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innewguestsandowners. Key to that effort hasbeen thedeveloperOrange
Lake Resorts’ alliance with the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the
world’s largest hotel company. The brand’s flagship property in Orlando,
Florida, located next to the Walt Disney World Resort, was established
in 1982 by Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson. Other resort locations
include Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; Panama City Beach and Marco Island,
Florida; and Las Vegas, Nevada, among eight additional Holiday Inn Club
Vacations resorts, with 13 more resorts expected to join the Holiday Inn
Club soon.
Instead of relying on expensive off-premises contact programs to gen-
erate sales, Holiday Inn Club Vacations relies mainly on guests staying at
nearby Holiday Inn properties or booking into the resort using their IHG
Rewards Club points. Connolly says, “All our leads are relationship leads
from IHG, existing owners, or traditional timeshare exchange guests. This
allows us to look at locations and know we can get the leads required to
have a successful sales operation.”
Even better, when given a tour, IHG Rewards Club members are some
of the best prospects for timeshare sales. “They love Holiday Inn; they love
the history of the brand,” Connolly says. “The fact that we can connect the
founder of our company, Orange Lake Resorts, withHoliday Inn completes
the story for them.”
Focus on Flexibility
Because Holiday Inn Club Vacations Williamsburg
Resort is a drive-to resort, guests often prefer stays
of less than seven nights; the average stay is 4.4
nights. Holiday InnClub Vacations’ timeshare prod-
uct, which combines the security of deeded owner-
shipwith theflexibilityof apointsoverlay, isanatural
fit. That’s true for guests and exchange guests, but
it’s also true for the existing owners at the resort.
“About 40 percent of sales are to existing own-
ers,” Connolly says. “Many of them thought that
their options were limited. Now, they have a whole
newworld of resorts with options for shorter stays.
They can also take those points and use them in
the hotel world in addition to Interval’s exchange
options. They see it as a great add-on, but we are careful to let them know
that what they have is also great and if they want to keep it, we’ll honor that
and they’ll continue to have great vacations.”
For clients interested indifferent typesof vacationexperiences, suchas
urban hotels, the IHG relationship comes with a myriad of options. “Since
we are with the majority of the IHG brands, we can talk to them about
InterContinental, about Crowne Plaza and Indigo; it really expands their
opportunity,” Connolly says. “They can stay at InterContinental properties
all around the world.”
Still, themessage at the sales table is that timeshare vacations arebest.
“With Interval’s network of resorts, we’re able to talk to them about our
resorts and Interval resorts,” he says. “We make the distinction between
timeshare stays and hotel stays. Timeshare stays are always the preferred
experience as a home away from home, and the most affordable, efficient
use of their points. Interval has made it very easy for Holiday Inn Club
Vacations points to translate into the Interval world, so they can get the
vacation they want.”
The company’s expectations for its Williamsburg Resort project have
come to fruition; the resort doubled itsprojectedvolume for 2014, andmore
thandoubled2014salesagainin2015,whilereducingrescissions.Theproj-
ect teamhas been so successful, in fact, that it took home an ARDY award
in the sales andmarketing division at the 2016 ARDAWorldConvention.
33
fast
facts
Holiday Inn Club Vacations
Williamsburg Resort
Developer:
Orange Lake Resorts
Location:
Williamsburg, Virginia
Product:
Deeded product with a points
overlay component
Units:
120 villas including the Signature
Collection, an exclusive luxury-tier product
Website:
ihg.com/holidayinnclubvacations
Social Media:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG