mugs
8 posts
Jun 09, 2008
10:32 PM
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Email sent by Jerry Little to all owners in the rental pool:
Business Partners,
We know this is a frustrating time for everyone. The economy is certainly not in the best shape. Gasoline is approaching, it appears, $5.00 per gallon. Food costs have gone up. All of these things obviously reflect on all of our bottom profit lines. Dolphin has increased its marketing budget, has brought in a 4 star inspector to do an inspection of all of the units, has added quality control people, has worked with the telephone company to install telephone and internet systems and has increased maintenance upkeep activity. The new internet and telephone system is encouraged to be installed in your unit to allow us to standardize the communication systems across all Las Palmas units. Some of the owners have Telmex phones and/or modem internet systems. You simply cannot have a hotel type rental system that has several different types of telephone systems or internet systems. Just to let you know, Telmex only maintains the lines up to the Las Palmas project. They do not maintain any systems inside the project. The new telephone company has an agreement with Telmex for Telmex to maintain the service provided by them inside the project. In addition we already have received complaints that groups, when not utilizing the new telephone system, cannot contact each other from room to room or make long distance business calls. Some of you may have computer phones. We do not discourage these for you own personal use. Again, we had to move one of our renters who was not satisfied with that service and actually wanted the hard line which was not interrupted by wind, signal, etc.
Also Dolphin has had some complaints about some items that are being repaired in the units. You can be assured that we are only doing those things that are necessary to keep your unit operational. Dolphin is trying to maintain its 30% management fee. Of course we have seen our profits go down also. Everyone else on Sandy Beach is charging 35%, and in some cases have gone to 40%. We will continue to do out best to maintain our 30% which will assist you in maximizing your profit. While we had a good March, a weak April, a strong May, we actually consider May 1 the start of the rental season. It looks like our rentals should be close to what they were last year, which in our opinion will be extremely good under the circumstances of the economy.
As always we enlist your help. We hope that this kind of information will allow us to spend our time and energy on bringing more rentals and not having to spend a lot of time answering questions for each and every condo/casa owner.
The following is an excerpt from an email that Loren Worthington sent to an owner in our project explaining some of the things he is doing to bring people to our table. Loren Worthington is our reservation specialist and expert who has done an exceptional job in bringing renters to our project.
Email Excerpt:
My name is Loren Worthington. I manage the reservations for Las Palmas.
All condos are offered to the guests at a retail rate commonly called the
rack rate. We also work with travel agents who book rooms at this same
rate. In addition, we sell rooms to companies called wholesalers. We sell
these rooms at a discount ranging from 10% to 30%.
In the past, condos on the second and third floor often did not get equal
occupancy because guests preferred the upper floors, offered at the same
rate. By working with the wholesalers we can place their guests in a room
of our choice. This has greatly improved the balance in our occupancy.
Albeit at a reduced nightly rate.
In addition, supply far exceeds demand for condos on sandy beach today.
Guests are shopping for best rate. If an agent calls me with a legitimate
booking at a lower rate, most often we are going to take the deal.
Finally, we offer discounts for group reservations. This includes weddings,
company outings, etc. Groups typically receive a discount of 10% to 30%.
And again we place these reservations in condos who have least occupancy for
the month. Typically this is the second and third floor.
If anyone has any further questions, please feel free to send them to me.
Regards,
Jerry Little
Dolphin Beach Rental
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