Accor Vacation Club, based in Robina on the Gold Coast has announced a Senior Executive appointment with CRAIG WOOD being appointed as CEO, effective immediately.

Craig Wood, has served as Chief Operating Officer at Accor Vacation Club for close to 2 years and has over 20 years in the holiday ownership industry.

“The Club has seen substantial growth in acquisitions, introducing new locations and apartments into the Club’s property portfolio in the past few years, and now with Member numbers sitting just under 27,000, we look forward to building on that in 2010,” said Craig on his appointment.

“We have re-branded from ‘Accor Premiere Vacation Club’ to the more streamlined ‘Accor Vacation Club’ and have made great advances in technology – with the newly redesigned Member Website scheduled for launch later this month,” he added.

Craig will continue to grow the business by introducing new, innovative ideas and exploring synergistic opportunities within the Accor group to take the Club into 2010.

He has an impressive history in the hotel branded Vacation Club Industry with his immediate past role as GM and Regional Director of Marriott Ownership Resorts in the Middle East.

About Accor Vacation Club
Accor Vacation Club is part of the Accor Hospitality Group, the largest and fastest growing hotel management group in the Pacific Region with operations across 16 countries, covering a full spectrum of locations and hotel styles, from luxury to budget. The Club has over 27,000 Member families who enjoy holidays at 21 Club Properties.

About Accor
Accor, a major global group and the European leader in hotels, as well as the global leader in services to corporate clients and public institutions, operates in nearly 100 countries with 150,000 employees. It offers to its clients over 40 years of expertise in two core businesses:

- Hotels, with the Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap Hotel, Formule 1 and Motel 6 brands, representing 4,000 hotels and nearly 500,000 rooms in 90 countries, as well as strategically related activities, such as Lenôtre;

- Services, with 30 million people in 40 countries benefiting from Accor Services products in employee and public benefits, rewards and loyalty, and expense management.

Accor’s shining stars came out last night at the Awards night, which was the gala finale to the Australian Timeshare Holiday Ownership Council’s (ATHOC) annual conference 2009, held on the beautiful Gold Coast Queensland.

Netting two of the four awards, was Marnie Jess, awarded as ‘Outstanding New Professional’ and Mike Winlaw who won a ‘Recognition Award’ for his services over the last 5 years to the industry.

Marnie’s award recognised her fresh approach, professional skills and integrity in her role as Sales marketing and Production Manager, vital in traffic control, sales and marketing collateral and internal communications – a part of the busy Corporate Communications department.

Mike’s recognition was substantially for his work with Accor Vacation Club’s Corporate Uni training scheme, and his benchmarked USA training visit.

John Osborne, CEO said “Our staff are our strength, and their commitment to quality and integrity is vital to our development and growth, and this pair set a fine example for others too.”

Recognition for star employees at Timeshare Industry’s “Night of Stars”

The Timeshare Industry held its 18th Annual National Industry Awards, at a gala function to recognise its star employees and Accor Vacation Club was a stellar performer, taking four of the night’s major awards for Sales and Service.

“After a challenging year for the industry,  the presentation of these awards are a testament to the dedication of all our teams, and truly show the spirit of Accor Vacation Club’s employees, which then reflects back positively to our 26,000+ Members in so many ways on an everyday level,” said John Osborne, CEO Accor Vacation Club.

“Congratulations from all our Management and staff to these stars of Accor Vacation Club,” John concluded.

And the winners are…

AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE
DEBBIE BLATCH
This nominee demonstrates a consistent and positive attitude towards service.  This star performer demonstrate excellent knowledge of the resort, the industry and it’s products and services.  This performer achieves beyond expectation results based on consistent use of these skills.

AWARD FOR CORPORATE PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
MARNIE JESS
This award is for an individual in a non-management position employed in administrative department

AWARD FOR SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR
ACCOR VACATION CLUB COFFS HARBOUR
This award is for a team involved in the sales operations of a single resort/sales site or for multiple projects. Team members may include project director and sales, marketing and administrative management and staff.

AWARD FOR SALES MANAGER OF THE YEAR
PETER COLE – NOVOTEL TWIN WATERS
This award is for an individual Manager responsible for the sales functions at a single sales site, single resort site, or multiple sales sites. They will have consistently exceeded sales targets with their superior management skills whilst maintaining excellent client service levels.  This nominee must be a consistent performer with evidence of their management skills whilst ensuring an emphasis on quality assurance and compliance with the Industry Code of Practice.

About Accor Vacation Club
We are an exciting, innovative and flexible holiday ownership club providing Members with the opportunity for a lifetime of great holidays worldwide. The Club’s operator is part of the Accor Hospitality Group, the largest and fastest growing hotel management group in the Pacific Region. Accor Vacation Club is Australia’s first hotel branded holiday ownership club commencing operations in 2000.

Accor Hospitality
Accor, a major global group and the European leader in hotels, as well as the global leader in services to corporate clients and public institutions, operates in nearly 100 countries with 150,000 employees. It offers to its clients over 40 years of expertise in two core businesses:
- Hotels, with the Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, Ibis, all seasons, Etap Hotel, Formule 1 and Motel 6 brands, representing 4,000 hotels and nearly 500,000 rooms in 90 countries, as well as strategically related activities, such as Lenôtre;
- Services, with 30 million people in 40 countries benefiting from Accor Services products in employee and public benefits, rewards and loyalty, and expense management.

