Georgi Bohrod's Blog

If you had asked Wednesday “what was the highlight of the ARDA convention?” I would have gladly gushed about the positive attitude, renewed energy, increase in business. Triton Timeshare Software thrilled that the last month brought in more business than the whole previous year; the speed-lead concept energized new and established vendors; the food in the exhibit hall was really good…all that seemed prominent and important.  That was before I heard Consuelo Kickbush share her vision  and spiritual humanity at the Breakfast of Champions on Thursday morning. This was truly an epiphany for me, and I venture to say, many others.  What we do in our industry is provide rest. Rest for weary bodies and tired minds. And our new demographic of what we used to call minorities has worked long and hard to enjoy the fruits of their labors.  Now they are coming to spend that hard-earned time with us in a resort environment.  Consuelo talked about this, her pride of serving in the military, her growing up in the barrio and her return to do service for children through EASLeadership.  This breakfast was followed by a Diversity and Inclusion panel which furthered the discussion.  It is a shame that so few got to experience Consuelo’s spiritual motivation and the ensuing discussion.  Maybe next year we can blend in this sort of session earlier in the convention. 

Heading off to ARDA At first it feels like I’m going to a reunion of some nature. And actually it is. With 3,000 of our closest friends we are bound to know lots of folks.  What’s cool is there is always someone new to meet, a new idea to encounter, a new technology to be amazed at, and a new company with a great platform. What’s got my attention this year are a few things. First of all WIN (Women in the Industry.org) is having our third ARDA networking function.  This time at the Double Helix in the Palazzo shops. We’re a bit nervous because we didn’t know we’d have so many enthusiastic members and supporters who want to attend Tuesday night.  An embarrassment of riches, so to speak. But, this being Vegas, we figure that people will come and go and we all won’t be there at once.  (Keep your fingers crossed!) Secondly, CustomerCount© is powering a survey on Green Initiatives at the Triton Timeshare Software booth and at various Wi-Fi locations throughout the convention. The preliminary information was interesting and the complete data will be of great help to ARDA’s Sustainability/Green Design Group committee to help establish the future direction of the committee’s focus. In order to encourage vital responses all timeshare professionals responding to this survey will have a tree planted in their honor by Arbor Day Foundations as part of its “Replanting Our Forests” campaign.  CustomerCount has just launched a new web site at www.customercount.info so check it out! Grand Pacific Resort Management will be actively pursuing management contracts. They’ve been managing their own resorts for nearly two decades and have decided not to keep their expertise hidden from resorts that can use their help.  Since I’ve known these people since my start in the industry, it is a lot of fun watching them evolve from a derivation of Winners Circle Resorts to their own full fledged company with 14 resorts, 45,000 owners and 800 employees. Another old friend is ResortCom International.  They’ve refocused their strategies and now are clearly defining the two divisions and their services.  Since I used to work in-house full time with Jeff Healy and his strong group of executives and hard working managers it’s particularly wonderful to be back sharing their professional growth and plans for the future. An exciting component of ARDA this year will be seeing ResorTime.com signing up resorts to broaden their already robust portfolio of 300 resorts.  I’ve already referred lots of my friends who are not “in the biz” to take advantage of ResorTime.Com’s great rates and they’ve come back with rave reviews. As an A+ member of the Better Business Bureau, it’s hard to believe they’ve been around for 10 years. I’ll be at the The Trades booth interviewing a bunch of people on Tuesday for AskMando TV, so if you’re around stop by and say hello. It’s always good to see new and old friends!

Tired of the guessing game? Well I am.  So often I speak with clients who are quite sure they know who their target market it, what their customers are thinking and what the best strategy is for staying in touch with their base.  “We know who are raving fans are,” they say.  “We just need to engage the group of owners/guest/customers (fill in the blank, here) and they’ll all be happy.”   Well, what makes them happy?  Is it that they can depend on the friendly folks at the front desk to remember them year after year?  Is it that their unit always has the air conditioning on (or off) when they arrive?  How about that the garage is locked and secure at night or the resort uses recycled materials? Maybe they just like returning to the beach or the mountains and can be assured that the resort is well maintained with plenty of place for kids and kid’s stuff.   There is no way of knowing what makes clients tick unless you zone in on the particulars and slice and dice data in numerous ways. That’s what CustomerCount© does.  Developed by Mobius Vendor Partners for its client RCI, Customer Count was four years in the making.  Now it not only surveys the reservations, sales and vacation experience, but analyzes the data so that resort managers can make informed decisions.  It’s also easily adaptable to other businesses and industries outside of the timeshare / resort market.   In the next couple of weeks Resort Trades will launch a survey they commissioned CustomerCount© to create and build.  It will be a good example of just what the product can do, and in addition provide a ton of information which Resort Trades and www.askmando.com will make public.   GBG & Associates will write up that report for the Trades.  Those who participate are going to get a chance to enter into a drawing for a TruCash Certificate ($200) or another gift certificate for $100.  Be on the lookout for the survey because we need your input to pull good data.   If you have any questions feel free to email me:  georgi@georgibohrod.com

