APRIL – JUNE 2013

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F I N T E R V A L I N T E R N A T I O N A L

PROFILES ACCOR VACATION CLUB ! ASTANA LIFESTYLE CLUB ! HYATT KA’ANAPALI BEACHMORRITT’S TORTUGA CLUB ! SPINNAKER RESORTS ! WINDJAMMER LANDING VILLA BEACH RESORT

ASTON TURNS 65BEDDING TRENDS:

COLOR, CHOICE, CONSCIENCEDUBAI ON THE GROW

DELIVERING THE

Cool DigitalTools forSalesSuccess

RESORTDEVELOPER.COMvacation industry reviewAPRIL – JUNE 2013

34

PROFILE

Yin-and-Yang Success With Centralized Operations and Diversified Products

By Matt McDaniel

Spinnaker Resorts

The timeshare industry tendsto foster two extremes: larger-scaledevelopers that have successfully honedan exact methodology for how they dobusiness regardless of the destination,and boutique-resort operators who designa totally different offering for each site.Spinnaker Resorts does business with acurious juxtaposition: centralized operationsthat ensure consistency in customerservice along with regionalized productsthat are tailored to the needs and wants ofthe owners at that destination.

Spinnaker Resorts, which landdeveloper Ken Taylor founded in 1982, has11 resort properties in three locations !Hilton Head, South Carolina; Branson,Missouri; and Ormond Beach, Florida !and is actively selling at each. Today,

Taylor is Spinnaker’s president (and co-owner, along with his wife, Joan), and thecompany has other family members asexecutives, including Taylor’s daughtersChristine Taylor (executive director)and Carolyn Oliver (executive director),and Carolyn’s husband, Shawn Oliver(executive director of sales and marketing).

Reservations CentralThe company serves its 40,000 ownersthrough a centralized reservation team.“When an owner calls or emails us, ourfocus is to provide a customer experiencethat is second to none,” says CarolynOliver, acknowledging how such goalshave become even loftier than in yearspast. “This industry’s increased productofferings have definitely increasedpeople’s expectations of resorts,” sheexplains. She says that Spinnaker strivesto deliver the best experience throughconsistent communication.

Oliver notes that having a centralizedteam is critical to providing consistency !as well as engendering an eagerness tovisit. “We sell vacations, and our ownersshould be excited about their vacations,”she says. “We want to ensure ourreservationists enthusiastically assist ourowners in booking and planning theirvacations.”

Shawn Oliver agrees, adding thatcentralization offers a better managementoversight to provide a better customerexperience. “Reservationists can havebetter expertise when the owner servicesmanager works from the same office ratherthan remotely,” he says. “As a company, wetake a very hands-on approach. Whenoperations are decentralized as they werepreviously, it is difficult to achieve the

standard of quality that we are trying for.Everyone, most importantly our owners andguests, receives better service the more wecan monitor the entire process.”

Flexible Ownership ModelContrasting operation centralization andconsistency are Spinnaker’s surprisinglydiverse product offerings. One resort sellsfixed weeks. Another offers an all-floatweek without seasons. A third alsoprovides seasonless floating weeks, withthe exception of a few fixed weeks duringannual local events. Yet another resortoffers all-float weeks with a percentage ofinventory that can be fixed. One sells aseasonally floating week. Practically theonly thing in common is that all Spinnakerresorts sell deeded and leasehold weeks.

Spinnaker continues sales in Bransonwith the first phase of Palace ViewHeights, which opened in June 2012, andis also in sales for phase two of itsBluewater Resort & Marina property inHilton Head, which opened that samemonth. The company is also sellingSpinnaker Flexible Ownership (SFO), anownership plan that provides usage atthree of the developer’s Hilton Headresorts.

“We realized, as did most developers,that selling fixed time does not provide theflexibility that customers have come todesire from vacation ownership. So in2006, we took the fixed-week time inthree resorts ! Egret Point, Southwind,and Waterside ! and created a newproduct called SFO,” Shawn Oliverexplains. “We turned it from a fixed-product offering to a float-product offeringamong the three resorts.”

