Occupancy Rates Continue at High Levels
Two out of the first five months of 2022 have hit 7 year highs! The other 3 months of 2022 are trending very close to 2021, which has gone on record to be one of the busiest for the resort. With airline travel and international travel open-ing up, we expected to see a small retraction of the previous year’s occupancy, but so far this year, we are holding steady going into summer, which has always been close to full occupancy.
Spending time outdoors in a more remote location seems to still be a moti-vational factor for many. The separate entries (no elevators or hallways) and fully furnished units is still a valid attraction for many. Most of the non-owners who are purchasing intervals in 2022 are wanting to come to the resort to vacation as op-posed to traveling through the timeshare exchange network, but there is definitely more interest in the exchange program than in 2020 or 2021. Pend Oreille Shores is a good choice for either option with our Gold Crown ratings and low Maintenance Fees (37% below the overall national average-comparing the industry’s latest 2020 values with the resort’s proposed 2023 value).
This is good news in that there continues to be corresponding increases continuing in rentals, store and espresso shop sales and Athletic Club memberships. Remember, as a non-profit Homeowners’ Association, all revenue goes back into the resort to offset operating costs. The increase in on-site reve-nue together with the sales of HOA intervals are a big steps toward keeping any increase in the Mainte-nance Fee to a minimum.
One aspect of Pend Oreille Shores that is proving to be popular is the fixed unit/fixed week scheduling. Knowing the dates of their vacation week years in advance helps in the planning of vaca-tions especially for those that are employed full time and have to schedule their vacations within a re-stricted timeframe or, as we found out, for farmers with very strict planting and harvesting schedules. We have many families that own multiple weeks for family reunions. One family owns 20 units during one summer week, another family owns 5 units near Thanksgiving for their annual get together.
Sales are holding steady at about 2 intervals per week so far this year, which is the same as last year. We know that every owner who vacationed at the resort in the last year has heard from Ken, but so far this year, 75% of the first quarter’s occupancy were either renters or exchanges—mostly first time visitors. So we will continue to call every unit every week, to make sure everyone knows of the oppor-tunity to take advantage of the special pricing while it lasts (see page 3).
The donation program (see page 10) is also bringing new visitors to the resort and, as a result, interval sales and return rentals! It is such a joy to see all the different charities that our owners and their communities are involved in!