Life's Short. Live Better.

Tour De Victoria - May 28 2011

I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the first annual Tour De Victoria. Ryder Hesjedal and Seamus McGrath had the idea to share with other cyclists the great roads that helped Ryder become a 7th Place 2010 Tour De France finisher, and Seamus an Olympic Mountain biker. Over 1200 cyclists joined Ryder for a big ride on May 28 2011. 

Our Parkside property was pleased to be a sponsor and look forward to supporting great community events like this in the future.

Here's the route, and my GPS info. Not up for 140 kms? Try the 90 km event to get you started. Tour De Victoria 

Conferences and Conventions -

I recently returned from one "conference" and one "convention". I'm still trying to figure out the difference between a conference and a convention. 

I was pleased to be asked to represent Aviawest at the 11th Annual Ragatz Fractional Interest Conference in San Francisco, March 14-16th. Aviawest was selected as a "top performer" in the Fractional industry, for our sales success at Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa and Pacific Shores Resort & Spa in 2010. 

I spoke on the top performers panel with Larry Shulman  from the Aspen Grand Hyatt, Joshua Dempsey of Calistoga Ranch, and Keith Marlow of One Steamboat Place. 

The Ragatz conference tone could be summed up as cautiously optimistic. Here's what the executive summary stated:  

It is widely felt in the resort real estate industry that shared-ownership resort real estate will rebound more rapidly and more strongly than whole-ownership resort real estate as the country’s economy recovers. Reasons include being a concept that is based on:

(1) personal use rather than speculation;

(2) being able to purchase only the amount of time that have vacations to use and discretionary income to spend on;

(3) lowering household spending habits and capabilities;

(4) being hassle-free, i.e., “show up and enjoy;” and

(5) the opportunity for flexibility and variety of use due to the external exchange process.

- Courtesy http://www.ragatzassociates.com - full report available for purchase.

Earn an iPad for FREE - for Aviawest Team Members

Dear Aviawest Team members,
We are really excited to be nearing the completion of Aviawest's "iPad and iPhone app" We have created this "app" for a couple of reasons:

1. To allow existing owners easier access to the benefits of Aviawest ownership.

2. To utilize technology (iPad) as a way to better communicate with potential new owners the value Aviawest ownership offers.

Some of the Aviawest app features are:

• Bonus time availability and touch to call
• Contact info
• Vacation value calculator
• Video of the properties/resorts
• Images Gallery
• Special Offers
• Frequently Asked Questions
• ...and more features to come in V2

Here are some images of the app:

              


We think it would be great if we could give all our staff like you, an iPad. But we can't. However, we got thinking that there must be a way we can get an iPad into each of your hands - for free.

Check out what can you do on an ipad They are truly amazing devices.

When we market Aviawest Resort Club, we have a marketing budget. So, if we can redirect some of those marketing dollars toward purchasing an iPad for you, then that would be great.

So, with that in mind, we are piloting a new program. When you refer a friend, family member or colleague that purchases Aviawest Points with us, you get an iPad. Yes, as simple as that. More than one referral buys Aviawest points? We'll credit you $500 towards travel and other Aviawest Team lifestyle rewards to be announced.

How do you participate? All you need to do is refer the people you think would be a good fit to for Aviawest, and we will make sure they get the information they need.

What's in it for your friends and family to participate?

• 10% off the purchase price, because they are your referral
• 2 free nights at an Aviawest property
• A $50 Prepaid Visa Card

How do you participate? 1, 2, 3

1. Make a list of people that may be suitable. An easy way to think of people to refer is to ask yourself:

Who's my son or daughter's teacher? Neighbor? Family Doctor? Those with families and children at home seem to get the most value from Aviawest ownership, but retirees also are huge advocates because of all their free time to travel and flexibility. 

2. Talk to the people you would like to refer. They don't have to "be interested" in purchasing at Aviawest, but they do need to have the ability to purchase. 

3. Simply email your 3 best suited referrals to referrals@aviawest.com  with the following information:

Subject line of email you send "Aviawest Team Referrals"

• Their Names
• Phone number
• Email
• City they live in
• Best time to contact them
• Preferred days time to visit with us. 

We're trying this program on a trial basis, so thanks for your help in smoothing out any bugs along the way. Questions? Contact gayle.miller@aviawest.com or suzanne.taylor@aviawest.com or 1.866.769.6377

Jim Pearson - CEO, Aviawest Resort Group

P.S. - We'll pay for the WiFi 16 Gig iPad for you when a referral purchases, but if you would like the 3G or larger memory models, we'll gladly arrange that and simply do a payroll deduction for the additional amount. 

