Holiday Inn Club Vacations
 

I see the first one is opening in Dec http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/...lsearchresults but I haven't seen anything about sales of the units or if they are going to be bookable just like a normal hotel. Has anyone received anything from IHG about them? I go Orlando a couple of times a year and I would have thought they would have used booking data to let people know about this.

IHG and The Family of Orange Lake Resorts Announce Strategic Alliance to Create a New Timeshare Brand, Holiday Inn Club Vacations™



ATLANTA (September 24, 2008) – IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG (ADRs)], the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, announces today the formation of a strategic alliance with The Family of Orange Lake Resorts to create a new timeshare brand, Holiday Inn Club Vacations™.

Holiday Inn Club Vacations will launch in December 2008 with Orange Lake’s flagship 2,412 villa property in Orlando, Florida. This marks IHG’s first move into the timeshare market, one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. holiday and vacation industry. [Source: American Resort Development Association (ARDA)]

The conversion of the remaining Orange Lake resorts in Ascutney, Vermont (60 villas), Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (68 villas) and Panama City, Florida (18 villas) are scheduled to follow shortly after.

This alliance is unique in that it allows IHG to enter the timeshare industry, purely through an exclusive licensing and marketing agreement. Orange Lake will continue to own, operate and develop these timeshare resorts as a privately held company.

“This deal reinforces the strength of the Holiday Inn brand as we are able to move into the timeshare market with a good partner who knows the business well,” said Andy Cosslett, chief executive officer, IHG. “We believe that timeshare is a natural progression for Holiday Inn due to our scale and customer base in North America. This comes at a time when the $1 billion global relaunch of Holiday Inn is progressing well. This agreement fits well with our business model as we are able to introduce the Holiday Inn brand to a new set of customers without the need for capital investment. With both companies focused on growth the alliance brings with it the opportunity to expand into major North American destinations.”

Orange Lake is situated on over 1,400 acres with 2,412 villas, adjacently located to the new north entrance of Walt Disney World® Resort. The flagship resort has over 25 years of proven success in Orlando, the number one leisure destination for U.S. travelers. It offers a host of amenities including:

4 championship golf courses
7 swimming pools including a 12-acre outdoor entertainment complex
80 acre lake for water sports
Five restaurants
Retail and pro shops
“This is a great opportunity for our two companies because we share the same heritage and founder, Kemmons Wilson,” said Don Harrill, president and chief executive officer for The Family of Orange Lake Resorts. “It was Kemmons’ vision that changed the landscape for family vacations through his creation of the Holiday Inn hotel brand in 1952. With the re-launch of Holiday Inn and the continued growth of our company, we are prepared to reach new heights for our customers—and together write the next exciting chapter in our history. We believe this alliance will set the new standard by re-defining ‘quality time’ for families and for the timeshare industry today.”

The marketing and licensing agreement also includes:

The construction of a flagship Holiday Inn Resort hotel on the Orange Lake site in Orlando
The marketing and rental of available timeshare villas through IHG’s extensive reservation system and distribution channels, including Priority Club® Rewards, the world’s largest hotel loyalty program with over 39 million members
The formation of the Holiday Inn Club™ exchange program which will allow members of Holiday Inn Club Vacations to exchange timeshare weeks for hotel nights at over 4,000 properties in IHG’s portfolio.

Hmm, the design of the rooms is not exactly avant garde...

Just curious if anyone has done this and how they like it.
http://www.hiclubvacations.com

I saw the ad for this on PCs website (the 100k points part was noteworthy).
There seems to be a limited number of properties and I dont like that its only in the US but it looks like something my friend (with kids) would enjoy.
Anyone doing this?

After a Disney stay, I had to get a room for one night before heading home. All of the HI/HIX/etc in the area were 25,000 pts. The Orange Lake property is 27,500 pts for a 2 bedroom villa. :) So Dec 5, that's where I'll be! There were no other point or room options available when I made the points reservation months ago: 2 bedroom villa for 27,500.

I'll post a report when I get back home.

Any updates? I'm thinking of booking a stay here.