The three resorts represent different

ROYAL FLORIDIAN SOUTH, ORMOND BEACH

35

Spinnaker Resorts

DEVELOPER: Spinnaker Resorts, Inc.; Ken and Joan Taylor, owners

HEADQUARTERS: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

PRODUCT: Deeded weeks (various fixed and floating products)

RESORTS: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina: Bluewater Resort & Marina,The Carolina Club, The Cottages, Egret Point, Southwind,Waterside

Ormond Beach, Florida: Royal Floridian, Royal Floridian South

Branson, Missouri: Palace View Heights, Palace View Resort

WEBSITE: spinnakerresorts.com

fastfacts

products, each with unique features. Thecalm oasis of Egret Point has easy accessto more than 8 miles (13 kilometers) ofpaths for biking or walking. Southwindfeatures daily golf privileges, and Watersideis conveniently located only two blocksfrom the beach.

Shawn Oliver states that understandingwhat its customers desire in eachdestination makes Spinnaker successfuland keeps owners happy and engaged.

Drive-to Markets andBeyond

Spinnaker’s marketing and salesprocesses are relatively consistent acrossthe board, with two call centers supportingtelemarketing tours for all three resortdestinations, complemented by in-housetours, OPC programs, and a few vendor-supplied mini-vacation tours. “We preferto do most of our tour generationinternally,” he says.

The 25- to 30-bay call centers,located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,and Springfield, Missouri, sell mini-vacationpackages. “Having our own call centersallows us to control the quality, pricing, andarrival dates in order to give us the best

chance of success for sales,” he notes.Spinnaker’s telemarketing drive-to

market is in a radius of nearly 300 miles(almost 500 kilometers) with a maximumof three to four hours’ drive ! with onelarge exception: For the Hilton Headresorts, the company targets Ohio, a 10-to 12-hour drive away. The Olivers saydata mining shows that the Buckeye Statecontinues to be a key market for coastalCarolina resorts.

Going the Distance forSuccess

Another source of consistency forSpinnaker is a long-term relationship withInterval International, with whichSpinnaker’s shared ownerships propertiesare affiliated. “They understand ourbusiness and are willing to go the distanceto help Spinnaker Resorts be successful,”Shawn Oliver says. “They recognize thatour success means their success. From asales and marketing perspective, theywork very hard to deliver to us what webelieve we need to continue to succeed.”He states that Interval works in lock-stepwith Spinnaker to create a positiveexperience for the developer’s customers.

“There’s no question that they’redeveloper-focused and are not competingwith us,” Carolyn Oliver adds. “They’recreating products that are developer-specific, including new ownership tiersfor members.”

“Spinnaker Resorts is a high-quality,family-run organization,” notes Bryan TenBroek, senior vice president of resort salesand business development for Interval.“We’re very pleased to include theirshared ownership properties as IntervalInternational member resorts.”

The Taylor VisionWhile Spinnaker has no plans to expandfurther in Ormond Beach, the developerintends to keep building in Hilton Head andBranson, having completed 58 of 213potential units at Bluewater Resort & Marinaand 16 of 144 at Palace View Heights.

Shawn Oliver says the company is “notexpanding for the sake of expanding” !but rather is building off a philosophy toconsistently provide the customer with agreat experience. “For our high-qualityresorts, I’m sure we have one of thelowest maintenance fees in the U.S.overall,” he speculates. “The rationale is

that it’s about having long-term ownerswho come back and enjoy their ownershipexperiences. The Taylor vision is a businessmodel we try to follow: that Spinnakerowner fees should be reasonable, thusmaking vacation ownership possible forcouples and families.”

“We’re happy to see our owners back,”he continues. “It’s made us successful in thepast, and our future success depends onmaking sure we have owners who want tocome back.”

See page 2 for currency conversions.

Matt McDaniel is a Florida-basedhospitality writer whose articles appearin Vacation Industry Review and othertop shared ownership publicationsthroughout the world.

PALACE VIEW HEIGHTS, BRANSON

EGRET POINT, HILTON HEAD ISLAND

BLUEWATER RESORT & MARINA, HILTON HEAD ISLAND THE CAROLINA CLUB, HILTON HEAD ISLAND