Westgate Resorts: The Experience Strategy Driving Demand

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, my fellow hospitality. It’s your neighborhood friendly Glenn over here, still in Las Vegas at the American Resort Development Association, Atas Spring Conference, where I found Jared Saff, COO of Westgate Resorts and a company I’ve, like, fallen in love with mostly because of this guy over here. But first, I want to thank our friends over at Actabl. Actabl, they gave you the power to profit. Please check them out actabl.com. Great to see you man.

Jared: [00:00:24] Good to see you. How are you doing?

Glenn: [00:00:25] I’m doing pretty good, but you guys seem to be on a roll these days.

Jared: [00:00:30] We’re moving.

Glenn: [00:00:31] It’s great to see. So all right. So I’ve gotten I’ve gotten to know your company pretty well. I think at this point. Check a video that we did last November, a great walk and talk tour all about timeshare what how Westgate is positioned. So we’re going to kind of follow up a little bit on what we talked about there today. That’d be great. Back then, you introduced me to Chuck E cheese, something I hadn’t, something I came across as a 12 year old Glenn and absolutely loved. So how are families loving it?

Jared: [00:00:56] They are absolutely loving it. We launched another one out in Cocoa Beach and hopefully we’ll have more to come. It’s been really exciting to see week after week we continue to set records.

Glenn: [00:01:06] That’s pretty cool. And the reason why I mentioned it is because it’s really about, you know, connecting people to great brands that they love and experiences that they know that they’re going to be confident in. And you folks have really moved into that kind of experience space too, particularly when you guys grab the resort here in Las Vegas, which I’ll be visiting very shortly, as well as some other products that you’re doing. It’s pretty neat. How are you generally feeling about giving people differentiated experiences that they can’t get elsewhere?

Jared: [00:01:33] Yeah, I mean, that’s really our secret sauce. We’re not the biggest, but we can certainly be the friendliest. And we can certainly give you the most unique experiences. And Vegas is a great example. This is a city that knocks its history down, right. It becomes 50 years old and we knock it down. We saw the opposite. We saw the place where Elvis performed his sold out shows, the place where Liberace was on the stage, the place where Kirk Kerkorian got his start in the city.

Glenn: [00:01:57] And he he’s like Steve Wynn, one of the top OGs. That’s right.

Jared: [00:02:02] Yeah. And we wanted to save that. Restore it and lean into that. Our whole thing is we’re going to be legendary. We have these legendary properties and that’s what we’re going to do.

Glenn: [00:02:12] And there’s even a place outside where you could still see a little bit of the Star Trek experience, too. There is. That’s right. Which is kind of which is kind of cool. But what I love is that you really focused on these great experiences. Like you have a whole property that’s a dude ranch, for example. I’ve never seen anything like that with another company. Sure. You get your beaches, you get your ski slopes. But a dude ranch.

Jared: [00:02:33] Yeah. I mean, it’s one of those things that we fell into decades ago and figured, how do we create this? An incredible experience. Most people don’t think about cowboy culture in Florida, but actually some of the original cowboys came from Florida when they were pushing cattle from the east coast of Florida to the West Coast. And so we have all of this cowboy culture, and we lean hard into it. We’ve got glamping tents out there, which I’m hoping I get a chance to take you.

Glenn: [00:02:57] Yeah, that’d be that’d be great. Look, I think this is one of them.

Jared: [00:03:00] Oh, yeah, that’s right. We’re right in front of them. Yeah. It’s a 60 foot teepee with a bidet. Not exactly the camping that your dad took you on when you were growing up.

Glenn: [00:03:10] No.

Jared: [00:03:11] Double sided fireplace.

Glenn: [00:03:13] Yeah. No, that was not that was not the type of camping I like. I, I like being taken care of. I don’t know if you know about that. About me.

Jared: [00:03:20] We’ll take care of you. Yeah, we’ll take care of you.

Glenn: [00:03:23] Well, who who’s the audience these days for timeshare? Because, like, I really feel like the timeshare people have kind of aged out and have passed on their legacy. So who’s really buying today? Who’s focused on it? What’s important to those people?

Jared: [00:03:35] Yeah, we see a mix. So believe it or not, more than 40% of our new buyers are millennials.

Glenn: [00:03:40] That’s that’s incredible. Yeah. And check my interview with Jason Gammel, president and CEO of ATA, who confirms that.

Jared: [00:03:45] Yeah. So what we’re seeing is they love the product. They just want differentiated experiences. When timeshare came out of the earth in the 70s and the 80s, and it was a new concept, it was 100 units and a pool. Right. That was it.

Glenn: [00:03:59] And you were locked in to into week 32. Use it or lose.

