timeshare blog

Great vacation ownership resorts are more than beautiful views and comfortable beds (although both of those are important.) As the Playa Linda Beach Resort in Aruba recognizes, keeping your resort operations running like clockwork is critical too. That’s why the Playa Linda Beach vacation ownership resort has selected to upgrade its systems to SPI Software, a leading provider of timeshare and resort ownership systems.

Here is their news media release provided by SharonINK PR & Marketing:

Vacation Ownership SPI Software Chosen by Playa Linda Beach Resort

Vacation ownership software leader SPI Software is pleased to announce that Playa Linda Beach Resort, a top-rated resort located on Palm Beach in Aruba, has selected SPI Orange as their future software platform.

Richard Betrian, financial director of Playa Linda Beach Resort, commented, “We selected SPI Software based on their product functionalities with the objective to improve the service to our members and guests and also to streamline our accounting processes.”

“We are delighted that Playa Linda Beach Resort selected SPI Orange to manage reservations, property management and owner financial transactions. We want to thank management and the owner’s association for making the move. Playa Linda Beach Resort joins a growing family of vacation ownership companies on SPI Orange, the industry’s most advanced platform,” adds Matt Brosious, vice president of sales for SPI Software.

About Playa Linda Beach Resort

Rated internationally as a 5-star resort, Playa Linda Beach Resort is comprised of 214 units, among them studios, one-bedroom, lanai suites, two-bedroom luxury suites, town-homes and a luxurious penthouse. Each of these beautifully decorated and fully appointed vacation homes is spacious and exceptionally well-designed. Playa Linda Beach Resort has won the RCI Gold Crown Award for twenty one consecutive years (1992-2013), a designation given to resorts that have attained the highest level of excellence in resort accommodations and hospitality. Interval International also bestowed Premier Status on the resort for 2005 through 2013. Playa Linda Beach Resort has the distinction of being a Green Globe 21 and ISO 14001 certified resort, an honor shared with only six hotels in Aruba.

About SPI Software

SPI Software provides developers and operators of vacation ownership (timeshare, fractional, private residence club and others using either traditional or points-based usage strategies) with Web-based and Microsoft.NET-based software as either an enterprise suite of software called Orange, or in specific modules to handle marketing, sales, property management, finance, maintenance fee and receivables servicing, centralized reservations or owner website access. Founded in 1978 and based in Miami, FL, SPI can be reached at 305-858-9505, [email protected].  

Knee-deep in summer already, when this season ends it will have slipped out of your life forever. As children, many of us lived for our summer vacation. With warm weather and the long school holiday came freedom, opportunities, a change of pace, and even adventure. … This is what a summer vacation should still mean. The day we lose the love and anticipation of summertime, we stop being young or even young at heart.

Ensuring your summer vacation experience boils down to three simple things:

• Grab it.
• Make it.
• Take it.

Vacations rarely fall into your lap. You have to carve out the time for them; you have to grab your summer vacation. Get in the scrum and scuffle with your coworkers so that you get your share of the prime vacation days this summer. If you work for yourself, block the time on your calendar and commit to it with the same seriousness you do any other important project—because vacation times is very important.

Once you have committed to your days, don’t let your summer vacation sneak up on you, with you unprepared. Make a plan for how you will enjoy your leisure time (and it can’t include cleaning the garage or painting the house). Plan a long trip, a series or short excursions, a tent under the stars or a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton holiday… just plan something.

Prepay for your holiday (timeshares and timeshare resale vacations make this an easy plan to implement) or at least pay a deposit on your summer vacation so that you have additional motivation to take it when it comes around. Tell your friends and family about your vacation plans so they will help you in anticipation and encourage you to keep your commitment to yourself. Make the plans, and make it easy to keep them.

When the time arrives for you to go on your summer vacation, there will be distractions. There will be last minute events or work projects that pop up, tempting you not to go or to cancel your plans. Don’t let anything within reason change your plan to take your summer vacation.  

Life is short; summers are even shorter. You will never again experience the summer of 2013—don’t let it slip by without paying tribute to it in all the ways you possibly can.

Happy Independence Day from SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and all of the Vacation Ownership.com LLC companies. As you relax and enjoy the day, somewhere between the cookout and the fireworks, you might want to take a few minutes and think about your personal commitment to leisure time and vacations.

Research has indisputably established that taking regular vacations enhances both mental and physical well being. The Framingham Heart Study, which has been monitoring subjects on the topic of heath disease since 1948, found that women who take a vacation only once in every six years (or less often) are eight times more likely to develop coronary heart disease or have a heart attack than are women who take at least two vacations per year. In 1992, the research was updated to allow for other variables such as diabetes, smoking, and obesity and still the study returned the same finding: failure to take regular vacations does significantly increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Some studies have put the numbers as high as the risk being 30 percent greater for women.

And for men, the failure to take regular vacations doesn’t serve you any better. One study published in 2000 showed that in a group of 12,000 men studied for more than nine years—men who were already at risk for coronary heart disease—those who did not take a regular vacation increased their risk by 21 percent of death, and by 32 percent of death from a heart attack.

We all have commitments and responsibilities. But one of those responsibilities is to ourselves and indirectly, to our families and those we love, to stay healthy and live a vibrant life. As you celebrate your July 4 holiday, make it your personal independence day. Declare your rights to life, and the pursuit of happiness!

In an article this week called, “Legislation Aimed at Timeshare Resellers,” published by the World Property Channel, writer Francys Vallecillo looks at the progress and the problems of the new Florida timeshare law. As Vallecillo writes:

“Florida is one of several states responding to a lack of consumer protection in the timeshare resale industry. Colorado, Texas, and Nevada have already passed legislation targeting resellers; legislation is pending in Massachusetts and South Carolina.

The Florida bill “added three very important protections for owners and associations,” Jason Gamel, vice president of state government of affairs for ARDA, told WPC.

Under the Florida bill, businesses that resell Florida timeshares must first provide the owner a written agreement outlining terms and conditions of the services offered. They must also place all funds from the consumer into an escrow account until the transfer is complete, with records kept for five years.

The bill covers all timeshares in Florida, regardless of where the owner lives.”

The article, which includes comments by Franz Hanning, chief executive of Wyndham Vacation Ownership and some of my own thoughts, along with those of ARDA’s Jason Gamel,  can be found at World Property Channel.

SellMyTimeshareNOW.com, and all the VacationOwnership.com LLC companies support the legislation, but continue to voice the concern that we, as an industry, cannot rely on legislation alone or a single Florida timeshare law to resolve the challenges of the timeshare resale market. The requisite remains that we come together as an united industry and create viable resale alternatives for timeshare owners and vacation club members so that they know from the day they purchase the product that they will always have options and timeshare exit strategies available to them.

Related news on Florida timeshare law from The Timeshare Authority:

• SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and Timeshare Closing Services Join ARDA in Commending FL Timeshare Legislation