Fifth Gold Crown for East Clare Resorts

EAST Clare Resorts in Bodyke has just been awarded a Gold Crown award for the fifth year running and, as well as being among a select number of resorts across the world to hold this award, is the only one to do so in Ireland.

Resort recipients of the Gold Crown award have attained excellence in resort accommodations, hospitality and member experience, meeting quality and service requirements based on both a subscribing member comment card rating and an evaluation of resort facilities, amenities and services.
East Clare Resorts is currently operated under the stewardship of Diamond Resorts International, one of the biggest holiday ownership companies in the world, who have leased the 51 units in Bodyke as well as six units in the Fisherman’s Lodge on the Mountshannon Road, Scariff, and six units at Dangan Lodge in Tulla from East Clare Resorts for a period of 10 years.
Speaking to The Clare Champion about the award and the holiday village resort manager, Ger Teefy explained that since Diamond Resorts’ lease began in 2009, East Clare Resorts’ occupancy levels have been in the region of 80%, while at peak times, they have been overbooked.
“The award itself reflects the location, the quality of the product and guest satisfaction. Everything is determined by guest ratings and opinion cards. This is reflective of our staff and the local businesses who have embraced the opportunities that the holiday village is providing. Our actual visitor numbers to the resort last year were 6,500. The fact that we are in a recession, we are bucking the trend completely. We are in a unique position in that we have leased the resort to a holiday company that would have nearly 400,000 members worldwide, with resorts that span the Americas, Europe and worldwide,” Mr Teefy outlined.
He added that the statistics from last year showing 6,500 visitors to the holiday village has had a huge financial spin-off to the area, for local restaurants, local businesses and local people. He stressed that as this is a self-catering resort, it would be of benefit to local businesses particularly supermarkets, restaurants and public houses.
“We don’t need to market our product because we’re basically nearly full all the time. During the peak summer season, we would have taken other accommodation off site because we have been overbooked. These accommodations would be local houses in the area. We would have taken accommodation in Scariff and Mountshannon in the past,” Mr Teefy explained.
He added that East Clare Resorts was “lucky” to have interested Diamond Resorts in their holiday village in Bodyke and is proud to be the only such facility in the country affiliated to them.
“Diamond Resorts’ headquarters is in Las Vegas and in essence it is a holiday club that has 180 resorts all over the world. By being a member of the club and depending on the amount of points you own, it entitles you to visit or go to any of these resorts. It’s a time share but a very upmarket form of time share. Each resort has to meet a certain standard and it is a very high, set standard. How our connection came about was I was at a holiday show in Las Vegas and I met one of their representatives and they expressed an interest in looking for a resort or resorts in Ireland. We developed a relationship and after negotiations in a couple of months, they came over and viewed the product we have here. They liked what they saw and they leased the property,” Mr Teefy outlined.
He said the breakdown of the visitor numbers would show that 70% come from the UK, 25% from the USA and 5% others.
“It has been a success here for lots of reasons, the location, the staff must also take credit but it’s the local community in particular, who have embraced these visitors. Some of our guests, when they are out and about, comment on how helpful the local community are to them. They come here because it is Ireland, they comment on how beautiful it is, the natural beauty of the area, the friendliness of the people and on the freedom of it,” he concluded.
Diamond Resorts will continue to bring its members to East Clare up to 2018 at a minimum but they also have the option to lease the property again for another 10 years something which would help secure visitors to East Clare in the longer term.