How Travel + Leisure Co Builds Loyalty With Margaritaville and Sports Illustrated

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody. It’s your hospitality friend Glen. I’m at the ARDA Spring Conference. I got Louis Acosta with me. And forgive me, I got to read his title because it goes on for days. Svp, Sports Entertainment, Event Marketing and Sales at Travel and Leisure Co. Now, of course, I knew them way back in the Wyndham Destination days back when I was just a wee little reporter back in the late 1990s. But Louis, the company has really acquired a bunch of other great brands, and I thought that might be a fun way to enter the conversation. But first, let me tell you, I went to the all new Wyndham Rio Mar Rainforest Resort, and I’m looking around. I’m like, Margaritaville is here. So I was really curious as to how all of that came together. What’s the Margaritaville vacation ownership versus the regular brand and all that? Because I’m friends with all the Margaritaville people.

Louis: [00:00:52] Oh, the great, great company. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:00:54] And I think, and I say this every time it’s on air, they understand who they are so fundamentally correct and are really able to translate that experience. And I know that you’re all about brands and translating experiences from those brands.

Louis: [00:01:06] Absolutely. Yeah. And through those relationships that we have with the Margaritaville brand, we’re we’re honored to be able to carry on Margaritaville Vacation Club brand and offer those experiences to our owners. And one of our flagships is actually at Puerto Rico and Rio Mar. Well.

Glenn: [00:01:19] It makes sense if you all haven’t checked out that reimagined property, do it right now. It’s amazing.

Louis: [00:01:24] Get down to the beaches. Fantastic.

Glenn: [00:01:26] I didn’t get there, but I saw it from my room and it looked beautiful.

Louis: [00:01:29] Yeah. It’s incredible. I mean, you get the vibe, you know? You see the beautiful, you know, the food, the music, the vibe. We really leaned into what that organization has created to carry on the legacy of Margaritaville vacation, because, as Jimmy Buffett said, he wanted it to be bigger than himself and to transcend him. And it has. It really has. And we love inviting all those owners down there. So and we’ve got another one going up in Orlando. So we’re expanding.

Glenn: [00:01:52] Is that going to be at the Margaritaville property?

Louis: [00:01:54] Yes, right next door there.

Glenn: [00:01:55] Yeah that’s great. And that is a massive complex with a water park out front and all sorts of other great stuff over there. Very smart move. Sports illustrated is another brand that you partnered with. I remember doing an interview with you folks when that deal first happened, like 2 or 3 years ago.

Louis: [00:02:09] Talking about Tuscaloosa.

Glenn: [00:02:11] I don’t I don’t remember the location, but I remember when it happened and chatting with some of you folks back then. Really interesting. And I’m on the Amtrak the other day and I see the Red Bull Stadium became Sports Illustrated Stadium. So now I’ve immediately associated Sports Illustrated with what you’re doing with them. That’s literally the first thing I thought of that. And then the magazine. But you were.

Louis: [00:02:31] First. So you’re saying it’s working. The branding is working.

Glenn: [00:02:32] I think it’s working for me.

Louis: [00:02:34] No, I like it. I like the vibe. Yeah. Sports illustrated resorts through a great relationship with Authentic Brands Group, has allowed us to really bring that iconic brand into our ecosystem and deliver exceptional events, sporting events, culinary events, and just leaning into that vector where it really is a whole holistic way of approaching the way events are delivered to the owners that want are sports centric, right? We’ve got that’s expanded to Chicago recently. Baton Rouge was just recently announced and obviously we’re in Nashville with partnered with Vandy as their Vanderbilt University as our hospitality partner. So we’re full in.

Glenn: [00:03:09] All right. So as, as we’re having this conversation, the lights are turning on in my little dark brain over here. And I’m realizing that you’ve got great brands that have all these different types of experiences, right? Sports Illustrated, more of the sports minded person. Margaritaville, I’d say is more towards the cocktail minded person that would be more like.

Louis: [00:03:27] Their cruise ship or on their cruise ship.

Glenn: [00:03:28] Yeah, totally. And then Eddie Bauer, so that’s more of, I’m going to guess outdoor adventure. I mean, the word.

