Veras Group Jim

Hello all,

We have had so much great feedback from the forums that we wanted to pose a question for everyone to weigh in on. We are building/expanding our Clients Only website (accessible for those who have signed our client agreement), and wanted to know what additional items would be helpful for someone evaluating and comparing destination clubs. Here is our current list of tools/items:

• Initial Client Questionnaire - a comprehensive survey that covers past travel preferences, family makeup, budget, interest points, etc.
• White paper on each destination club - available online and as a PDF download. Will include a variety of pertinent details, for quick reference.
• Side-by-side comparison tool - to look at 2-3 clubs on main points (deposit, dues, number of destinations, home values, nights of usage, etc.)
• Cost per night calculators - simple, NPV, and opportunity cost included
• Club homes - an informational page, with photos, on each destination club home
• Comparison Map - world and regional maps with every home in the industry flagged for easy visual comparison.
• Document upload/download - membership documents, communications, briefs
• Suggested due diligence - questions and topics
• Industry timeline - chart of clubs opening, closing, mergers, etc.
• Expanded terms & phrases glossary
• Live chat feature with your advisor, from 10am to 8pm eastern
• Price point graphs - visual display of your budget, with the y-axis as cost, the x-access as nights allocated. Allows you to see the relationship between price and access and size/value of homes (which is noted on the datapoints).
• Board of Advisors - bios and areas of expertise (our clients may choose to work with these experts, some are complimentary, some charge hourly fees)

Love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, questions, ideas. Having gone through this process, we felt this was the perfect arena for great feedback.

Thank you very much!

Jim

__________________
Jim Pippin
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Veras Group, LLC

DC4MS

Here is the Veras website link

The Veras Group - Destination Club Advisors

Veras Group Jim

Thank you, DC4MS!

__________________
Jim Pippin
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Veras Group, LLC

3DH

Jim... if you can muster it, easily, a guide to the reservation policies of each would be helpful.

ie: number of each type of reservation available with membership (w/definition of said reservation type)

If this were in a "comparison" type, it would be helpful. (some people would prefer more short notice travel, while others might enjoy the availability to book all of their plan nights in a long-term window.

Also, holiday policies as a comparison...

I am certain that the services you are offering will be very helpful to DC prospects! Good work!

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

Veras Group Jim

Great feedback, 3DH, and thank you, very much, for your kind words! We are huge fans of the industry, and look forward to serving each of our clients and helping them understand their options.

A comparison of reservation policies is a great idea. We have begun preparing briefs on these topics, and are finishing the holiday/peak reservation policies as we speak. These are not, though, in the format you suggest and I think you are absolutely correct that these can make a big difference for spontaneous travelers versus advance planners, etc.

We will add it to our to-do list, 3DH. Thank you again!

__________________
Jim Pippin
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Veras Group, LLC

Tedpilot

Maybe I missed it reading too quickly but member info: How many, trend up/down, growth rates, resignation list (and duration). If the DCs allow it a balance sheet and cash flows.

Thanks,
Ted

Veras Group Jim

Good, Ted, thank you. All great points. You didn't miss it, as I didn't write it down in my first post, but member stats like these would be included on the club white pages. We didn't have any coverage of trends, though--that's a great new idea. I think we can get pretty close on most of these, for most clubs.

Financial Information--good. We had that, internally, under the due diligence segment. Also includes legal (known outstanding lawsuits, etc), member references, etc.

Thank you, Ted, very much!

Jim

__________________
Jim Pippin
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Veras Group, LLC

Kagehitokiri

TarheelTraveler

I would love to see the answers/information responding to the Halogen, Sherpa and DC4MS due diligence questions for each club (e.g., What Constitutes Adequate DC Due Diligence?) in some sort of fairly concise format. I know I spent significant time compiling information using the Halogen due diligence list, and it can be quite daunting.

