Ben Edwards

Towne Vacations, a Towne Family Company, and its local vacation rental companies have had the privilege of managing some of the vacation rental industry's most exceptional rental properties. Partnered with nearly three thousand (3,000) Owners throughout the United States, Towne Vacations is committed to exceeding Owner and Guest expectations, strong relationships and market leading returns for our Owner partners. Our local operating companies are an integral part of the community with the team at Towne serving as the foundation of our Buisness. Our employees are knowledgeable, passionate, and dedicated to maximizing Owner revenue while maintaining our rental properties to the highest standards. Our curated collection of vacation rental properties range from studios to twenty (20) bedroom estate homes. Rest assured, Towne Vacations has something for everyone. If you are interested in partnering with Towne Vacations in the management of your vacation rental property or upgrading your next vacation, contact Towne Vacations today.

Weatherby Consulting provides strategic advisory and asset management services with proven results in creating opportunities and solutions in the vacation rental, real estate and resort industries. Weatherby Consulting is the preeminent provider of consulting services in the vacation rental industry with more than 100 buy-and-sell transactions and more than $200 million in sales of Vacation Rental Companies. We deliver high-impact results, provide partner-level attention, and implement tailored solutions to address each of our client’s unique goals and objectives. Weatherby Consulting has worked with dozens of leading industry clients in more than 100 resort markets throughout North America. Weatherby Consulting leverages more than 19 years of industry and accounting knowledge to provide rapid, strategic advice to assist our clients with purchase-and-sell transaction services, dispute resolution, risk management, financial solvency and regulatory compliance issues. With an unwavering dedication to both short-term and long-term interests of your company, our services are designed to identify underlying issues, provide straightforward answers, and create solutions that will achieve maximum financial benefit and a competitive advantage for your organization. Our Services Include: • Transaction Advisory Services — This service line includes the purchase and sale of Vacation Rental Companies, our primary service line. • Vacation Rental Consulting — We provide consulting services to clients all over the nation. • Accounting Services — We provide expert level financial reporting to more than 30 companies across the U.S. • Partnership Opportunities — Weatherby Consulting is willing to partner with Vacation Rental Companies to more effectively manage certain business and substantially increase the value of the business.

In June of 2011, subsequent to Royal Shell acquiring the Southwest Florida assets of Waterstone Resorts & Vacation Homes, Ben joined Royal Shell Vacations as its Vice-President managing more than 1,800 properties. During his time with Royal Shell, Ben was involved in all aspects of the business, including, but not limited to the following areas: - Business Development, identified vacation rental and hotel acquisition targets, performed due diligence and facilitated the closing of North Carolina based, Cashiers Resort Rentals and Southwest Florida based Waterstone Real Estate - Operations, opened and managed recently acquired vacation rental management companies, developed various new, more efficient policies and procedures, revised rental management agreements in Florida and North Carolina and provided ligation support for numerous lawsuits - Accounting, managed certain post acquisition accounting projects, worked closely with accounting to create operational efficiency, manage company expenses and negotiate numerous, more lucrative contracts for the business - Boutique Resort Management, directly responsible for on-going management of two off-site resorts, operationally auditing and implementing findings associated with these resorts, which resulted in material increases in revenue - Advertising, directly managed contract internet advertising firm, initiated and finalized large scale distribution agreements, managed all pay per click advertising and optimized online advertising to significantly enhance revenue - Human Resources, responsible for candidate reviews, offers and initial training of employees - Technology & Software, served as a point of contact for the company’s reservation software system, managed new API feeds to distribution channels and website booking engines, managed the creation of four new websites with online booking capability and researched and performed due diligence on numerous software applications

Ben Edwards served as the President of Waterstone Resorts, founded in 2005 to manage resort developments along the gulf coast of Northwest and Southwest Florida. Waterstone managed 1,200 homes and condominiums in the state of Florida, supporting 100 plus employees between both regions. In addition to managing vacation rentals, Ben was also the President of Waterstone Association Management, managing more than 7 associations. While at Waterstone, Ben was directly responsible for the purchase or sale of more than 10 vacation rental businesses, ultimately selling the Northwest Florida operations to Sterling Resorts and the Southwest Florida operations to Royal Shell Vacations.

Prior to forming Waterstone, Ben worked for ResortQuest as General Manager of its Southwest Florida operations, where he managed over 2,400 units. While at ResortQuest, Ben traveled to more than 40 resort locations where he was involved with a variety of finance-related projects, including the management of centralized financial and payroll system implementations, internal and operational auditing, financial analyses of acquisition targets and post acquisition purchase price adjustment analyses of recently acquired companies.

Majored in Accounting, while a member of the University's varsity baseball team.