Desties

Okay, so the exact details over the Private Escapes integration into Ultimate Escapes will be spelled out over the next two weeks. Even though it's been widely expected that most of the original PE perks will be grandfathered into the new club for original PE members, it may be too much to expect that ALL of the PE benefits will be ported over.

Just curious as to how other PE members would rank the importance of keeping some of the PE perks that aren't part of the current UE -- or even UR -- literature.

1. Advanced Reservations. UE has up to 4 advance reservations open at a time, versus any 28 nights on the book for PE. There is also room for 1-2 advance holiday reservations in UE (whereas it's unlimited for PE, within the 28 nights, with the exception of the Christmas and New Year's week).

2. Reciprocity. PE has up to 7 days of reciprocity. Members pay more (to go up) or less (to go down) for those 7 days, and it's limited to 9 days overall for any specific property during a quarter.

3. Minimum night stay. It is 2 at UE vs. just 1 for PE.

4. # of days. UE has a flat number of allocated days at a set flat annual fee. PE has a much lower annual fee, with members paying per night for an unlimited number of days.

5. Check-in perks. I don't know what UE offers, but I doubt it's the same PE list of complimentary grocery items before considering your personal shopping list (2 bottles of wine, 6 cans of soda, 6 pack of Gatorade/Powerade, frozen pizza, microwave popcorn 3-pack, etc.) at all but the resort hotel properties (like Trump NYC and Trump Miami).

6. Holiday lottery. PE makes all of the holidays available save for Christmas and NYE, whenever. Those two weeks are doled out in a lottery system early in the actual year. UE doesn't allow reservations outside of the next two years, but does have its Christmas, NYE reservations available earlier than PE (but includes other holidays like President's Day and 4th of July and Thanksgiving as the limited # of adv. reservations available to book).

I'm probably forgetting a few other differences, but these are the ones that were probably more than likely points of contention. The new UE site DOES indicate reciprocity, but without details, so that appears to be one of the "best of breed" improvements at Ultimate based on what worked well for PE.

Desties

Since I started the thread, I'll go ahead and rank the list as for my personal priority.

1. Advanced Reservations. I'm not a fan of the UE rigid # for adv. reservations. And if I'm reading it correctly, about adv. reservations being up to 7 days as long as they start or begin on a Saturday, this would be toughest one to swallow.

It's not the 7 day max, since all of my stays in the past are in the 2-5 night range. I just hate the Saturday start/end dates. I thought it was only HCC that had rigid start/end dates. I can't imagine anyone having a great Outer Banks vacation if it starts/ends with having to deal with the hellish gridlock that take place in the OBX on Saturdays. Weekend getaways should start on Fridays and end on Sundays or Mondays, not start or end on a Saturday.

It's easy to criticize PE's 28 night system, but availability has always been pretty good with everyone playing by the same rules and getting what they want out of the system (planning ahead at the expense of fewer near-term stays for those who want specific holidays, or going hog wild with the near-term availability at the expense of long-term non-Christmas holidays).

2. # of days. I don't think I may ever consume more nights than the average PE member, but having that aura of unlimited nights made it an easier decision vs. other clubs in working the potential per night math. I always felt it was a source of recession-proof strength for PE over other clubs with higher fixed annual payments, since a member can simply scale back the variable nights to get through the economic lull.

I don't know if this perk risks being axed. As it stands, the most nights offered in a fixed plan is 42, and it's actually less than $20,000 more in initial deposit than the old PE plan (whereas it was noted that all plans would be bumped up at least $20k once the merger was completed on the UR site).

3. Reciprocity. This is a HUGE benefit of PE, and the best selling point to keep Premiere members from bolting given the lack of attention to the club (no new properties in the merger, apparently, and very few recent new property additions). It seems to be making it as a club-wide perk, though I'll reserve judgment until I see the actual terms.

4. Holiday Lottery. I never gave this much thought in PE, though I am concerned that all of the UR homes have already apparently been booked for Christmas and NYE in 2009, unlike PE which is just up to 2008. I don't know how this will work. Will ONLY PE members have access to the PE homes for the 2009 holidays before everything gets evened up in 2010, or is this one of the sacrifices from the PE side to seal the deal?

5. Check-in perks. This really isn't all that material to me, but it's always welcome to see along with the usual surprise or two that the local host has up his or her sleeve. Heck, I don't know if UE uses the same Logitech remote as PE property-wide, or if it's a PS2/PS3 mindset vs. Xbox/360. I've left too many of those frozen pizzas behind to fret too much over this, but it really gets the trip off on the right disarming note.

6. Minimum night stay. As long as it goes from 1 to 2, I don't mind giving this one up. I never saw the logic in offering a single night, since it probably costs as much in cleaning and restocking the new property. However, I'd hate to see the minimum nights grow from more than 2, especially for the metropolitan properties. This isn't a priority, as long as it's not "2 nights that must start or end on a Saturday" as the adv. reservation explanation appears to read like in the new site.