New York, New York.

I returned from a business trip to New York a few days ago. I was there for meetings with one of our supplier partners. I had never been to NYC before last Thursday. Although I have traveled to a number of large world cities in North America and Europe, NYC was different. 

The energy was amazing. The architecture was historical and over the top. Times square was vegasesque in its lights and oversize commercial signs. Where else can you go to an Apple store 24x7x365 to get your fix?

We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the south end of Central Park in the Time Warner building, in 'midtown'.

I will definitely be back to New York, and although the hotel was great - truly a great hotel, it was a hotel. When we go back, we'll be making an vacation exchange into the Manhattan Club or the HGVC vacation ownership suites through our Aviawest ownership. A  $200 exchange for a week, is sure a lot more appealing than $800 a night ($5600+taxes). Apparently that's what our supplier paid for our hotel room. 

Aviawest has had hundreds of our owners exchange into New York City and it demonstrates the exceptional value one can realize from owning vacation ownership.

Teranet - National Bank Housing Index - Canada

I've followed Standard and Poor's Case-Shiller index in the US for some time now, but never really knew there was a similar style index developed in Canada until recently. The "House Price Index" was developed by Teranet in conjunction with the National Bank of Canada. 

The idea is that the traditional 'average sale price' measurement can be skewed by markets such as Vancouver/Victoria and Toronto where values are substantially higher than the rest of Canada. Interesting to see how high and early (2007) Calgary peaked.

 

November is Snowbird Month

November is Snowbird Month at Parkside Victoria and we have an exceptional deal for those wishing to spend some or all of the Winter in Victoria BC.

Snowbirds

 As winter is quickly approaching, we thought it timely to feature our unique “Snowbird” usage program. Now, we know some folks whom live in cooler climes are reticent to call themselves “snowbirds”.

Mildest Climate in Canada

For those of you that desire to spend a few weeks (or months) in Canada's mildest climate, we've got the perfect fractional ownership usage program for you. If you hail from the USA, please excuse us. You may not be familiar with how warm Victoria can be for the winter. Palm Trees do well here.

How it Works

So how does the snowbird program work? We took the period of time from November 15th, through until the end of March, and packaged that time as designated for "Snowbirds". 

The great part is that you can choose any 3 week period of time, and configure as you like. Maybe 3 weeks in November appeals to you, and another 3 weeks again in February. Or, come for 6 consecutive weeks January 1 to mid February. 

Global Travel

Let's take an example where you may own a 1/8th interest in real estate at Parkside. That means you have access to a minimum of 6 weeks per year. If you choose to allocate one week per year into the RCI global travel exchange program, you can actually leverage that one week into as many as 5 or 6 weeks abroad. Ask us how. Here's a sample in Mexico.

Why Now?

Parkside is prime real estate. The location is perfect. There are limited suites at Parkside, and the best inventory is selling out quickly. During the month of November, if you take the time to engage, and secure a 1/8th or 1/4  interest with us, we'll also issue you $5,000 in WesJet Flight Credits. That's enough flight credit for about 16 return flights to Victoria!

No Fees Until 2014

We really want to kick this winter off right. So,until the end of November, we'll actually pay the fees on your purchase until the end of 2013. Imagine owning a vacation home in Victoria BC that you don't have any maintenance costs or fees for the next three years! Now that's a vacation.

Dan Pink's "Drive"

I've read Dan Pink's latest book, "Drive". The book is about what motivates people today, and how things have changed. The concept of flow was introduced, as something many of us are missing in our lives now.

Our society is a always on, short-circut to blackberry/iPhone, connected to twitter, facebook and more. We have to fight to find blocks of creative focused time where real value is created, and a sense of well being is realized.

We lack these longer periods of time of uninterrupted work on a single concept or task. Computer programmers know that it takes a couple hours to get into a mode where the task becomes natural and our minds are free of clutter.

The most compelling part of the book for me was related to the concept of Type X behaviour and Type I behaviour. "Type X" represents a model of motivation based on extrinsic desires, such as money and tangible rewards. Pink calls this motivation 2.0. "Type I" represents an intrinsic motivation model based on inherent satisfaction of the activity itself. Pink coins this as motivation 3.0

He then goes into the various differences between the two, and the evolution of how more people are oriented towards motivation 3.0 today and that the behaviour is created, not 'born'. Why care? Type I employees are far more productive, happy and the companies they work in are far more successful. 

The book has some great insights about what employees and people want out of life today. Definitely worthwhile.

Victoria Real Estate. Why I'm bullish. In the long run at least.

