This is the second blog we’ve posted here on The Timeshare Authority in the past year about a timeshare resort’s renovation creating a windfall for a local charity.

With the scheduled renovations of the Wyndham Nashville timeshare resort, located near the Opry Mills in Nashville, Tennessee, the updates will result in nearly a quarter million dollars in appliances, artwork, mattresses, and furniture going to charity. The recipient will be the GEAR Foundation’s Our Thrift Store located in downtown Franklin, Tennessee. The facility provides employment for people with special needs.

GEAR founder, Dave Krikac says, “This is a template that we hope will attract other caring hotel organizations who might find this an attractive option for dealing with room furnishings that must be disposed of after a renovation.”

Wyndham Nashville resort manager Mike Sellge notes that making the donation is both helpful to the community and environmentally responsible.

More about the Wyndham Nashville Timeshare Resort

The Wyndham Nashville timeshare resort is located approximately one mile from the Grand Ole Opry and near the Opry Mills outlet mall. Formerly a Fairfield timeshare property, the Wyndham Nashville timeshare offers one-bedroom timeshare units that sleep up to four and include an efficiency kitchen; one-bedroom deluxe timeshare units that sleep up to four and include a full kitchen; and two-bedroom timeshare units that sleep up to eight people, also including a full kitchen. All deluxe timeshare units at the resort include a full-size refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, dinnerware for eight, and even a margarita blender.

Opportunities are available now in Wyndham Nashville timeshare resales and Wyndham Nashville timeshare rentals.

Related posts on The Timeshare Authority blog:

Westgate Timeshare Developer, David Siegel, Thinks Recycle, Not Rubbish

There are some anniversaries you don’t want to see roll around. Such is the case of Jennifer Kesse, a missing person case we have followed on The Timeshare Authority blog since it first became national news in January of 2006.

Investigators believe Jennifer Kesse disappeared either while preparing to go to work or en route to her job at Orlando-based Westgate timeshares. She was 24 years old at the time. Despite a massive search effort there has been little in the way of leads. Three months into the search, David Siegel, founder of Westgate timeshare, posted a $250,000 reward to anyone who provided information that lead to the safe return of Jennifer. He reportedly said that the money could be considered a reward, or a ransom but it would only be available for one month.

Now, frustrated with the lack of progress on the case, the Kesse family is again offering a now-or never reward; this time for $1,000,000. But, the clock is ticking. This reward money is available only until February 24, 2010.

For more information on the case read The Criminal Report Daily as well as these previous posts on The Timeshare Authority:

• New Update on Missing Westgate Timeshare Employee, Jennifer Kesse
• Remembering Missing Westgate Timeshare Employee, Jennifer Kesse

To help spread the message of Jennifer Kesse, described by law enforcement as, “an endangered adult,” post information about her on your blog, your Facebook page, your Twitter account, and anywhere that helps spread the message. Jennifer’s family and many of the investigators involved with her case believe she is the victim of human trafficking. Remember that other missing persons have been found and returned to their families, long after their abduction, and someone, somewhere, DOES know what has happened to Jennifer.

Jennifer’s picture and the flyers about her disappearance are available at www.jenniferkesse.com for printing and copying. Her family asks that you visit the website, print copies of the flyers there and:

• Tape them to your car windows.
• Ask everyone you know to put one on his or her car window.
• Send copies to anyone in your family that doesn’t have a printer and lives in Central Florida.
• Ask others to put them on their cars.
• Stop by every truck stop you see and talk to some of the drivers and give them flyers. Ask them to drop them off at their next stop.
• Stop by businesses with fleet vans and ask them to put the flyers in their side windows.
• Most grocery and department stores use front windows for displays, display these flyers there.
• Phone booths are rare, but tape flyers on the ones there are.
• If you have family in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana or South Carolina, send them the links and ask them to do the same thing.
• And remember – The objective is to turn Central Florida into a moving billboard of Jennifer’s profile. The more flyers moving through the area, the more eyes we’ll have out looking for her.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Jennifer could be found and we never again have to write this tragic story on The Timeshare Authority blog?

The long-awaited 52-story Westgate residential, vacation ownership, and timeshare resort, PH Towers at Planet Hollywood, officially opened this week. Grand opening of the 1,201-room resort began with room availability to timeshare owners and will be followed on December 28 by rooms available to the general public.

