New Jersey

Although Sundance Vacations President John Dowd has been attending the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) meetings for the past 18 years, he recently joined the organization. ARDA is a Washington D.C.-based professional association representing the vacation ownership and resort development industries. Established in 1969, ARDA has approximately 1,000 corporate members ranging from privately held firms to publicly traded companies and international corporations with expertise in shared ownership interests in leisure real estate.

ARDA promotes the growth and development of the timeshare/vacation ownership industry through a variety of capacities: Advocacy, Networking, Business Partnerships/Bridge Building, Outreach, Knowledge, and Support and Development.

Sundance Vacations wasn’t a member of ARDA in the past, simply because it was more focused on timeshares. The industry is constantly changing, and ARDA now fits the Sundance Vacations product better. ARDA is redefining leisure travel. According to ARDA, “With today’s evolving vacation home market, consumers have an increasingly diverse marketplace and options in leisure travel; the growing variety of vacation home options includes Timeshare/Vacation Ownership; Fractional Ownership/Private Residence Clubs; Destination Clubs; Condo Hotels; and Traditional Second Home Ownership.”  

For more information visit www.arda.org

Sundance Vacations recently teamed up with Dun and Bradstreet. D&B is a financial rating company that is the world’s leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses, enabling consumers to decide with confidence. D&B has been in business for the past 167 years.

The Dun and Bradstreet website report will display financial details on Sundance Vacations including: trade payments, history and operations, public filings, risk of financial stress, risk of payment delinquency, supplier evaluation risk, credit capacity, and financial overviews. Sundance Vacations holds one of the highest financial ratings with D&B.

“Through Dun and Bradstreet customers can feel confident about the financial stability of Sundance Vacations,” explained Sundance Vacations Founder Tina Dowd.

For more information, please visit the Sundance Vacations corporate website at www.sundancevacations.com and click on the D&B logo at the bottom of the homepage.

Sundance Vacations is, for the second year in a row, participating in the Tax Refund Program. The Tax Refund Program was created to help potential customers travel more during tough economic times.

The Tax Refund Program allows customers to use their tax refund toward a travel package and get an equal credit from the company. Customers have the opportunity to choose any portion of their tax refund and apply the whole amount or any smaller portion to a vacation package. The credit you receive from Sundance Vacations is equal to the portion you apply toward a travel package. The tax refund benefits the customer because Sundance Vacations is actually doubling their refund.

The tax credit does exceed the actual purchase price. The maximum credit is the total amount of the tax refund. The actual credit is the amount the customer chooses to apply toward the purchase of a Sundance Vacations package. Customers are not eligible for cash back. In order to receive the credit, customers are required to provide a copy of their official refund check. The Sundance Vacations Tax Refund Special started at the beginning of the tax season. The program ends April 30, 2010.         

Please visit a local Sundance Vacations sales office for more information.

Flip Camera Winner and VP of Sales Mike Milillo

The Customer Service Department at Sundance Vacations observed National Customer Service Week from October 5th-9th. The week was full of exciting activities. Two events that recognized Sundance Vacations customers were a blog contest on the Sundance Vacations Travel Blog, and a prize giveaway at each of the seven Sundance Vacations sales offices each night the offices were open during the National Customer Service Week.

The winner for the best customer service experience posted on the Sundance Vacations Travel Blog was Dale Kilian from Princeton, New Jersey. Mr. Kilian picked up his Flip Camera at the Sundance Vacations Princeton office on Saturday, October 10th. Congratulations Dale, we’re very glad that you enjoyed your customer service experience with Sundance Vacations!

We also extend a happy congratulations to all of the customers who visited a Sundance Vacations sales office during the National Customer Service Week and won a gift just for giving us a chance to introduce the wholesale vacation program.

What a successful National Customer Service Week! Do you have any customer service praises that you would like to share?

The Better Business Bureau, one of the first organizations to rate businesses on their honesty and fairness to customers, has improved their rating system. The new and enhanced ratings are now shown as letter grades. The new business ratings are shown as letter grades A+ through F.

The letter grades provide more specific information for businesses to find suppliers and vendors, and at the same time provide a more precise guide to improving their own operations. The new ratings also help consumers to find trustworthy businesses. Previously the Better Business Bureau was using satisfactory and unsatisfactory ratings. The new grades give consumers a better idea of where a company stands with the public. The new letter-grade concept was tested for more than two years at selected BBB’s.

As part of its strategy to build trust in the marketplace, the Better Business Bureau also recently changed the way businesses affiliated with the organization were designed, from “BBB Member” to “BBB Accredited Business.” The “Accredited” designation highlights the fact that businesses have been evaluated by BBB and have contractually agreed to meet and uphold BBB’s high standards for integrity and reliability when dealing with customers. (BBB Alert, June 09, pg. 1)

Sundance Vacations is a member of the BBB in every market we operate in. The grades for each location are as followed: BBB of Washington DC and Eastern PA (Harrisburg, King of Prussia, and Wilkes-Barre): A-, BBB of Wisconsin (Brookfield): A+, BBB of New Jersey (Princeton, Rockaway): A+, BBB of Illinois (Downers Grove): A+.

For more information on BBB ratings and to find out ratings of local businesses, go to www.bbb.org.

Wildwood, NJ is a sight to be seen at least once in your life. Recently, visitors to the Wildwoods have found the ever so famous boardwalk in repair. A great portion of the boardwalk is currently being replaced. Approximately 42,000 aging boards from Schellenger to Cedar Avenue are under construction. This renovation has caused uproar. Why? Because builders are using Brazilian hardwood called ipe (ee-pay) on the 3.5 million stretch of walkway. So what about ipe? Well, ipe is harvested from rain forests which have many environmentalists up in arms. According to Rainforest Relief, which protested the Wildwood project, about 80% of ipe wood sold in the US is harvested illegally from the rain forests.

Wildwoods Executive Director of Economic Development Lou Ferrara insists ipe comes from all over the world, not just rain forests. Although Wildwood pledged to not use rain forest wood on its boardwalk, they found it to be the best wood for the boardwalk that can support the weight of emergency vehicles and apparently save replacement costs in the future.

The Wildwood project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and New Jersey’s Urban Enterprise Zone Authority. (New Jersey Monthly Magazine, pg. 69, 09)

Do you agree with personnel to use ipe wood, or do you think another type of wood might have been more suitable? Does this change your opinion of Wildwood?