Best / Worst management

[summerfun]

We own at Nautical Mile which is managed by SPM Resorts. To us they are hands down the best management company out there. They work with the HOA on making the right decisions for the resort. They do not try to dominate us instead they make suggestion and leave the decision making up to the HOA. Financially our resort has never been in a better position and we owe it all to SPM Resorts.

[barndweller]

I have a resort managed by VRI (Sedona Springs) and love how it has been well maintained & recently upgraded & how customer friendly the management company is. Another small resort I own is Desert Breezes managed by Trading Places. They have done wonders bringing the resort back to great condition at minimal undue cost & do a great job providing a quarterly newsletter, onsite activities, etc. We love them.

The absolute worst is Quintus Vacation Resort Management run by Gary Grottke & Robert Sewell. They are completely inept timeshare developers who have run Hanalei Bay Resort into the ground. They are uncommunicative, unresponsive to owners, and unavailable for comment! Avoid them and their current baby David Wally Resort like the plague. (Nice resort but the developer/management sucks!)

[skimble]

I own 7 VRI resort weeks.
They work hard to save money.
They're conscientious about serving their owners-- giving them the best vacation possible-- a great service orientation.
Management is transparent-- I've never felt like they're trying to eek out extra $ off owner rentals or fees. In fact, there are no unreasonable fees. ($70 for resort transfer fee. 30% on rentals)
Grand Pacific charges exorbitant fees for selling, renting, buying, even Owner's Services-- simply answering our questions, they get about $15/owner/year. And GPR takes up to 50% on rentals. There are fees for selling, fees for buying.
VRI doesn't nickel and dime you on your vacation-- Welk charges for EVERYTHING. (movie rentals, internet access, games and activities.)
Fiscal Responsibility-- at SCI, we've never had a special assessment. (I realize this may be because of the board, but boards change face, management typically stays firm.... let's face it, management has a LOT of input into board decisions.) They SAVED $2 million for refurbishing all the units. And, they don't have enough to finish at this time, so completion of two buildings has been put off until the money is there.
We HAVE a RESERVE, beyond 3%-- this next year with rentals down and possible foreclosures, we likely won't see an increase in dues.
And... at SCI, maintenance fees remain low.

[timeos2]

Originally Posted by skimble

I own 7 VRI resort weeks.
They work hard to save money.
They're conscientious about serving their owners-- giving them the best vacation possible-- a great service orientation.
Management is transparent-- I've never felt like they're trying to eek out extra $ off owner rentals or fees. In fact, there are no unreasonable fees. ($70 for resort transfer fee. 30% on rentals)
Grand Pacific charges exorbitant fees for selling, renting, buying, even Owner's Services-- simply answering our questions, they get about $15/owner/year. And GPR takes up to 50% on rentals. There are fees for selling, fees for buying.
VRI doesn't nickel and dime you on your vacation-- Welk charges for EVERYTHING. (movie rentals, internet access, games and activities.)
Fiscal Responsibility-- at SCI, we've never had a special assessment. (I realize this may be because of the board, but boards change face, management typically stays firm.... let's face it, management has a LOT of input into board decisions.) They SAVED $2 million for refurbishing all the units. And, they don't have enough to finish at this time, so completion of two buildings has been put off until the money is there.
We HAVE a RESERVE, beyond 3%-- this next year with rentals down and possible foreclosures, we likely won't see an increase in dues.
And... at SCI, maintenance fees remain low.

My experience with VRI as well. In fact I was so impressed with them as an owner at a VRI managed resort that when I had the opportunity as a Board member at another resort to make a management change I used VRI as the example of what a good timeshare management company really was and they ended up winning the contract in a spirited competitive bidding process at that second resort. SPM wasn't a bidder but had they been they would have been another strong choice IMO. The key is picking an independent company rather than one with a developer ownership.

[BocaBum99]

It's good to see that VRI is a good management company. I think that the industry will need more companies that just do resort management with no developer affiliation. As the developers suck wind, this may be the trend.

[Ryne08]

What has DRI learned from VRI style of management at CYP I ?

[johnsmith12709]

For managing the organization what are all the features that a man should meet.