Worldmark Olympic Village Inn California [important info for owners]

[JohnPaul]

A post here got me googling Olympic Village Inn. Many of the results came up Worldmark Olympic Village Inn.

That jogged my memory about an announcement a while back that WM would be adding Olympic Village Inn as a resort in the future after some updates, etc.

Does anyone remember this and/or have any current information as it is clearly NOT a WM property at this time.

 

[ecwinch]

No, it is an existing timeshare that Wyndham took over mgt of, and subsequently purchased the HOA's inventory of weeks to place in WM. It is a model that Wyndham is increasingly using to add inventory for WM.

I follow the BoD minutes for WM pretty regularly and there has not been much info on the timeline for this resort. Which usually is not a good sign (aka the Galveston project). I know bringing the units up to WM standards was one concern, and suspect that plays into it. Another resort they brought in like this (Cathedral City) gets poor reviews from the owners on FB.

The typical timeline for a resort to come into the system is 18-24 months after announcement. If we don't start to hear something in the BoD minutes in the next few meetings, I would guess it is being shelved. THat is what happened with Galveston.

 

[CO skier]

Does anyone remember this and/or have any current information as it is clearly NOT a WM property at this time.

Olympic Village Inn consists of 90 units -- 8 Chamonix 1 bedrooms (650 square feet) and 82 Kitzbuhel (375 square feet) models. The entire resort is undergoing renovation, and Wyndham estimates the WorldMark renovation schedule to be October, 2016 to December 31, 2017.

Wyndham acquired 279 Kitzbuhel weeks (equivalent to 5.4 units) and 1 Chamonix week. 5.4 units out of 82 makes this one of the smaller WorldMark properties. OVI is a floating weeks timeshare with Spring/Fall, Summer and Winter seasons. In what season do you think the bulk of the acquired weeks will be in?

There are 285 Kitzbuhel weeks (equivalent to 5.5 units) and 1 Chamonix week "In Delinquency" that may eventually find their way into WorldMark inventory. Once again, most of these are likely the off-season Spring/Fall weeks.

The Wyndham acquisition probably is more a win for OVI owners, since Wyndham will now pay maintenance fees on what was previously bad debt, but it may work out OK for WorldMark owners. The size of the units and the floor plan does not work especially well for families, but the "cozy" units would make for nice couples' getaways without having to compete with families.

Here is a link to views of the remodeled units.
https://www.olympicvillageinn.com/room-refurbishment/
I think Wyndham did a good job, but the units are only so big, and definitely not big enough for my family of four.

WorldMark owner occupancy is anticipated for 2018, but if the note from the OVI President holds true, WorldMark owners may be making reservations there for arrival in 2018, before the WorldMark annual meeting in October, 2017 .

https://www.olympicvillageinn.com/doc/2016 Winter 2017 Spring Newsletter.pdf


OVI President Alan Traenkner wrote, "As you know by now, Wyndham Vacation Ownership was hired to manage our resort. The decision to bring in a management company was driven primarily by an effort to restore an effective sales organization. With the new management under way, you’ll notice the little issues that come up with any change are being resolved more consistently. Most of the employees you have enjoyed working with are still at the resort. We hope you have had success with reservations and enjoy the cleanliness and excellent maintenance of our resort.

The room refurbishments are on schedule and all second floor units have been completed. With Wyndham contributing to the project, we anticipate that the entire resort will be refurbished ahead of our initial expectations and at lower expense to owners."


Note: Although he writes, "The decision to bring in a management company was driven primarily by an effort to restore an effective sales organization." there are no plans for a WorldMark sales office at Olympic Village Inn.


If anyone wants to take a sneak peak at OVI, reservations are available through Extra Holidays, but at $229/night midweek in summer, it is too rich for me. The WorldMark credit cost will, hopefully, come in at much more reasonable rates.

