Quintess

Destination Club Holiday Gifts, Part 1: A Membership in Quintess, or DUO by Quintess

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments, By Design

Well, Happy Holidays! It could be me or you or a deserving friend, walking along that beach, looking toward one of the Quintess Villas at La Samanna, built on that cliff. The family would be either outside, sailing or swimming, or inside, relaxing, or fixing dinner, or lunch or breakfast. This is just one part of a Quintess vacation that turns memory to legacy.

I have written about Quintess, Leading Residences Of The World (LRW) before on Luxist: once about the mission and vision behind this high end Destination Club, others about it's inclusion of The Tour Club and DUO by Quintess, two other clubs that have been created under Quintess aegis, this year.

Quintess,LRW is one of two ultra high end. non-equity destination clubs in existence, and, according to Ben Addoms, Founding Member and CMO, it has been a good year. October was the best sales month in over two years, and Christmas is coming! "There are over 600 members now in Quintess, LRW, The Tour Club and the newest, DUO by Quintess. Not surprisingly, in the last quarter of the year, we receive requests for memberships to be used as holiday gifts, for family members, and business associates.. The Quintess LRW, and DUO by Quintess memberships are holiday gifts that keeps on giving, certainly."

Those gifts that keep on giving are usually not cheap, and a membership in Quintess certainly isn't. From 10 to 60 days of vacation, pricing levels range from $140,000 to $525,000 membership deposit, (but 75% is returned at resignation.) But, as with those gifts also, the members receives a type of travel that becomes needed, and unforgettable.

The choice of any home and destination in the complete portfolio of over 80 luxury homes,on average priced at 4M in 40+ destinations around the world.
Travel with comprehensive travel planning with on-site Destination Hosts and a personal member relations manager who gets to know you and your family's travel needs.
Extended family use that allows the member to send the entire family, plus their friends, on their own club vacations, because of the ability to reserve and use 2 residences in the same destination.

Tags: Aman Resorts, Amangani Resort, Baie Lounge St. Martin, Destination Club Quintess, DUO by Quintess, Elysees Spa, Jackson Hole, La Samanna, La Samanna Quintess, Non-Equity based residence club Quintess, Quintess, Quintess Aspen Colorado, Quintess Memberships Christmas Gifts, Quintess Napa Valley, Quintess Villa Tuscany, St. Martin Quintess, Terra Toscana Quintess, The Tour Club, Wyoming

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Good News For The Vacation Homeless: Luxury Membership Options Emerge Following The Ultimate Escapes Bankruptcy

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Demeure's Borgo De Vagli residence, Tuscany

For those of us who have followed the fallout from the Ultimate Escapes bankruptcy, it has been a bumpy ride. I have written about this bankruptcy before on Luxist, but here is a small refresher précis.

Ultimate Escapes was a high end, luxury, non-equity based destination club, and the second largest in the industry. Members paid between $150,000 and $800,000 membership deposit, and many thousands more in annual dues. For those fees, they took vacations to exotic places and stay in exceptional residences, villas and condos. There were over 1400 members when the club bankrupted in mid-September, 2010. It was then the fifth major bankruptcy in five years for the non-equity destination club space. Prior to Ultimate escapes was Tanner & Haley, Lusso, High Country Club, Solstice, and now this. For members, industry watchers and many others, this bankruptcy began a serious re-thinking process. What is the matter?

As with many complex problems, this one appeared easy to solve. Many believed it was the non-equity model on which literally all of the bankrupted clubs were based, and in part, but only in part, it was. The first generation non-equity model was broadly based on a kind of Wild West 2004-2008 YAHOO-type optimism: clubs will certainly grow if -- real estate values would appreciate, and if members continued to join. If this growth hormone were in place, and why shouldn't it be?.. then the members will receive what was promised to them: 80% of their deposits back upon resignation from the club, and the 3 in 1 out option borrowed from the timeshare industry: If three new members joined, you could resign. Simple. Seemed so reasonable in those pre-Madoff times.