One thing consumers really need is in depth analysis that goes beyond typical spin put out by some DCs. On their surface, DCs often seem similar, but the devil is in the details, particularly the financial details that often get glossed over in favor of we've got these great deals for a limited time, artificially low deposits and dues, really expensive houses, etc. that make little sense economically. Hopefully Jim and the VerasGroup can cut through some of that for their clients.

caribbeansun

I would stratify based on cost per night or initial deposit requirement and flow the analysis from there. Of course this assumes price point to be one of the key early determinants of selection. At least with this you could group clubs into the various economic strata for comparison. I would then allow full comparison within those groupings.

Don't miss the resignation policy comparison.

Provide the cost per night calculations for a fixed set of variables across all clubs that are reasonable or even better demonstrate a range ie. a 5 or 10 year hold vs. 10 or 15 year hold.

What would be extremely powerful and no small task would be the ability to enter standing data around assumptions on memberships and have the worksheet recalculate ALL cost per night figures across all the clubs eliminating the necessity to re-enter all the information into separate calculators.

Articulate the positives and negatives of each club - so much of the information is focused on the positive that it's tough to get a balanced view of the various clubs.

TravelGuy

Jim,

One thing I'm not quite clear on - Are the DCs giving you confidential information that they do not make available to prospective members and/or current members?

Veras Group Jim

You bet. This is exactly what our due diligence section will address. The Halogen due diligence questions are indeed a good start, and with our inside experience inside DCs, there are several other important points we feel clients should have the opportunity to review.

Thank you, Tarheel!

__________________
Jim Pippin
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Veras Group, LLC

Veras Group Jim

Got your other suggestions, CS, and thank you for those. All are excellent. Could you elaborate on this point, though? What assumptions and standing data are you referring to?

__________________
Jim Pippin
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Veras Group, LLC

Veras Group Jim

Hi TravelGuy,

To be honest, that is a hard question to answer. Several clubs provide us with information directly that we have not found elsewhere. My hunch is that a saavy prospective member, or active member, could gain equal knowledge access. But, then again, maybe not.

Part of the value of our service, I believe, is not that we have all the answers before you ask (although often we do), but rather that we are building standing and clout that allows us to find information when needed. In this light, I do believe we have the inside experience, colleagues, and knowledge to find out many more things than the typical prospective member.

Good question. Hope that helps, TravelGuy. Standing by for your additional questions and/or ideas! Best regards,

Jim

__________________
Jim Pippin
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Veras Group, LLC

vineyarder

Hi Jim,

Best of luck with your new venture.

Maybe I'm being overly simplistic, but I think that a guided choice algorithm, while harder to construct, might be very appealing to people trying to wade through all the information; something like a more sophisticated version of this: Breed Selector, Dog Search, Puppy Survey, Puppy Test, Test to find the right dog, Breed Quiz

Answer multiple choice questions abouts costs, travel destinations of interest, travel patterns, risk tolerance, importance of equity, reservation preferences, etc., etc., then get a short list of the most likely 'matches'... sort of an 'e-harmony' for DCs... then you provide the 'personal matchmaking' and negotiation services...

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Living in a vacuum sucks!

caribbeansun

To be comparable you need to fixed a number of what other wise would be variables so that one can isolate the impact of changing one variable. Basically, Cēterīs paribus.

Variables =
Buy in value with all the permutations
Quantification of "perks" or other selling discounts
Redemption %
Cost of capital
Years to redemption
Growth assumption related to deposit increases
Etc.

Essentially taking the calculators that are here but dumping them all into one worksheet so you can do multiple changes to isolate the impacts. For example, it would be interesting to see how the cost per night changes across the population if you assume 5 years rather than 10 years.

How would I apply this?

Let say I'm looking at the various options and like Quintess compared to say UE but the extra deposit money seems like a lot. If I can easily see the impact of holding for 5/10/15 years it could reduce my barrier to entry based on my non-scientific/math looking at the higher deposit requirement of Quintess as compared to UE's Premier or Signature.