LTTravel

It's not just HCC but nearly all DC's that have a night restriction. ER is Sunday to Sunday, DHH is Sunday to Sunday, I think Lusso is either Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday. I believe Quintess also has a restriction. This is however only for advanced reservations. For space available reservations I believe that for most clubs there is no day of the week to day of the week restrictions. So the flexibility in PE was a luxury only PE members had. If it worked well, then it was great, but I can see how this can break up weeks and make it more difficult for members to make vacations. If a member chooses a Friday to Monday in advance, that blocks two potential full week reservations. I can see that potentially making it very difficult to make week long reservations.

Kagehitokiri

TarheelTraveler

It would be nice if the Sherpa Report gave some additional information on the differences between advanced and short notice reservations. This could be an interesting separate thread.

With A&K, there is a 3 day minimum for advanced reservations, with no particular days. I've enjoyed the flexibility and haven't seen any downside. It seems like the short-notice reservations fill out the leftover days from the advanced reservations for the more popular locations.

Kagehitokiri

there is also this thread on TUG >
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54284

LTTravel

The report referred to by Kage in Sherpareport states only the minimum nights for vacation but doesn't mention the weekly restrictions. For example, with ER, if you book an advanced reservation more than 90 days in advance, you can book as little as one day or as many as you want. However, you need to use one advanced reservation token for every Sunday to Sunday period. For example, if you book only two nights from Friday to Sunday, you use only one advanced reservation token for a two day reservation. Sort of a waste because you will now have more days that you will need to book as space available. You can also book three nights from Friday to Monday, but then for three nights, you use up two advanced reservation tokens for only three nights. A true waste of your limited number of advanced reservation tokens. For the 25 day plan you get three advanced reservation tokens per year and for the 45 day plan you get 4 advanced reservation tokens per year. The booking system is similar for DHH only that you get one advanced reservation token for every 7 days that you have in your plan and it takes two advanced reservation tokens to book a holiday. I am pretty sure that Quintess has some sort of restrictions and 3DH can comment on the restrictions placed by Lusso. I think Lusso's is similar to PE but with a few more restrictions.

willmyclubmakeit

the saturday/sunday first night stay for UR has been used more for full week stays especially around the holidays than long weekends. I have had NO trouble booking long weekends no matter what day they start on and expect that to continue unless the occupancy levels get too high where the nights need to be shoehorned but with both clubs below 60% occupancy levels I doubt that will be a problem for a few years at least.

3DH

LUSSO has no restrictions, barring holiday weeks. Outside of those, you are free to book any start/stop day.


Here is a link to a thread (see post #32) where I summarized LUSSO's reservation policies. (Rather than take up more space to type something similar. )

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Quintess Michael

Quintess has no restrictions on when you can travel as far as check in or check out days, The only guidelines we ask our members to follow is 3 days minimum stay for leisure destinations. City Destinations are available for as little as one night at a time.

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Quintess, The Leading Residences of the World

Desties

Well, it looks as if the number of days will remain unlimited for PE legacy members. If you check DC4MS e-mail offer from the club, they are offering that up until June 6 for prospective members.

The Halogen Guides article this morning also mentions that each club will be run on separate systems, with members from either club able to "upgrade" to the current UE offering at any time.

The one puzzler is Ultimate's "Collection" of the 130 boutique hotels where plan nights can be swapped for existing nights. I would be shocked if this is allowed for PE legacy members at the current nightly rate, though I obviously wouldn't mind it.

Then again, not everything on that list is such a deal. I checked one of the hotels -- the new Mona Lisa suite hotel in Celebration, Florida. Florida and AAA members can get the nicest 2-bedroom deluxe suites for just $180 a night. I can't imagine anyone paying $500-$1,000 a night average under UE's pricing plans swapping a night out for that.

This has me thinking that any changes that will be announced over the next two weeks from Rich on the PE side won't be bombshells.

Note to those sitting on the fence: Pile on the due diligence at this point, because the PE legacy thing that expires on June 6 really may be as good as advertised.

Kagehitokiri

speaking of UE's alternative options
IIRC LTTravel said the size/value of suite depends on your membership tier.

vineyarder

Yes - UR Elite gets a suite, UR 'regular' just gets a premium room...

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vineyarder

That would have been a real shocker if that changed, as internal emails have been very explicit that was one aspect that would not change...

My understanding is that the hotel option will only be available to UR legacy and new UE members, nots PE legacy members with unlimited usage...

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willmyclubmakeit

Expect incentives for not migrating to the new UE plan. There has to be a cost to retaining the unlimited night status.

vineyarder

Don't you mean 'expect incentives TO migrate to the new UE plan'?

I agree that I would expect that they would offer some sort of 'sweet deal' to incentivize legacy PE members with unlimited usage to switch to the new UE plans... Especially since 'extra nights' above your 'pre-paid' plan nights will cost UE members $1000 @ the signature level (per the public UE website)...

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