Timeshare Industry Information
Timeshare Industry Information Relating to Scottsdale Camelback Resort
There are two distinctly different issues that all Scottsdale Camelback
Resort Association (SCRHOA) members need to be aware of.
The first is the differences between ownership/membership at Scottsdale
Camelback Resort (SCR) / SCRHOA and other Timeshare/Vacation Ownership
Resorts as well as membership in the Owners Association.
SCR ownership has four distinct parts.
(a) Deeded interest,
(b) Annual Fixed Week (7 days),
(c) Start dates by interval type. (Fri-Fri "C" & "D" type villas,
Sat - Sat "A" type villas & Sun-Sun "B" type villas),
(d) Multiple exchange network affiliations. (RCI - II - Scottsdale
Travel Club. Some of the other types of ownership (a) include: Right-to-Use
(leasehold interest for specific years), Clubs membership and Non-Equity
Clubs.
Some of the other types of ownership (b) include: Floating Time,
Bi-annual use rights, Split-weeks, Points programs and Fractionals.
Some of the other types of ownership (c) include: All check in /
check out on same days, mid-week arrivals and traditional hotel room
use rather than timeshare villas.
Some of the other types of ownership (d) include: Membership in brand
loyalty programs, exchange inside brand affiliated resorts and the
use of Points as a currency to obtain items other than vacation accommodations.
It should be noted that those involved in the management and administration
of both SCR and SCRHOA believe that the benefits derived from interval
interest ownership at SCR far exceed those found in other types of
ownership or membership. SCR does not accept points as a currency,
split weeks, arrivals other than the start day of a specific villa
type as noted in our ownership, and advises its owners not to become
involved in or exchange SCR ownership with any points based plan without
first discussing the options with someone at SCR.
Second, membership in SCRHOA is also uniquely different than membership
in many other timeshare/vacation ownership plan owner associations.
The primary difference is threefold.
(1) 100% of all the Common Areas and the improvements thereon are
owned by the HOA members owning the 5,661 interval interest. At
SCR the individual & collective owners have an equity interest in
100% of all the assets to be found at the resort except those belonging
to any tenant such as Desert Vacation Realty, Inc., the independent
re-sale firm. At many resorts, the Common Areas and the improvements
are owned by the developing entity and the HOA members only have
the right-to-use them.
(2) At SCR there is no Developing entity and all the rights of
a Developer have been vested to the SCRHOA. The Board of Directors
of SCRHOA is elected by the members of the association, absolute
control of all the affairs of the HOA and the resort are controlled
by the collective members of that Board. At many resorts the Developer
or Development entity have the right to appoint the members of the
HOA Board while at other resorts, the owners have the opportunity
to elect the HOA Board members however, the Developer or Development
entity retains veto power over the decisions of that Board.
(3) At SCR, the management and operations of the resort are vested
in a Professional Management Firm selected by the HOA Board of Directors
and placed under contract to the SCRHOA. The loyalty of that Management
Firm and its duty to perform is to the HOA, its collective members
and subject to constant review by the member elected Board. At many
other resorts, management is an entity that is a subsidiary of,
or has been selected by, the Developer of Development entity. In
many instances this means that that firms loyalty and duty is first
to that Developer or Development entity.
The American Resort Development Association (ARDA is the Washington
D.C.-based professional association representing the vacation ownership
and resort development industries. ARDA today has nearly 1,000 corporate
members from privately held firms, publicly traded companies and international
corporations. The membership also includes timeshare owner associations
(HOAs), resort management companies, and owners through the ARDA Resort
Owners Coalition (ARDA-ROC).
As of the most recent industry research (2006) there were 1604 Timeshare/Vacation
Ownership Resorts in the United States. SCRHOA is one of only 170
Resort Owners Associations that hold an active membership in ARDA.
Over 95% of the individual SCRHOA members routinely extend their affiliation
with ARDA-ROC with their $3.00 annual contribution.
ARDA-ROC is the first line of defense against legislation that may
negatively impact timeshare owners and their well-being. Through ARDA-ROC,
SCRHOA owners have become part of an effective grassroots lobbying
coalition of timeshare unit owners dedicated to preserving, protecting,
and enhancing timeshare / vacation ownership. They have become part
of the hundreds of thousands of timeshare owners across the country
that make voluntarily contributions that fund the legislative agendas
at the local, state and federal levels beneficial to timeshare owners.
ARDA-ROC, working with ARDA-Arizona, has achieved several landmark
victories in the last 5 years. We were able to effect legislation
that prevented individual county property tax assessors from arbitrarily
raising the tax on individual timeshare/vacation ownership resorts,
first convinced the sponsors of general HOA legislation that Timeshare
Resort Owner Associations were different and received their agreement
for exemption and in the following year passed legislation that established
Timeshare Resort Owner Association as legally different from any other
form of Owner Associations.
In 2007 ARDA-Arizona will present to the Legislators for their approval,
a bill that will allow Timeshare Resorts to pursue non-judicial foreclosure
on interval interests that are in default on their annual assessments.
If successful, this legislation will reduce the cost of recovery by
about 2/3rds and reduce the time to recover by several months.
Finally, one of the objectives for the near future is the expansion
of the Timeshare/Vacation Ownership resorts that are affiliated with
our Scottsdale Travel Club. Such an expansion would lessen somewhat
members of SCRHOA from the requirement on maintaining memberships
in one or more of the major exchange firms. To that extent, one major
hotel brand has already approached us with the desire to affiliate
with us so that our members could (through the Travel Club) exchange
into their properties on a like-for-like basis and their owners could
exchange into SCR. Watch the SCR In Touch newsletter for updates.
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