse suites."

So it's a hotel, and i'm guessing Wyndham will only have a fraction of the rooms here

Lots of discussion in the Wiki page about the building about how the renovation took longer than expected because of the historic requirements the building falls under, so i'm dying to know how "striking sports visuals" will fit in, or be allowed by the historic commission that governs these things.

Also the irony of Wyndham "dying to get out of old properties because they are so expensive to maintain", can't wait to get into a 1920's era building. One would have to imagine this is a sublet or partial lease, not a purchase. But still.

en.wikipedia.org

Virgin Hotels Chicago - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Reading this thread I noticed lots of discussion regarding the viability of college town locations. I stayed at the Varsity Club in South Bend Indiana about 20 years ago through II. Notre Dame location and very definitely Sports Themed. Just looked it up and it is still in existence and now part of Hilton TS. I am not American and west coast to boot, so no idea how Tuscaloosa compares to Notre Dame. But it would seem that at least that "sports" location has been successful.
 
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