What a difference a year makes………..
With apologies to Jamie Cullum who wrote the lyrics for the song “What a difference a day makes”. This song title came into my head after Chris Emmins (Kwikchex) and I had made a presentation to the staff of the UK and Scandinavian European Consumer Centres Network[i] (ECC-Net) on who RDO represented (the best in timeshare in Europe) and what we were doing to combat the fraudsters in Europe (through RDO Enforcement and the Timeshare Task Force). The reason I thought about this is that it is barely a year since RDO embarked on its strategy of meeting consumer issues head-on...
RDO4 and “The Timeshare Village”
It was over a drink (where else) at the Gala Dinner to mark the close of RDO4 in Gran Canaria on Tuesday night that Gordon Gurnik (Global President, RCI) remarked that he really liked the community atmosphere that existed at the recent RDO conferences he had been to, but as he had said in his Panel session on stage, he was most impressed with the steps RDO had taken in the last 12 months to tackle the problems faced by the European industry, from legacy reputational issues to fraudulent resales and leisure credits. He felt that the industry, as represented...
“ Buckle Up Boys, You’re In For A Bumpy Ride”
So said Bette Davis in the opening few minutes of, I believe, “All About Eve” in which she starred against Joan Crawford - all I can remember is that it was in black and white and Davis descends a staircase at a party looking quite stunning and utters these lines as some man lights her cigarette (I really must be getting old.) Don’t ask me why I remember it – I just thought it was a great line. It came back to me this week as there have been numerous discussions and questions over the activities of the Police in...
Is Summer Here?
Those of us living in the UK had really thought that summer was at last here, Spring having missed us out this year, but no - come the week-end it is again overcast with a strong wind from the north! Mind you, looking at the weather reports, I see in the Southern Mediterranean that conditions have by no means been brilliant so far this year. Is this some global warming effect I wonder? I have yet to hear anyone explain this somewhat depressing state of affairs. We heard earlier this month of the death of Club Olympus’s Hedley Rhodes, a long-time...
Godspeed Ron Haylock
It is just over two weeks since the industry was stunned to hear of the sudden death of Ron Haylock and I was fortunate to be able to attend the funeral service this Tuesday at Dingley Church, tucked away in the rolling hills of the Northamptonshire/Leicestershire borders – good hunting country they used to call it and I am not sure if there wasn’t at one time a Dingley Hunt. I have to confess to the fact that I spent my formative years as a young barrister in Chambers in Leicester and my Head of Chambers at the time lived...
Spring is in the air….
Early February found me in Berlin, meeting with Klaus Juhl, whose PR Firm works with Hapimag in promoting timeshare in Germany and also promotes RDO and its members. The German media appears to have a more difficult reputational relationship with the industry than here in the UK (if possible) and there is to be a hearing in April before the relevant committee of MP’s in the Bundestag to enquire why that is still the situation. RDO is of course providing material and evidence to Klaus for that. It was great to see the RDO Logo up in Berlin and to listen...
January And All That
Is it just me or do others regard January as the worst month of the year? Certainly from a London perspective it is not without its challenges - Christmas and New Year behind us, snow paralysing transport in the capital, not forgetting trains delayed and planes cancelled. Those credit card bills accumulated when buying presents to be paid off and the tax man waiting at the end of the month for his pound of flesh! No wonder Monday 21st January was supposed to be the worst day of the year! All that said, we have got off to a pretty good...
Timeshare welcome here!
It has been a busy few weeks, apart from RDO’s Autumn Board and Council meetings, we have had Management Meetings and various outside conferences/forums, the latter giving rise to this Blog’s title. I was at the “Visit England” Economic Forum recently,held at the HQ of RBS/NatWest in the City. I was talking to the representative of the Local Enterprise Partnership for West Devon (which as I understand it is the equivalent of the old Regional Development Board) ie their job is to help grow local businesses in their region with the use of government funding and part of their remit is...
The Impala Or The Three Men In The Toilet?
Those delegates to RDO 3 who were in Nigel Risner's closing session of the Conference will know what I mean - clever and amusing as the "Three Men" sketch was, every time I think of that Impala hitting the tree and the two lions looking at each other in surprise, I can't help but smile, so I believe the Impala has it, but let me know what you think. This first paragraph will be completely unintelligible to any RDO member or anyone in the industry who was unfortunate enough not to attend RDO 3. They have my sympathy, when it comes...
How Wrong Can They Be?
Over the past two weeks, we have had a journalist in the Daily Mail talking about the resurgence of "Timeshare sharks" on the Costa del Sol, another from The Olive Press making reference to “Timeshare Crooks” and on two other occasions we have had Lord Coe head of LOCOG, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, , talking about feeling like a "Costa Blanca timeshare salesman" when he originally showed the Olympic Committee the East London site, (he made this same comment earlier in the year). We have of course responded in all cases. In the first two cases, we...