As it happens I am a timeshare owner from the previous Orlando organisation, Orange Lake Country Club, that IC acquired (it was actually set up by the founder of Holiday Inn when he moved on). We have a 'semi-villa' or town house and always enjoy our stays there greatly. The site is spacious and you can walk a fair bit if you want exercise (including to the nearby supermarket). The pools and other facilities are nice, and of course it is well set up for golf. It is very near to Disney, and well located for day trips to Tampa area (e.g. Busch Gardens) or Mount Dora (quaint artsy town to the north) for a change of scene. Not so good for Universal - some distance and the traffic can get very heavy. Plenty of restaurants, shops etc nearby. I recommend it.

We stayed here in September on points. The property is well maintained as far as we could see.We had a two bedroom unit which had more than enough space and was well equipped.

We were in the newest area River Island and did not get the chance to check out accomodations in the other villages.

The food is adequate.If you want tubes for the lazy river,there is a $10 charge per tube per day-quite the ripoff as far as I am concerned. For what these units rent for,they should not be charging for the tubes. You cannot use your own.

The golf is very good and well maintained.

Proximity to Disney is very good.

I am considering purchasing one of these units on the secondary market-if anyone has experience here,I'd love some input.

The value here is outstanding if you can use PC points-much better than using 25K at a standard Holiday Inn

Earn 16000 PC Points at Holiday Vacation Club Orlando
 

This is an unpublished offer made only to PCR Members who stay at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations ORLANDO - ORANGE LAKE RESORT, KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA.

Upon check-in you will be asked (optional - entirely your call) to participate in a 90 minute presentation the next day on ownership (Timeshare) where everyone is offered a $100 voucher for use in the area "but" PCR Members can select 16,000 PCR pts instead if they wish. Now if you have time (actually takes 2 hrs ) to kill anyway and want a free continental breakfast its an easy way to p/u 16K in points.

Hey Points Surfer, have you actually stayed at this property? I'm vacationing down there during the summer, and had thought about staying at this property.

Looks like some great rates for Dec and bonus points to boot!

The bump in this thread made me realize that I had not followed up after a subsequent visit to this property..

After a wonderful first visit,the second was very troublesome. Wrong unit assigned,poor housekeeping,key cards that constantly deactivated and other problems.
We did take the tour this time,as we were considering purchasing here. The sales staff was extremely pushy and downright rude when we did not commit immediately.

Due to our second experience,we will definitely not buy here. The property has the potential to be a winner,but until the customer service attitudes change,it will continue to go downhill.

Since the thread is here and I've stayed at the property, may as well respond with my own experience

I stayed here as a 'Time Share Exchange' person so I did not stay earning points as a Holiday Inn customer, but coincidentally enough my husband and I looked at the property to book for a weeks stay prior to his father offering to let us use his time share points to go there. So in the end we got exactly what we wanted for a fraction of the cost!

We stayed in one of the 2-bedroom condo/villa's in the North Village and although we had a somewhat disastrous stay, at the same time it was a WONDERFUL stay.

The first day was the worst--we arrived 2 days earlier and stayed in another HI property til the time share was ready. Unfortunately I was terribly ill prior to leaving for the trip, and then my husband got sick shortly after we arrived. Our first two days were spent ill at the other HI property. We then transferred to the Orange Lake property and the check in seemed cheery though busy. They were passing around cold sodas and bags of fresh popcorn to children and adults alike. We passed on the popcorn as neither of us were feeling all that great still (my husband worse than me though). We got to the counter and the guy we were speaking to was super friendly, offering to tell us all sorts of things about the property. Then he asked if we'd attend the timeshare presentation. We said no. He harassed us asking again and again, offering us first $50 credit, then $50 cash, and THEN $100 cash (saying we had two different 'addresses' since my US drivers license has a different address than his UK one so we could each get $50). Still, we said no. He stopped talking to us, handed our keys over and bid us goodbye. We stood there frozen--we didn't even know where our villa was! He'd said he'd explain it all to us but we'd refused a stupid timeshare presentation so we'd been cut loose apparently. I demanded more information, was insulted for it, and given a very brusque response to all of my enquiries. Not a great start.

