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11-16-2007, 12:30 PM
| #1 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 28
|  How's Availability for Quintess? I'm currently a member of a destination club that is having major availability issues due to rapid expansion. It seems most members have kids and therefore all the school breaks are extremely difficult to reserve. Quintess looks like a nice club - can someone comment on availability, especially during summer and holidays? Is there a limit on how many holidays can be booked per year? How far in advance would you need to book a holiday like Christmas? Also, how can Quintess maintain it's business model? The homes seem much larger and well located than some of the competitors but the membership fees are lower than those same clubs. |
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11-16-2007, 01:15 PM
| #2 |
| Administrator  Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: USA
Posts: 1,698
Club: DC4MS.com | Re: How's Availability? We are in the process of getting a few confirmed Quinetss members to join this forum and we will have them post answers to your questions. That is one the goals of this forum - to provide direct communication between members of the various destination clubs. I have not heard any negative comments about Quintess in regards to booking weeks. But with any club, I recommend making a "hot" reservation (like Christmas) as soon as the club rules allow (i.e. 365 days in advance). I have reviewed some of the Quintess financials and they are a very solid club with excellent transparancy and financials. They have a very smart team buying properties and managing the club. Quintess is currently the #3 club (in terms of members) and has on of the best collections of locations in terms of diversity. |
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11-16-2007, 03:45 PM
| #3 | |
| Super Moderator  Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 445
Club: UE Signature, HCC, Freedom Yacht Club | Re: How's Availability? Quote:
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11-16-2007, 05:17 PM
| #4 | |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,620
| Re: How's Availability? welcome to the forum  they finally have pricing for holiday plans online. added VERY recently. Quintess, LRW - Membership Plans aha, helium article on it > Quintess Unveils New Membership Plans | Helium Report - Luxury 2.0 Guides and Reviews hmm, id hope they still have affiliate holiday plan for $225/$15K 14 and 15 Night Membership Plans at Destination Clubs - SherpaReport that link also has info on their reservation policies also relevant > Quintess Annual Audit and Member Deposit Liability Coverage - SherpaReport From Clubs to Condos, Choosing the Right Vacation Home | Departures name - John Smith card number - 371909 Quote:
Quintess Announces Top Destinations | Helium Report - Luxury 2.0 Guides and Reviews capital Quintess Announces $125 Million Financing Fund for New Homes | Helium Report - Luxury 2.0 Guides and Reviews "break-even" reached Quintess CEO Updates Members | Helium Report - Luxury 2.0 Guides and Reviews speaking of everyone having kids, you might consider a club that has limits based on geographic region and whether the member has school-age children. IIRC there are 2-3 clubs that do so in addition to lusso. Last edited by Kagehitokiri; 11-16-2007 at 05:44 PM. | |
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11-16-2007, 08:22 PM
| #5 | |
| Super Moderator  Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,020
Club: ER, HCC Corporate, DHH Lite, Bud Lite (A few too many) | Re: How's Availability? Quote:
 The only club with an interesting approach is Distinctive Holiday Homes. Being an international club, different countries do not share the same holidays. For example, Bastille day is a holiday in Paris but 4th of July is not, and booking the 4th of July(or President's week) in Paris (or Fiji, Auckland or the other European or Western locations) is not considered a holiday reservation. But for some reason, the US destinations have Columbus Day and Halloween a holiday. If you go to their web site you will see that each destination has a different holiday schedule.  Also, Lusso claims that they will limit the number of members with school age children. They also seem to have more members from middle america. Different parts of the country have different spring breaks and do not have a week off for President's week. Though they have an unlimited use policy, their availability appears good. I cannot comment on Quintess specifically but their policy has been that 1/2 the reservation days can be made 180-365 days and the other half 0-180 days in advance. Therefore you must be careful assessing availabilty using their website. Only half of their days can be booked in advance and only up to one year. So even if they have a projected 70% utilization, if everyone booked every available day they had in their plan in the 180-365 day period, only 35% (half of the projected 70%) can be booked in the 180-365 period making it seem like there is 65% availability in the 180-365 day period. I know that is confusing so I hope I made myself clear.  So when you compare their availability to say ER, you must realize that 62% - 93% of ER members days can be booked up to 2 years in advance, depending on the plan. So if availability on ER seems poor, it is because more members have booked all their advanced reservations, which are not restricted like Quintess is. So be careful when you look at availability data. 2. The new plans offer more holiday reservations for the higher levels. So you can book between 1 and 5 holidays from 6 to 13 months in advance. Within 180 days, if the holiday is available, it is unlimited. 3. I don't know if they have since changed their policy, but they initially need to book 11 months in advance but I remember getting a memo that said that they were being booked 13 months in advance This is what I know from the information that I have received. Hopefully a member can confirm this. Otherwise most of the homes in Quintess (except for the ones they got from LRW) are excellent and they appear to have excellent service and I have considered them, even when they were Dream Catchers, and I still consider them one of the top choices and they are number 3 for a reason. But if you are with ER now (since you state that they are growing rapidly, I am assuming that is the club you are a member of) the grass isn't always greener. With ER it is difficult to book a holiday or school break on shorter notice but is easy two years in advance and possible with new releases. And ER allows you to book more reservations up to two years in advance than any other DC. | |
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11-16-2007, 09:03 PM
| #6 | |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,620
| Re: How's Availability? good info LTTravel. from one of the sherpa links i posted above > Quote:
