The Condo Hotel Ownership and Profit Control Pie Chart

The phenomenon of the condo hotel gives rise to perplexing idiosyncrasies. You purchase a condo hotel unit in a star-studded hotel, perhaps on South Beach, attracted to this locale by its fame. Now you are the 100% owner of your own hotel room intent on personal enjoyment and income production; you are 100% liable for its upkeep; and you may be helpless in controlling the income and expenses.

Here comes the often overlooked wringer: control of the condominium association over your room and the physical structures and services holding all together are in the hands of those who also render the predominant hotel management services. Let me add this caveat: The fact that a very prominent hotel chain lends its name to the hotel may not tip in favor of honest hotel administration.

The audacity of those in control can be overwhelming: Putting up guests without sharing the income-producing event with the condo unit’s owner is not uncommon. Charging for maintenance and repairs at an obscene, highly inflated rate is routine. Depriving personal guests of the room’s owner of services a hotel guest routinely expects from a professionally managed hospitality establishment are modus operandi in attempts to force the signature on the hotel management agreement with the management company in control of the hotel and the condo association. The hotel’s manager is leading the way and setting the example of harassing the condo unit owner. The staff, with job security on their mind, blindly obeys the manager’s orders to deprive the guests of service. Contractually obligatory reports and financial accounting are either not forthcoming or do not reflect the truth. The list’s length and authority could best be compiled in a white paper for use in cooperation-requiring conflict resolution.

Consider the looming scenario. The situation is increasingly perilous and you approach those in control — condo association management and hotel management (separate but the same) —with a problem (in the extreme it could be documented in the form of a white paper describing conflicts and requesting to talk, confirm the truth, and resolve the conflict), you may repeatedly receive the promise to talk but no action follows. It is the logical response because equitable conflict resolution calls for voluntary, honest redistribution of the profit pie as soon as going over the details at the meeting brings the truth to light. (Please see “Conflict Resolution Breaks Ground in Your Heart” at www.GrandLifestyle.com/glj08/02a.htm.)

Is it not ironic for my reporting of the facts no longer to be available on my websites and blogs, but instead you may find them in the public domain placed there by those who have been aggressively pursuing their banishment from public view and silencing me permanently?

You see, I am tired — just one year short of “celebrating” my 20th anniversary serving you and keeping you informed with publishing the truth in Grand Lifestyle — and trust you understand the efforts of a septuagenarian trying to help those who suffer and are doomed if Benjamin Franklin’s warning is not heeded: “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

I will now limit my activities to completing documentation and editing my intensive research on and two-decade-long experience of condominium living for my book, CONDO*MONIUM: Diary of a Condo Dweller, (I continue to invite your contribution); working on a story of saving someone struggling with alcoholism, GRACE IS DEAD — She Could Not Do It Alone; (see www.GrandLifestyle.com/pub.htm), executing publication agreements with a publishing company; assist in the promotion of my books, offering my services as an expert witness and spokesperson on condominium issues (see http://www.dadelanddoings.com/); and playing tennis.

You will find my thoughts on condominium life here, my blog http://www.condomonium.blogspot.com/, and if you wish to comment, here’s your opportunity to speak out and share your thoughts. You may also do so anonymously. A public service website, http://www.condomonium.org/, will soon join our effort to communicate and serve.

Will my publishing the truth tie me to the stake engulfed in flames or will my stubborn airing of the facts cause me to plant an oak tree in the spot where the bulls condemning me were turned to ashes?

I wish you well, hope you will live in peace in your Home Sweet Home, and pray you’ll let Ben Franklin’s wisdom guide you.

We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead,
nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
3rd United States president