 

[ecwinch]

OVI President Alan Traenkner wrote, "As you know by now, Wyndham Vacation Ownership was hired to manage our resort. The decision to bring in a management company was driven primarily by an effort to restore an effective sales organization.
....

Note: Although he writes, "The decision to bring in a management company was driven primarily by an effort to restore an effective sales organization." there are no plans for a WorldMark sales office at Olympic Village Inn.
.

Sounds like it is a classic "watch what you wish for" scenerio. As the camel never asks to move into the tent at first.

 

[CO skier]

As the camel never asks to move into the tent at first.

Cryptic. Is this thread destined to just another "thumbs up" response?

Why not just say what you mean?, because I have no idea what camels and tents have to do with Olympic Village Inn.

 

[ecwinch]

Always the danger in using analogy or a cultural reference... this one is drawn from the tale of the camel asking if they could just put their nose in the tent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel's_nose

"According to Geoffrey Nunberg, the image entered the English language in the middle of the 19th century. An early example is a fable printed in 1858 in which an Arab miller allows a camel to stick its nose into his bedroom, then other parts of its body, until the camel is entirely inside and refuses to leave."

 

[geist1223]

In my opinion this is as bad as the acquisition in Blaine a couple years ago from Raintree. If these are such good deals why not put them in the Wyndham Inventory?

 

[Marathoner]

Time will tell whether this was a good acquisition. What I can say is that their resorts at Park City and Whistler are quite popular. Steamboat Springs not so much. The biggest difference between the two sets of resorts is that the former are walk to lifts while their Steamboat resort is a bus ride. Moreover, in all cases, the most popular units are the units with the greatest number of bedrooms.

Unfortunately, Olympic Village Inn requires a very short bus ride to the slopes and their largest unit is a 1 bedroom. So, you may be right that this will not be too popular but WM owns so few weeks and Squaw is a world class ski mountain so I think they are not taking much risk with a good upside potential as they can secure more weeks over time. Walk to lifts resorts at a destination ski mountain is in very small supply and Worldmark did a good job of securing this one.

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

 

[JohnPaul]

In my opinion this is as bad as the acquisition in Blaine a couple years ago from Raintree. If these are such good deals why not put them in the Wyndham Inventory?

What's wrong with the Blaine Raintree units? My only experience from the Raintree acquisitions is Park City. I couldn't be happier with that acquisition (even if it's only 10 units). Those units are nicer than the typical WM units.

 

[geist1223]

The problem is that WM already had and still has a Resort in town that is underbooked. So now we have 2 undercooked Resorts in the same town thst WM has to maintain.

 

[ecwinch]

In my opinion this is as bad as the acquisition in Blaine a couple years ago from Raintree. If these are such good deals why not put them in the Wyndham Inventory?

The logical answer is to ensure the brands don't overlap in their core markets. So no WM in the NE, nor Club Wyndham in the Pacific NW.

FL and CA are too large/popular destinations to limit the brands in those markets, but I doubt you will ever see overlap in their core mkts.

And like Indio, Anaheim, Long Beach, etc, I am sure Blaine will find its customer base in time. We would rather stay there instead of Birch Bay. And WM does not have many units there anyway.

WM sure could use the Indio and Anaheim inventory the dreamers complained about and that got transferred to Wyndham as a result of the Wixon settlement

 

[JohnPaul]

Another resort they brought in like this (Cathedral City) gets poor reviews from the owners on FB.

What are the complaints about Cathedral City? The pictures look up to WM standards.

 

[ecwinch]

Not up to WM standards.. staff is not as friendly as at WM...

 

[CO skier]

Time will tell whether this was a good acquisition. What I can say is that their resorts at Park City and Whistler are quite popular. Steamboat Springs not so much. The biggest difference between the two sets of resorts is that the former are walk to lifts while their Steamboat resort is a bus ride. Moreover, in all cases, the most popular units are the units with the greatest number of bedrooms.