And because it seemed so reasonable, and times were so optimistic, many clubs bought properties and others were leased when prices were at an all-time high. Then, suddenly, in October of 2008, the perfect storm appeared: real estate values declined, Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. deflated. But no matter what, lenders wanted mortgage payments and lessors wanted their rent. With these occurrences, the first generation club model looked like a house of cards, easily toppled by the dark winds of a collapsing economy and potential members' deciding against joining any club, even, as one member said to me, "a church group." Thus, with this last bankruptcy, following much the same process as the others, many felt this was the last gasp for the non-equity based club.

BUT! The model is not dead: it is evolving....

Tags: Abercrombie Kent Residence Club, Boundless Journeys, Demeure Club, Destination Club, DUO by Quintess, Exclusive Resorts, Post Ultimate escapes Bankruptcy, Quintess, Second Home Destinations, Ultimate escapes bankruptcy

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DUO by Quintess: The New Destination Club, A New Option for Ultimate Escapes Members And Others

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

A DUO by Quintess residence, Cabo San Lucas

Two weeks ago, I reported on the Ultimate Escapes Destination Club bankruptcy, which is the largest bankruptcy in the brief history of the luxury destination club industry. This industry has had more than its share of well-publicized bankruptcies, with the members of these clubs usually left out in the cold, money and great travel expectations lost. In this most recent case, 1400 or so Ultimate Escapes members are in this kind of labyrinthine Limbo.

But for many of these UE members, being in such convoluted place is not their first time. To understand the importance of the options created by Quintess and others, it is crucial to understand the unusual context in which the Ultimate Escapes members find themselves.

Approximately seven years ago, in 2003, the first destination club, Private Retreats, launched in Telluride, Colorado. Two years later, Private Retreats changed its name to Abercrombie & Kent Destination Club. The A&K name was leased by Private Retreats. Eventually, A&K ended their licensing agreement with Private Retreats, and the destination club was renamed Tanner & Haley.

Tanner & Haley went bankrupt in 2006-- the first destination club to do so. Then, Ultimate Resort, a small destination club founded in 2005, gathered up the Tanner & Haley members, offered them a way to continue their travel club membership by purchasing the T&H homes. About a year later, Ultimate then instigated a complicated merger with another club operator called Private Escapes. More members were picked up there. And, Ultimate Resort's name change to Ultimate Escapes. So if you're following the bouncing ball, some of the present members of Ultimate Escapes, were actually refugees from Tanner & Haley, and also Private Escapes. So, it is easy to surmise that these members have -- also! -- been bounced around from club to club.

But wait! There's more.

Tags: Ben Addoms, Destination Club history, destination clubs, DUO by Quintess, luxury destination clubs, problems with Destination Clubs, Quintess, Quintess LRW, The Tour Club, Ultimate Escapes, Ultimate escapes Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

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Quintess and The Tour Club: A New Strategic Alliance with Four New Residences Added

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: By Design

The luxury destination club Quintess, LRW has announced a reciprocal agreement with THE TOUR CLUB that provides Quintess, LRW members with access to new destinations that include: The Resort at Pelican Hill, Newport Coast, California, Sage Valley Golf Club, Graniteville, South Carolina, Atlanta National Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia and TPC Jasna Polana, Princeton, New Jersey ( pictured above)

Quintess, The Leading Residences of the World is a luxury destination club that creates highly personalized vacation experiences for its members. Quintess, LRW provides its members with access to 80+ multimillion-dollar residences and experiences in 40+ international resort and city destinations.

