OWNERSHIP & TRAVEL Page 9
Nov / Dec , 2022 | TimeSharing Today
Top-ranked timeshare resorts
The Manhattan Club in New York City . Credit : www . manhattanclub . com By George Leposky , editor
We recently looked at two sets of 2022 rankings for popular timeshare resorts :
• Redweek ’ s Top 25 resorts — those that received the most rental bookings and inquiries on Redweek . com ( https :// www . redweek . com / top-25-timesharerental-resorts ).
• Attractions of America ’ s list of the Top 10 Timeshare Resorts in United States ( https :// www . attractionsofamerica . com / travel / top-10-timeshare-resortsin-united-states . php ).
Déjà vu expectations
Since most of those listed are properties with a hotel brand name , you might expect a certain amount of déjà vu all over again when you open the door to your unit .
This would be especially true of Marriott resorts , which in the Redweek list claimed rankings one through seven , and 16 entries overall . Three Westin properties , one Hilton , and one Wyndham also made the Redweek list .
Marriott claimed four of the 10 places in the Attractions of America list , Disney had three entries , and Sheraton had one .
A historical perspective
In both lists , we were less interested in their location or overall popularity than in the qualities that made them distinctive and unique . By virtue of the emphasis on legacy resorts that characterizes TimeSharing Today , we looked for — and hoped to find — representatives of this genre in the rankings .
What we found were survivors , thriving individual resorts with some connection to a brand-name hotel company . Finding them evoked memories which long-term timeshare owners and TimeSharing Today readers readily will share .
On the A of A list , The Manhattan Club stands out . It was New York City ’ s first fractional-ownership resort . Development began in 1994 , and continued in stages through 2009 . If you ’ ve been there , you know it ’ s a classy place in the heart of mid-town Manhattan . It ’ s also the home of a long-running legal battle between the developers and a group of owners who complain about steep maintenance fees and reservation priorities . Bluegreen Vacations manages the property and sells its inventory .
Also on the A of A list is Polo Towers , offspring of the Jockey Club , the first timeshare resort on the Las Vegas strip . The Jockey Club ’ s developer built the three towers across the street from the original property in 1992 , 1995 , and 2000 . Now Polo Towers is part of Diamond Resorts International , which in turn is part of Hilton Grand Vacations .
Beyond U . S . shores
Redweek casts a wider net , including properties in The Bahamas , the Caribbean , and Mexico .
Divi Aruba Phoenix Beach Resort ( Number 17 on the Redweek list ) is one of seven resorts on five islands : Aruba , Barbados , Bonaire , St . Croix , and St . Maarten . The company itself is more than a half-century old . Although Divi
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