How are you determining "popularity"? There are much fewer units available at Park City and Whistler versus Steamboat, so do not confuse "popularity" with "scarcity".

Park City is the only WorldMark location I would consider ski-in/ski-out. So, obviously, it is "popular" in ski season. It is just as "unpopular" in off season as Steamboat Springs or South Lake Tahoe, despite having so many fewer units versus the other locations. Loads of availability for this fall in Park City, just as there will be Loads of availability for fall at Olympic Village Inn. Does this make OVI popularity "not so much"?

I would much prefer the 5 minutes Steamboat Springs shuttle ride at the end of a hard day of skiing versus the 15 minute walk in ski boots through Whistler Village, but that is just me.

And that is the thing, everyone has different preferences. Park City has more appeal to some WM members than others; I much prefer a 3 hour drive to Steamboat than an 8 hour drive to Park City; for fliers, Park City is less than an hour from a major airport versus 3 hours for Steamboat.

For powder skiers, Steamboat offers the better bet 13 months in advance versus Park City or South Lake Tahoe.

That is the beauty of WorldMark; every resort cannot be everything to everyone, but WorldMark offer such a variety that it can offer something to everyone.

 

[HudsHut]

The problem is that WM already had and still has a Resort in town that is underbooked. So now we have 2 undercooked Resorts in the same town thst WM has to maintain.

geist is referring to Birch Bay and Blaine here, not to Olympic Village Inn. I agree, it made no sense for WorldMark to have two side by side resorts at Birch Bay/Blaine, especially when the original one had low occupancy/ low demand.

WorldMark purchased some weeks at Olympic Village Inn, near Squaw Valley ski resort. This has the potential to be positive because WorldMark does not have any resorts in North Lake Tahoe. It's too bad that this resort is all 1 br units, though. It remains to be seen whether WorldMark will get any high demand ski weeks. If all the weeks are off-season, then WM Owners have been hosed once again.

 

[ecwinch]

A post over in the Western States forum about the upcoming Olympic Village annual meeting includes a website some activist owners at Olympic Village have put together. That website has a variety of documents about the agreement between Wyndham and Olympic Village regarding the purchase of units at this legacy resort, with said units to be transferred to Worldmark.

As a legal wonk I found them interesting, so thought I would post the link for anyone similarly inclined. The short version is that Wyndham initially acquired 250 interval weeks (149 winter; 56 spring/fall: and 45 summer) or roughly about 5 units. Since then they have acquired another 150 weeks via foreclosure, so now have approx 400 weeks or roughly about 8 units. The activists seem to have been successful in preventing any further foreclosed weeks from going to Wyndham, and hope to oust the current BoD with their slate of candidates at their Annual Meeting.

www.SAVEOVI.ORG

 

[JohnPaul]

There are a few points that the OVI vocal owners seem to be ignoring.

1) Wyndham will have to pay the MF for the 400 intervals they purchased. If they were foreclosed then no one was probably paying the MF.

2) Part of the agreement is that Wyndham will spend $1.25 million of it's own money in refurbishments.

Both of those items seem beneficial to the resort and owners from my perspective.

 

[ecwinch]

From what they posted, they seem to feel those weeks could have been taken up by other timeshare systems, in a fashion that would prevented any one system from having a significant voting block.

 

[crystal413]

A post here got me googling Olympic Village Inn. Many of the results came up Worldmark Olympic Village Inn.

That jogged my memory about an announcement a while back that WM would be adding Olympic Village Inn as a resort in the future after some updates, etc.

Does anyone remember this and/or have any current information as it is clearly NOT a WM property at this time.

I am an OVI owner, and we are going through a major crisis trying to prevent WM from taking over our non-profit owner-owned resort!
Please read here first, then read the rest of the tabs and you will have your eyes opened about how WM manages resorts!
https://saveovi.org/about/

 

[crystal413]

There are a few points that the OVI vocal owners seem to be ignoring.