  Attending Fall ARDA turned out to be a mood elevator, not a downer as was feared by many.  Attendance was better than expected, yet not as high as previous years. Actually higher than last year’s Fall Conference.  It always surprises me that in addition to the usual suspects, we get to meet a few folks we hadn’t really had the opportunity to connect with. A special shout out to Gustavo Ripol (can’t believe we’ve never truly known each other face to face, but only by emails and reputation), Ross Perlmutter (head of CRDA who has the very same birthday as Howard Nusbaum and seems to be some what of a doppelganger in other ways), and Jeff Ingram who managed to point me in the right direction a number of times.  The Meetings Committee managed to re-arrange priorities while adding and subtracting subject matter and various speakers who are repositioning themselves during this “new normal” economic climate.  The Communications Committee once again bounced around myriad ideas and blab our way through an hour with some direction.  (After all we ARE communicators).  The WIN Advisors Board meeting was attended by Deborah Linden, Robert Kobek and JoAnn Lockard and after the BOD made our presentation we were all impressed with the strides Women in the Industry www.womenintheindustry.org has made in a year.  The Florida Regional Meeting should add even more members to our roster.  As will our special event at ARDA on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.  Finally, we want to wish Mobius Vendor Partners (www.mobiusvp.com) a very happy ten year anniversary.  That’s a long time to be part of this industry with such important contributions as CustomerCount®.  GBG & Associates has some damn good clients if I do say so myself.  Next time you’ll hear more about them.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out walking virtually it is an experience you don’t want to miss.  Seriously. WIN is walking as a team for those with Stage IV Breast Cancer.  Of course you don’t have to be on our team. You certainly can go it alone.  But either way let me encourage you to go to www.galtogalwalk.org and sign up.  The month is half over and we are falling short of our goal.   There is another walk with the same general theme at Grand Pacific Palisades Resort is in Carlsbad. However, this time you actually have to walk for real.   This one’s called Making Strides Against Breast Cancer ®, He’RO’es for Hope.  It memorializes Ro Fecko, a long time Grand Pacific Resorts employee.  To sign up go to http://main.acsevents.org/goto/gpresorts  It doesn’t cost a dime but donations are appreciated. So if you want to honor breast cancer survivors, remembers the ones we have lost, help raise awareness, support research and fight back against cancer show up at 8 .m. on Saturday, October 17.   There are so many ways to let our energies be directed toward healing this month.  We don’t have to wear pink cleats, or write huge checks, but we can be part of the community to show we care.

Summertime Blues? Would $200 from Amex help?    We seem to have been conditioned from grade school times. Summer is the time to kick back.  Our brains seem to go on slow-mo when the weather is hot, and we have special dispensation to wear a scaled down version of business casual we in the vacation industry like to call resort casual. While we shift into low gear and cruise along till Labor Day, it may be a good time to start planning ahead.  Find out what other resort managers are doing about maintenance fees in this economic era.  When we gather the data it will be published in The Trades.  We want to know what the trend is and I’ll bet you do too. Check out the CustomerCount® survey before you head out to the golf course or the pool.  You just might get $200 for your efforts! ……………https://www.customercountsurveys.com/front/TheTrades/

There’s a change in the air.  Checking around with my pals in the shared ownership industry it seems the phone is ringing a bit more;  there are more visitors to the web site; a couple of new proposals have gone out; some new contracts are actually signed.  Nothing gangbusters, but certainly motion.  Although some of my colleagues have ventured out across the seas to faraway places like China and the UK to keep up with the changing tide of the resort industry, I’ve managed to stay put in beautiful San Diego.  The most exciting development is a new relationship with Grand Pacific Resort Services and ResorTime.com.  For me, it’s like coming full circle. ‘Got my timeshare/PR start with Jim Watkins’ Winners Circle Resorts International.  Old-timers will remember him as the most down-to-earth, ethical guy in the early timeshare world.  Both Tim Stripe and David Brown who head up Grand Pacific Resorts came from the Winners Circle Resorts’ world. They now run a solidly successful, well-respected company here in wonderful Carlsbad, pretty much adjacent to LEGOLAND® and the famous Flower Fields.  With 11 fabulous resorts and 800 folks working there, Grand Pacific Resorts is what timesharing was always designed to be.  Check out their web site www.grandpacificresorts.com or visit ResorTime.com for more on the best timeshare rentals around.  For me, it feels like coming home.

ARDA attendees more upbeat.  ‘A- one and a -two and a…  In fact Lawrence Welk’s grandson just stepped down from Chair after two years.  New guy from Disney.  He’s got his work cut out for him, but I am NOT on the cutting edge so he’s not even an acquaintance.  The WIN   event www.womenintheindustry had lots of attendees.  Advisory board meets tomorrow to approve our strategic plan. Maybe more interest since so many are out of work or looking for biz development; but a great time to grow a network of dedicated professionals.  Met with Mark Silverman of examiner.com.  Should have asked if Herb Caen got started this way.  One of the original bloggers with 3 dot journalism.

ARDA Everyone I run into at ARDA is twittering, blogging, or bitching.  Well not everyone is bitching!  I feel like a player in the movie Hustle and Flow.  It’s hard out here for a …(YOUR PROFESSION HERE).  Surprisingly (or not so) attendees are looking at ways to either take advantage of or better themselves because of what is being referred to as “the issue at hand.”  The Communications Committee sat in stunned silence as the same old message points were debated.  And the web site questioned.  www.vacationbetter.org couldn’t have fewer visitors if they tried.  Where are they on plain old organic searches?  The Meetings Committee reports that almost 2600 have registered at the annual American Resort Development Association annual convention.  www.arda.org  Doing better than expected.  If you could get in to the Think Tank session you were fortunate.  50 people turned away at the door.  Let’s see if they solved the “issue at hand.”  I wasn’t there…solving GBG & Associates own “issue at hand.”  If you visit Booth #1018 you’ll see the wave of the future with Blue Media   and at #509 Customer Count ® surveys Resort Trades readers’ experience in real time!

GBG & Associates Inc