ARDA Awards
Winning an ARDA award can have a huge positive impact on the career of a timeshare professional due to the respect and recognition the awards imply. Resort Trades chatted with some of the winners and one finalist in 2022 who happily shared their award stories.
Ivan Cesar is the senior director of HR business partners and projects at Hilton Grand Vacations. In 2021, he was project manager for HR business efforts for HGV’s acquisition and integration of Diamond Resorts, responsible for HGV’s acquisition and massive integration of over 6,000 Diamond Resorts team members. Today, HGV has over 14,000 team members.
Reflecting on the ARDA awards ceremony, Ivan did not know he was nominated for the award until a few seconds before his name was called. “The ceremony was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate with people I had worked with for 14 years,” shares Ivan. “Because the awards program was simulcast on the web, my phone immediately started blowing up with notes of congratulations. This was personally very exciting “
Over a year later, Ivan says the award makes him feel humbled to have received it, knowing that it represents achievements of hundreds of his co-workers and provides them with the recognition they deserve. “Every day when I walk into my office and see the award, it reminds me that what we do matters and positively impacts peoples’ lives. The award is a great recognition to the team and showcases to all of us that achieving national recognition is possible when we work together and focus on overcoming seemingly impossible challenge.”
For the past five years, Shannon Kucharski has served as the General Manager for the 34-unit San Clemente Cove in San Clemente, California. Although her resort is considered as one of the smaller properties in the family of Grand Pacific Resorts (GPR), it has continuously received some of the highest Customer Satisfaction scores, with Shannon recognized internally as a highly respected hands-on leader.
“While the award was for the GM position, it felt more like a national award for our resort,” said Shannon. “It brought wonderful recognition to our small but mighty property, later receiving congratulatory letters from Owners, making us proud to represent them. This award reinforced our passion for our work and owners, giving true meaning to what we strive to accomplish daily.”
Related: Grand Pacific Resorts Expands Along the California Coast
It was with great enthusiasm that David Brown, Co-President of Grand Pacific Resorts––––hosted his company’s 14 award finalists and executives to an Everglades Airboat tour along with other attractions before the awards ceremony. It was the first time many were meeting their colleagues in person and certainly in a unique environment.
“Surrounded by my work family and winners from our industry’s leading companies at the Gala awards ceremony, I was honestly in shock when they said my name. It was a wonderful night I will never forget. Every time I remember it, I smile with total happiness,” reflected Shannon.
Eric is General Manager of Liberty Place Charleston, a Hilton Club, a 100-unit resort that opened in June 2021 as Hilton Grand Vacations’ first property in Charleston, S.C. He worked closely with city managers to bring the resort to completion. Within four months of opening, the resort achieved the company’s highest rankings in multiple satisfaction metrics.
Related: Hilton Grand Vacations’ Grand Opening of Liberty Place Charleston by Hilton Club
He has been praised for leading his weekly history tour of the property with Club owners to share the area’s rich history. After 15 years in the hospitality industry and six years with HGV, Eric is a master at elevating service scores including earlier properties he managed. Liberty Place Charleston, a Hilton Club recently won Hilton’s coveted Connie Award for 2022.
“A recognition of this magnitude by ARDA is incredibly humbling,” says Eric. “Winning the award has provided tremendous recognition for our resort, while also clearly reflecting the accomplishments of our entire team. It has brought us together even more cohesively than we were before, giving us extra pride in our work and making us feel special within our company. The recognition has stimulated team moral and shown the importance of tapping into each other’s expertise. Several team members have told me that seeing me win this award has inspired them to work even harder, naturally making me very proud!”
Christina Mansfield was hired in 2019 to lead the two-person sales at Holiday Inn Club Vacations’ first urban resort, in New Orleans, LA. Under her guidance, the challenges of the pandemic brought increased cooperation and a deeper sense of team support, encouraging a goal-oriented environment. She was consistently one of HICV’s top producers in sales and marketing and was named “Manager of the Year” in her region.
“Receiving this award has made me extremely proud of my work and a great honor to be recognized by my leaders and ARDA,” said Christina. “Attending the award ceremony was an amazing experience. My coworkers were over the moon when they heard the news about my nomination. This award represents all our hard work paying off and has fueled our motivation, encouraging me to continue reaching for my goals. Winning this award has reminded me that I can achieve anything I put my mind to. To know that my leaders invested their time and effort in putting together an essay about my work made me feel special, not only as a team member, but as a valued employee of Holiday Inn Club Vacations.”
Since joining Westgate Resorts in 2014, Ervin Matik has been responsible for successfully managing sales representatives and supporting their goals. As the sales leader for her six-person team at the massive Westgate Vacation Villas & Town Center Resort in Kissimmee, Ervin’s group completed several thousand tours, generating many millions of dollars with a high average transaction price at an extremely low rescission rate.
In reflecting on her nomination as Top Sales Management Leader in 2021, Ervin Matik said, “Just being nominated was fantastic, but attending the ARDA award ceremony was the most excited I’ve ever been for an award. Being surrounded by other industry companies and mostly male sales managers made me feel proud and appreciated. Even my husband was there jumping up and down with excitement. Today, when I go to a sales table to close a deal, my team member tells the customer he wants them to meet the person who has been recognized as ‘the best in the business.’ This gives me kudos at the sales table and instills an element of trust with prospective customers, clearly benefiting our company. My team was equally proud of the award, knowing they all contributed to our success.”
The HSI Operations Team has played a critical role in the success and growth of its parent company, Vacation Innovations (VI). Following VI’s acquisition of HSI in 2020, Sergio Santos, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of VI led a team of 70 individuals across three U.S. locations to integrate HSI’s products and services. Winning the award has continued to have a significant impact on the performance of their organization, helping the team to deliver quality products for consumers, as well as highly qualified tours to developer partners.
In reflecting on the team’s ARDA recognition, Sergio said, “Receiving this external recognition from ARDA is incredibly special. We are always proud of the service and experience our team provides to our members, but ARDA’s recognition validated the team’s hard work and commitment. The award has helped us celebrate our team’s dedication and lets them know they are truly valued. After receiving this recognition, morale was at an all-time high, with the team performing in ways that exceeded our expectations. As an organization, it has given us a huge sense of accomplishment and the confidence that we’ve been making the right decisions and treating our customers with care.”
Being named a finalist is also an important achievement for all those who earned this distinction. Although Kita Shular was not a winner, she was chosen as a finalist for her management role with MasterCorps’ Preventative Maintenance, taking the program from concept to a working department. She researched vendors, combined procedures, policies, and training guides. She led her team through the pandemic, doubling her maintenance completion rate. Rare for a woman, Kita was certified in the Preventative Maintenance Program in record time, working hard to earn her team’s respect (Only 5.3% of all Maintenance Technicians are women.) Kita has been in the field for more than 20 years. Being named an ARDA finalist was exciting for this lady. When she got the news, she was onsite, and took a few minutes to bask in the accomplishment. “I felt happy,” she said, “and very proud of the national recognition.” Then, she rolled up her sleeves and got back to work like any other day. Although being recognized for her work is satisfying, she keeps moving forward, looking for new ways to improve; she is a person that improves for the sake of improving, not the reward of it.
Marge Lennon has been writing about the timeshare industry and its resorts since forever. She can be reached at Marge@LennonCommunications.com.
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