Photo/s by AA Xposé Media; www.aaxpose.com

Accor Vacation Club has affiliated Grand Mercure Apartments Heritage Park with Interval International, a leading global provider of vacation services. The resort is in Bowral, situated in a valley at the foot of Mt. Gibraltar in New South Wales, Australia, and is only an hour’s drive from the city of Sydney. This becomes the 21st property in the Club to be affiliated with Interval.

Visitors may enjoy outings to historic buildings, boutiques, and restaurants, as well as to the many nearby attractions that include the Moreton National Park, Fitzroy Falls, and the spectacular Wombeyan Caves, known as “one of the natural wonders of the world.”

“This resort is located in the picturesque Southern Highlands,” says Joe Hickman, Interval International’s executive director for Asia Pacific, “Owners and guests at the resort can take a break from the city life of Sydney and relax in the healthy climate and scenery reminiscent of rural England.”

“The area offers many excellent wines and fresh produce, which can be sampled at various local restaurants and farmers markets,” says Tracie Sakrzewski, Accor Vacation Club’s executive director of Member and Resort Services. “Members are not to miss the annual Tulip Time festival, while taking in the scenic lookouts and native bushwalking trails in the Gibbergunyah Forest.”

Grand Mercure Apartments Heritage Park, Bowral is located on 10 acres of landscaped gardens. Amenities at the resort include an indoor swimming pool, tennis and squash courts, and a gymnasium.
 
About Accor Vacation Club

Accor Vacation Club is an exciting, innovative, and flexible holiday ownership club providing Members with the opportunity for a lifetime of great holidays worldwide. It is Australia’s first hotel branded holiday ownership club and commenced operations in 2000. The Club’s operator is part of the Accor Hospitality Group, the largest and fastest growing hotel management group in the Pacific Region with operations across 16 countries, covering a full spectrum of locations and hotel styles, from luxury to budget and employing over 24,000 people.
 
About Interval International

Interval International operates membership programmes for vacation owners and provides value-added services to its developer clients worldwide. Based in Miami, Florida, the company has been a pioneer and innovator in serving the vacation ownership market for more than 30 years. Today, Interval has a network of over 2,400 resorts in excess of 75 countries and offers its resort clients and nearly 2 million member families high-quality products and programs through 25 offices in 16 countries. Interval is an operating segment of Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:IILG), a leading global provider of membership and leisure services to the vacation industry.
 
For more information contact:
Michael Myers, Group Director of Marketing and Travel, Interval International
Phone: +44 (0) 20 8336 9515
E-mail: michael.myers@intervalintl.com

44 new Gold Coast apartments purchased by Club for members’ use

Accor Vacation Club has purchased forty-four (44) one and two bedroom apartments at the 4.5 star Freshwater Point Broadbeach, QLD which will be made available for Club Members use as growth in the Club continues.

 
The in-demand destination, offering high quality, self-contained resort style accommodation boasts a heated pool, spa, steam room and sauna, fully quipped gymnasium, games rooms, on-site café, poolside barbecue, tour desk, and secure undercover parking. All of the air-conditioned apartments feature full kitchen facilities, private balcony, security intercom, and have wireless broadband available.

The nine level resort is directly opposite the Casino and Convention Centre, and a stone’s throw from Broadbeach’s trendy café and restaurant scene and the glorious patrolled surf beaches that the Gold Coast is famous for.

Seen as a vote of confidence in the Queensland tourism industry, it shows that despite a global downturn in mainstream hotel business the holiday ownership industry is still strong, mainly due to Member’s having future-proofed their holidays and costs by buying into the flexible points-based system.

Data collected from the Australian timeshare industry confirms that holiday owners are bucking the trend, as the appeal of regular holidays and the need to utilise their pre-paid annual points motivates them to book a getaway.

Holiday ownership continues to be a strong and stable component of the region’s tourism economy and is highlighted by findings from The Australian Timeshare and Holiday Ownership Council (ATHOC) who this week released occupancy figures provided by timeshare operators for the second quarter of 2008. These statistics show that timeshare consistently achieved occupancy rates above 94.6%.

Accor Vacation Club reported that the following Member properties consistently reported occupancies of 90% or above throughout the year during 2008, defying downward market trends domestically – Grand Mercure Apartments Flinders Lane, Melbourne; Novotel Lake Crackenback Resort, Snowy Mountains; Novotel Coffs Harbour Pacific Bay Resort; Novotel Rockford Palm Cove Resort; Grand Mercure Apartments Pinnacle Apartments, Darling Harbour; Hotel St Moritz, Queenstown; and Twin Waters Beach Houses, Sunshine Coast.
 
According to John Osborne, CEO of Accor Vacation Club, “Ownership is the highest form of loyalty. It is clear our owners are using their scheduled holiday time because they have already paid for their accommodation. When the expense of their stay is pre-paid, it’s easier for them to cover today’s higher airline ticket costs or fuel surcharges and overcome other economic concerns that are currently impeding travel.”

The reliable, high timeshare occupancy rates, year-round, essentially alleviate seasonal fluctuations in employment which is a huge benefit to the workforce, and ensures hotels and Resorts can plan confidently into the future for refurbishments and growth.

http://www.ownersperspective.co.uk/accor-vacation-club-confidently-steps-up-inventory/