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TUGGER Running for Sheraton Mountain Vista Board

Robert D

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I am running for the Sheraton Mountain Vista Board and would appreciate your vote. I've been the treasurer of the Marriott Streamside Douglas board for the past 6 years and our 2022 maintenance fees are less than they were in 2016 while while improving the quality of our resort, which has been rated by guests as one of the best in the Marriott portfolio. I'm a strong advocate for controlling costs while maintaining quality and feel that my skill set is needed on the Mountain Vista board which has experienced increasing fees. You might notice that two of the candidates for this board are Marriott employees who are general managers at other Marriott resorts. I think the Mountain Vista owners would be better served by independent directors vs. employees of the management company. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Robert Donathan
 

The Colorado Kid

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Resorts Owned
Westin Riverfront
Christie Lodge
Apollo Park
Grand Timber Lodge
Indian Palms
Massanutten
Park Regency
Valdoro Mountain Lodge
Marriott Surfwatch
I am running for the Sheraton Mountain Vista Board and would appreciate your vote. I've been the treasurer of the Marriott Streamside Douglas board for the past 6 years and our 2022 maintenance fees are less than they were in 2016 while while improving the quality of our resort, which has been rated by guests as one of the best in the Marriott portfolio. I'm a strong advocate for controlling costs while maintaining quality and feel that my skill set is needed on the Mountain Vista board which has experienced increasing fees. You might notice that two of the candidates for this board are Marriott employees who are general managers at other Marriott resorts. I think the Mountain Vista owners would be better served by independent directors vs. employees of the management company. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Robert Donathan
How do we determine if we can vote? Our Westin Flex membership includes the Sheraton Mountain Vista.
 

Robert D

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I think only owners at Mountain Vista can vote. I received my notice of the annual meeting in the mail today.
 

rcv82

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Colorado
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SMV
WKORV (OFD)
Westin Flex
MVC Trust
GTL
GP8
CWA
You have my votes.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

CaliSunshine

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Not an owner but can you share what your top strategies to control costs were?
 

Robert D

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Bad debts is a problem that most timeshares have where people quit paying their maintenance fees, the HOA gets the unit back, and the other owners have to make up the difference. The Sheraton Mountain Vista HOA, like many if not most HOA's, owns a large number of weeks. The HOA needs a strategy to sell these units and I have not seen any strategy implemented. One strategy we implemented at the Marriott Streamside Douglas was to offer prime (ski) season weeks to existing owners at an attractive price and require that they also take a summer or swing week at a very low price where the HOA ended up collecting future fees on two units. The idea is to leverage the prime season weeks to move offseason weeks. We were able to sell all of our prime weeks and a like number of other weeks under this program. Subsequently, Marriott implemented a buyback program where they would buy the weeks taken back by the HOA. This has been a win/win for both parties in that Marriott needed the extra inventory and it minimized bad debts for the HOA. I'm hoping that Marriott will implement a similar buyback program over time at the Sheraton Mountain Vista. This will stabilize the fees.

Another area I think is important is to monitor the capital costs. Most name brand resorts do a major renovation every 5-6 years and I think it's important to review the items being replaced to be sure that these items need to be replaced. It's important to keep the resort up to date but at the same time to not waste money. Independents don't spend near as much on renovations but owners at high end resorts such as Marriott and Sheraton expect the extra level of quality and keeping the resort up to date is important.

I think these are two areas that apply to most timeshare resorts.
 

Robert D

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The annual meeting is later this week and would appreciate your vote.
 

Robert D

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I would like to thank everyone who voted for me for the Sheraton Mountain Vista board. Unfortunately, I was not elected as the two board positions went to two Marriott employees who as far as I know are not owners at Sheraton Mountain Vista. One is the general manager of the Marriott Mountain Valley Lodge in Breckenridge and the other is the South Lake Tahoe market manager in charge of the Marriott Timber Lodge and Marriott Grand Residences. Apparently Marriott feels that they need more control over the board by electing their employees to the board when qualified owners are available. That said, Marriott owns more weeks than anyone and I respect their legal right to elect their employees but feel that it's a conflict of interest in that some things that are good for the developer are not good for the owners. I hope that the directors will carry out their fiduciary obligation to do what is in the best interest of the owners, not what is in the best interest of their employer.

Robert D.
 

Mowogo

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Resorts Owned
Grandview at Las Vegas; HGVC on Paradise; Bay Club at Waikoloa; Vacation Village Williamsburg; Sheraton Flex
I would like to thank everyone who voted for me for the Sheraton Mountain Vista board. Unfortunately, I was not elected as the two board positions went to two Marriott employees who as far as I know are not owners at Sheraton Mountain Vista. One is the general manager of the Marriott Mountain Valley Lodge in Breckenridge and the other is the South Lake Tahoe market manager in charge of the Marriott Timber Lodge and Marriott Grand Residences. Apparently Marriott feels that they need more control over the board by electing their employees to the board when qualified owners are available. That said, Marriott owns more weeks than anyone and I respect their legal right to elect their employees but feel that it's a conflict of interest in that some things that are good for the developer are not good for the owners. I hope that the directors will carry out their fiduciary obligation to do what is in the best interest of the owners, not what is in the best interest of their employer.

Robert D.
This happens with all timeshares, and is even worse with the points trusts. To get anybody elected, you basically have to organize an uprising among owners.
 

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
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Marriott Grande Vista
Marriott Harbour Lake
Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
Should everyone on the homeowner's association board actually be a "homeowner"?
 

TUGBrian

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very sorry to read, even if it the norm we always hold out hope a regular owner can topple a developer plant!

thank you for caring enough to run in the first place!
 

cubigbird

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Westin Lagunamar, Westin Kierland X2, Westin St John-Sunset Bay X2, Westin Desert Willow, Westin Aventuras
very sorry to read, even if it the norm we always hold out hope a regular owner can topple a developer plant!

thank you for caring enough to run in the first place!

If these two are tied up with Marriott management duties elsewhere and don’t own at SMV, how can they effectively carry out their fiduciary obligations? Very sad. Unfortunately the priority and result is likely higher future maintenance fees. The conflict of interests should be a required disclosure to owners since MVW is a publicly traded company.
 
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