It is a partnership of destiny: independent timeshare giant Orange Lake Resorts and brand company InterContinental Hotels Group. Last fall, IHG and Orange Lake announced a strategic alliance that will rebrand existing and new Orange Lake resorts under the Holiday Inn name. The common link is a strong one: both Holiday Inns and Orange Lake were founded by entrepreneur Kemmons Wilson, and the Wilson family still owns and operate the timeshare company.

“To be honest, it would have been a tougher sell with anyone else,” says Christian Hempell, vice president of the newly formed Holiday Inn Club Vacations. “Obviously, we trust the Wilson family with the Holiday Inn name.”

The alliance was announced in September at IHG's annual conference, and by December Orange Lake's flagship property in Orlando was rebranded as Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort. The mega property next to Walt Disney World has 2,412 villas, four golf courses, seven pools, a 12-acre outdoor entertainment complex and other amenities.

Other Orange Lake resorts in Vermont, Wisconsin and the Florida Panhandle will convert to the Holiday Inn brand this year. And Orange Lake plans to build a Holiday Inn Resort Hotel at its Orlando property and develop as many as 2,500 more timeshare villas at the location.

Consumers who buy at Orange Lake properties can exchange their weeks for hotel nights at any of IHG's 4,100 worldwide hotels as well as through the RCI exchange network.

“The alliance is good for us in a number of ways,” says Don Harrill, president and CEO of Orange Lake. “Not only does it enable us to present our product to a much wider group of consumers, it provides the economic horsepower to locate more resorts in the right destinations.”