There are some key factors why we believe Victoria will be one of the best markets in the world to own real estate in:

1. Geography. Everyone knows that Victoria is the warmest place to live in Canada, but few people appreciate that the city is almost completely surrounded by water. The highest real estate prices in the world are in places geographically restricted by water, mountains or borders.

2. Tourism Time Bomb. Emerging tourist markets. The World Tourism Council predicts that global travel will double from 800 million to 1.6 billion global travelers from 2008 through 2020. 

3. Political Stability. Safety. Canada is one of, if not the best country in the world to live in. Simply put, there are few places which are as safe and enjoyable to live and visit as Victoria. Part of the reason for this is Victoria is on an island. 

4. Global Population Growth. As the old cliche says, "They aren't making any more prime real estate".  Global population and more importantly, global wealth swells, prime locations will be driven up in price, and sought after.

Why we (Aviawest) Blogs.

Recently, some Aviawest'ers have questioned whether or not it makes good business sense to blog. Some people think its a downright waste of time and money. 

That's understandable. It can seem like "frivolous fluff" posting about people's birthdays, events, new hires and things going on in the company. 

How on earth could that help drive the bottom line? It does, and here's how.

1. Content is KING. Google and other search engines crawl the web, searching for real content. The more we blog, the more authentic content we have. So for example, if we have a post about golf and great golf courses around Victoria and a internet user searches for "Golf Resort Vancouver Island", we have a much better chance of getting ranked high on the search engines. More content keeps us competitive with those who are out there blogging and creating mountains of content.

2. Transparency. People are tired of faceless, impersonal corporations. They want to see what's inside. Is it real? Do they care? What's the tone of the organization? What makes them tick? This visibility and open dialogue engenders trust. Trust and transparency create confident, enthusiastic consumers. This drives people to make decisions about buying our products; Room Sales, Points sales, Fractional sales and repeat business are all influenced positively by this trust and transparency. 

3. Stickiness. What keeps you going back to a news site? The fact that there is NEW information, every day, every hour. The demand for change has increased for all businesses; consumers expect to see new and updated information on the internet every day. If we're not doing that, then we are being left behind. We need to engage people and give them a reason to come back. 

4. Communication. Blogging allows us to communicate our products and services to our not-yet-customer. Instead of spending tens of thousands on newspaper or magazine advertising, we blog. It's interactive, and people can get far more information at their fingertips instead of having to call. This applies to all - our Aviawest Team members as well as customers and non-customers. Effective internal company communications have been directly correlated to increased in bottom line financial results. 

Some of the best marketers in the world agree its time "kill their websites" and blog. Seth Godin is one of them.

Starwood, one of the leading hotel groups in the world, formed a blog called "The Lobby".

The best companies in the world have active blogs. Blogs generate real value for employees, customers and consumers thinking about purchasing our products or services. Anything that makes us more transparent, real and authentic brings meaning to people, and that's valuable. 

 - Jim Pearson, CEO Aviawest Resort Group

Steve Jobs Presentation Secrets

I just picked up a book by Carmine Gallo, "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" . Nancy Duarte recommended it in her blog.

I love the opening quote: "A person can have the greatest idea in the world -- completely different and novel --- but if that person can't convince enough other people, it doesn't matter" ---Gregory Berns I can relate to that quote.

The older I get the more I realize, ideas "are cheap".

Execution is everything. In order to execute great ideas, we need to be able to effectively communicate them to people. We need to be able to rally our employees and team. We need to get them passionate about what we want to do. We need to communicate our vision to our customers, clients and all stakeholders.

Easy to say, hard to do. The subtitle of the book is "How to be insanely great in front of any audience". That would sure help. 

Canadian Resort Investment Conference 2009

It's been a bit more than a month since Rob DiCastri (Chief Financial Officer) of the Aviawest Resort GroupGroup and myself returned from the Canadian Resort Investment Conference in Calgary, Alberta.

It was an interesting conference for me because it combined Fractional, Vacation Ownership and Resort Whole ownership models along with traditional Hotel operations.

Interesting, and also somewhat conflicting points of view were brought forth. Experts from each category had different points of view, biased from their specific field and experience.

It's clear our industry and consumer mentality is changing. That's a good thing. It brings amazing opportunity. People are not buying Real Estate (in general) to turn a quick buck by flipping it.

Without the expected rapid rise in real estate, many of these folks are now looking towards Fractional and Vacation Ownership as something which makes a lot of sense for second home & vacation home ownership.

Shared ownership makes sense because you buy what you need, don't have all your capital cost tied up in an asset which may not appreciate very quickly and you also don't have to cover all the carrying costs and maintenance costs for the whole vacation home, which can easily run $10,000 to $25,000 per year.

