While You Are Away – Blog Edition Five

Dear all,

I’m David Wray, the Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, Procurement, Property Development and Technical Services at Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific. One of teams I oversee is our Property Development team, which manages the refurbishments of Club Wyndham South Pacific properties.

You have heard from Warren Cullum over the last few weeks and, this week, I’m making a guest entry in the While You Are Away series to share information about our upcoming projects.

Current projects

Firstly, here’s a quick recap of our current projects.

• The development at Club Wyndham Flynns Beach of 53 additional one to four-bedroom villas, with a mix of Deluxe, Grand and Presidential suites, is slated to be finished in late October.
• The refurbishment of Ramada Resort by Wyndham Phillip Island continues. This includes lifting some of the newly acquired villas to Deluxe with new bathrooms and refreshed kitchens, and Grands, with new bathrooms and kitchen fit-outs, outdoor patio roofing, fire boxes in the lounge rooms, and new furniture and bedding throughout.
• The conclusion of the refurbishment at Club Wyndham Ballarat, which involves a full renovation of bathrooms and replacement of the window coverings, carpets, lighting, beds, some furniture and wall finishes in the final 11 apartments.

Kirra Beach reception refurbishment

Another project that has concluded during the COVID-19 shutdown is the Club Wyndham Kirra Beach reception and ground floor renovation.

The new reception area has a stylish coffered ceiling and the ground floor renovations include new reception desk, furniture, upholstery, fresh paint, soft furnishings and new artwork. We look forward to showcasing it to Club Wyndham South Pacific owners when the resort re-opens on Monday.

Future projects

Now for a sneak peek at some of this year’s projects.

We will be conducting a full soft refurbishment of all apartments at Club Wyndham Airlie Beach – Standard, Deluxe, Grand and Presidential.

A soft refurbishment means we will create a new design and colour scheme, and replace most furniture, curtains, artwork and carpets (where appropriate), and apply fresh paint. The work will be conducted in stages and we are targeting an October opening at this point.

We have put the works out to tender and we are in the process of costing the project.

A refurbishment of Club Wyndham Port Douglas is now currently underway. We will be refurbishing all 88 club apartments at the property in four stages, with 22 apartments per stage. We are expected to complete the project during August 2020 which means that, when the property re-opens on July 1, this refurbishment will already be well-progressed.

Here are some renders we developed for the project.

The project will incorporate fresh designs inspired by the resort’s tropical surrounds. Rooms will be repainted and will feature resort-style furniture with timber accents and sofa beds, while the resort’s Deluxe apartments will include contemporary wallpaper.

You can see built-in bedside lighting in these renders and each room will showcase one real underwater photo from the Great Barrier Reef taken by an award winning photographer.

Decisions on projects
COVID-19 has created some new economic realities and our property development team is adapting so we can deliver projects on time and on budget.

Some of the challenges going forward include:

• Border restrictions
• Global supply chain disruption
• Social distancing
• Potential for delays

These factors can either directly increase the price of projects or cause delays, which, in turn, cost money. Our Project Managers are mindful that these refurbishments are funded by levies and they are carefully considering their timing and purchasing to ensure your money goes as far as possible.

Restrictions on travel have made it difficult to mobilise new projects during the COVID-19 period, but we have had the opportunity to accelerate existing projects and lay the groundwork for future refurbishments.

Mock-up room development
With ongoing state government restrictions, we have become more innovative about how we plan and approve new refurbishments.

The previous system had involved establishing a mock room on site and using that room to finalise the direction of the overall project. We have fast-tracked virtual mock rooms which now allow me and the rest of our Executive team to give projects the go-ahead online.

What this has done is helped us establish a more definitive schedule for 2021 and 2022. I look forward to sharing some details of those projects with you later in the year.

Our Project Managers and I have really enjoyed seeing the positive feedback about the refurbishments during this period. Please, let us know what you think of them once you experience them in person through our post-stay surveys or share a photo while you are there on our club Facebook page.

Future updates
We will continue this regular update moving forward but, from next week, it will be called Resort Report. As Club Wyndham South Pacific owners return to 14 additional club properties from Monday, we believe that this name will be a more accurate reflection of the blog and video series moving into the future.

We look forward to seeing you at your resorts and enjoying our refurbishment projects soon.

David Wray

Senior Vice President Acquisitions, Procurement, Property Development and Technical Services

Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific