Upgrade Girl

I was just perusing Helium Report and noticed that the number of reviews for some of the clubs didn't seem in proportion to the clubs' size at all. I just checked a few but you would think that Exclusive Resorts would have the most number of reviews given their size and growth. Here's what I noticed as of today:

Ultimate Resorts 69
Quintess 29
Lusso 18
Exclusive Resorts 18
High Country Club 18
Private Escapes 17

It just seems odd. Do Ultimate Resorts and Quintess have some sort of incentive for members to write reviews or are their marketing department submitting reviews? I know the founder of Helium Report is an ER member so perhaps he's over compensating to be sure there's no conflict of interest? I'm just speculating but it is curious.

Steamboat Bill

I noticed the same thing several months ago (March 2007) after I saw a surge of glowing reviews for Spring Ridge Club and posted a message about that on another forum.

I actually think it is a result of the individual destination clubs leveraging the power of the Internet and their own members. I highly doubt that anyone is receiving any bonuses for these as I have posted thousands of reviews over the past several years and have never received any compensation.

The simplest explanation I can think of is that most destination club members are very "happy" and know that the more members that join their club, the more properties that will be purchased for their use and the stronger the club will become.

When you see the millions of videos being uploaded to YouTube, millions of pictures on Flickr, thousands of discussion forums like this one, and the incredible success of social web sites like Facebook and MySpace, you begin to realize that the Internet has dramatically changed they way we communicate.

Every Destination Club should encourage all of their members to get involved with online discussion forums and post reviews (and critiques) as this, in essence, is a form of free advertising for them.

LTTravel

One must be very careful of reading these reviews. I had noted two reviews on Helium, one for a fractional yacht and one for a fractional in Miami with raving reviews. Further investigation revealed that neither of the two were actually open and they were meerly a ploy by the sales people to get attention. I notified Helium and they removed the reviews. With the internet so open, you don't know how many of those reviews are accurate or real. It would be better if Helium could verify that the person submitting the review was truly a member of the destination club before posting them.

Steamboat Bill

That is why I like forums like this one as it gives an opportunity to interact with actual members and you can get a feeling for personal bias based upon their post count.

jam

Last year shortly after the Tanner and Haley acqusition, Ultimate incentivized their members to write a review for Helium Report. That is why you see a bolus of reports in a short time frame.

NeilGoBlue

Given my experience with them.. that doesn't surprise me..

3DH

I had heard similar information. Obviously, this makes me question their reviews...

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