Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club members Choose their Favorite Home

by Susan Kime (RSS feed)
Feb 9th 2010 at 9:01AM

The shared ownership industry has made huge strides since timeshares first hit the scene in the 1970s. Besides the market's continued growth even during last year, called fittingly the annus horribilis by many, there has been a noticeable shift in quality and design aesthetics of purchased residences.. Gone are the basic ski chalets with cuckoo clocks, and plastic fern-festooned condos of the early years, and in their place are exceptional high-end residences where every element, both inside and out, is designed with painstaking detail.

One reason for this re-emergence of design relevance is a growing awareness that design is found everywhere -- not only in objects, but also in a vacation experience. If an object is badly designed, no matter how much it costs, it will corrode or fail in some way. If a person has a badly designed vacation experience, the memory created will corrode, and be forgotten. Exceptional design, both with objects purchased and in the vacations experienced, fuses the practical with the aesthetic, the visceral with the cognitive, and has the ability to create a positive memorable experience, anyone's definition of a luxury legacy.

This awareness is quite apparent in the high end hospitality industry, where branded and boutique hotels, private residence and destination clubs, villa residence enclaves, and elite tour operators all strive to make the member, the owner, the guest, and the visitor simply -- happy with the vacation design experience both inside and outside the residence.

In September of 2008, Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club was launched, a new equity based, debt- free residence club with an already established brand. Abercrombie & Kent has been a luxury tour operator since 1962 and is well established worldwide as one of the few great brands in adventure travel. And, the residence club expanded the brand, offering unique travel and lodging experiences in a multiplicity of unusual and traditional destinations. Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club is an equity- based club, where members are the owners, and the club runs in a debt free mode.

Last month the club asked the 100 plus members, which of the residences and diverse vacation experiences within the homes they liked best .The results of the Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club annual member survey are in, and top honors for "Favorite Home" go to Hale Pu'uhonua, located on the Big Island of Hawaii. Located a short distance from the ocean and white sand beaches, Hale Pu'uhonua is a spacious four-bedroom island getaway located in the Mauna Lani Resort on the Kohala Coast. Part of the Champion Ridge subdivision, the residence is part of the only residential development in Hawaii designed around an 18-hole putting course. Perfect for large groups of family and friends, it has separate entrances to each suite as well as an epicurean kitchen, heated pool, outdoor shower and fully-equipped theater room. Upscale island decor, including thatched ceilings and mahogany trim throughout, sets the mood for a relaxing vacation in one of the Big Island's sunniest and most beautiful areas.

"This home feels like vacation when you walk through the doors," wrote Club member Corey Lovering. "The layout is fantastic. It affords privacy for its guests with distinct bedrooms with their own entrances/exits and provides well thought out, comfortable shared living spaces. It easily housed our two families. The home has amazing indoor/outdoor living space that spills out to the beautiful infinity pool overlooking the putting course...I could stay there, and have, over and over again...we've had tons of great times there and have memories to treasure for a lifetime."

Contentment, as is noted above, is a major consequence of great design – whether it be of architecture, of interior design, of food, of apparel, of anything. And those who provide this elusive feeling can, even during complicated economic times, name their price. Happily, the Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club is, in the grand scheme, not wildly expensive for all that is offered and gratefully received.

Tags: Abercrombie Kent Residence Club, AbercrombieAndKent, Destination Clubs, DestinationClubs, equity-based, Hawaii, Mauna Lani resort, MaunaLaniResort, Residence Clubs, vacation designs, VacationDesigns