Social media was a hot topic. It's not going away any time soon. In fact, if anything's "going away" it's traditional media and communication.

If you're not checking out  Twitter, Facebook (Aviawest), LinkedIn (me) get on there before you get left behind ;-). Take a look at least.

Here are some of my notes from one of the sessions I thought I would share.

Marketing & Sales Session
- mindless consumption is now mindful consumption
- lack of trust with consumers since financial meltdown - need more openness & transparency
- more information is working. People are scared of making a bad decision
- get information to the consumer prior to the site visit
- read the free e-book by David Allison of Braun Allison  "Sell the Truth" (a good short read, but I don't agree price-dropping is a good idea - maybe 9 months ago, but not now)
- logic more important now than ever; buy on emotion, but logic seals the deal
- usage is more important now; long term value; speculators are gone
- simplicity is working;
- do not try and sell the consumer in a "salesy" manner
- help guide the consumer through the sales process
- layered relationship; cater to the clients on their terms (ie. phone, email) - depends on the client
- must get back to clients in 30 mins to 1 hour or you are toast
- 30-40 communications prior to site visit or close
- older customers are computer savvy; Facebook is growing fastest in women 55-59 years old
- consumers are less ostentatious and more focused on purchasing for themselves and family, not status  symbol
- social media democratizing independents resorts compared to large brands
- 1997-2004 marketing-driven sales
- 2004-2009 sales-driven marketing
- formerly no coordination of consumers' desires; marketing and sales process
- old school was focused on fear of loss
- new consumer is savvy; we need to be careful with urgency tactics
- sales rep needs to be a guide. Structured strategic followup process
- customers looking at value more than ever, needs to be a great deal to buy
- critical to have the followup for purchasers that have closed (ie. owner services; owner liaison)
- traditional media; a "planet in the solar system" not the centre as it was....website is the "Sun" now.... print has become directional signage
- "generation 5" sociographic studies; buyer personas
- price point is key on recreational real estate; $100K - $400K sweet spot VS $500-$1M in past
-negativity associated with "luxury" to a certain degree

Jim Pearson - CEO; Aviawest Resort Group

BC Budget Visualization & Graphical Processing

You can download this tool to make these visualizations. Processing.org

BC Budget Visualization Tool from blprnt on Vimeo.

And... Tweets where one "just landed" based on where their Twitter account is registered.

Just Landed - 61 Hours from blprnt on Vimeo.

Snowbirds Flock to Victoria BC

Snowbirds...Unless you live in Canada or perhaps Florida, Arizona or SoCal - Palm Springs, you may not know this term. No, it's not a white bird that hides in the snow. But rather, a retired Canadian who travels to warmer climes for the winter. Who wouldn't if they could?

Why go to Palm Springs or Florida? Great places no doubt, but both have their drawbacks; more crime, hard to get to, and the medical insurance issue for aging Canadians can be a deal breaker.

Enter Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa. When we developed this property, we sold hundreds of Fractional Quarter Interests - 4 owners of one condominium.  The usage program includes 4 prime summer season weeks and 8 shoulder/quiet season weeks. The prime summer usage occurs from June through September. Subsequently we developed a usage calendar that gave our purchasers 4 weeks in their choice of each of those summer months. This configuration was highly popular and went over really well - with most people. 

QUARTER OWNERSHIP PRIME SUMMER MONTH USAGE

About 25% of the people we spoke with - those mainly from Alberta, Saskatchewan and other Prairie provinces (IE COLD winters) - was that they had a desire to spend some of the winter in Victoria. They desired the Jan, Feb and March time periods, because it was a nice break from winter where they lived.

THE SNOWBIRD PROGRAM

So, we developed a snowbird program that allows one to buy a condominium at Parkside for just the winter months. Basically one can purchase any 3, 6, 9, 12 up to 18 consecutive weeks from November through to April. You can even pick and choose any 3 week period and configure so that you could visit for 3 weeks in December and then 6 weeks Feb-March. We label them S1, S2..S6... S as in "Snowbird".

SNOWBIRD CALENDAR

The feedback to this unique way to own a condo in Victoria has been exceptional. Here are some ways to use it:

1. Use it for the time period you've bought.
2. Generate Revenue. Allocate to the rental program (rack rates $200 -$350/night roughly)
3. Designate some usage to a trading program to use at other properties abroad.
4. Use Extra time. When there's extra availability, you can utilize at operational costs.

COST OF OWNERSHIP?

