rwhaugan

I hope I am not violating any unwritten rules here in starting this thread, but I have searched the forum and have seen a few members who have mentioned that they are considering or have actually switched clubs. For the benefit of myself, and others who may search these threads at some later point, I thought I would start a thread that deals specifically with this topic (rather than requiring people to search endlessly through non-relevant threads).

If you are a member, or have been a member, of a DC and are considering leaving your club, could you post the reasons why? And if you have left your club, could you please post the reasons for your departure? (I am familiar with the mantra that most leave to personal reasons such as divorce, etc, but since clubs don't seem to share this information it seems more rumor than anything else). I would also be curious, for those that joined another club, to see whether joining a new club solved your problem, and if joining a new club introduced new or additional problems.

I understand that some may not want to post the name of the old club, but if you were willing to do so I think it would be helpful.

DC4MS

I have only heard of one person that actually switched from one DC to another and they are on this forum.

I also met a Tanner & Haley member that did not take the Ultimate Resort offer and decided to join Exclusive Resorts instead. He was extremely happy with his decision as he simply wanted to cut his loss with T&H and start fresh.

By far, the majority of reasons I have heard about people resigning from a DC are purely due to financial difficulties, not with dissatisfaction with the club itself. Life changing events that may come in the form of a divorce, death, or major downturn in their personal cash flow are the main culprits.

3DH

Admin, you beat me! (Looks as if I typed too much, when I went to post, I had to log in again! Word to the wise... copy your text before you submit it if it is long, hence you won't have to start cursing and begin typing all over after you log in! )

My husband and I joined a huge club (that shall remain nameless... ) in the summer of 2006, at their lowest (then) tier of membership. With that level, we were only allowed two advanced reservations with the remainder to be used within 45 days of travel. Given our travel patterns -- we prefer to get away in 4-5 day stints, rather than the traditional week-long vacations -- we found it difficult to find "desirable" places to use the remainder of our plan days. There were also problems with the concierge in one location... the fact that we only saw him when we checked in, and mysteriously, again when we left (apparently waiting for a tip which he didn't receive for obvoius reasons!).

Due to that, and the fact that this particular club chose to add a "convenience fee" to items billed to the house account (through the credit card on file) -- ie: concierge grocery shopping (yes, even the first trip), activities booked by the concierge, food/drinks from the resort, etc. -- we felt we were being nickeled and dimed for no reason. But, it was the taxes and fees surcharge we received in early 2007 that really set me on fire! The amount was so minute that it seemed to me that the club should have absorbed it, rather than charging the members such an insubstantial amount! (I believe it was a whopping 2% of our annual dues, but more the principle of the matter to me that we were being slapped with additional fees!) Yes, the club had the right to do this, under the agreement, but when we joined, I didn't realize how many "additional" fees they would collect in the long run...)

Anyway, after I got mad about these things, I began to search out other clubs that might be a better fit for our needs. I had narrowed my choices to LUSSO and Quintess, and began to speak with membership representatives with each. It wasn't long until I made the decision to go with LUSSO, and we joined in early 2007.

Their unlimited use meant I would never have to feel I "settled" with a vacation location simply to fill the remaining days of a plan. There is great debate among prospects saying that the club is too small, however, we saw the opportunity to join a budding club as a good thing, and the 550 member cap was outstanding, as we would never feel "lost" as we did in the other club. Having a vehicle onsite (at most properties -- US, with exception of HI and NY), and provided transportation to and from the residences is outstanding... a huge convenience! Also, the 100% return of our investment (actually + in our case, as we joined in the early stages), was a significant part of our decision... especially after losing 20% of our initial investment to the other club when we left!

Since our joining, numerous homes and locations (Naples, Copper Mountain, Aspen, 2 new homes at Abaco, Jackson Hole, Turks & Caicos, Anguilla, and Breckenridge and Costa Rica are in development!) have been added to the portfolio, and will continue to be... all of which are in prime locations, and exhibit the quality we have grown to love and expect.

We have been very happy with our decision to join LUSSO, and have never looked back! I do still have a sister that belongs to "the club that shall remain nameless", as it meets her needs. However, for us, LUSSO was the way to go!

Hope this helps, and answers your questions!

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

Kagehitokiri

besides 3DH, there is another poster who said they left T&H before the bankruptcy, and IIRC they joined PE.

and IIRC one poster said they were currently considering switching from their current "large club."

BTW does said club actually legally bind members from saying "i resigned from X club" after resigning?

also, there are similar testimonials on some of the club sites.

(i am not counting the "reviews" on halogen guides.)

3DH

Not that I know of, but I am not taking any chances! However, I feel that Everyone Reading my post can figure it out!

