Tom Ross/Steamboat Homefinder

10-08-2010

One of Steamboat Springs’ resort property management companies, ResortQuest Steamboat, has aligned with the vacation exchange and rental division of global vacation giant Wyndham Worldwide Corp., raising the potential for tapping into a new well of vacationers.

Wyndham announced it had agreed to pay $56 million for ResortQuest, parent to ResortQuest Steamboat, which has 140 destinations worldwide. The transaction is expected to close early in 2011.

ResortQuest’s management contracts here represent a small portion of the overall deal, but Steamboat, along with Breckenridge, was mentioned prominently as a desirable destination in a news release announcing the deal.

Frank Alfone, general manager of ResortQuest Steamboat, said his company’s devotion to high levels of customer service, married with Wyndham’s sophisticated systems, promises to elevate both companies’ business.

“Their customer base — it’s phenomenal the number of people they reach and can open Steamboat up to,” Alfone said. “ResortQuest has a great opportunity to leverage on Wyndham and what they’ve done.”

At the end of July, Wyndham World­wide reported that second-quarter revenues for Wyndham Exchange and Rental had increased 6 percent from the second quarter in 2009 to $281 million, with vacation rentals accounting for $115 million of that.

At the same time, Wyndham upgraded its projected revenues for all of 2010 to $3.7 billion to $4 billion.

Although Wyndham’s timeshare division has a substantial presence in the United States, including the Village at Steamboat, its hotel and vacation rental divisions are more prominent in Europe. The company has picked up more than 30 European rental brands since 2000, and its hotel division has properties in London, Amsterdam and the Mediterranean. Wyndham Hotel Group claims to be the world’s largest hotel company with more than 600,000 rooms in 7,200 hotels.

In the U.S., Wyndham Hotels has focused on midrange hotels including Ramada, Days Inn and Super 8. However, in September, the company signed a franchise deal with Planet Hollywood, with its entertainment-themed properties.

The Village at Steamboat is barely a mile from the ResortQuest offices in Ski Time Square, but their geographic proximity is purely coincidental to the announcement this fall of Wyndham’s pending acquisition of ResortQuest.

ResortQuest is expected to remain a distinct brand, Alfone said. He expects Wyndham’s systems for reservations and inventory tracking to benefit his company.

Although it’s premature to speculate, Alfone said, he expects that Wyndham’s acquisition of ResortQuest will offer opportunities for his company to grow in the Steamboat market, whether through increased competition for management and homeowners association contracts or acquisitions of other management companies.

Alfone, who has worked for Resort­Quest in Summit County and Crested Butte, knows mountain resort towns well. He reports to a boss in Fort Walton, Fla.

Alfone said his company seeks to differentiate itself from other property management companies with higher levels of service including the availability of bellmen, concierge services and on-demand door-to-door shuttle service. Unlike some condominium management companies that run their shuttles between the ski mountain and downtown on a loop, for example, ResortQuest picks up guests at their lodgings when they call.

“We offer the amenities that people desire and want to come back for,” Alfone said.

Among the properties managed by Resort­Quest are all of the phases of Trappeur’s Crossing, including the newest, Bear Lodge. Others include Torian Plum, Cascades and Bronze Tree.