Vacatia CEO Caroline Shin Named to ARDA Board of Directors

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - April 04, 2017) - Vacatia is pleased to announce that Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Caroline Shin has been named to the Board of Directors of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) at this year's ARDA World in New Orleans.

"We are happy to add Caroline to the line-up of esteemed industry leaders on the ARDA Board of Directors," said Howard Nusbaum, president and CEO of ARDA. "With her tremendous experience in travel and hospitality technology, we welcome her unique insights and counsel to help provide input to our continued strategic initiatives."

"I am excited to work with ARDA's excellent leadership team and industry leaders on the Board to support the continued advancement of this strong industry. With family travel exploding, interest in non-traditional accommodations on the rise, and the accelerated pace of innovation in the market -- it's an exciting time to be a part of this industry," said Caroline Shin.

Shin also commended ARDA's tireless advocacy work, which establishes a competitive industry platform and ensures strong consumer protections are in place for timeshare owners. "ARDA's government affairs efforts assures that our industry has an effective legislative voice within all levels of government and that consumers remain protected," noted Shin. "With those proper protections in place, I look forward to collaborating with industry leaders to continue to build on the resort industry's already high owner satisfaction rate."

A seasoned travel and hospitality executive, Caroline is passionate about building companies that embrace technology to deliver a stellar customer experience. She shows this passion with her extensive professional experience, including acting as the lead website architect on the startup team at Hotwire, which later led her to manage product and supplier relationships. Caroline also led global Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and revenue management functions for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. As Senior Vice President at Sentient Jet, she oversaw client services and command center operations, as well as launched a new technology platform for flight management. Caroline co-founded StoreVantage, a SaaS scheduling and CRM system for service-oriented businesses. She was also a technology and strategy consultant at Accenture and Scient, working with Fortune 500 and startup clients. Caroline holds a degree in Nuclear Engineering from MIT.

Vacatia was also named the winner of the "ACE Innovator Award: Industry Partner" category at the annual ARDA Awards presentations during ARDA World. Vacatia was lauded for helping enable the future of the resort industry through the creation of its innovative resort sales and rental marketplaces, partnerships with some of the most trusted brands in the industry, and its dedicated focus on making resort residences more accessible to the family travel market.

About Vacatia:
Vacatia is the resort marketplace for vacationing families and friends. Our mission is to make family vacations better and to help family resorts thrive. We make it easy for guests to find and instantly book their perfect resort residence, combining the space of a home and the services of a hotel. Vacatia provides real-time rental listings, large photos, floor plans, and detailed resort information, supported by Vacatia Guest Care and multiple flexible payment options. Vacatia works with 600+ select professionally managed resorts and resort residence owners at leading hospitality, vacation ownership (timeshare) and premier independent resorts. No private homes or hotels allowed! Vacatia also partners with select brands to operate vacation ownership marketplaces. Vacatia is a member of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) and the Family Travel Association, is venture-backed, was founded in 2013, and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

About ARDA:
The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) is the Washington D.C.-based professional association representing the vacation ownership and resort development industries. Established in 1969, ARDA today has approximately 600 members ranging from privately held firms to publicly traded companies and international corporations with expertise in shared ownership interests in leisure real estate.