TarheelTraveler

Perpetual memberships are a good thing in my book. I think it would be great to leave our A&K membership to our descendants (assuming it's not for many years ). However, I agree with ASIADCMEMBER that there should also be an out. You might have a change in financial or personal circumstances or travel patterns that warrants a resignation.

Are most of the DC memberships perpetual or do they have a stated number of years or lifetimes?

3DH

I don't know about others, but ER was not "perpetual", but rather offered a discount to heirs after the original membership was credited at the refund rate stated in membership contract.

LUSSO does offer true perpetual membership, as well as the ability to transfer membership (during your lifetime) to a family member without any fees.

__________________
"Boutique" is better! Another extremely satisfied LUSSO member!

Quintess Michael

Quintess is a perpetual membership, and can be willed to survivors or children.
It is also 100% refundable for the first year, and effectively after the 5th year.
Our member agreement provides up to 100% refund based on 80% of the deposit value of an equal membership at the date of club resignation.

for example:
Q25 membership for unlimited use (including space shuttle) $10MM (2008)
Q25 membership for unlimited use (including space shuttle) $13MM (2013)

$13MM x 80% = $10,400,000
Initial deposit in 2008 = $10,000,000 (Refunded 100%)

__________________
Michael Aumock
Director, Membership Development
Quintess, The Leading Residences of the World

TarheelTraveler

To answer my own question with respect to my club, A&K is also a perpetual membership that can be left to descendants.

How about HCC or UE?

Kagehitokiri

i would personally, and i dont even consider myself a "true" flyertalker.

southeast asia has great (the best?) values, but i dont know as much about some of the ownership issues, or whether developers would be DC friendly... itd be great to see or hear about DCs actively looking. heck, any property that allows nightly private rentals should be fine for at least a least a lease shouldnt it? i guess too many people consider it too far.

ASIADCMEMBER

LTT:

Since you are the only one with 3 memberships==if you had to do it all over again. How would you re-allocate your resources--and do you think 3 clubs
two to use and one to give away still works for you.

If you could get back 100% on your ER and 100% on your DHH Lite and 100% on your HCC would you do anything different than you have.

LTTravel

I think each of the memberships provides a different purpose. The ER membership provides great variety and choice and $3 million homes. Service, amenities and homes have been great. The only thing I don't like is that they can nickle and dime you as 3dh has said. It is not bad enough for me to leave, because I think that I am still getting a good deal. The price I paid and am paying for dues are a bargain and I can deal with the little annoyances but it annoyed 3dh enough. I have met new members who are absolutely thrilled with their membership as well. My son loves it so much that he wants to work for ER.
I wanted the ability to give away some vacations to friends and family or even be able to have two homes in the same destination at one time. This is not available through ER (except at maybe the Ultra level) and if it were, I thought it would be too expensive for me, but maybe not for others? "Corporate Plans" are available in some of the other upper tier clubs but I felt that again, it was a little too much for me to give that much away to friends and family. I first thought I would join the corporate plan with a few friends but though I found that there were a few people who wanted to go in on it, everyone wanted the one advanced holiday week so it would be impossible to make them happy and decided to join alone. HCC has quite a variety of properties and some of them are as nice as some of the ER homes while some are less desireable I felt that even if I got one week out of six in one of their nicer properties, especially over a holiday, it was worthwhile. For example, I have the LaCosta property for one week this summer which would cost me over $7000 for the week if I would pay for it directly and a holiday week at another good property which would be even more. Just those two weeks more than make up for the yearly dues. So I do occasionally save one or two of the weeks for myself.
I only have one week at DHH. I felt that it offered something that the others did not. The ability to get only one week, the food credit, the vehicle at the location, the yachts, at a very low price point and the ability to get only one week if you want and a much more international selection. I think that this is an excellent opportunity for someone to complement another DC membership, especially one like HCC. Who can't use up one more week in one of their properties?
As for the other DC's, the only other ones I would consider are Lusso, Quintess and UE. I think that Lusso has done very well with expansion, I love their homes and policies. Quintess also has great homes and would definitely consider joining them also. UE seems to be very aggressive and doing well, now that the merger is complete.
So the answer is, no, I would not do anything different. However, I must qulify the answer by pointing out that since I joined early:
My ER membership fee and dues are significantly less than they are now.
My HCC membership is an "equity" membership and is worth more now that when I joined.
DHH allows you to "sell" your membership and I could get more for it now that what it cost me.
So early adoption has added risks but potentially greater benefits. But who knows what the future holds? All I know is that I vacation in a 3, 4 or 5 bedroom home for less than what my friends pay for a single hotel room (at least for now) and my friends and employees have loved the trips I have sent them on.

Quintess Michael

Well said and very imformative! Thanks for taking the time to write that.

__________________
Michael Aumock
Director, Membership Development
Quintess, The Leading Residences of the World