The Tour Club, through a licensing agreement with the PGA Tour, is the first and only national sports entertainment group providing access to luxury residences at some of the world's most sought after golf destinations. At the Resort at Pelican Hill, rated by Golf Magazine as a "Premier Resorts 2010 Top Newcomer," members stay in richly appointed two-bedroom villas. Sage Valley, ranked as #6 of America's greatest golf retreats by Golf Digest, offers members four-bedroom cottages that epitomize Southern charm and luxury. At Atlanta National, one of Georgia's most respected private clubs offering world-class golf, members stay in either a four-bedroom lodge overlooking the 8th or 12th hole, or the five-bedroom villa overlooking the 17th green. Nestled in the hills of Princeton, NJ, TPC Jasna Polana sets the standard for private clubs nationwide and offers the rare opportunity to stay in one of the two former private residences on the estate.

Tags: Atlanta Natinal Golf Club, AtlantaNatinalGolfClub, golf getaways, golf vacations, Luxury destination clubs, Quintess, Qunitess LRW Destination Cluib, QunitessLrwDestinationCluib, Resort at Pelican Hill, ResortAtPelicanHill, Sage Valley Golf Club, SageValleyGolfClub, The Tour Club, TheTourClub, TPC Jasna Polna, TpcJasnaPolna

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The Design Of A Great Vacation: Quintess and the Destination Club Experience

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: By Design

As with many great ideas, the destination club idea was not born in a vacuum. Its distant ideological cousin, the timeshare, originated in the '70's in Europe. It was a simple idea, buying space for time, but because of some developers' sales techniques, the timeshare developed a less than stellar reputation. However, the idea itself remained viable, and it evolved – from owning a 1/30th share in a small apartment, to owning shares in much more substantive residences, and in the clubs themselves,. The membership deed or the fractional share all came with significant amenities: private chefs, limo drivers, dedicated destination hosts, existing only to make dinner arrangements, acquiring the best concert tickets, creating worry-free vacations on every known dimension.

The destination club idea took hold in the early 2000s. In the beginning, were the nonequity clubs, then came the equity based ones. With the former, the member did not own anything, paid a one-time membership deposit, annual dues, and vacationed in elite destinations in $2-6M homes. With the equity-based clubs, the members owned the clubs, bought the homes and had much to say in the club management.

But there was a dark side to this idea – and it was its explosive and unexpected growth. In 2003, the sales volume was a modest $513.M. In 2006, it ballooned to $2.5B.

All went well until the industry hit a major bump in July of 2006, with Tanner & Haley, the first Destination Club, to bankrupt, followed by many others. Out of the 31 functioning destination clubs extant in 2006, there are now, in 2010, five. But these five are strong,fiscally transparent, and consumer-centric, taking a lessons-learned approach from the failed clubs. The equity-based clubs, where the members own the residences, are Equity Estates, and Abercrombie & Kent Residence Clubs. The non-equity clubs, are Exclusive Resorts, oldest and largest, Ultimate Escapes, the second largest with has multi-leveled membership plans, and, Quintess arguably, one of the smaller and most boutique-like, with many architecturally significant homes, all priced at 4M and up.

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Tags: destination clubs, DestinationClubs, Exclusive resorts, Quintess, Ultimate escapes

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A Golfer's Fantasy: The Tour Club

by Paul Rogers (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Sports

The idea of trumpeting golf as a corporate perk seems as dated as the oversize shirts so many Tour pros (including Tiger Woods) somehow saw fit to wear not that long ago. But even in these chastened economic times, it's hard to ignore the game's effectiveness as a business tool. Which explains the recent announcement of the Tour Club, a fantasy-like club that offers, among other amenities, access to a network of private and resort courses, lodging at luxury golf residences, and VIP access to PGA tournaments and other sporting events.

The Tour Club bills itself as the first national sports entertainment club. Membership is open to families and individuals as well as to businesses, but it's conceived primarily for corporate entertaining. The portfolio of residences--the Tour Club has the same parent company as the destination club Quintess--includes retreats in places such as Pinehurst, N.C.; Bend, Ore. (see Pronghorn, above); and Los Cabos, Mexico. The list of golf clubs consists mainly of Tournament Players Clubs (TPC)--many of them well-regarded, some, like the remodeled TPC Boston, outstanding, all of them high-end.

Gallery: The Tour Club