Seasons Holidays: Success built on responding to customer needs in the 21st Century.

The Seasons story started in the early 1990s as the Laugharne Park Partnership. In 1996 Knocktopher Abbey and Burn Park were purchased to form the multi-destination timeshare club, Seasons Holidays plc. The Seasons portfolio now includes eight owned or managed Seasons resorts in the British Isles and Europe, making the company one of the UK’s market leaders.

Currently the company owns and operates 6 resorts in the British Isles. Laugharne Park, overlooks Carmarthen Bay in Wales; Burn Park is on Cornwall’s north coast; Knocktopher Abbey is in the Republic of Ireland; Brunston Castle is a superb golfing destination in Ayrshire; Whitbarrow Village lays between Penrith and Keswick in the unspoilt Northern Lake District and, the most recent acquisition, Clowance Estate and Country Club in the heart of the Cornish countryside, between Falmouth and St Ives.

Seasons Holidays owns a resort in Lanzarote called Club Tahiti and Forest Hills on Spain’s Costa del Sol and members can also enjoy holidays in the Algarve at the Alto Club in Alvor near Praia da Rocha.

Customer needs in the 21st century
Seasons Holidays are designed to meet the needs of the responsible twenty-first century holiday homeowner; perfect for those wishing to ensure that their holidays have a positive impact on society and the environment. The Season Holidays resorts provide major economic benefits to the local rural communities in which they are located though year-round occupancy and a constant stream of visitors, which means plenty of work all year for local people. Since buying a holiday home on a Season’s resort has no inflationary impact on local house prices, it is not a decision likely to lead to a local family being deprived of a home either. Of course, within the UK there is no need to fly and so there are environmental benefits and above all, the resorts are carefully designed to preserve the beauty of the location.

Affordable Luxury
Seasons Holidays now has 23,000 timeshare members and in 2008 more than 75,000 guests will enjoy a holiday at a Seasons’ destination. The floating time, floating resort concept means that Seasons’ owners have the flexibility to enjoy different resorts each year within Seasons. Through Interval International, members also have access to more than 2000 affiliated resorts worldwide.

The highly successful Seasons Estates Limited was created in 2004, and heralded Season’s diversification into buy-to-let holiday homes. The management team wanted to develop more of the plots on Season’s UK sites and improve the guest experience.

The company has built and sold more than 100 properties, located on two of its most popular resorts, Brunston Castle in Scotland and Whitbarrow Village in The Lake District. Virtually all of the leaseback homes were sold off-plan. This has generated sufficient profits to spruce up many of the resort facilities.

As part of the deal, purchasers are offered the added incentive of rental income, which is much higher than residential buy-to-let offerings. This makes it an attractive proposition for those who are still jittery about investing in the stock market and are looking for a decent return for their money, and is particularly appealing to those who have paid off the mortgage on their home.

Each owner is guaranteed four weeks of personal use each year. They are entitled to swap any or all of the weeks with any other resort within the Seasons worldwide holiday portfolio.

Buy-to-let homes are expensive and way beyond the reach of many of Season’s members. But equally, the Seasons team are well aware that whilst timeshare has many advantages and meets perfectly the needs of some customers, others would not consider the idea. So the team looked to develop a new fractional ownership product.

Leslie McCann, Group Marketing Director explains the rationale behind the move:
“In our efforts to continually innovate and offer products to meet today’s customer needs, we wanted to develop something that stayed faithful to the positive aspects of timeshare but offered more flexibility and an investment opportunity, combined with an easy exit route. We came up with the 8 keys concept.”

8 keys works by giving customers multiple benefits. Customers purchase a 12.5% stake in a property. So each house has 8 owners. This entitles owners to 6 weeks of luxury holiday per year (One peak, three high, one mid and one low). Due to relative high values for UK holiday cottage rentals, a healthy annual income from half of the weeks owned is generated and this protects the owner from costs.

Seasons also offers purchasers a guaranteed exit route whereby they receive 12.5% of the net sales proceeds when the property is sold in 16 years. This combination of no annual costs and a built-in resale strategy overcomes some of the objections to timeshare.

Leslie McCann adds:
“Our fractional purchaser is typically between the ages of 45 and 60. Our research identified that our owners feel comfortable with enjoying holidays for 16 years and a pro-rata share of any property gain. It so happens average house prices in the UK have doubled over the last 16 years. As the UK population ages, there will be more demand for luxury holiday homes in prime locations and we believe Seasons is perfectly positioned to meet this growing need.”

Seasons Holidays has offered 8 keys to current timeshare members. Many have bought it as an upgrade to their current package. So far this strategy has generated more than £4.5 million completed sales in 2008 with a similar amount under contract. Timeshare sales turnover has not suffered. This is extra business for Seasons.

