BGV Style Guide
Taglines & Purpose Statement
Taglines
BGV: Our Family Commitment: Always Grand Vacations! [colon then exclamation point]
• BGV Gives: For the Heart of Our Community
• GC8: Live Life Grand
• GC8: For a night, week or lifetime
• GL7: Life Here is Grand, Indeed.
• GTL: Bringing Families Together.
Purpose Statement
• External: The soul of Breckenridge Grand Vacations is creating smiles.
• Internal: The soul of BGV is creating smiles.
Capitalizations
-
Unit types: LOWERCASE for all (suite, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, residence, condominium, etc.)
- The only exceptions for uppercase are:
- GC8’s “Colorado” and “Breckenridge” residence types (e.g. four-bedroom Breckenridge residence)
- Unit names in titles/headers (e.g. Two-Bedroom Residence)
- The only exceptions for uppercase are:
-
Do NOT capitalize:
- “owner” – Owner is not capitalized in “She is a Grand Timber Lodge owner.” “The owner is at the pool.” It is capitalized if it refers to a specific type of ownership
- e.g., “Floating Week Owner,” “Fixed-Week Owner.”
- “department” when referring to a specific department
- e.g., Owner Relations department, Activities department, Engineering department
- floors
- e.g., first floor, third-floor carpet
- “staff” when referring to a certain department’s staff
- e.g., Activities staff
- “team” when used after a department
- e.g., Concierge team
- seasons – In general seasons are not capitalized
- e.g., This fall we will go hiking.
- However, when used in reference to a timeshare season we capitalize it, e.g., “He is a Winter Owner.”
- “high country”
- “owner” – Owner is not capitalized in “She is a Grand Timber Lodge owner.” “The owner is at the pool.” It is capitalized if it refers to a specific type of ownership
-
Capitalize:
- Job titles
- e.g., Activities Coordinator
- Internet is always capitalized. Also, “Web”, when referring to World Wide Web. Lowercase web when an adjective
- e.g., web address, web page
- “Desk”
- e.g., Concierge Desk, Activities Desk, Front Desk
- When referring to the Grand Lodge on Peak 7, but just saying “the Lodge,” “Lodge” is capitalized
- “Day Use” parking. Day Use is always capitalized
- Capitalize “building” in “South Building,” “North Building”
- Job titles
BGV Rules: Property / Amenity Names
-
Do not mention any BGV ownership as a “financial investment”. It can be referred to as an investment in vacations, happiness, health, etc., but not financially
- “Fractional ownership” instead of “timeshare”
- “Level 5” when describing where the Ownership Gallery is (not 5 th floor)
- How to use unit types at each property:
- ALWAYS refer to units at GC8/GL7/GTL with the phrase “residence.” Avoid using the word “unit”
- HYPHENATE
- one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom, four-bedroom
- GTL:
- studio residence, one-bedroom residence, two-bedroom residence, three-bedroom residence, four-bedroom residence
- GL7:
- suite residence, one-bedroom residence, two-bedroom residence, three-bedroom residence, four-bedroom residence
- GC8:
- suite residence, one-bedroom Breckenridge residence, one-bedroom Colorado residence, two-bedroom Breckenridge residence, two-bedroom Colorado residence, three-bedroom Breckenridge residence, three-bedroom Colorado residence, four-bedroom Breckenridge residence, four-bedroom Colorado residence
- Capitalize “Grand” when used in copy, even if it’s in the middle of a sentence
- Theaters, not Theatres
- Always add “the” in front of “Grand Colorado on Peak 8” and “Grand Lodge on Peak 7” (including at the beginning of a sentence). The only exception is to take out “the” when describing an owner/thing:
- e.g., “The Grand Lodge on Peak 7 has…” / “Your stay at the Grand Colorado on Peak 8…” / “He is a Grand Colorado on Peak 8 owner” / “They stayed in a Grand Lodge on Peak 7 suite residence”
- DO NOT put “the” in front of Grand Timber Lodge at any time
- Do NOT spell the word “8” out when referring to the Grand Colorado on Peak 8 (except when referring to the Peak Eight Market)
- Refresh Massage Studio does NOT have “the” in front (“The Refresh Massage Studio” is incorrect)
- Soothe Spa does not have “the” in front
- “The Soothe Spa” is incorrect
- Soothe Spa is never to be referred to as “Soothe Day Spa” or “ The Soothe Day Spa”
- At GC8: “The Lobby Bar”, “Peak Eight Market”, “grotto” ( not “The/the Grotto”), “Grand Entrance” (the porte-cochere valet area)
- At GL7: Grand Essentials sundry shop
- Owner Portal website: www.bgvgrandcentral.com not
http://owners.breckgv.com
Grammar Rules (BGV Style)
- “Ski-in/ski-out” for GTL (not “slopeside”) / “Slopeside” and “ski-in/ski-out” for GL7/GC8
- “couple’s massage” (with an apostrophe before the “s”)
- Child care ( not childcare)
- Canceled, canceling, cancellation (cancellation is the only form that has 2 L’s)
- When giving directions on phone selections, do not use double quotations around numbers – only use quotations around words when needed for clarity. However, in the VOICEMAIL example, because the word is set off in caps, it’s fine without quote marks because it’s clear what the reference is.
