VIRNA Jan-March 2020

Of course, the one technology that virtually every guest expects

is abundant Wi-Fi. “We take every step we can to make sure we’re

not impacting the guest experience,” Kinney says. “We add cellular

repeaters on the roofs and make sure we don’t have dead spots.”

At existing resorts, that can mean tunneling under buildings, which

can be extremely difficult in urban locations where buildings butt up

against one another.

That high-speed internet is often in demand for entertainment as

well as staying in touch with work and home. “Members and guests

are demanding similar or better TVs and connectivity to what’s avail-

able for home use, especially when they are traveling from overseas

and do not have access to data provided from their home country

telecom provider,” Wood says. “Accor Vacation Club installs Samsung

55-inch smart TVs, and we are in the process of transitioning from

in-house movie systems and DVD players to a hospitality casting solu-

tion whereby members and guests can stream their own entertainment

content from their own devices to view on our large-screen TVs.”

That’s the trend of the future, agrees Waltrip. “Where you used

to charge guests for pay-per-view content, now you’re charging for

upgrades to basic internet so they can enjoy the content they’re already

getting from their own streaming services.” Proving once again that

what timeshare vacationers want is all the comforts of home, whether

that’s

Game of Thrones

or an in-suite refrigerator.

Judy Kenninger, head of Kenninger Communications, has been covering the vaca-

tion real estate industry for nearly two decades.

JANUARY – MARCH 2020

VACATION INDUSTRY REVIEW

THE SEBEL BUSSELTON

WESTGATE LAS VEGAS RESORT & CASINO