Four Seasons Hotels Limited, trading as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is a Canadian luxury hotel and resort company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Four Seasons currently operates more than 100 hotels and resorts worldwide. Since 2007, Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal have been majority owners of the company. As of January 2022, Cascade Investment owns 71.25% and Kingdom Holding Company owns 23.75%.
A timeshare is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner of the same accommodation is allotted their period of time. Units may be sold as a partial ownership, lease, or "right to use", in which case the latter holds no claim to ownership of the property. The ownership of timeshare programs is varied, and has been changing over the decades.
Home exchange, also known as house swapping, is a form of lodging in which two parties agree to offer each other homestays for a set period of time. Since no monetary exchange takes place, it is a form of barter, collaborative consumption, and sharing. Home exchange can cover any type of residence including apartments, houses, holiday cottages, boats, or recreational vehicles. It can include an exchange of the entire home or just a room. The length of the swap can vary from a weekend to over a year. The swap can be simultaneous or non simultaneous. Home exchanges are usually arranged via specific types of social networking services, most of which charge a fee.
The culture of Poland is the product of its geography and distinct historical evolution, which is closely connected to an intricate thousand-year history. Poland has a Roman Catholic majority, and religion plays an important role in the lives of many Polish people. The unique character of Polish culture developed as a result of its geography at the confluence of various European regions.
A vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment, house, or professionally managed resort-condominium complex on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term vacation rental is mainly used in the US. Other terms used are self-catering rentals, holiday homes, holiday lets, cottage holidays and gites.
The Travelers Companies, Inc., commonly known as Travelers, is an American insurance company. It is the second-largest writer of U.S. commercial property casualty insurance, and the sixth-largest writer of U.S. personal insurance through independent agents. Travelers is incorporated in Minnesota, with headquarters in New York City, and its largest office in Hartford, Connecticut. It has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since June 8, 2009.
Fractional ownership is a method in which several unrelated parties can share in, and mitigate the risk of, ownership of a high-value tangible asset, usually a jet, yacht or piece of resort real estate. It can be done for strictly monetary reasons, but typically there is some amount of personal access involved. One of the main motivators for a fractional purchase is the ability to share the costs of maintaining an asset that will not be used full-time by one owner.
Destination clubs, or vacation clubs, or travel clubs, is a concept within the leisure industry introduced in 1998, when Rob McGrath, a veteran of the luxury time share development business, launched Private Retreats. Members pay a membership deposit and annual dues to join and access the club’s properties. Since then, more than 30 companies have launched clubs targeting affluent families that want the benefits of second home ownership, but with more flexibility and choice in where they vacation each year. The use of a portfolio of high-end homes in resort destinations is said to be preferred by its members over access to a single golf course alone as appears to be the case with country clubs. Destination clubs are said to be ideal for the individual seeking variety and enjoy the thrill of visiting different locations. The world's largest destination club still in operation is said to be Inspiratowith American Express.
Marriott Vacation Club is the primary timeshare brand of Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation. The brand comprises around 70 Marriott Vacation Club properties throughout the United States, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and Asia. Marriott Vacation Club resorts consist of one, two, and three-bedroom villas, with more than 400,000 owners.
Travel + Leisure Co. is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownership clubs, including Club Wyndham and WorldMark by Wyndham, and provides timeshare exchange services, primarily through RCI.
Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. is based in Orlando, Florida, United States, with regional offices located in Las Vegas, Nevada, Oahu, Hawaii, New York City, Marco Island, Florida and Sanibel Island, Florida. It was formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Inc. until it was spun off into a publicly traded company. As of December 31, 2019, it has 55 properties with 8,916 rooms in 5 countries and territories, all franchised.
Christopher P. Michel is an American photographer and entrepreneur, who founded Military.com. He is the current artist in residence at the National Academies.
Lotte New York Palace Hotel is a luxury hotel in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, at the corner of 50th Street and Madison Avenue. It was originally developed between 1977 and 1980 by Harry Helmsley. The hotel consists of a portion of the Villard Houses, built in the 1880s by McKim, Mead & White, which are New York City designated landmarks and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also includes a 51-story skyscraper designed by Emery Roth & Sons and completed in 1980.
The Yellowstone Club is a private residential club, ski resort, and golf resort located in Madison County, just west of Big Sky, Montana. It is rated among the top 10 lifestyle estates in the world.
Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation is a pure-play public timeshare company. Formerly a division of Marriott International, Marriott Vacations Worldwide was established as a separate, publicly traded entity focusing primarily on vacation ownership in November 2011. Marriott Vacations Worldwide runs more than 120 resorts with over 700,000 Owners and Members. Its brands include Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Vacation Club Pulse, Grand Residences by Marriott, and The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club. The Company also operates Interval International, which offers an exchange network and travel membership programs through a network of more than 3,200 affiliated resorts in over 90 countries and territories.
Duke Realty was a real estate investment trust (REIT) based in Indianapolis, Indiana that invested in industrial properties. As of December 31, 2021, it owned or jointly controlled 548 primarily industrial properties containing 162.7 million rentable square feet. In October 2022, it was acquired by Prologis.
Valerie Woods Smith is a Belizean politician who has served as Speaker of the House of Representatives since December 2020.
Citadel Securities LLC is an American market making firm headquartered in Miami. It is one of the largest market makers in the world, and is active in more than 50 countries. It is the largest designated market maker on the New York Stock Exchange. Citadel Securities is a separate entity from the hedge fund Citadel LLC, although both were founded and are majority owned by American hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin. Citadel Securities is expected to eventually move its headquarters from Chicago to Miami, having bought land there to build its new headquarters.
NordLayer, formerly known as NordVPN Teams, is a network access security service with applications for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. The software is marketed as a privacy and security tool running on zero trust architecture providing protection on hybrid and multi-cloud cloud environments.
The 2022–23 Premier League of Belize is the tenth season of the Premier League of Belize, the highest competitive football league in Belize, after it was founded in 2011. The league commenced in July 2022 and is scheduled to end in mid 2023. The season is divided into two halves, each crowning one champion.
