From:	Dettery Linda R
Sent:	Tuesday, August 24, 2004 11:21 AM
To:	<removed for security reasons - webmaster>
Cc:	Dettery Linda R
Subject:	Update on Casa Ybel
		Hello, I am the President of the Board of Directors for the FGH Association at Casa Ybel. I have seen your emails to Carl Appelberg and his website, casaybel.com, and felt I should respond to clear up some misconceptions. We are all very concerned about the status of the resort after hurricane Charly. The reason the Board has not communicated with you up to this point is that we wanted to hold off until we had all or most of the construction and environmental specialists in to look over the buildings so we could give everyone the most specific news we could muster about the condition of the FGH (and IJK) buildings and furnishings. Also, many of the 2-3000 timeshare owners do not have access to a computer. The Hilton area management group is right now preparing a letter describing what was found and what is being done to restore the buildings, which will be forwarded to Ron Miller (President of IJK) and me to edit and sign and will be sent out to every timeshare owner as soon as possible. I am sure that you can understand that there is frenetic activity going on all over the islands as well as in all the devastated areas on the mainland, like parts of Ft. Myers and Punta Gorda, and getting workmen to the resort and getting assessments from them has taken a number of days. Also, noone was allowed to get back on the island until last Wednesday. However, be assured that the Hilton management organization has been working 10-12 hour days to start the renovation process for Casa Ybel. In addition to our current manager, Chris Cain, Hilton has assigned the former manager, Lael Kilpatrick, and the regional manager, E.J. Nees, to all work with each other in handling the Casa Ybel resort. I am confident that they are doing everything they can to restore the resort as soon as feasible. However, this will not happen overnight and I think I can safely predict from what they tell me that the buildings will not be habitable for at least the next 2-3 months. 
		You may have seen pictures on Carl's website and others of the damage done by the hurricane. Many whole sections of the roofs in FGH (and worse in IJK) have been blown off or otherwise destroyed, and there has been major water damage not only from the hurricane but thereafter from the rainy days that followed. As a result, much of the furniture and carpeting in the upper units, as well as in the walls, has been ruined and may have to be completely replaced. The lower units were not generally affected as severely, but they have water coming through some of the ceilings and walls, and some furnishings will have to be replaced there also. None of the units can be safely occupied right now.
		I have not yet seen a copy of our insurance contract, so I do not personally know all the details, but I have been informed that our insurance coverage is fairly good. Our policy covers FGH buildings, IJK buildings, Cottage Colony west buildings and Sanibel Cottages. It has a $100,000. deductible total for all these ownership groups. After the deductible, we have 100% replacement coverage which I understand also covers some of the landscaping. We are in much better shape in this regard than some of the other resorts I have heard about with coverage that requires owners to pay a certain percentage of the total replacement costs. The insurance adjusters were out at the resort in the first few days, and they and our management team have been working to get construction companies, roofers, specialists on water damage and mold/mildew experts in to assess the damage and necessary repairs, to name a few. As you know, this will require a lot of decisions on the part of the two ownership boards as to what we must do regarding reconstruction and replacements. Ron Miller and I plan to visit the resort in the near future, but didn't want to go there too soon until these workmen had completed their assessments. The insurance contract does not include reimbursement for lack of use or occupancy for those owners whose weeks are coming up soon and who will not be able to vacation at Casa Ybel this year.  The question of reimbursing them their maintenance fees is one I really can't comment on at present because it will require a discussion and vote by the entire Boards of Directors after we have considered all the ramifications. If you are losing your timeshare weeks because of this tragedy, I am very sorry and wish I could give you some positive news at this point, but I hope you understand that I simply can not do so. I have been informed, however, that if you are a member of one of the exchange groups like RIA, or the Hilton club, you will be able to "bank" your unusable week and trade it for another. I don't have any specific information on this, and if you are interested, I suggest you contact your program and they will give you your options.
		A word about Carl Appelberg's website, CasaYbel. Com. The other Board members and I are reluctant to use this website as Carl urges, because to do so would give it some "official" status. This causes us several problems, including the fact that Carl receives some compensation for processing the rental or sales listings, and gives rise to a potential conflict of interest. By contract we are required to deal with the Casa Ybel Hospitality organization for rentals and resales. They have not always done the best job they could for us in the past, and we continue to work on them to better their procedures. In addition, the rest of the Board does not always agree with the characterizations Carl makes on the website about persons and actions, and we don't want to get into never-ending debates with him on the website. However, I will be the first to say that Carl has every right to have his own website and to the extent that you believe he is doing a service for the owners, I feel that is your right.  The official website is CasaYbelresort. Com, which has been handled by the Hilton resort group in Orlando. We have urged them to continue to update the website after the hurricane with whatever news was available and I hope you check at this website as well.
		I hope this has answered many of your initial questions and concerns. The exact extent of our rebuilding efforts will continue to evolve in the coming weeks, and I will try to keep everyone informed. Please feel free to contact me.

Linda R. Dettery