JKW Vacation Club: Adventures Await! Pt. 2

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:00

Pack your bags, let's take a ride. 5 minutes fly and we'll explore the wide with Forrest Kelly, it's travel time. It's The Best 5 Minute Travel Podcast. Let's go.

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:14

How long have you has JKW Vacation Club been in existence?

Kevin: 00:00:18

and seed was planted back in: 2014

hey were ready to sell it. In: 2014

But we just did the short term rental scene just roughly around two years ago. That's when, you know, I kind of took over the realm and now trying to take it to the next level.

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:53

Have you noticed a change in your brief time in doing this? I'm sure your dad has told you. Have you noticed a change in how people travel?

Kevin: 00:01:02

Absolutely.

You know, I think just with the cost of everything, you know, people are looking for more cost effective ways to travel also outside of just traveling, having added benefits as well and a sort of sense of community. So that's what we are trying to bring at JKW is, you know, you're going to get direct booking savings.

You're not paying those Airbnb fees or with typical timeshares where you're locked into long term contracts or annual maintenance fees. With us, you just have your flat rate and, and we include a handful of benefits in there. Basically teaching you how to travel with jkw.

So we take care of you from point A to point B. Yeah, whatever.

Forrest Kelly: 00:01:41

Complications that may come up in the middle, you deal with that. Yep, yep. I'm in membership to multiple things and it is very difficult in this day and age to get a live human.

Hey, you want to talk to a representative? No, it's not a representative, it's a bot. I don't want to talk to a bot and just have this bot do the FAQs on me.

No, I want to talk to a human with somebody with some wisdom and justice. That's where you guys can help separate yourselves from some of the others. Right? You're not getting a bot.

Kevin: 00:02:08

Yeah, like I'm on best friends basis with a lot of our renters and members. They just hit me up whenever they want to go down and I tell them, yep, you got it. Condos available.

And so we do want to, you know, we, we only want to work with the people that want to be Family with, because that's what JKW is, family. And our members that. And renters that come in, they. They're family to us, so we want to be able to provide them that.

Forrest Kelly: 00:02:29

And I like working with people that I have history with because as a business owner, I've got to the computer when the customer walks in, I see who the customer is. I bring them up on the computer. They can't see it, but I can bring it up on the computer. I've got a history of everything that they've done.

And so I know the names of their family members, I know kind of what they've done. And, you know, they brought me cookies before or something. I put that in there saying, hey, you know, thanks for the cookies or whatever.

So you're offering that personal touch too, right? You've got a background on these people?

Kevin: 00:02:57

Yeah, absolutely.

And one of our business clients, he uses his business membership with us and he sends down as like or for his team that they're exceeding their goals and expectations. He sends them down to our condos and then we take care of them. For instance, we had a birthday recently and our members sent us over.

Hey, my client, one of my teammates coming down his birthday, like, awesome. He already knows the drill.

Got him a bottle of wine, box of chocolates, and then a scheduled him a dinner reservation at one of the front row beach restaurants on the resort. And we later got a call back saying, hey, that was like the most heartfelt thing you could have done.

And we don't even know them, so it was really cool to those calls, those small gestures are, you know, that's why we're in hospitality, you know.

Forrest Kelly: 00:03:43

What is your personal favorite travel memory? Do you have one? Yeah.

Kevin: 00:03:47

,: 2021

Our pride of joy is me and lillard, you know, NBA All Star.

Kevin: 00:03:59

Yep.

Kevin: 00:04:00

,: 2021

There we were able to backpack, you know, valley kings of the queens, pyramids of Giza, able to see the tomb of Tutankhamun, King Tut, the boy king. And it was really cool.

My favorite experience was, you know, hopping off that plane and, you know, you're immediately immersed in the world of Arabic culture, but then also hearing the prayer call at five times a day ringing through the cities no matter where you're at. Definitely a big difference change from Western culture.

Forrest Kelly: 00:04:38

Yeah. I remember one of the first vacations I took, we went to Florida and coming from the Pacific Northwest, there's very limited humidity.

And I remember stepping off the plane in Florida and thinking, what is going on? I've never heard of this or even experienced it. Did, did the temperature and the humidity and all that hit you then too in Egypt, it's dry heat.

Kevin: 00:05:00

So honestly, it kind of reminds me a lot of Rocky Point. Rocky Point for the viewers. It's three hours south of Phoenix in Baja California and it's known for its fishing, luxurious beaches.

How do I say, yeah, you're six hours from San Diego, about seven hours from San Diego, six hours from Las Vegas. But Egypt to Peniasco, it's very similar climate. In Egypt they have the Red Sea. It's beautiful, it's calm.

Just a lot of the similar atmospheres or environment from the Red Sea.

Forrest Kelly: 00:05:32

Now, where did Damian Lillard come into it other than he just graduated from Weber State. I was wondering if you're going to meet him or if he had something to do with your.

Kevin: 00:05:41

No. Yeah, so I met Damien. He was also. We graduated from the same program, the Weber State Professional Sales Program.

And then his mentor, Tim Border, which was also my mentor as well throughout college. So shout out to Tim if you have time. Go watch his TED talk. Weber State, very influential man.

So super stoked to be able to share the same mentor as an NBA all Star.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:08

We've touched down and landed. The episode's done with five quick minutes of travel and fun.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:15

This is your captain speaking.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:17

We have cut you down.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:18

That completes this episode.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:20

Join Forrest Kelly for the next big show, The Best 5 Minute Travel Podcast. Let's go.