caribbeansun

I've reviewed a number of the DC's from the perspective of a corporate plan but I have to say I struggling to find one that actually makes any sense. You have a variety of people that would use the plan but so many clubs really restrict the usage, not many advanced reservations, the premium on the annual fee, etc.

Any thoughts of where the "Best" plan might be? I know "best" is relative but the key components are reservation days, cost, viability of the club itself, cost of properties in the $1M-$1.5M would be fine. HCC had a plan that made sense but we weren't in a position to pull the trigger and now they've done away with it.

Jazz1353

As you may know I work for One Key. One Key does allow for corporate plans without restrictions. Our structure is different than most DC we are a travel card company therefore you allowed unlimited advance reservations.

LTTravel

HCC still basically has a corporate plan, but they call it the friends and family plan and it is the best one available. For only 10% more per year in yearly dues, you can send any friends or family (Or corportate friends) to any of the destinations. The good thing about this is that it is available at any level and there is no longer a premium in membership fee (used to be $10,000 more)

DHH also has multiple corporate plans at each level. But this more expensive.

<I am not changing it because then I would deny I made the mistake, the correct premium as DC4MS points out is 20% more per year in yearly dues>

DC4MS

HCC actually has a 20% premium for annual dues for their "corporate rate"

"High Country Club is pleased to announce that it has waived the $10,000 Family and Friends upgrade fee for all membership types. Family and friends can accompany the member or member's spouse to Club residences at any time. Now, Members can upgrade their membership to allow unaccompanied guests to use the Club residences for a 20 percent increase in annual dues."

LTTravel

I don't know if that was a typo, my vision, or Alzheimer's kicking in.

Quintess Michael

Quintess offers 3 solutions to your problem, but unfortunatley we don't have any homes in the $1m to 1.5m range, so our properties will be considerably nicer.

We have up to 8 additional designees, and usage ranging from 45 days to 75 days with membership deposits ranging from $395K to $850K.
If you need any more info, just ask

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

Kagehitokiri

these allow anyone to use your plan nights >

- Solstice
- ER Ultra
- Hideaways Club
- Equity Estates

what did HCC do away with? there are no competitors to HCC right now...

TravelGuy

I believe I understand that HCC changed their Corporate membership so that you can make any level membership a Corporate (a.k.a. "shared use") membership. The change also reduced the cost of the Corporate membership relative to the other membership costs. Maybe someone will correct me if I'm wrong on this?

caribbeansun

HCC had a corporate plan that included 42 nights and was something like $50,000 and no premium on the annual dues.

LTTravel

compared to the private (full) membership, the corporate plan had 42 instead of 45 days and no ability to have extra days. And there was
(and still is) a premium on annual dues compared to the private (full) membership. It is 20%.

rwhaugan

Michael

Do the 8 designees have to be related, or can they be friends? And how often can you (if you can) change the designees?

BTW, I have been shopping for a DC and Michael was kind enough to spend over an hour with me on the phone explaining the ins and outs of Quintess- Thanks Michael! Absolutely no sales pressure either.

Kagehitokiri

clubs are usually very clear on limitations of nonmember usage, when its allowed. (whether spouse, immediate family, extended family, employees, clients, friends, etc)

http://quintess.com/membership/m320

Quintess Michael

Thanks for the kind words, RWH!

The thing with Quintess is that there are two corporate and one "unlimited" plan (our Q7) that could work for a corporation.

Typically corporate plans are shared by two or three partners in a company.

The corporate plans offer either 45 or 60 nights and you can designate as many as 5 people to have access. They can be employees or relatives or niether. The Deposits on these plans are $475K and $695K.

The best overall plan is the Q7. We advertise it as a family plan making up to 8 extended family designees, but we have the ability to be (and frequently are) flexible on this policy, as long as it doesn't effect overall availability.
the only caveat is that the unlimited gratis access to homes after you use your 75 days requires the Primary member to be present.

The Deposit for a Q7 is $850K, and like all Quintess memberships, it is 100% refundable for the first year.

Rob V

Hi All,
Equity Estates, in effect, extends to all participants the benefits of "corporate membership" with no premium or additional cost. All owner members (members are in fact owners since they own a true equity stake in the portfolio) may send unaccompanied guests aged 25 and older to any property without restriction. It would be my pleasure to explain either by phone or email should you require additonal details.

Rob Vaka
Vice President, Investor Relations
Equity Estates

caribbeansun

Hi Rob - if you web site was more non-American friendly I would have requested some information from you.

Canada doesn't have states and thus can't be selected from your drop down list which effectively blocks anyone not an American from entering or requesting information from your company since your form builder requires data in every field. Same with the zip code field.

Clicking on the link to the definition of an accredited investor brings up a error message saying you're requesting information from a secure site but you're still supposed to answer the question.

pwrshift

Good point ... most economists consider Canada's potential about the same as California based on population. So if a DC isn't getting 10% of their market in Canada, they need to promote their business up there. And with a 55% or so increase the Cdn dollar vs US over the last year, Canadians are buying up America like never before.

Re: Corporate plans. HCC is going in the right direction on this, I think, but IIRC the fee increase is for the whole annual dues, not just the portion of time that might be given to 'guests'. I think a fairer solution would be a 20% increase for the nights your guests would use the facility and not also penalize the member for the nights he uses himself.

Chances are, the more 'guests' experiencing a DC the better chance they'd want to join themselves ... timeshares have used this idea for years (stay and tour and consider buying) and it works. Really works -- and sells $50,000+ Marriott weeks daily. And in some DC's there already nice 'referral fees' something Marriott Rewards has used for years with great success selling timeshares. There are 'tour' fees that Marriott uses, quite reasonable, for 3 night stays at the resort ... they are so much easier to sell than from pictures.

Bourne

Another idea would be to implement Quintess style family/friends plan. You can designate upto 'X' number of family/friends that can use your nights. The extended family/close friends can use the club when the member cannot and it does not open doors to abusing the option in terms of "soft rental".

__________________
The Nile is a river in Egypt......

Kagehitokiri

oyster circle is another like quintess, with corp plans allowing up to 5 additional designees.

ive updated my earlier post