The resort’s timeshare units account for approximately 20 percent of the total number of rooms at the property and include studio timeshare units, and one and two bedroom timeshare units. Many feature dramatic city views with floor to ceiling windows, marble accented bathrooms, spa tubs, and other luxury amenities. But perhaps the real draw of Las Vegas timeshare at the PH Towers is its location at the heart of the Vegas Strip, on four acres next to the Miracle Mile Shops. At build out, you’ll find some 170 specialty stores and thirty restaurants in what Westgate timeshares describes as “retail bliss” for the “semipro shopper”.

The PH Towers at Planet Hollywood Resort and Las Vegas Timeshare is a partnership development between Planet Hollywood Resort and Westgate timeshare. In opening the PH Towers, more than 800 hospitality professionals have been hired.

It seems like everyone is trying to get into the conversation about Tiger Woods these days, including Jacqueline Siegel, wife of Westgate timeshare developer, David Siegel.

Both the Siegels and the Woods live in the gated community of Isleworth on the southwest side of Orlando, just in the edge of the otherwise quiet town of Windermere. Last week, the Orlando Sentinel quoted Mrs. Siegel as saying this of Elin Woods, wife of Tiger Woods, “I see her in the neighborhood jogging or pushing her babies in a double stroller. She’s a very healthy mother. She looks wonderful for having two babies in a row.”

According to the Sentinel, Siegel went on to say, “She seems to be a really sweet, maybe shy type of person. I’ve tried to get a few favors from her for some of our events, but didn’t have any luck. She’s more the type of mother who stays home and takes care of the children when her husband goes out. She doesn’t go out to a lot of clubs.”

While the much of the world waits, hoping to catch a glimpse of either Elin or Tiger Woods (despite the fact that security is tight in the exclusive community) boaters who frequent the Butler Chain of Lakes on which Wood’s home is located have been known to spot them (in the past) or other celebrity residents of the community. Situated just north of Arnold Palmer’s famed Bay Hill Golf Course, Isleworth is not far from the attractions area of Central Florida and many of the most popular Florida timeshare destinations including: Orlando’s Sunshine Resorts, Orlando International Resort Club, Cypress Harbour, Cypress Pointe At Lake Buena Vista Timeshare, Cypress Pointe Grand Villas Timeshare, and Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa Phase I Timeshare

No news is good news, as Director of Communications Steve Luba explains.

 

 Timeshare News, or lack thereof.... [2:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Since the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse three years ago, The Timeshare Authority blog has tried to keep you updated on developments in this very sad and mystifying case.

Kesse, then 24 years old, went missing on January 24, 2006, from Orlando where she lived and worked for Westgate Timeshare. All signs of Jennifer seem to vanish around 7:30 AM on a busy Tuesday morning, as she was preparing for work or perhaps had already left.

A massive local and national search campaign has been carried out by her family and friends, turning up remarkably little. The police hold her case as ACTIVE and continue to aggressively search for any information about her disappearance. At one point, David Siegel, founder and CEO of Westgate timeshare, where Jennifer was employed in accounting, even offered a quarter million dollar reward for information that led to her safe return.

Last week, approximately 70 highly trained professionals searched an area in Orlando near Kesse’s condominium, in response to possible new information from a confessed murdered, currently awaiting sentencing in an Orlando jail.

Anyone with information that might help in solving this case can call the Orlando Police Department at (407) 246-2470 or the Kesse family tip line at (407) 722-2162.

Related The Timeshare Authority Blog posts:

• Remembering Missing Westgate Timeshare Employee, Jennifer Kesse
• Video Recently Released in the Case of Missing Timeshare Company Worker, Jennifer Kesse

Since the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse three years ago, The Timeshare Authority blog has tried to keep you updated on developments in this very sad and mystifying case.

Kesse, then 24 years old, went missing on January 24, 2006, from Orlando where she lived and worked for Westgate Timeshare. All signs of Jennifer seem to vanish around 7:30 AM on a busy Tuesday morning, as she was preparing for work or perhaps had already left.

