A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.
A resort is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort and the term resort may be used for a hotel that provides an array of entertainment and recreational activities. Some resorts are also condominium complexes that offer timeshares or fractional ownership, in addition to wholly owned condominiums. A resort is not always a commercial establishment operated by a single company, but in the late 20th century, that sort of facility became more common.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is an American private, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization founded in 1912. BBB's self-described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust, consisting of 92 independently incorporated local BBB organizations in the United States and Canada, coordinated under the International Association of Better Business Bureaus (IABBB) in Arlington, Virginia.
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.
Holiday Inn is a chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division of Bass Brewery from 1988-2000, Six Continents from 2000-03, and IHG Hotels & Resorts since 2003. It operates hotels under the names Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, and Holiday Inn Resorts. As of 2018, Holiday Inn has hotels at over 1,100 locations.
The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a vacation timeshare program owned and operated by Disney Vacation Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney Signature Experiences, a division of Disney Experiences, a segment of The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying a real estate interest in a DVC resort via a flexible points-based membership system. There are an estimated 220,000 club members.
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 rental, holiday home, holiday let, cottage holiday and gite.
In the leisure industry, a destination club is a form of timeshare system where members pay a membership deposit and annual dues to access the club's properties.
ILG, Inc. is an American timeshare company and a subsidiary of Marriott Vacations Worldwide. It was formerly a subsidiary of the corporation IAC. ILG is the parent company of Interval International, a provider of membership and leisure services to the vacation industry. ILG consists of two operating segments: membership and exchange. ILG's principal business segment offers travel and leisure related products and services to owners of vacation interests and others primarily through various membership programs, as well as related services to resort developer clients. As of December 31, 2012, nearly 2,800 resorts located in over 75 countries participated in Interval's primary exchange network. As of that date, the Membership and Exchange segment had approximately two million members enrolled in its various membership programs including approximately 1.8 million in the Interval Network. The biggest competitors for Interval are RCI, and Platinum Interchange. Interval is the second largest timeshare exchange company after RCI.
Xanterra Travel Collection is a privately owned American park and resort management company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The company is controlled by Denver-based entertainment magnate Philip Anschutz.
Marriott's Grande Vista is a Marriott Vacation Club resort, on International Drive in Orlando, Florida. The timeshare resort is the largest in the Marriott Vacation Club portfolio, with 1616 guest studios, and one-, two- and three-bedroom villas in 24 Mission-style buildings.
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, WorldMark by Wyndham, Margaritaville Vacation Club, and Accor Vacation Club. The company also provides timeshare exchange services, primarily through RCI, and travel clubs including Travel + Leisure GO.
RCI is a timeshare exchange company with over 4,300 affiliated resorts in 100 countries.
Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. is a multi-national company that is based in Orlando, Florida, United States. It manages and operates the Hilton Worldwide timeshare and vacation ownership brands under an exclusive licensing agreement with Hilton Worldwide. HGV was formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Worldwide until it was spun off into a publicly traded company in 2017. Even though HGV is an independent company post spin-off, Hilton Worldwide still retains full ownership of the Hilton Grand Vacation Club, Hilton Vacation Club, and Hilton Club brands that HGV manages and operates for them. These timeshare brands are all part of Hilton Worldwide's portfolio of 22 hotel and resort brands.
Bluegreen Corporation is an American private vacation ownership brand that is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Grand Vacations. The company provides vacations at 50 owned or managed resorts on a time-share basis, with alternative resort and cruise options available through upselling and third-party exchanges. Bluegreen makes its services available to other resort operators on a fee-for-service basis.
The Allegro Resorts Corporation was a major hotel operator and one of the pioneers in all-inclusive travel industry. At its height, Allegro owned 27 properties in the Dominican Republic, Antigua, Morocco, Aruba, Turks and Caicos, Mexico, Venezuela, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Tunisia, St. Kitts and Egypt. The brand portfolio was composed of Caribbean Village, Allegro Resorts, Royal Hideaway and Jack Tar.
Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, is a beachside resort hotel at the Ko Olina Resort in Kapolei, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. It is one of Disney's "stand-alone" hotel situated in a location without any adjacent theme parks, alongside Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort and Disney's Vero Beach Resort.
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.
Diamond Resorts is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Grand Vacations. Diamond Resorts was an independent timeshare and vacation ownership company until it was purchased by HGV in 2021. Following the purchase, Diamond's resorts became part of HGV's resort portfolio, and Diamond itself became a brand and subsidiary of HGV. The majority of Diamond Resorts have been or will be rebranded as Hilton vacation Club properties, however the original brand will continue to exist as some resorts are slated to retain the Diamond Resorts name.
Vida Vacations is a vacation membership company, which allows its customers to purchase a Right to Use and, more recently, a real estate interest in 15 resorts in Mexico. It was founded in 2010 by Grupo Vidanta, and was originally named "Vida Vacation Club". Before that, in the 1990s it was called Vidafel and sold only timeshares. The total number of rooms is approximately 7,000.
