Festiva buying Escapes

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Original Message:

Festiva buying Escapes (by Evan P.):

Cooper was a land developer, so its no surprise that when the timeshare side of their portfolio started to slide, they got out.

It looks like Orange Lake Resorts purchased two Escapes! resorts from Cooper (http://corporate.orangelake.com/ourResorts.php Panama City and Galveston) and Festiva got the rest of the resort portfolio (http://www.festiva.com/resorts.php).

I own two weeks with Orange Lake at properties they purchased and converted to their internal points program which partners with RCI (Desert Club NV / HICV Smokey Mtn Resort TN). I believe their conversion price is around $8K, I get a lot of use out of their points system. (We are staying at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas this week and have another week on the books at HGVC Marco Island resort in December.)

Festiva is a good developer trying to make a name for themselves in the private timeshare sector (which is shrinking by the minute). I imagine a conversion into their club should run about what Orange Lake is charging, but from what I can tell their club and exchange company (RTX.Travel) are picking up the pieces of failed projects which makes keeping the old owners happy a big challenge.

I imagine the legal battles steven776 mentioned are the hold up behind any informative transparency with the unclaimed resorts. I don't know who is driving these "legal battles", but until they clear I would expect the owners from those resorts to remain in the dark.