Hospitality · Resort · Residential Real Estate
I build commercial programs and the teams that make them work—from market position and partnerships to operating discipline and customer execution.
For more than 25 years, I have built new programs, strengthened established organizations, led teams and partnerships, and translated strategy into work people can execute.
Executive summary
I am a commercial operator with experience spanning sales, marketing, business development, team leadership, program creation and day-to-day operations. My background is rooted in hospitality and resort real estate, but the underlying work is broader: clarify the offer, align the people, build the operating rhythm and stay close enough to execution to know what is working.
I am comfortable at both levels the work requires: setting direction with owners and senior leadership, then working with teams, partners and customers to make that direction real.
Selected work
Pre-construction and resort-residential engagements across the United States and Caribbean.
Watch the ownership preview
Orange Beach, Alabama
Pre-construction commercial leadership for a 115-residence Gulf-front tower: market position, buyer journey, sales program, Realtor referral network, and residences from $2M to $3.7M.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Built a ground-up vacation-ownership sales operation: retail locations, team recruitment and training, presentation, CRM, payments, and telephony.
Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands
Built the developer's vacation-ownership program and sales team, then carried it through sell-out on budget and ahead of schedule.
Full project history and earlier branded-residence work continue below.
Executive range
Transferable leadership responsibilities developed in live hospitality, real estate and growth-stage operating environments.
Clarify the offer, buyer proposition, priorities and path to market.
Recruit, coach and align people around clear standards and shared accountability.
Turn strategy into process, cadence, reporting and reliable follow-through.
Build broker, referral, hospitality and channel relationships around commercial goals.
Take an initiative from a blank page to a working organization and sustained execution.
Translate market and operating information into priorities, blockers and decisions.
Lead high-trust, complex-product conversations across buyers, advisors and partners.
Use CRM, data visibility and practical automation to strengthen the team and customer path.
Experience & evidence
The Full Commercial Mandate
2010 — Present · AndrewJames, LLC · Florida
The consulting vehicle behind much of the work below: dispatched into sales and marketing consulting roles, managing and operating sales processes and the teams that run them.
Selected work · full detail
2025 — Present · Caribe Seaside · Orange Beach, Alabama
Pre-construction sales leadership for a 115-residence ultra-luxury Gulf-front tower priced from $2M to $3.7M: the sales journey, the closer program, and a signed Gulf-coast Realtor referral network. The lane is buyer education, Realtor outreach, lead follow-up, event strategy, sales materials, project positioning, and advancing qualified prospects toward contract.
2025 · Carpe Viam Destinations · New Orleans, Louisiana
Built the developer's vacation ownership program from the ground up — usage plan, annual dues, financing, sales pricing, and the sales and marketing teams to run it. The difference here was the floor itself: I recruited and built a virtual sales team to run it, with a concierge funnel on Interval International partnerships and iDecide presentations.
2011 — 2025 · Grande Bay Residence Club · Saint John, USVI
Built the developer's vacation ownership program from the ground up — usage plan, annual dues, financing, sales pricing, and the sales and marketing teams to run it — and carried the project through to sell-out on budget and ahead of schedule.
2017 — 2021 · Offsite Marketing Solutions · Myrtle Beach, SC
The marketing side of vacation ownership sales: a multi-prong strategy of retail locations capturing tourists into property tours, supported by in-house teams, outside marketing teams, call centers, trade shows, and events. At its peak the operation produced 15,000+ tours annually at a $3,000+ average VPG. Clients included Westgate, Bluegreen, Wyndham, and Capital Resorts.
2010 · Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman
Consulted on and closed whole-ownership luxury residences from $1.2M to $44M.
2008 — 2010 · Folio Collection / Pond Bay · St. John, USVI
Director of Sales for a premier resort developer.
2007 — 2008 · The Preserve at Botany Bay · St. Thomas, USVI
Sold the project.
Pre-2010: Marriott, Westin, Timbers Resorts, and Île de France, St. Barts.
Leadership fit
Best suited to an organization that needs direction and an executive who can carry it into the work.
| Engagement | What I do | Where I have done it |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Sales Executive |
High-trust buyer conversations, luxury product explanation, objection handling, advisor involvement, and movement toward contract.
What that looks like in the room
|
Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman · Folio Collection / Pond Bay · The Preserve at Botany Bay · Île de France, St. Barts · Westin · Marriott · Timbers Resorts |
| Head of Sales / Player-Coach |
Supports the team, sharpens sales language, improves materials, reinforces follow-up rhythm, and helps leadership see where buyer movement is actually happening.
What that looks like on the floor
|
Grande Bay Residence Club · Carpe Viam Destinations |
| Developer-Side Commercial Operations |
Develops or improves the sales and marketing program itself. Builds custom CRM solutions that enhance and secure the buyer journey from introduction to close. Develops affiliate and partner networks. Runs buyer education, sales events, and the follow-up behind them.