Louis: [00:03:34] Adventure, if it’s safe, when we get it past the legal department on the adventure side, we’re going to do it right.

Glenn: [00:03:38] So no, no, you know, free climbing.

Louis: [00:03:42] Yeah, the swimming with the sharks and the cages. I really didn’t be able to get that one across the finish line.

Glenn: [00:03:46] I did swimming with the sharks once I had, I had an interview with some executives in Hollywood.

Louis: [00:03:50] There was there was an on off waivers we could sign up like, yeah, you have to pull that one back. Lucy.

Glenn: [00:03:54] Nice try. Right. So the point I’m making here, and the thing that you’re actuating is we’ve been talking about for decades about how we’ve moving and now are firmly in the experience economy. You can’t just be a fungible product. You need to have something that psychologically connects with the customer. That to me seems what you are tripling down on understanding different psychographics and then matching back products that fit those personalities.

Louis: [00:04:17] You hit the nail on the head, you know, a great accommodations and even experiences to some are table stakes these days. We are elevating that and giving those type of experiences that money can’t buy experiences inside the rope experiences, whether it be wellness music concerts, you name the gambit we’re delivering across our brands. And it’s what we’re finding. It’s, you know, as you said, it’s generating loyalty, engagement, and really developing those moments that people carry with them long after the vacation is over.

Glenn: [00:04:43] Right. That’s interesting. And you’re, I guess you’re allowed to exchange between the different brands, what you could buy into one and then stay in another.

Louis: [00:04:51] Not all of them yet, but we are definitely. That’s probably something we’re looking into.

Glenn: [00:04:55] Yeah. Because that’s a that’s an interesting concept as well, to be able to have more of that ability to experience what you want that day instead of being pigeonholed into one particular personality.

Louis: [00:05:05] And travel, leisure marquis are what we were calling all these events under that umbrella. All of those fall under the different brands.

Glenn: [00:05:11] Now, when I spoke to Jason Gammel, the president and CEO of ATA, I mentioned that I recently stayed in one stayed at the club Wyndham Grand Desert.

Louis: [00:05:19] Oh yeah. Beautiful resort, beautiful resort.

Glenn: [00:05:22] The reason why I did that, I was in for a trio of concerts with my wife and some friends, and I wanted to do something different. Right. I wanted us to have much more of a together experience.

Louis: [00:05:34] How was that large room?

Glenn: [00:05:35] The multi, the two bedroom were fantastic. I could have gotten more if I wanted to, but my friends don’t deserve separate bedrooms. So it was great because instead of having someone down the hall and saying, hey, let’s meet in the lobby in ten minutes, it’s like, oh, you’re up, let’s go make some coffee here.

Louis: [00:05:51] In the room. Right in the room. Enjoy some time together.

Glenn: [00:05:53] And it was really, it was just really fantastic being able to have that, that together time. And then when I was at my son’s graduation from college last weekend, we had rooms in different places and it felt a little disjointed and not as unified. So that’s one huge plus in in your column.

Louis: [00:06:11] Definitely. That’s what we love to do. It’s one of the selling points of our product too, is that you get these expanded, you know, type of accommodations that really are different than hotels and get you the family closer together. And that particular resort you stayed at is right across the paddocks from F1. I know that’s how I told all the cab drivers to find it. Fantastic. That’s great.

Glenn: [00:06:27] Although it’s close enough to walk to sphere, but you’re probably too tired to walk home from sphere, so I recommend stopping for some some late night snacks on the way back.

Louis: [00:06:38] All the way back afterwards. There’s a couple of spots to local Vegas people know, I know, yeah, that’s for sure.

Glenn: [00:06:43] We’ll talk more about them after after we’re done talking about your company. They don’t need to know those spots right now. We’ll say that for a different video. So what do you have planned for world Mark and Club Wyndham and a core vacation?