- Ex: Activities Coordinators – Please dial ext. 3622 or call 970-547-3635. If you need further assistance, please call the Front Desk at extension 0 and we will be happy to help you.
- Titles on the Table of Contents and on each individual page should be the same
- A comma typically precedes “where”
- The abbreviation for September is Sept; March, April, June and July are typically not
abbreviated - The ampersand (&) should not be used as a substitute for “and.” Unless space is an issue or if it’s in a title
- “and” typically follows “between”
- % SIGN:
- Use the % sign when paired with a numeral (10%). Exception: “4 percentage points”
- Amounts less than 1%, precede decimal with a zero (0.6%). Don’t use fractions in percentages – only decimals (e.g., 4.5%, NOT 41⁄2%)
- When NOT to use the “%”: casual speak (e.g. “He has zero percent chance of winning”), at the start of a sentence (e.g. “Eighty-nine percent of owners…)
- Use “percentage” rather than “percent” when not paired with a number (e.g. “The percentage of local owners is small.”)
- Activities: Dog sledding (2 words), fly fishing (2 words, unhyphenated), Snowshoeing, snowmobiling, ziplining (1 word)
- Hyphenate fly fishing if it’s an adj. (e.g: “He used a fly-fishing reel.”)
Numbers / Times / Dates
Numbers (writing numerals vs. spelling them out)
- First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth… (write out until “tenth” – use numerals thereafter)
- Spell out numbers ten and below. E.g. Take five towels up. This room has 12 plates
- Use numerals for amounts less than a dollar: 5 cents, 12 cents. Spell out the word cents (lowercase). Use the $ sign and decimal system for larger amounts: $1.01, $2.50
- Numerals are OK in charts and graphs
- Do not start a sentence with a numeral
- In Sales forms, use numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…) instead of writing them out. In this case numbers are used to stand out
Times
- Do not write out “o’clock” (use 11:00 instead of 11 o’clock)
- Use a.m. & p.m. (lowercase, with periods, spaced out from the numeral, e.g., 9 a.m.)
- Use numerals, except for noon and midnight
- Avoid such redundancies as 10 a.m. this morning, 10 p.m. tonight
- All times are Mountain Time with the abbreviation MT
Dates
- When writing dates, use cardinal numbers (i.e., avoid “rd,” “th,” and “st” with dates)
- Write May 3, or March 12, or May 21, not May 3rd, 12th, or 21st
Hyphens vs. One or Two Words
When a compound modifier–two or more words that express a single concept–precedes a noun, use hyphens to link all the words in the compound except the adverb very and all adverbs that end in -ly (E.g. a full-time job, a well-known man, a better-qualified woman, a know-it-all attitude, a very good time, an easily remembered rule)
- NO HYPHEN:
- email, website, login, sitemap, firsthand, slopeside – no hyphen, one word
- SuperChair – one word, Chair capitalized. Never Superchair or Super Chair
- BreckConnect Gondola– one word, Connect & Gondola capitalized. Never Breckconnect Gondola or Breck Connect Gondola.
- Common examples for hyphens:
- High-alpine (as a compound modifier: “They live in a high-alpine environment.”
- Hyphenate “fly fishing” ONLY if it’s an adj. (e.g: “He used a fly-fishing reel.”)
- Unit sizes: one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom, four-bedroom
- Check-in/out vs. check in/out:
- One word when used as a noun or adjective, e.g. “What is your check-in
time?” - Two words when used as a verb, e.g. “Can we check in for our reservation?”
- One word when used as a noun or adjective, e.g. “What is your check-in
- First floor vs. first-floor
- “He is on the first floor.” vs. “All first-floor units have been cleaned.”
- Login
- One word when used as a noun or adjective, e.g. “What is your login information?”
- Two words when used as a verb, e.g. “Can you log in to your account?”
- “This is a two-night stay.” vs “We stayed two nights.”
- Fully equipped kitchen (not fully-equipped kitchen)
- Non-smoking / non-emergencies
- Wi-Fi
- Flat-screen
- Toll-free
- Ski-in/ski-out (no spaces around / )
- Off-property activities
- On-site/off-site
- Hands-on
- Check-in or Check-out hyphen is used; however, do not use a hyphen when check out is a verb
- Fixed-week owners or fixed-week reservation (typically, this compound modifier would be hyphenated)
- Hyphens and periods are acceptable for phone numbers, as long as you are consistent throughout the entire document
- e.g., 877-453-4440 vs 877.453.4440. We do lean towards periods for ads because of the cleaner look.
- Basement-level, Ground-level (on map example: Basement-Level Garage Entrance)