We arrived at the villa and it was GORGEOUS. To be fair, the decor is a bit garish but they were aiming for mediterranean and hit cheesy instead. We had a full kitchen (complete with FIESTA ware, my favorite dishware!), a huge sofa (which was a pull out sofa for 2 more if desired), the kitchen table could sit 10 easily, tv was a bit drab but worked. One bedroom had 2 queen-sized beds with a bathroom outside of the room with a stand-up shower and toilet/sink. The other bedroom had a king-sized bed with en-suite bathroom featuring a huge vanity sink, a larger stand-up shower, a tucked away toilet (in a side-room with a slider door) and a lovely gorgeous jacuzzi tub. Hurrah! As soon as I saw the jacuzzi tub I forgave all the troubles at check-in.

Unfortunately a large storm was due in that night and we sat in wonder watching the storm draw closer and closer from our view of the golf course (and massive WIFI tower, there was free WIFI broadcast throughout the whole property, amazing!). When the thunder and lightning got bad, so did the rain, and we could hear what sounded like a waterfall outside on our 'patio'. We peered outside and could see tons of water falling past the down spout and it looked like a river out there.

After the storm died down, we moved to get off the couch when my foot went SQUELCH. Uhoh. The water from the patio had leaked under the door and soaked the carpet in our living room area. It was just before 8pm and we both were not feeling great and were ready for bed. I called for help and was advised someone would be there shortly to fix things, not just to inspect (since I said we can't stay up all night as we'd been up since 5am and were very tired!).

Someone turned up at 9pm and said oh, we'll need to get the giant vacs and fans etc in. I'm going great, that should make for a peaceful slumber and take hours. He radioed to get these things and was abruptly told it would be hours before the equipment would be available for our villa. We were offered the option to change villas but since we'd already unpacked, even done a grocery shopping trip, we weren't keen to move. Foolishly we agreed to stay in the property while towels were gathered and put down to soak up as much of the water as possible.

What followed was 4 days of hassle trying to get the carpet dried then cleaned then freshened and a lovely lingering mold smell permeated the villa for the rest of our stay. Oh well.

The REST of the property was gorgeous. We had so much fun at the River Island pool area where there's a lazy river. Yes, it's a crime they charge so much to use an inner tube but my husband isn't a strong swimmer so he had loads of fun on his while I hitched rides whenever I could. While I was shopping for my wedding dress (pre-marriage) he was at the pool all day, getting enough sunburn to take him to hospital before we left the trip! WHOOPS!

We didn't explore much more of the facilities owing to other plans centering around Disney and my best friend who was there at the same time. We also were sick about 50% of the trip which was rotten luck.

However, overall we loved the property so much we've booked another 2 week stay next April/May. We're greatly looking forward to staying there again, this time in the East Village which should be almost identical to the North Village.

Thanks, sorry for the length but I'm terrible at being brief, I tend to only write books!

EDIT: I should add the following notes:
The facilities are fantastic, but the customer service is not always great. The check-in person was rubbish but the facilities people were very friendly with us (the people cleaning up etc). The contact over the phone was 'okay'--they were helpful whilst speaking to you but promised call-backs never came and no one did anything without being nudged.
We unplugged the phone as soon as we arrived to avoid being harassed some more regarding the timeshare presentation. We got lots of automated messages about the golf course--no idea why as neither of us are keen golfists. Ah well!
If you're going on holiday in Orlando, and not going there just to be pampered 24/7 with room service and massages etc, this is the place to go. The facilities were so nice and there were so many activities going on it seemed like a real winner. Other properties are so much more run down whereas these seemed fresh and recently renovated, though I believe the West Village is the oldest and due for refurbishment by now. The pool facilities alone far outreached any other potential hotel in the area--four different pool areas, each with a different theme. Compared to the other pool at the other HI property we stayed in, each of the four pool areas were 10x better than the other one!

Thank you for posting this detailed review. It is very informative. I am considering a stay at this property to take advantage of the 4nights/25k promo. I have a question for you:
1) Is there a better section of the resort (out of four) to stay in? You stayed in the North and next time in the East?
Thank you.