Louis: [00:06:54] Well, I’ll tell you what. What don’t we have planned? I mean, like, I kind of touched on lightly culinary events with top rated chefs, music events. We have several parks. We’ve just completed a a slew of events recently. We had Tortuga Fest in South Florida, we had two steppin in Austin and many, many more events to come with partners that we have several events coming up with racing with legacy partnered with our partner with Jimmie Johnson, Legacy Motor Group. He’s a seven time NASCAR Cup champion that is talking to our owners at every single event. I mean, Jimmy, what was it like to win the Daytona 500?

Glenn: [00:07:28] I know for people that for. I just have to put a pause on that because that’s what it’s all about, giving people access to experiences that they can’t have anywhere else. And they go home with their bragging rights. That separates you from fighting on cost because you have a premium product and you can’t put money on those kind of experiences.

Louis: [00:07:46] Absolutely, absolutely. We have our Sports Illustrated reports. 250 coming up at the end of this month in Nashville will be nationally televised on the CW. You’ll be seeing Sports Illustrated reports going around the track. And again, those type of experiences are coming up in Sonoma. Again music, culinary sports, entertainment, wellness. We’re leaning well into that, you know, so we’re developing our own events where we bring, you know, top instructors to, you know, be able to lean into that wellness.

Glenn: [00:08:14] Nice. All right. So now that I have you here and you can’t go anywhere. Okay, great. I’ve given the suggestion to Margaritaville a number of times, but Tamara, you’re not listening to me. Tamara, you’re not listening to me.

Louis: [00:08:23] I think she’s texting me right now. No.

Glenn: [00:08:25] You all need to have a product that fits the hippie jam band community. We all have money. We just spent a fortune going to Phish last week. We all want to kind of be together. We all got the same vibes. It’s kind of like the other side of the coin of Margaritaville, right? I think it could be done.

Louis: [00:08:41] I thought I saw that Deadhead, you know, tattoo over here. Yeah. Well.

Glenn: [00:08:45] That was that was a mistake I made back in 1989. All right. That is a joke.

Louis: [00:08:49] By the way.

Glenn: [00:08:52] Anything else I need to know, Lewis?

Louis: [00:08:53] No. Just that, you know, the industry as a whole is going in a great direction. And our company in particular has really leaned into these vectors. And as you can see, there’s a multitude of browns. That’s the direction to go in delivering unforgettable events, as we say in our company, to put the world on vacation.

Glenn: [00:09:06] All right, last question that I’m going to ask, and I’m going to ask this of everybody. So I’m not singling you out or ask Jason. I said, I’m very I’m a negative nelly about the economy. I feel very bad. But timeshare seems to be well positioned to avoid. A lot of the pitfalls that I see are going to hit us like a truck really soon in the mainstream hospitality industry. How do you view what’s going on?

Louis: [00:09:25] Well, you know, timeshare industry has a kind of a resiliency. That’s right, baked in because they’ve already prepaid for their vacations. And so we as long as we keep delivering those experiences and delivering the customer service that goes along with that, people have already paid for it. They’re going to go right. And especially, you know, maybe they travel internationally, but they’re going to travel domestically and the drive to locations that are close to where they can go are really seeing, you know, high occupancy. So we’re very confident that it’s going.

Glenn: [00:09:47] To go that way. Yeah. Jason was saying occupancy of like well over 90% correct or something like that. So the reason why I’m going to ask this question of every single person is because they’re going to give that same exact answer that we just heard yet. So if you’re looking.

Louis: [00:09:59] It’s in the playbook. They give it to us before.

Glenn: [00:10:01] Yeah. Right. But so but my point is, if you’re looking to build a significant hospitality real estate project, this is a vital component to think about having. Again, I went to that Wyndham Rio Mar. They spent a well over 70, $80 million reinventing that place. And that timeshare is a fantastic component to it because folks will come no matter what the economic circumstances are and spend money with you. This has been fun, Louis. I appreciate getting to appreciate getting to know you. Thanks for time and thanks for not making me feel too tiny.

Louis: [00:10:33] I appreciate that.

Glenn: [00:10:34] I know, all right, like share, subscribe, all of that kind of good stuff. Thanks so much. He’s Louis I’m Glen. Y’all rock. Peace out. Thanks.