A List: Craig Morganson, CEO, Holiday Systems International
Source: Perspective Magazine; The Leading Independent Trade Publication for the Timeshare & Fractional Ownership Industry
Craig Morganson, CEO of Holiday Systems International (HSI), has been in the travel and tourism industry since 1981. He founded HSI, a leader in private-client products and services, in 1993. Specializing in the travel and tourism industry, HSI provides its partners with an extensive selection of customized choices, including sophisticated private-branded technology, wholesale-direct pricing, specialized services, value-enhancement add-ons, affinity programs, customer loyalty programs, employee benefit programs, Internet and phone support in five languages, and much more.
Some of the most respected companies in the world incorporate HSI products and services into their businesses, including major airlines, professional sports franchises, major travel providers, vacation ownership properties, country clubs, employee benefit providers and transportation companies.
Perspective Magazine recently spoke with Craig about HSI and the vacation-ownership industry.
Are you originally from Las Vegas?
I?ve lived in Las Vegas for 32 years ? I moved out here when I turned 21.
Where were you from originally?
Back east ? Connecticut.
So what took you to Vegas?
Opportunity. I worked in the gaming industry for a number of years and was in travel and tourism through that career as well.
How did you get started in your career?
When I was in gaming, there was some overlap in vacation ownership at that time, and I became interested in the timeshare industry. I saw a fascinating model that presented a lot of opportunity for an entrepreneur to come in and enhance the user experience. With more generosity and less greed, I thought I could capture some market share.
What was your first involvement with timeshare?
What I observed in timeshare was much emphasis on sales and not enough on service after the point of sale. By starting HSI I was able to enhance the user experience by offering more personalized services, vacation options and specialized services to timeshare owners. Before I launched HSI I completed feasibility studies that I believed were sufficient to demonstrate my approach would work. I applied the model to a small (1,500 member) database from a defunct service company. I mailed an introduction letter hoping for a 20% response, and received a 90% response! Looking back at that mail piece today, I really can?t believe I received such a positive response. I think it was more of a statement of their frustration from an undelivered promise, than it was a great mail piece.
What was HSI like in the early days?
I started with a small office and small staff in Las Vegas providing mostly resort accommodations through a small selection of boutique properties. By listening to the needs of my timeshare owners, I grew the business by simply adding services these owners needed and wanted. Those services grew into the business that we have today and we still service most of our original 1,500 members.
What challenges did you face in the beginning?
One of the things I tried to do in the early stages is partner with travel providers for hotels, cruises, tour packages, etc. Unfortunately, those providers did not provide the pricing or service I needed for my customers, so I moved that in-house.
It took a long time to make that profitable, but today it?s a big part of our business. We grew from a company that saw nothing but overhead and small margins on that type of business to a company that now considers this part of our core business. In fact, our provision of those services to other companies is in very high demand. This is due to our comprehensive offerings and white labeling through technology, online booking engines and services by phone to our partner customers.
How would you describe the scope of your business today?
We have our finger on the pulse of the industry, and we?re offering more products, services and technology than ever before.
We started out servicing only English speaking customers, and we now service five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian and German. We started with only 1,500 customers and now we service over 4 million clients both inside and outside of the vacation ownership industry. All of which are private clients; that is, we?re not doing business with the general public.
Tell me about your services.
We offer a depth of services that I think would shock most people. How we deliver those services is a key factor in our growth, in that our integration choices allow our affiliates to select the best fit for their business model, strategy and user interface.
One example of our many specialty services is something that we are still the only company to offer: real maintenance-fee relief, which is a product that actually pays maintenance fees on behalf of owners so they remain current.
It?s not a coupon trick or one of those inflate-then-discount services, a hidden-value system or another smoke and mirror show. Instead, it?s an honest system where the maintenance fees get paid, the owner stays current, and a new qualified guest uses the interval. That?s an example of how we are helping the industry behind-the-scenes. This service has benefited over 1,200 properties, paid well over $ 27
million in maintenance fees; and is currently paying over $ 7 million annually.
All of our products and services are based on consumer-behavior patterns in the leisure world. For instance, when we look at consumer behavior ? not from an opinion base, but from a statistical base ? we see that consumers spend their money in particular ways and they become delinquent and shift their leisure spending in particular ways.
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Original Source: A List: Craig Morganson, CEO, Holiday Systems International
Perspective Magazine
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