Quintess Offers Deferred Payments and Trial Membership

Todd Miller, the Vice President of Marketing at Quintess, spent a portion of his Telluride spring break vacation to discuss the club's new trial membership offering.

"Quintess is about a membership in a club, so we wanted to create something that was truly a trial membership as opposed to just stays in the home," began Miller. "With our program, you join the club and you get full membership privileges as opposed to just staying in one location. Other clubs offer stays, but they limit it to certain locations and it isn't really a full membership. We want to have someone join fully and enjoy our club and all the homes and services we offer for a year. The key, like a number of other clubs, is to get people to experience the club. In our case, we want you to feel that you are a regular member and not just experience one location."

As mentioned by Miller, many other destination clubs have launched similar offerings in the past year, but all are more similar to a vacation rental where travelers pay a fee to access the properties than a true destination club membership. Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club launched their trial membership offering by making 17 of the club's underutilized properties available to prospects for $7,000 up to $11,000 depending on the property and season for a seven night stay. As properties were reserved, the club would remove them from the available list. Since then, A&K reduced their rates by 50 percent until April 15. Exclusive Resorts introduced their Sponsored Guest Program in November of 2008, allowing prospective members the chance to reserve four or seven nights stays in select Exclusive Resorts' properties for $5,900 or $8,900 respectively. Ultimate Escapes introduced their "Ultimate Discovery Membership" last month, allowing qualified prospective members the opportunity to reserve properties from any of Ultimate Escapes' three club levels. Premiere properties could be reserved for $3,500 per week, Signature properties for $5,250, and Elite properties for $7,000.

The Quintess trial membership requires a non-refundable $15,000 fee and the standard annual dues and nightly fees for the plan that a member wishes to join. Following the year, members can elect to join the club as a full member and can amortize their membership deposit across several years, the larger the membership deposit, the longer the time period.

"In doing that, you get full access to all the properties by paying annual dues and a small up front fee of $15,000. After one year, they have the opportunity to begin paying their deposit on an installment basis. Starting at the one year anniversary, you can pay your deposit over a period of time depending on the size of plan you pick. If someone is willing to start to pay the deposit initially, they can forgo paying the $15,000 initially," Miller added.

Throughout the history of the destination club industry, many clubs have offered many other trial and preview memberships and have seen high retention rates. Clubs largely believe that they can effectively up sell these introductory members to full membership status after they have enjoyed the full destination club experience.

"We really feel that they are very likely to stay because the way we have grown historically is through member referrals and that is all about member satisfaction. Our members continue to be very, very satisfied with our delivery of service, quality of homes, and what we offer them as members."

When asked to discuss the genesis of the new trail membership offer, Miller stated that it was largely created out of the superior real estate opportunities available to the club.

"We are being offered a number of great homes in great places, on terms that require little if any money down upfront, where the seller is willing to even finance it over a period of years. A year or two ago, you had to put significant money down up front. We can then in turn pass that on in the form of installment pricing."

Clubs are largely looking to ease the process of joining as the economy struggles. Coupling a trial membership with a deferred payment option creates an opportunity for prospective members to first test the destination club waters and then join if they enjoy the experience without a large, up front monetary outpour. According to Miller, Quintess has already seen a great deal of success on this program.

"We are excited about all of our opportunities. We are excited about the future," concluded Miller. "It's obviously a difficult time right now, but we really continue to believe in what we offer and how much it helps our members and their families stay connected. I think one of the things in a tough time like this is you realize what's important in life and one of those things is stay connected with your family and friends and we help create lasting memories."

For more information about Quintess, Leading Residences of the World, please contact The Veras Group, your complimentary destination club advisor, dedicated to helping you finding the destination club that is right for you.

Quintess Offers Deferred Payments and Trial Membership