Jared: [00:04:02] It, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Glenn: [00:04:04] But that was just the original model. And like everything else in our universe, things change and mature and evolve, right?

Jared: [00:04:10] And so that’s totally different today. You can stay in a timeshare unit in Manhattan. You can stay in a timeshare dude ranch, you can stay in Vegas, and each one of them is different. It’s not 100 units in a pool, it’s 300 units and the largest sports book in the world, or a Chuck E cheese mystery fun house theme park, right? It’s designing the experiences that people want, but giving them the amenities they want from home. I mean, my wife loves we have a kitchen, we can cook them. We can make breakfast. Multiple TVs. So she’s watching what she likes and I’m watching what I like.

Glenn: [00:04:40] Hey, listen. And when I stayed with these folks down in November, I brought my favorite coffee.

Jared: [00:04:45] That’s right, that’s right. But we had your coffee, didn’t we have Lavazza?

Glenn: [00:04:49] Yes. You did. Yeah, but this was this was actually from Stew Leonard’s. Oh, okay. That one is my number one favorite national brand where this is just my, like, local one.

Jared: [00:04:58] As long as you’re good.

Glenn: [00:04:59] No. I’m good.

Jared: [00:05:00] You like to be taken care of. I just.

Glenn: [00:05:01] Learned that. Yeah. You know, this is this is this is the way it is. And but that’s what you’re doing. You’re taking care of your guests. You’re giving them a chance to feel comfortable in an environment while tapping into things that they don’t get to in their day to day lives. So it’s kind of a mix of giving people a base of where their comfort comfortable to give them a step off into new and interesting experience they may or may not have had before.

Jared: [00:05:25] That’s right. I mean, when you go to our property in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, you didn’t go there to stay in a hotel room that’s 400 square foot. You want to stay in a log cabin, we’re going to give you a log cabin. You’re going to be checked in by a park ranger, and you’re going to be greeted by West T bear, which is a bear dressed like a park ranger. So we’re going to give you the experience that you want.

Glenn: [00:05:43] That’s pretty cool. How did you know? I wanted that very much experience.

Jared: [00:05:46] Because you like being taken care of.

Glenn: [00:05:47] Maybe that.

Jared: [00:05:48] Was.

Glenn: [00:05:48] Just maybe that was just a strange vision I had at one of the fish shows last week in sphere. I don’t know, but I will say Jared it occurred to me. I don’t just stay for leisure. Right? Sometimes like. And now I’m kind of like shifting the conversation to the real and real estate investor kind of side. I was in Orlando and I wound up having a gig down there for a couple of days, so I just grabbed a timeshare spot because I wanted a little outdoor space and I wanted a little more space. And like, I’m thinking that that’s probably a good, that’s probably a great way to help increase profitability of the property, even if you’re not at sold out occupancy.

Jared: [00:06:26] Yeah. So take the first quarter. It’s typically a slower season for vacationing guests and hotels and families.

Glenn: [00:06:32] Well, we just had our holidays. We blew our wad of money. Now we had.

Jared: [00:06:36] To chill.

Glenn: [00:06:36] Out.

Jared: [00:06:36] Right?

Glenn: [00:06:37] You need to chill.

Jared: [00:06:38] We fill up with conventioneers. Like you said, some of them bring a spouse or their family to make it a long trip, and others just want that extra space, and they want a 65 inch TV in their living room, and they want to have a kitchen where they can make their breakfast. And so we see that across the board. And that’s one of the things that makes Westgate unique. We have meeting space that most of our properties. So obviously Vegas, we have a quarter of 1,000,000ft² of meeting space. So we have convention guests that then stay in timeshare units. And then you go to Orlando and we have 20 or 30,000ft² of meeting space. So we try to be there and meet people where they want us to be.

Glenn: [00:07:12] Yeah. And I’m, I’m telling you, and I’m seeing more and more often when a company is coming down for XYZ event, let’s just say Orlando, because Orlando and Vegas are the capitals of timeshare. They’ll be like, hey, let’s just go get, you know, a 4 or 5 bedroom place. And we could all just kind of hang out.

Jared: [00:07:29] Absolutely. And then you have a communal space. We also see situations where Conventioneers will get a two bedroom, they’ll sleep in one unit and then do their meetings in the other. And so it’s really a great way for them to be able to combine what they’re doing, but also be close to where they’re staying.

Glenn: [00:07:43] So overall, how are you feeling about the state of timeshare in an economy that I’m a little antsy pants about?

Jared: [00:07:49] Yeah. Look, it’s I don’t think anyone loves $5 gas. And hopefully that’s not where we’re heading.

Glenn: [00:07:55] No, but I do like $5 blackjack tables, so let’s work on that.