Whole Condo Purchase = $720,000

4.5 months Snowbird usage (18 weeks) = $299,900 (roughly Nov 7 to March 28)

It's a great way to lower your capital cost, receive the winter in Victoria, without the hassle and expense of owning year round. If you want to learn more, visit Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa

Insurance... Fear of Loss VS. Planning to Make Great things happen

We are really good at planning to make sure that all sorts of terrible things don't happen to us, or our families. It's classic "fear of loss" mentality.

• Life Insurance. Benefits us when we die. Necessary, but hard to enjoy it.
• Health Insurance. Benefits is when Sick. Ditto.
• Fire Insurance. Benefits us when house burns down.
  
• Earthquake Insurance. Benefits us when the earth cracks and our home falls in.
  
• Liability Insurance. Benefits us when we screw up.
• Dental Insurance. Benefits us when we get our teeth kicked in, or have cavities.
• Auto Insurance. Crash, and you're covered.
  
• Theft Insurance. People steal our stuff, and it's replaced. Grrreat.
  

What about the rest of the time? Why don't more people plan to make sure that good things happen each and every year of their lives?

How about Lifestyle Assurance. That's what over thousands of our owners at Aviawest and Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa have bought. It's a lot more fun than the ones listed above and even makes financial sense. But that's for another post.

Tourism Stats - Victoria and Global

Some good resources out there - Tourism Victoria, if you're interested in Victoria BC of course. Try Market Metrix for broader more global or regional trends. 

Netflix Culture

Our Director of IT, Erik, put me on to a Scott Burkun blog post about Netflix's culture. By coincidence I also heard a feature on NPR this morning about Netflix. What's the big deal about Netflix?

I've personally never used the service, but know they rent DVD's via mail. $8.95 a month, for all the DVD's you want.

Netflix is one of those Dot.com's that didn't go broke. They generate over $1.4B annually in revenue. They have 7 million members and 2000 employees.

Netflix has a strong culture which is well articulated and apparently, well executed. This culture drives their growth can relate many aspects of our company, Aviawest, to the Netflix culture and values.

We're working on improving the manner in which we articulate our values and culture.  Netflix sure does a good job at that. It's 128 slides below, but well worth it.

View more presentations from Reed Hastings.

Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa Complete

Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa Complete Evening AUG 2009 - 03, originally uploaded by Victoria BC and Travels - Jim Pearson.

Image of Parkside Victoria taken last night. It's really starting to look good.

Victoria's Symphony Splash. Who says its a sleepy town?

My favourite part? The harbour ferries coming and going. Estimates of 40,000 people attend the Symphony Splash. Yes indeed, Victoria is fantastic. 

Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa Granted Occupancy

Well, it's been a long time coming. But the Parkside Victoria Resort & Spa project my company Aviawest has been working on since 2004 is finally there. We were granted an occupancy on July 23 2009 for 86 of the 126 vacation homes. The other 40 should be complete around September 1 2009.

Some images below of the 1 & 2 bedroom vacation homes. I'll write more details on our usage program in a later post. Parkside offers the best value for Fractional Ownership -- found anywhere. 

Social Media, Why Twitter, Why not Facebook. (for me)

A lot of my friends and colleagues ask me why I'm experimenting/using Twitter. They think it's a waste of time. They wonder where I find the time to 'tweet' and why I tweet. 

I'm still trying to articulate it properly.

It may be counter intuitive, but the busier you are, the more value Twitter has. 140 characters forces one to be brief. It's like a 5 second elevator pitch. I can follow industries, people and trends on my blackberry, and get real time (generally) useful information. It all depends on who you follow.

Facebook VS Twitter. I'm a member of Facebook but go weeks without checking it sometimes. I'm on the tail end of the generation who really has embraced it (I'm 41). Facebook is a great social interactive-keep-in-touch-with-friends-and-family-tool.There's is value for Business to Consumer marketing too. We're working on it as a corporation, to engage guests and our customers.

However, Facebook is pure vanilla. As far as being a user...that is. It's like watching TV and Twitter is more like reading a good book. Why? There's great content and blogs on Twitter. Value. Learning. Facebook? I'm looking at "Johnny's" latest photos - interesting, but not usually not a learning experience.

The real value Twitter generates, is an expanded network of people you can choose to interact with. It's discovery. No boundaries of prior relationships, or acceptance on the content creator.

If you're interested in NuclearEnergies (or pretty much any topic) Sure you can do a google search. But why search when twitter consolidates, and customizes for you in an efficient manner. Twitter is like RSS, but more useful, because there is virtually no barrier to entry for members to generate content, and reading on mobile devices is a breeze.

Twitter is here to stay. It's either for you or not. It suits people who have a voracious appetite for information, self improvement and learning.