1) Wyndham will have to pay the MF for the 400 intervals they purchased. If they were foreclosed then no one was probably paying the MF.

2) Part of the agreement is that Wyndham will spend $1.25 million of it's own money in refurbishments.

Both of those items seem beneficial to the resort and owners from my perspective.

Yes, those are good things. But in acquiring these weeks, WM is also acquiring voting privileges, and if WM puts all the inventory in the WorldMark Club, we owners will have to fight against a huge inventory of owners just to book our weeks. And that is not worth any refurbishments; We already have a healthy reserves account. We WANT to remain a non-profit resort, and WM will not allow that. We are OWNER-owned, and want to remain that way!!

 

[crystal413]

Yes, those are good things. But in acquiring these weeks, WM is also acquiring voting privileges, and if WM puts all the inventory in the WorldMark Club,
we owners will have to fight against a huge inventory of owners just to book our weeks. And this is not worth any refurbishments; We already have a healthy
reserves account. We WANT to remain a non-profit resort, and WM will not allow that. We are OWNER-owned, and want to remain that way!!

Please read https://saveovi.org/about/ and then read the other tabs, too. You will be amazed at how WM has mis-managed the OVI resort.

 

[geist1223]

First off there is a difference between Wyndham and Worldmark. Worldmark does not buy or build any timeshares. Wyndham has the Developer Rights for Worldmark. Wyndham will build or buy timeshare properties. If they buy all ready built timeshare properties then Wyndham will rebuild or refurbish to Worldmark standards. Once all the work is done Wyndham turns over the property and or Deeds to Worldmark with no associated debt. Wyndham then has the Points associated with these properties to sell. I do not know how it will work as between Wyndham and Worldmark as to who gets the votes for your HOA but I assume Wyndham will somehow retain that. So your fight is with Wyndham not Worldmark.

 

[ecwinch]

and if WM puts all the inventory in the WorldMark Club, we owners will have to fight against a huge inventory of owners just to book our weeks.

How does that work? WM would own certain timeshare intervals dedicated to booking by WM. Why would we be fighting with you for the same availability?

And from what I read, Wyndham already owns the intervals and has paid for some refurbishments. is the HOA going to buy Wyndham's weeks back?

 

[crystal413]

All we own is "a winter week". They are not fixed weeks. That means we have to call 2 years in advance to book our "winter week". All the intervals are in the same pool. So WM owners can call and book weeks that would otherwise be available to OVI owners. That makes it much harder for us to get a specific week, when they own 400 intervals. they are not separated into WM weeks and OVI weeks, all in the same pool. None are dedicated WM weeks.
please read https://saveovi.org/about/ and the other tabs, for a clearer understanding of the situation.

 

[crystal413]

First off there is a difference between Wyndham and Worldmark. Worldmark does not buy or build any timeshares. Wyndham has the Developer Rights for Worldmark. Wyndham will build or buy timeshare properties. If they buy all ready built timeshare properties then Wyndham will rebuild or refurbish to Worldmark standards. Once all the work is done Wyndham turns over the property and or Deeds to Worldmark with no associated debt. Wyndham then has the Points associated with these properties to sell. I do not know how it will work as between Wyndham and Worldmark as to who gets the votes for your HOA but I assume Wyndham will somehow retain that. So your fight is with Wyndham not Worldmark.

Now WM is pulling some pretty shifty stuff. Our CC&R's say that NO WM employees can run for our OVI board. They are skirting that rule now by letting someone run for the board who is a worldmark CLUB employee, claiming it's separate from Wyndham. But as you state clearly above, Wyndham just buys and refurbs properties, and then deeds them to Worldmark Club, so it IS the same company. We also proved that by WM and WRDC having the SAME address, so they can't deny it is the same company, and we DON'T want a WM employee on our OVI board. They are breaking rules and we are a NON-PROFIT owner-owned timeshare! WRDC will never do anything non-profit, and we are resisting that.