This summer will see a test of the 8 keys concept on the open market by leaflet drop and advertising aimed at successful people who want a luxury holiday home in an idyllic location, at an affordable price, and also at consumers who may have been considering the purchase of a static caravan or holiday chalet.

The Secret of Season’s Success
Crucial to Season’s success is the speed with which it is able to respond to a changing environment, developing new products and finding beautiful niche destinations. Seasons is a privately owned company with its Chairman, Barry Hurley; Marketing Director, Leslie McCann and Finance Director, David Clarke spending their time and energy focussing on their customers and the well-being of their staff. The hands-on approach of this management team, combined with their many years experience, enables them to make and implement decisions quickly. This formula certainly seems to work and has built the company a loyal staff and customer base.

Season’s staff and management work hard to understand customers and the company has an excellent track record in persuading members to deepen their relationship with Seasons. Members regularly upgrade to enjoy more weeks or larger cottages and villas.

Barry Hurley, Chairman of the Seasons Group, believes that a focus on treating staff well and providing excellent development and promotion opportunities has been critical to the firm’s success and will continue to be crucial as the company grows.

“We are very proud of our excellent staff. They are the public face of our company. Everyday they interact with our existing and potential customers and build relationships with them. Our customers really appreciate the efforts our staff go to make them feel comfortable and to accommodate their wishes. Beautiful locations aside, it is this relationship with staff that brings our customers back for more.

“I firmly believe that Seasons offers one of the best working environments, the best pay structure and the best range of products in the industry. This has given us some fantastic success stories over the last couple of years. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing fresh enthusiastic new faces achieving their goals and changing their lives. I am proud to be part of the Seasons success story.”
Tony Hayes, Director of Sales Seasons Holidays plc

Innovative products; innovative marketing
Seasons Holidays is unusual in that it no longer cold calls in the search for new customers. The 500 phone canvassers have been replaced by a small dynamic team that focuses on experiential marketing and customer referrals. Turnover and inherent profitability has increased since the change in strategy, with customers responding very positively to the opportunities offered to try out a Seasons Holiday.

The company also sponsors the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham Festival. Taking place on the second day of the Festival, this prestigious race is the second most valuable steeplechase of the four-day event with prize money totalling £310,000.

Season Holidays has become a familiar name within the racing community. The Festival sponsorship is part of a dynamic marketing campaign to raise awareness of the brand which includes the distribution of millions of leaflets around the UK to postcode areas with an above average interest in horse-racing and becoming one of the first platinum marketing partners on Racing UK TV earlier this year.

Leslie McCann, Seasons’ Group Marketing Director, comments, “The link between racegoers and consumers interested in purchasing Seasons holiday accommodation is ideal and has generated huge interest. It is a focused strategy that has really paid off”.

Providing affordable solutions for customers Seasons Holidays based its business on offering very affordable timeshare memberships to customers. Experience has shown that many of the customers come back for more: buying more weeks, more locations or better properties.

The move into offering outright purchase of buy-to-let properties costing between £200,000 and £350,000 was aimed at the wealthier investor. And now the move into fractional ownership through the 8 keys concept, offers a luxury alternative for those with more limited funds to invest.

Season’s success is built on offering customers the chance to have their ideal holiday home in a beautiful location with fantastic facilities. Seasons Holidays offers a luxury lifestyle at affordable prices and this is why it will continue to be successful.

For further information about Seasons Holidays, please visit www.seasonsholidays.com and www.seasons8keys.com.
For careers information, please call 01994 427332.

Interval International, Seasons’ exchange partner for the past seven years provides high quality alternative holiday options. Through Interval
International members also have access to more than 2300 affiliated resorts worldwide. During 2007, thousands of holidays were organised by Interval both for Seasons’ members and into Seasons’ resorts. Due to the strength of this successful relationship established in 2001, Seasons have decided to extend the agreement.

“It’s been a privilege partnering with Seasons over the last few years,” said Darren Ettridge, vice president resort sales & service (Europe). “Seasons is one of the timeshare industry’s leading developers in Europe and is known for the quality of its resorts. We are therefore exceptionally pleased that Seasons has chosen to renew its affiliation to Interval for a further seven years. The company has been and continues to be an exceptional success story due to its strong leadership and innovative marketing.”

“We’ve had a terrific working relationship with Interval since we became an affiliate in 2001“, said Leslie McCann, Group Marketing Director for
Seasons Holidays. “And, we are excited to be working with Interval as we launch new projects and products such as fractionals. We like to be flexible and Interval helps us to achieve that.”

Interval International is a leading provider of exchange, travel, and leisure services to resort developers and vacationers 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 2,300 resorts in excess of 75 countries and offers its clients and nearly 2 million member families high-quality products and programs through its 28 offices in 17 countries.