Tourist Development Academy Awards.

[floridapete]

Not immigration per-se but this should be of interest to anyone in the vacation rental industry in Polk County (and maybe also Osceola and Lake too).

See the "Across the Pond" blog notice about a meeting being sponsored by the Polk County Tax Collectors office at Highlands Reserve, Davenport, at which Awards will be presented to the five management companies regarded (by Polk) to have been 'compliant and qualified with management industry criteria'.

It will be interesting to see who they are ?

It will be a meeting at which the County movers and shakers will be anxious to meet with local vacation rental management and homeowners. So be sure to book in to be there ! There should be some intertesting folks to network with !

SEE: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_local_southwest_brit/2006/07/vacation_home_w.html#more

[florida]

hello folks,

only thing is, (regal palms ) has nothing to do with highlands reserve, just using the name?????

regards

florida

[floridapete]

hello folks,

only thing is, (regal palms ) has nothing to do with highlands reserve, just using the name?????

regards

florida

Well, er, it depends how you look at it !

If you are an original "Highland Reserver' then you will probably say "hey, Regal Palms is nothing to do with our H.R. subdivision - it's an entirely seperate resort" and you would be technically correct.

But you, as well as I, know that Superior (or whatever they are more latterly called) had a hand in developing half of H.R. and then they also went on to develop Regal Palms entirely right next door. So the 'seperation' is hard to see when you are on the outside looking in.

They are all lumped together to be 'Highlands Reserve' from a generic point of view. So let's not split hairs shall we ? :)

The Academy and the awards is what we are talking about here. Will you be going ?

[JulieC]

Compliant management company hey? I wonder what that means and who will be chosen. I misread it on first reading and read the i and the a the wrong way round, you could guess the ones if that had been the word!

[florida]

hello folks,

not wanting to split hairs, (as i dont have many on my head ), but the road between highlands reserve, and regal palms.

should be a big clue, to the fact that we are seperate, also if highlands reserve wants to use regal palms facilities then there is a cost involved.

i might also add, that i have yet to see regal palms pay one penny to highlands reserve hoa, which is possibly another very big clue ????.

will i be going, i thought about it, but the $20 entrance fee, is a bit offputting, and i am possibly right in saying, it will be the same old faces, saying the same old things, to the same old boys network.

you know how the system works over here.

regards
florida

[floridapete]

Twenty bucks ? What's that worth ? It won't even buy you a tank of gas any more !

If I was over there right now I would certainly be making a point of getting to that event - if only to get to meet some of those 'ol boys' and to make sure that they knew who I am and what my interests (and concerns) in local matters are. In this case - the tourism/management industry. How else will they get know our side of the story ?

Isn't this an excellent opportunity to do so ? Why pass it up for the excuse of 20 bucks ?

I have always found the Polk County (and Osceola County) folks easy to meet with and interested in what we (the providers of SO much tourist tax revenues) represent.

In fact, if I had adopted the same head-in-the-sand attitude with regards to meeting with these people back in the late 90's/early 2000's, and had passed up the invitation to meet with them in Bartow on several "Short term rentals workshops" which I took part in at that time, your industry might not be being welcomed quite so warmly at County level as it now is !

Go see what it's all about ! You owe it to your owners to do so !

[DavidL]

Twenty bucks ? What's that worth ? It won't even buy you a tank of gas any more !



Er, will do in my motorcyles.:D

[floridapete]

So did anyone from this Forum take the trouble (and splash the 20 bucks) to attend this event ?

If so, what happened ? If not, why not ?

I can now tell you that the management company winners of the "Polk County 2006 Seal of Compliance Awards" were :

CJ Management, LLC

Hayes Vacation Home Rentals

Liberty Vacation Homes

J & M Management Services, Inc. (Sunsplash)

Personalized Property Management Service

Premier Home Management

Sovereign Vacation Villas

Interestingly, and I think that I can say this without fear of contradiction, most, if not all of the above are members of CFPMA so demonstrating by their membership of that industry body and their participation in this Polk County iniative, that they are committed to the highest standards of service and compliance in the vacation rental management business. Something to recommend them !

You can find more at: http://www.polktaxes.com/td/SOC.asp

[Susie]

Hi Peter

I am sorry I did not manage to get to this event as I have only just got round to reading this posting and still trying to catch up on others.

I wonder how these management companies were chosen. There are many management companies that do meet with industries compliance but for the consumers sake it would be interesting to have a list of ones that are not in compliance