As we wind down an eventful summer rental season we are turning our focus to Labor Day weekend and beyond.  As of today, occupancy for the upcoming holiday weekend is at 90% and we are continuing to receive numerous rental inquiries every day.  Based on this, we anticipate being 100% occupied before the weekend arrives!

Our Group Sales Director is hard at work sourcing and attracting group business for the fall and winter this year as well as next year.  We have seen tremendous growth in these arenas and look forward to continuing to grow this valuable business segment.  We have also redoubled our efforts to attract more winter monthly guests.  These efforts include not only new marketing efforts and venues but also referral campaigns and activities once they are here.  For this year, we are continuing the bingo nights and will be adding a golf tournament, pot luck dinners and an open house.  We are confident that these efforts will help us continue to enhance the winter revenue in your rental unit.

As we look to 2011, we are excited about the opportunities that lay ahead.  We anticipate that 2011 will be a highly competitive year with vacationers continuing to look for the best ‘deal.’  We will continue to meet these demands by providing quality vacation accommodations and unparalleled onsite amenities at competitive price points.

Lastly, I would like to thank you for choosing Seascape Resorts as your management company.  It has and continues to be our goal to provide industry leading service and support to our owner partners.  If there is something that we are not doing to your satisfaction, please do not hesitate to let us know!

Stay tuned for future updates and information!

Corey

The summer season is well underway and despite the current events in the gulf, vacationers are still visiting the resort, soaking up the sun and taking advantage of the wonderful amenities.  Aside from one day last week, our beaches have remained oil-free and open for enjoyment.   Check out our beach cam by visiting www.thedestinrealty.com and clicking on the beach cam link.

We are continuing our efforts to stay in front of the issue and are attacking the market on multiple fronts.  We implemented a ‘Vacation Guarantee’ aimed at easing guest’s fears about oil-related cancellations and this has been met with great enthusiasm by our guests.  We are also monitoring and adjusting pricing strategies to ensure that we are converting as many ‘lookers’ into ‘bookers’ as possible.  GREAT NEWS – we are nearing 100% occupancy for the 4^th of July weekend!

Be on the lookout for an email with additional information about filing your claim for loss of revenue.  If you are going to file a claim with BP, you will likely need historical revenue for your unit.  You can retrieve your past rental history from the Ownerlink site.  If you have forgotten your username and/or password, please contact your property manager and they will be happy to provide the necessary information.

Corey

All 26 miles of South Walton County beaches remain open and unaffected by the ongoing oil leak.  The oil slick does not pose an immediate risk to our beaches.

The oil siphon technique that was employed on Friday has shown some signs of success although it is still too early to tell if this will be the technique that is ultimately used to mitigate the leak.

Calls related to cancellation requests have dropped considerable over the last few days and we are still seeing interest from potential guests.  Memorial weekend is shaping up to be another busy day at the beach!

We will continue to monitor this situation and keep you posted if anything changes.  Again, the beaches are oil free and open for vacationer’s enjoyment!

Stay tuned for future updates and announcements!

Corey

According to the latest trajectory forecast reports posted on www.noaa.gov, our area is not expected to see any immediate impact from this incident over the next few days.  It is important to keep in mind that this is a dynamic event and the steering models are subject to change but again, the present trajectory forecast models do not have this incident impacting our area over the next few days.

As you might expect, we are receiving numerous calls inquiring about this incident and its impact on vacation plans.  As we receive these calls we are informing guests of the most current information.  The overwhelming majority of guests have chosen to keep their reservation.  In the event that this tragedy begins to affect our beaches and guests, we will make further determinations regarding guest notifications.

We will continue to monitor the situation and communicate with local management officials to ensure that we are providing the most up-to-date information.  We have a representative attending every public update forum in the area and we have offered to host clean-up crews and management officials should the need arise.  We will post additional updates as information becomes available.

Here are some links that you might find helpful in keeping up with information regarding this incident:

Additional Resources:

www.noaa.gov – this site contains trajectory forecast models that show you the projected path of the oil slick.  As of this morning, this model showed the slick reaching as far east as Pensacola Bay.

www.bswupdate.com – this site was developed by the Tourist Development Council as a general information site and contains links to other sources of information.

www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com – The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of the Interior and BP have established this site as official source of information on this incident.

We will continue to post updates as information becomes available.  In the interim, if you have questions or concerns, please contact your property manager or myself.  We can be reached at 850-269-1182, 7 days a week.

Thanks!

Amber

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Beach-Vacation-Values-Soar-at-prnews-1877989826.html?x=0&.v=1

Please note that we are being extremely aggressive to obtain the highest occupancy rates possible throughout the season to optimize your revenue.  The season is trending that we are acheiving up to 60% additional revenue for that month DURING the month  - so no panicking over rentals in advance ….  a large percentage of people are booking within 30 days of arrival.

 Occupany Rate Report 

Seascape Resort Rentals    78%     ResortQuest     27%     Southern Resorts     31%

Click below to see some of our live article placements  (These are two of over 533 so far!):

Fox News Business Online

CNBC

April inquiries seem lighter than usual but we are still on track with our auxillary marketing to out perform last April’s numbers and occupancy rate!

The following are a few marketing items of note:

• Time Magazine asked Seascape Resort to provide some PR for an upcoming article on Recession Proof Vacations
• Convention South Magazine recently toured the resort and our newly renovated meeting space and fell in love – stay tuned for a fabulous article spotlighting Seascape Resort!  (We will link to the online story as soon as it is published)
• Sherman Travel Magazine and Visit Florida have co-oped a large splash on Northwest Florida and Seascape has acquired a prominent position – this will be running through Mid-June.
• We have almost 9 million emails going out for Spring and Summer within the next 30 days utilizing different avenues – we are truly doing everything we can to ensure that this tough season is hallmark for our owners.

Our new website should launch by the end of the month but will still be a work in progress and we have some amazing new features coming online throughout the year including an entire social marketing platform that will allow people to upload unique fresh content even DURING their vacation stay!

The videos that have been produced thus far look AMAZING!  Ariel Dunes 704 was one of the first owners to sign up and his video has had over 143 views!

Check it out below: