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INSIDER
RESORTDEVELOPER.COM
vacation industry review
APRIL – JUNE 2016
8
Five years ago, Interval International invited Equiant to become an Affiliate
Advantages partner, one of a select group of value-driven companies that offer spe-
cial pricing and services exclusively to Interval clients. Affiliate Advantages partners
include the leading names in their fields, with special expertise in the shared own-
ership industry.
According to Bryan Ten Broek, Interval’s senior vice president of resort sales
and marketing, Equiant came highly recommended. “Meridian Financial Services
reported that they had a strong working relationship with Equiant, and things went
from there,” he recalls. “We met with Equiant’s leadership during a Shared
Ownership Investment Conference and immediately realized that including them in
our lineup represented a unique value proposition for Interval affiliates.”
While Meridian Financial Services is a sophisticated third-party collection
agency that helps developers retain owners, keep them satisfied with their pur-
chase, and keep loans in good standing, Equiant is the first resource for payment
processing, maintenance-fee servicing, document custody, and merchant process-
ing. The two companies have even developed an interface to assist when accounts
move from servicing to collections.
“Having both companies in our corner allows us to present a one-stop-shop
system to potential affiliates,” Ten Broek says. “It’s a seamless transition. The feed-
back we get from developers about their experiences with the program is consis-
tently very positive. Of course, they like saving money, too.”
The Affiliate Advantages program has advantages for Interval, too.“Equiant and
the other partners have done training sessions with our staff where they explain
exactly how their services work and get into the details of the challenges affiliates
may face,” he says.“This allows Interval staff to be a better resource for their clients
and be proactive with ways we can help them be even more successful.”
Partners in Timeshare
Equiant Offering Enhances Interval’s Affiliate Advantages Lineup
Andrew Gennuso, president of Great Destinations Inc.,
doesn’t think anyone else can take care of his club’s owners
the way his employees do. “Our members have one number to
call, no matter what the issue is,” he says. “Our loan servicing
personnel sit right next to our owner services team, and they
work together to deliver the best service possible.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that his company has had to
do without the expertise and technology that a professional
loan-servicing organization can provide. In fact, Great
Destinations is using the same state-of-the-art tools as
Equiant, a leading independent receivables service specializ-
ing in shared ownership. How did that happen, you might ask?
A Hybrid Model
Arizona-based Equiant, which handles an active portfolio
exceeding US$1.2 billion and includes more than 125,000
individual consumer loans, has now moved to a new model
for loan servicing, one that keeps vacation ownership compa-
nies firmly in the driver’s seat. Called Platform as a Service
(PaaS), it’s a hybrid of the traditional loan-servicing model and
the Software as a Service (SaaS) model that’s rapidly taking
over the way computer software for business is delivered.
“Equiant’s new platform provides developers with the
tools to manage their portfolios, the way they want them
managed,” says Peter Moody, Equiant’s vice president of
By Judy Kenninger
Equiant’s New Platform Offers Tools of the Trade
LOAN
SERVICING