Wyndham Timeshare

Wyndham Worldwide continues aggressive growth plan.

Empty and ignored, The Grand Beach Palace in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, has not lived up to its palatial name for quite some time. Wyndham Vacation Ownership (Wyndham Timeshare) recently purchased the 290-room resort from the Palms Resorts Holding Company and now plans a $40 million transformation on the property. Originally developed in the 1980’s, the hotel has sat empty for more than two years. When complete, the new timeshare vacation resort will offer 143 residence condominiums.

The property, which includes 13 buildings, encompasses 25-acres along the beach and is roughly one mile from the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort and Spa. Lisa Burby, senior director of Wyndham Vacation Ownership, was quoted in Commercial Property News (www.cpnonline.com) as saying, “St. Thomas is an extremely popular destination for our owners.”

The purchase price was reportedly $31 million. Wyndham Vacation Ownership, is a member of the Wyndham Worldwide corporation, which has a portfolio of 140 resort properties in North America and the South Pacific. The official new name of the island resort (expected to reopen in 2008) has yet to be announced.

The Virgin Islands are classified as an unincorporated territory of the United States and were purchased by the United States in 1917 as part of a defense tactic to increase US control over the Caribbean and the Panama Canal. Remember that, when you plan your timeshare vacation in the US Virgin Islands, no passport is required of US citizens visiting or returning from this destination.

The Wyndham Palms Resort and Country Club in Orlando, Florida now has a new identity as the Mystic Dunes Resort and Golf Club. If that name already sounds familiar, it may be because Tempus Resorts International is simply renaming their flagship Orlando property to carry the name of their well-known golf course.

Roger Farwell, president and CEO of Tempus Resorts International Limited, says, “Our new brand is a perfect fit for our resort as it reflects the unique beauty and topography of our property and the quality vacation experience that we currently provide to our owners and guests, while lending opportunity to expand our property and services even further.”

When Farwell speaks of unique topography, he is talking about the fact that the Mystic Dunes golf course, and much of the overall property of the resort, has been built on some of the highest elevations in Florida. Where once two prehistoric oceans lapped at the sandbar that is now the Florida peninsula, the high sand ridge left behind in the center of the state represents the apex of the ancient beach. Perfect for golf, this land offers natural elevation changes not found in most other areas of the state. Likewise, because the soil is so high in sand content, when the semi-tropical rains fall during hurricane season (late May to mid-November) the high percolation rate of the sandy soil means the greens and fairways drain and dry quickly. Golf courses built along this ancient sand ridge are rarely unplayable because of standing water. No wonder people often liken Mystic Dunes to the sandy links land that buffers the fairways of so many famous British golf courses.

Along with the Gary Koch-designed golf course, the resort offers timeshare vacation owners at Mystic Dunes beautiful vistas of rolling hills, orange groves and native vegetation surrounding each timeshare condo. With the new identity, the timeshare company is expanding accommodations from 652 one, two, and three-bedroom timeshare condos to 717, as well as adding high speed internet access, DVD players and video-on-demand to every timeshare unit.

In the Central Florida Orlando-Kissimmee vacation destination area, Mystic Dunes offers a chance to savor the peace and quietude of the great outdoors, with the convenience of being less than three miles from the Walt Disney property.

Tempus ranks as one of Central Florida’s top 100 privately held companies according to the Golden 100 Rankings established by the Orlando Business Journal 2006. The resort itself has maintained a “5-Star Resort” ranking from Interval International since opening in 1998.

The historic golfing tradition of the Greater Greensboro Open — a professional tournament that has been in place nearly 70 years — has officially become the Wyndham Championship, effective with the 2007 playing season.

According to Stephen P. Holmes, chairman, president and CEO of Wyndham Worldwide, as quoted in the Greensboro News-Record (www.news-record.com), Wyndham is excited about the sponsorship because many of the people who buy a Fairfield resort timeshare or a Trendwest timeshare (both part of the Wyndham Worldwide brand) are from the Greensboro and Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina. As Holmes explained, “this is a large market for our customers.”

Wyndham Vacation Ownership, as a timeshare company, is the world’s largest vacation ownership business. Through their two primary timeshare company brands, Fairfield Resort timeshare and Trendwest Timeshare, Wyndham Worldwide has developed or acquired more than 140 vacation ownership or timeshare promotion properties with over 18,000 individual timeshare condo units.

The Wyndham Worldwide brand includes Wyndham Vacation Ownership, a timeshare company involved in timeshare promotion for Fairfield Resort Timeshare and Trendwest Timeshare. It also includes the Wyndham Hotel Group and the RCI Global Vacation Network Group. The RCI Global Vacation Network is the world’s largest timeshare condo exchange network and is one of the world’s largest global marketers of vacation properties for rental or timeshare promotion.

The 2007 Wyndham Championship will be part of the PGA Tour’s Fed-Ex Cup schedule, which is itself a new departure for US professional golf. While all of the fine points have yet to be established, the Fed-Ex Cup is patterned loosely after NASCAR’s Nextel Cup, which allows the top 10 drivers to compete for the cup in a 10-race series. Until this year, a PGA Tour member’s status to play the following year was determined almost entirely upon dollars won in each tournament played.

Hospitality industry giant Cendant will create Wyndham Worldwide, a new business entity

Cendant Corporation is expected to spin off Wyndham Worldwide during the third quarter of 2006, making Wyndham Worldwide the largest hospitability company in the world to offer a range of lodging products and services. The spin off will establish Wyndham Worldwide an independent, publicly traded company, with the following branded products: Wyndham®, Ramada®, Super 8®, Wingate Inn® and Days Inn®; the vacation exchange and rental businesses of RCI®, Novasol® and Landal GreenParks®, and the timeshare businesses, Fairfield® Resorts (FairShare Plus®) and Trendwest® Resorts (WorldMark®)

The company has mentioned no plans for merging the two timeshare giants, Fairfield and TrendWest. As Stephen P. Holmes, Cendant vice chairman explains, “Even as we adopt a new corporate brand to represent the sum of our hospitality businesses, we recognize the tremendous value and equity of each of our brands. Our commitment to our total brand portfolio remains just as strong, and we will continue to grow and enhance the presence of our brands within their respective market segments.”