- beachfront on amelia island - amangani - 5 upcoming 3BRs in NYC theyve also got that enclave coming up in cabo. speaking of international DCs, there is 1 canadian one - m private residences*, and 2 european ones - oyster circle and hideaways club*. then DHH is like NZ/AU? current exchange rate isnt fun for most of those though. DHH is the only one pegged to USD. * = equity DHH isnt equity, but has what basically works out to be a model for resale. the CEO nick talked about it on tugbbs.com Quintess Membership Plans - 11/16/07 discussion here also relevant, definitely weird.. Last edited by Kagehitokiri; 11-16-2007 at 09:39 PM. | |
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11-16-2007, 09:35 PM
| #7 | |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,020
Club: ER, HCC Corporate, DHH Lite, Bud Lite (A few too many) | Re: How's Availability? Quote:
They do have great homes in the following locations: Jackson Hole (Amangani- I agree, excellent) Napa Maui Hawaii Cabo(most, not all of them are in the top tier) Aspen Deer Valley Tuscany The following homes are very good Beaver Creek South Beach Canoaun St. Thomas Florence Kiawah Telluride New York (If you like Times Square) The following are good Amelia Naples Turks London Paris Lake Tahoe The follwing are ? Bend Oregon (probably nice but why two homes in Bend?) Palisades Creek Scotland Horseshoe Falls Santa Fe Steamboat Springs (Though the two new ones are nice) I don't know about the home in Dominican They got rid of their home in Costa Rica which did not appear very nice and they also got rid of their home in I think it was Reynold's Plantation, both of which were underutilized, a good move for them. They are also getting rid of their older homes in Steamboat Springs. But overall, a nice collection. I think Lusso is getting there, especially with their new acquisitions, and with potential appreciation, airport transfers and vehicle on location, is their toughest competition. | |
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11-16-2007, 09:37 PM
| #8 | ||||
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,620
| Re: How's Availability? some other official info direct from quintess Quote:
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11-16-2007, 09:43 PM
| #9 |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,020
Club: ER, HCC Corporate, DHH Lite, Bud Lite (A few too many) | Are these real prices? Is there a typo here somewhere? The memo from Quintess on Sept 21 says that the 30 day membership plan will increase to $410,000. The new price schedule has the 50 day plan at $410,000 and the 30 day plan at $325,000. I'm wondering if there is a typo in the new price schedule or have they really rolled back their prices? I will try to contact them. |
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11-16-2007, 09:47 PM
| #10 |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,620
| Re: How's Availability? it certainly doesnt seem to be a misunderstanding between "holiday" and "non-holiday" although wait, didnt helium say they had 12 plans? holiday and non holiday would only account for 8... but probably better to keep that discussion in this thread > Quintess Membership Plans - 11/16/07 i posted the above stuff here, because it had all the info on reservations and holiday lottery etc. |
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11-16-2007, 09:51 PM
| #11 | |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,020
Club: ER, HCC Corporate, DHH Lite, Bud Lite (A few too many) | Re: How's Availability? Quote:
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11-16-2007, 09:56 PM
| #12 |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,620
| Re: How's Availability? ok affiliate would make 10. huh.. too bad sherpa didnt report this instead of helium  i think itd be much clearer.to a certain degree its moot anyway, because the change took place today, so there is no option other than to go with the current plans. although, it might mean substantive changes in usage/availability/etc, as LTTravel kind of brought up... ouch. ive never understood why clubs dont have press releases that discuss this type of thing.. Last edited by Kagehitokiri; 11-17-2007 at 01:30 AM. |
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11-26-2007, 05:08 PM
| #13 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: South Florida
Posts: 3
Club: Quintess | Re: How's Availability for Quintess? I have been a member of Quintess almost since the beginning. Much to my surprise, availability has not been much of an issue. As a general rule, you can book a vacation 6 months in advance. If you are a planner (and I am) if you book on the first day of availability most of the houses are available. There are exceptions. First, holidays are allocated (if you have a holiday membership) and they rotate. If you "have" a holiday, you can make your reservation up to one year in advance. Once it is 6 months out, everything is open first come, first serve. Also, you can trade in a holiday (usually a secondary holiday like MLK birthday) and make a reservation during a non-holiday period a year in advance. I did this in July. I traded in MLK 2008 for the second week in July at the villa in Florence Italy. There are certain properties that are hard to get (the 26 acre villa in Tuscany for example). However, I have been able to get prime ski weeks during Christmas and Spring break each of the past 2 years. We have gone to Aspen and Tahoe and this year we are going to Steamboat at the end of February. I must say the joining Quintess was the best thing I have ever done for my family and our vacations. It has completely changed the way we vacation. We spend more time doing "nothing" except hanging out together. We don't over schedule the trips because we like to just hang at the house. We cook in more than half of the nights and cooking becomes a family activity. (BTW, the kitchens are amazing). On the business model issue, they are fairly open with the members about the financial information and they have been obtaining a quarterly certification from outside accountants that ensures that the equity in the residences far exceeds the deposits. A key reason the economics works is that Quintess does not advertise. It is a referral based club. Too many clubs spend far too much on fancy brochures and ads. Quintess puts the $$ into the houses (and they are amazing) I hope this helps. |
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11-27-2007, 03:10 AM
| #14 |
| Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,620
| Re: How's Availability for Quintess? welcome to the forum, thanks for the info how does your holiday use compare to the new plans? what do you think about the new plans? apparently they still have the non holiday plans, and probably associate plans as well. (total of 10 plans) also, i have seen a few print and online ads. more than solstice i would say. |
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