kevin

We're planning on joining a DC in the next few weeks and have started evaluating the various offerings.

Does anyone have anything they can share that helped them during their due diligence process?

Did anyone try to negotiate a better deal than the standard offering?

I would think in this economy, and the stiff competition for clients, there are some deals that can be worked.

Thanks,

Kevin

Kagehitokiri

welcome to the forum Kevin.

there are occasionally promotions, many of which have been discussed here. IMHO those are more about market awareness than sales. sales of DCs and other high end luxury items are not as affected by the market.

early adopters of course are rewarded with lower prices, and sometimes better offerings.

and in the case of UE for example, they seemed to have a marketing push pre and post merger, first because legacy plans were ending, and now because they are trying to focus on competing with ER.

in terms of customizing plans, some clubs do allow that, but not all. and the flexibility varies.

Quintess Michael

Hey Kevin,
Great question.
I will answer as unbiased as I can.

The key to this negotiation is determining what really is important to you.

If you are looking at a 75 night plan, a free 4 days wont' do much for you.

If you have $300M in the bank, stretching out your deposit over 3 months wont' matter, either.

I can offer this: Any of the clubs worth joining will not negotiate on price of deposit. That continuity is the glue that holds the club together.

Did you ever pay full fare for a plane ticket and sit next to someone who paid 1/3 the price? Imagine if you joined for $400K and you are in a home next to someone in Cabo who joined after you but paid less for the same plan. It upsets the model. (And the members).

Another thing that clubs can do is extend your first year. For example, if you joined today, but your first trip was going to be over Labor Day weekend, you would get a 14 month 1st year, and your anniversary would be Sept '09.

Ask for a personal chef for your first week in Tuscany.

A massage every day for you and your wife in Turks and Caicos

Babysitting for a week in Canouan

You get the idea.

Like I said above. Decide what is important to you.

Clubs want your business, but we want you to be happy. Throwing a bunch of stuff at you that you don't want, will accomplish neither.

If you ask for what you want, you just might get it

Good luck!

PS. You will get NONE of the above outta me!

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

Kagehitokiri

well, there is also the difference between buying something and joining a club. (and a bunch of DCs are "invitation only" - allowing them to turn people down.)

OTOH basically all DCs allow some form of nonmember use, which is not true of all clubs.

and eventually, DC memberships may be part of a benefits package of some other membership/purchase/etc or an incentive/award. for example, IIRC ER has ~2/3 year memberships available through NM incircle and amex membership rewards for 5MM and 15MM points respectively.

TarheelTraveler

My experience for what it's worth is that the clubs have various promotions, but the clubs you would want to join won't (and probably shouldn't) negotiate on price. It's not good for the club or the happiness of the members. You shouldn't have to wonder if someone who joins after you was able to work a better deal. That being said, most clubs I found are willing to make adjustments to make the transition in easier. For example, many people have their next few vacations already booked, so many clubs will allow you not to pay dues until you start your year. For example, I join in October, but have trips scheduled until Spring Break of the next year, you might want to start your year that next summer and then start paying dues.

caribbeansun

It's been my experience that pretty much everything in life is negotiable to one degree or another and I don't subscribe to price illusion so I frequently try to get better pricing, concessions or something that adds to the value of what I'm purchasing. It's not all about price BTW - he who focuses on price alone and ignores terms loses most negotiations in my experience. In fact, if given the choice of setting the terms or the price I'd always pick the terms.

The if they negotiate, they aren't worth joining concept is curious and personally I think off the mark, but hey, to each their own...

Kagehitokiri

caribbeansun, i think thats kind of what Quintess Michael, TarheelTraveler, and I were saying - that plans/extras/"terms" may (or perhaps should) be at least somewhat "negotiable", but price is not / should not be..

semi-related, an interesting article on negotiating investment management fees
The Art Of Negotiation

caribbeansun

Right - but price is also usually negotiable along with the terms.

Quintess Michael

From an insider's view, I can tell you that the only negotiation that will cause more problems than it's worth (for the membership, over time) is changing member deposit price.

But I absolutely agree with your comment about terms. 100%

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

TarheelTraveler

From the perspective of a DC, which then has an indirect effect on me as a member, I wouldn't want a DC cutting all kinds of deals to get members in. To me, it perhaps indicates financial instability, but more importantly, the management spends an inordinate of time dealing with 100s of different membership contracts. Imagine trying to do a merger when every membership contract has got different terms. It's one thing to do a short term accomodation, but another to change the terms altogther on a going forward basis, in effect creating various classes of members. From my perspective, buying a DC membership is more like buying into a country club than buying a car. Would you want your country club doing deals with prospects which then impacts the club financially or drains administrative resources?

Quintess Michael

THAT's what I'm talking about!!

Well said Tarheel

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

ChicagoMark

A couple of thoughts here-If you do a little planning-and pay for your membership via a credit card that creates points you can use-like a United Visa Card, or a Starwood American Express Card-Which will require some advance planning on your part, as Amex will want a copy of your most recent income tax return and bank/brokerage statements and to pre-pay the charges via a wire transfer-Chase may want the same. Putting $200K-500K that way-generates 8 to 20 free flights, or with Starwood up to 4 weeks of free stays. Those are huge incentives to spend the money!

What you should ask for from any club-is that your dues be suspended until the time of your first trip. Given that your first trip may be 90-180 days away-this saves you real money! I joined late in the calendar year with my Xmas & Spring break vacations already booked-so this saved me 8 months of dues.

I agree on special terms-that makes me crazy. Completely turned me off to ER as if I had agreed to reactivate my Amex Centurion Card-I would have saved an incremental $25K on top the $15K discount that they ordinarily offer. I really want a club that plays their cards straight up.

Kagehitokiri

centurion also gets $1K off per year with ER.

although fee is now $2500/yr instead of $1K/yr. plus initiation fee of $5K, although some have reported not having to pay that after receiving invitations, which are no longer standard procedure.

promo at one point, i presume the one you were referring to ChicagoMark. >

also, i do not put business expenses on my amex plat, and when i asked about a $600K charge, account services said i would just need to do a wire transfer before the charge. (i did not end up doing the charge.)

LTTravel

Most clubs will not let you charge the entire membership fee on the credit card, just 20% and the yearly dues. At least that was the way ER was when I joined.

3DH

Ditto when we were ER members, LT... however when they were running their promotion with huge amounts of AmX Member Reward points, the entire amount had to be charged to receive that benefit.

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

Kagehitokiri

that promo worked out to about double points. thats odd thats the only time they allowed it... or was that reflecting a change moving forward? im pretty sure i remember seeing some clubs clearly stating you can put the full amount on a credit card. but i do not remember which clubs / deposit amounts.