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

vineyarder

Very Clever!

__________________
*************
Living in a vacuum sucks!

Kagehitokiri

ive just found it odd, IIRC all the testimonials about switching, even the reviews on halogen guides, have all been vague when it comes to said club...

DC4MS

I need to add more time to the automatic timeout.

It is too late, but you could have clicked on the back arrow key and your text would have been found in your browser cache.

3DH

Most of the time, if I hit back, it is gone!

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

LTTravel

Switching DC's is a tricky problem. When you lose 20% of your deposit by quitting, you may think longer and harder. If you get back 100%, you may be more likely to quit.
3dh seems to have made a good decision, however, it is not uncommon for people to always think that the grass is always greener. Issues are usually home quality, price, availability and service. Price is the easiest to compare. Home quality is a little more difficult because the photos sometimes look better than the homes themselves and visa versa. Service is more subjective. I think availability is significantly influenced by expectations. If you have 40 destinations available but have your heart set on 2 or 3 that are very difficult to get, especially over a limited time period, you will be disappointed no matter what. Now, Quintess has added a second home in Tuscany. I am sure Quintess is a fantastic club from what I can see. But there are 450 members and only 8 weeks in July and August, the prime time for US members to visit Tuscany. If a Quintess member entering the lottery for the new Tuscany property gets it, they will be very happy, but I am sure there will be very many disappointed members. I think the same is for that other, very large DC. I think you will find that for the most part, their members are very happy, though I agree with 3dh that there are many issues, such as those she brought up.
I just think that you must look very closely at the other clubs before you decide to switch. You must remember that a DC is just that, not a collection of your own private homes. DC's used to advertise "anytime, anywhere". We see where that got one of them.
3dh made another good point. When you have unlimited use, if you don't get your first choice, you may say, heck, you'll get that next time. But if you are limited to only 15 days per year, you want to makes sure that you get one of your first few choices for those limited number of days.

rwhaugan

By far, the majority of reasons I have heard about people resigning from a DC are purely due to financial difficulties, not with dissatisfaction with the club itself. Life changing events that may come in the form of a divorce, death, or major downturn in their personal cash flow are the main culprits.[/quote]

I have heard that said in many different posts, and by a few clubs, but I can't figure out what the source is..on the one hand people say they don't know anyone who quit but then they use the above quote. How many people do you personally know who quit because of a personal difficulty? I would love to know since it helps me get a feel for the turnover of the clubs and the real reason for the turnover.

dooijp

the obvious answer to the where does the quote come from is that the DC's tell all current and prospective members that the waiting list consists SOLELY of people in "divorce" or with "financial difficulties" No DC will tell you "we had one guy quit because he thought our club totally sucked". anyone who does have financial difficulties is probably not going to hop on this forum either--what would he say? "my wife ran off with my best friend and i sure do miss him...and that DC we had together" or "i lost it all, my wife, my dog, even my schwinn bicycle, but i still post on destinationclubforums.com"

dooijp

All you can do is ask for turnover numbers and evaluate from there. I just joined a DC and despite massive misgivings about virtually every financial aspect of how these things work, at the end of the day what was compelling was customer satisfaction was so high. That said, one reason no one complains is that it is overwhelmingly against one's own self-interest to do so. most clubs live off of new member deposits and thus, any member dumb enough to trash his own club is a fool as you need new members to get new properties, protect cash flow of operating company, and to ensure you can get out some day. It may sound cynical to say it, but probably the best DC members you could ever hope to chat with would be ex-members as they have no financial interest--ideally a divorced one as the dirt poor are bitter as obama says...

TarheelTraveler

dooijp - Congrats! Which one did you end up joining?

I think that's true to some extent, but you definitely see very low levels of satisfaction in timeshares, PRCs, and some country clubs despite there being financial incentives to not complain so to speak. That being said, DCs really are life changers for the better. I think that you'll be pleased.

dooijp

i joined quintess. while i still worry A LOT about cash flows, real estate risk, and refinancing risk, I like even less buying a second home for myself. I took comfort from the fact that they received that $200 million equity injection from the mysterious undisclosed investor--that buys them time to turn cash flow positive at the operating company. It sounds trivial, but the 1 year 100% refund is a big selling point too. How do you ever quit ER when they keep 25% of your deposit+40-100K in fees for holidays that are non-refundable? Losing 100-150K is a big incentive to stick around. While I think the economy will be heavily stressed, over the next year, at least we'll get a great look at how DC's fare in a recession. Also, that West Caicos location they announced at the Ritz looks like it might well become the nicest set of homes i've seen at any of the DC's.