14 Aug 2023
Words John Miller The Onsite Manager

RESORTBROKERS TEAM HONOURED BY ARAMA TOP AWARDS WINS

ResortBrokers’ Founder and Chairman Ian Crooks was awarded ARAMA’s highest honour of Life Member at the 2023 ARAMA TOP Awards Presentation & Dinner, the management rights industry body’s annual awards ceremony, held on 25 July.

ARAMA is the peak industry membership body for management and letting rights in Australia. Induction as an ARAMA Life Member is regarded as the body’s highest level of recognition. It is awarded to individuals who have a lengthy and distinguished period of dedicated service, and outstanding overall contribution to ARAMA and its members.

Since its incorporation in 1992, ARAMA has honoured 17 industry figures with Life Membership. Mr Crooks is now the 18th, with his induction taking place at the 2023 awards ceremony hosted at the Royal International Convention Centre in the Brisbane Showgrounds.

Prominent management rights lawyer and Director of law firm Small Myers Hughes, Col Myers, who was inducted as an ARAMA Life Member at last year’s ceremony, presented Mr Crooks with this year’s award.

“It is my great pleasure to induct Ian Crooks as the newest Life Member of ARAMA,” said Mr. Myers. “As you would be aware, Ian is the Founder and Chairman of ResortBrokers. From humble beginnings as a one-man band operating from a home office and driving about 2,000 km a week around Queensland and NSW, Ian has built a management rights and motel business which today operates in all states and territories in Australia. ResortBrokers now has a specialist team of over 30 accommodation property brokers and is widely regarded as an industry leader. To Ian’s great credit, ResortBrokers has evolved into a family business with a second generation — his children, Trudy, Carla and Tim, and son-in-law Alex — now driving the business’s growth as directors of the company which is nearing almost four successful decades of operation.”

“In the management rights space, Ian has played a massive part in the ongoing success of the industry around Australia and thoroughly deserves this ARAMA life membership in recognition of the part he has played.”

In accepting this honour, Mr Crooks said, “The management rights sector supports businesses large and small and is one of the key pillars of our tourism industry. I admire what ARAMA has done to protect the industry and I’m delighted to have done my part and to have been inducted into this wonderful group as a Life Member.”

This year’s ARAMA ceremony held a double honour for ResortBrokers. Director Alex Cook, Ian’s son-in-law, won the ARAMA Sales Broker of the Year Award. The award is another notable milestone in a highly successful 12-year career which has seen Alex become one of the most experienced and well-respected management rights brokers in the country. This was Alex’s second win, having taken out the prize in 2019 when the ARAMA Broker of the Year award was inaugurated. Another ResortBrokers’ accolade came by way of Brisbane Broker Jeff Keast’s finalist placing for the Sales Broker of the Year Award for a second year in a row.