What Developer-Side Sales Operations Actually Covers
|
Caribe Seaside · Offsite Marketing Solutions |
Process
A $2M+ residence does not move like a commodity funnel. The work is to align the buyer story, the floor, the follow-up, and the pipeline so the developer can see what is moving and what needs attention.
| What has to be known | What that means in practice |
|---|---|
| The competitive landscape | Comparable projects, pricing, amenity packages, marketing, press, and broker activity in the region. |
| The buyer behind the inquiry | Ownership history, advisor relationships, financial structure, and the lifestyle context that makes the first conversation matter. |
| What is moving the deal | The financing question, the Realtor conversation, or the objection that never becomes the next right move. |
| What leadership needs to see | Qualified movement, blockers, channel performance, and revenue timing — not generic dashboard charts. |
It runs as one loop. Every stage feeds the next, and the salesperson stays in control of judgment, relationship, and the close.
References
I competed against John before I ever did business with him, and that is the best recommendation I can give him. When my partner and I decided to sell our marketing company in 2018, John was the buyer we wanted — he understood the tour economics better than anyone else at the table. Then he did the thing we had not: he scaled it. He rebuilt the tour engine, raised the volume, and drove VPG well past where we had ever run it, across retail, call center, and event channels at once. We have partnered on real estate since. I have never once had to check his work.
I have worked with John for more than a decade across Interval's Caribbean and Southeast U.S. region. He has a strong, proven track record with Interval and in our industry. What separates him is that he builds the sales and marketing program rather than simply working inside one — he understands the exchange side, the tour flow, and what actually has to happen on a sales floor for a resort to hit its numbers. He is who I introduce to a developer who needs the program built and the team led.
John is a sales leader first. He builds the program, then he builds the team that runs it. At Carpe Viam he took a vacation-ownership concept and turned it into an operating sales business — the retail locations, the recruited and trained floor, the presentation, and the collateral the team could actually carry into a room. He knows how to recruit closers, hold a floor to a standard, and get production out of people other operators would have given up on. When I need someone who can take a developer's vision and convert it into signed contracts, John is the first call I make.
John built our vacation-ownership program from a blank page — the usage plan, the dues structure, the financing, the pricing — and then recruited, trained and led the sales and marketing teams that sold it out, on budget and ahead of schedule. I have run resorts for a long time and I have met very few people who can do both halves of that job. Most can design a program or run a floor; John does both, and the floor performs because he sets a standard and works inside it himself.
We brought John in to build a pre-construction sales program from the ground up and he delivered the whole thing — the buyer journey, the collateral, the Realtor referral network, and the closers to work it. He is the rare sales leader who can architect the system and then perform inside it, and the work has been first-rate every single time. He raises the standard of everyone around him.
I first worked with John at Grande Bay, and we have been in business together for more than twelve years since. He ran the sales and marketing side there, and what struck me then is what has held true ever since: he builds the thing properly the first time and he finishes it. He is the partner I have trusted with money, with build-outs, and with decisions I could not be there to make myself. Twelve years is a longer track record than most references can offer, and I would give it again tomorrow.
Additional Experience & Outside Interests
Two restaurants in the U.S. Virgin Islands, on St. Thomas and St. John, run under a separate Virgin Islands entity, Andrew James LLC. The St. John location closed after Hurricane Irma.
dhpvi.comA virtual, multi-state public-adjusting practice, travelling extensively to hurricane-damaged cities. As an advocate for the home or business owner: scope and estimate the damage, then negotiate with the insurer for the best possible outcome for the insured.
Over 400 ASIC miners acquired through Compass, run as a held position rather than a service line.
Identified and consulted on real-estate opportunities for a small group of investors, focused on multi-family assets from 10 to 100 keys — acquire, refurbish, decrease vacancy, then sell for returns or hold for cash flow. Held and managed a residential rental portfolio directly, including leasing and tenant management.
A managed digital workforce for small and medium businesses, starting with a Persistent Assistant and expanding into the specialist roles the business actually needs.
staffedagents.comQuestions
I work the United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America. The last three projects were in Alabama, Louisiana, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I travel to the property.
Resorts I've run have been carried to Interval's Elite and Premier designations.
The hybrid is the point: I can carry a sales seat and lead the team at the same time.
Whole-ownership luxury residences from $1.2M to $44M at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, and $2M–$3.7M pre-construction residences at Caribe Seaside, Orange Beach.
Yes — and it is two different disciplines, not one. On the vacation-ownership side I built and operated tourist-facing lead-generation programs: retail and hotel booth locations, call centers, trade shows, and events feeding resort sales floors. On the whole-ownership side I run the developer’s marketing program itself.
Text me at (843) 503-0665
Open to the next leadership conversation
I can help build a new commercial program, strengthen an established organization, align a team around clearer priorities, or modernize the systems and reporting that support the work.
Start with a straightforward conversation about the organization, the opportunity, and where experienced leadership would make the difference.
Profile updated 24 August 2026.
John Alvarado