A massive local and national search campaign has been carried out by her family and friends, turning up remarkably little. The police hold her case as ACTIVE and continue to aggressively search for any information about her disappearance. At one point, David Siegel, founder and CEO of Westgate timeshare, where Jennifer was employed in accounting, even offered a quarter million dollar reward for information that led to her safe return.

Last week, approximately 70 highly trained professionals searched an area in Orlando near Kesse’s condominium, in response to possible new information from a confessed murderer, currently awaiting sentencing in an Orlando jail.

Anyone with information that might help in solving this case can call the Orlando Police Department at (407) 246-2470 or the Kesse family tip line at (407) 722-2162.

Related The Timeshare Authority Blog posts:

• Remembering Missing Westgate Timeshare Employee, Jennifer Kesse
• Video Recently Released in the Case of Missing Timeshare Company Worker, Jennifer Kesse

Second quarter earnings reports are out for Wyndham and Starwood, as Director of Communications Steve Luba explains.

 

 Timeshare Factoids for the week - 7/31/09 [3:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Westgate Lakes Resort timeshare recently told timeshare owner Ray Nix that his shirt had to go. Nix, in an interview with WFTV News Orlando, said that he had paid $15,000 for a Westgate timeshare and that the company had failed to make good on a promise of timeshare exchange at a Park City, Utah Westgate timeshare resort.

As a way of venting his displeasure with Westgate timeshares, Nix had a T-shirt made to read, “Westgate ripped me off,” which he then wore to breakfast at one of the company’s Orlando timeshares.

In a post on the Sun Sentinel’s blog, “Floriduh,” author Barbara Hijek wrote:

“The security surrounded me (Ray Nix) when they saw me with my T-shirt on at the pool. They told me they could charge me $1,000 a day for wearing my T-shirt on the property,” Nix said. Nix took off his shirt and moved his protest to the street corner. But he says the resort still hit him with a $4,000 fine for the violation.”

Is This a Matter for Westgate Timeshare or for the Homeowners Association?

While some say that Westgate timeshare impinged on the timeshare owner’s right to free speech, others point out that free speech protects you from interference by the US government, but doesn’t ensure that any of us can stand at a place of business and say (or exhibit) whatever message we choose to put out there. Whether or not Westgate timeshares as a company had the right to squelch what Nix was communicating, or whether this falls under an issue of the timeshare management or even the homeowners association is something beyond my knowledge of the law. I do question who has the authority to levy fines for such action, unless Nix had previously signed a contractual agreement stating that he understood he could be fined in the event he ever wore an unacceptable T-shirt on the resort property.

But all of those details aside, here’s what jumps out at me. Westgate timeshare had an unhappy client. Instead of seeing the opportunity this holds, they turned the event into bad press and a polarizing situation. This could have been a time for Westgate timeshare to engage with the their dissatisfied client, work with him to resolve the issues, offer solutions or even compromises that he might not have considered, and find a way to turn a very dissatisfied client into a happy customer for life. And in deference to the fact that every story has two sides, none of us knows what, if any, measures Westgate timeshare had gone (prior to this event) in an effort to resolve the dispute.

When the developer of Westgate timeshare resorts, David Siegel, realized that the restructuring going on at one of his Florida timeshares could yield recyclable materials, he contacted a nearby recycling company to assist him.

The resort, a Haines City, Florida timeshare, is eliminating its banquet facilities and kitchens, while reconfiguring and renovating other areas of the property. So Westgate resorts timeshares began working with Robert Wallick of Winter Garden, Florida, who not only took on the job, but added a humanitarian twist.

In addition to the piles of electrical wire, aluminum and other recyclable materials that he will process at his recycling plant, Wallick also loaded up kitchen items, floor lamps, light fixtures, books, and over 300 telephones (many equipped for the hearing impaired). He is making the home furnishing items available to the public to purchase, with proceeds from the sales going to benefit the Russell Home for Atypical Children.

As Wallick explained, “There’s so much stuff; it hurts me to see it being thrown away.”

Thanks to a little extra effort by Westgate timeshare resorts and by Robert Wallick and Associates, Inc., tons of metal, wire, and other materials are being recycled, saving our natural resources and reducing the load on the environment. In addition, furnishings from the timeshare units, which could have wound up in a landfill, are being purchased and put to use by thrifty consumers, benefitting a home for special needs children in the process.