Jared: [00:07:58] We’ll find you some of those.

Glenn: [00:07:59] But.

Jared: [00:08:01] Timeshare owners prepay for their vacations. And so for the most part, they’re ready to travel. A lot of them drive to their destinations. And we’ve seen actually since the last couple of months, bookings go up, not down because I think more people are saying, you know what, I’m going to drive to Orlando or I’m going to go to the mountains or I’m going to go to Vegas. And so that’s been our experience.

Glenn: [00:08:22] I think 2025 was the year of like going to Portugal, Italy and Greece. That’s right. And this year is going to be going to your your local resort that’s within a 300 mile drive.

Jared: [00:08:33] And that’s what we’re seeing. And we’re happy to have them. We’ve got some great new amenities to welcome them back home.

Glenn: [00:08:39] All right. So give me give me one great new amenity that you’re excited about.

Jared: [00:08:42] Oh, we have a really exciting amenity. We’re doing a groundbreaking on Friday, and my PR team will kill me if I tell you first. But it involves water. All right. And it is in the Midwest, and we love it.

Glenn: [00:08:54] All right, so world’s largest bathtub coming to Westgate real soon. See, this is what you get for not.

Jared: [00:09:00] Giving me the. Fair enough. World’s largest bath tub.

Glenn: [00:09:03] We will. We will figure out what this is somewhere. That’s pretty awesome. Anything else that you want to add?

Jared: [00:09:07] No. It’s great to see you, and I look forward to having you at Westgate Las Vegas.

Glenn: [00:09:11] I’ve got one more question for you.

Jared: [00:09:12] This is you get unlimited questions.

Glenn: [00:09:14] This is my this is like my my move. I always say one last question. Then I ask another.

Jared: [00:09:17] Five Steve Jobs.

Glenn: [00:09:17] Yeah, one more thing. Not as exciting as the original iPhone rollout, but but but what are millennials thinking? Why are they why are they going all in right now on timeshare?

Jared: [00:09:31] I think they understand that the things that their parents loved about the product and the things they love about Airbnbs and home sharing, which is space comfort kitchens, multiple bedrooms are the things they want, but they don’t want to sacrifice amenities, okay? They still want someone to maybe clean your room. You still want to walk down and have a restaurant. You want security. You want a water park for your kids. We’re the marriage of a hotel and an Airbnb. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:09:57] I love it. Wow.

Jared: [00:09:58] Trademark.

Glenn: [00:09:58] Yeah, man. That’s awesome. Light bulb just went over my head. Because you’re right. Because over the last five, six, seven years, people have been exposed to that particular type of product and now may want more of a professional organization behind it to meet their specific needs. That’s right. Right. I think that was a very good way of.

Jared: [00:10:16] Saying, who doesn’t want 1200ft² to stay in for their vacation?

Glenn: [00:10:19] Only me when I get 1400.

Jared: [00:10:21] But just kidding.

Glenn: [00:10:23] That’s freaking awesome. Jared. Let’s give him a big congratulations. Westgate is doing well. How do you how do you honor the legacy of your founder, David Siegel?

Jared: [00:10:31] We do it every day. We’ve changed our kind of internal culture statement to be legendary, to honor his legendary career and hospitality and everything he created. And we try to think about how David would see things and ultimately try and make the best decisions. But we miss them all the time.

Glenn: [00:10:49] All the time. Oh. Totally forgot we got to talk about the sports book.

Jared: [00:10:52] Yeah, yeah, the.

Glenn: [00:10:53] Sports book at Westgate. So first of all in terms of old school, this is the coolest freaking sports book. It’s absolutely amazing. Check my video with Cami Christensen. I’ll put a link down here. Big walk and talk of that property. But you guys are making some upgrades to it and made a great partnership.

Jared: [00:11:08] We are. I mean, and I think that’s a great example of where even though we’re in hospitality and it sometimes, you know, competitors in a city, at the end of the day, we partnered with Caesars. We have a great location, we have great customers and they have great technology. And so we can pair those two things together and give our guests the absolute best. And so you’re going to see very soon. Coming this summer the Westgate Superbook powered by Caesars Sportsbook.

Glenn: [00:11:31] And how is that going to change for you. What is it. What do you get out of that.

Jared: [00:11:36] Well now when we win or lose, I’ll call Caesars and yell at them instead of my own team.

Glenn: [00:11:42] I like that. All right. But listen, if you’ve got good oddsmakers and you’re always going to be a winner, they’re a great team. That’s how they build those giant buildings over there. Man it’s great seeing you. Good to see you and great seeing all of you. Please like, share, subscribe and check out these guys over there at Westgate. I’m Glenn he’s Jared. Thanks for watching.