S
Steamboat Bill
How are you able to stay in business with these expensive homes/boats and only 20-30 members or even 100 members at your low prices?
How are you able to stay in business with these expensive homes/boats and only 20-30 members or even 100 members at your low prices?
at the $50K/week level, what % of the deposit are you going to use toward property acquisition?
one suggestion - go for more truly beach front homes (detached single family) with pools etc - as beach front homes are extremely rare right now in the Destination Club market. (so that would be a major additional competitive edge)
i hope you have continued success
excellentbeach Front home in St Marteen...Sardinia
I am confused in turn of financing and viable of the business model.When we get to around 150 Members or approx 300 weeks of Membership, the club will cover all of its own opex without any contribution needed from the Resort and we will have a max occupancy of approx 30 % ( so you will still not have any problems booking a property ) and we will have added a further 7 - 8 destinations overall ...
Our business model worked at $25,000 per week just fine, we used Member deposits to put a 30 % down payment on the new destination and furnish it, and the annual dues covered the staff, all the opex food & beverage and the mortgage on the homes/yachts ...
At $50,000 per week we will have almost zero mortgage on the new properties we acquire, so we have even more funds available from the annual dues to provide more service and other options which we are working on now..
excellent
are you exploring any Southeast Asian markets?
I am confused in turn of financing and viable of the business model.
$50,000 per week with no mortgage.
$50,000 * 50 = $2,500,000 - for the home acquistion price
However, you mentioned that 30% occpancy rate.
== $2.5 million * .30 = $750,000.
How can this work 30% occpancy rate and price at $50000 per week? What am I missing?
Nick Wood,
It is impressive that you are on this discussion forum and you have provided so much information. I am very tempted to join DHH and with the new rules which allow "borrowing" and "banking" one week and having friends sign on for a reasonable $5000 fee it makes it even more tempting. I just wish that you had a more enticing upgrade path from Lite to higher levels and incentives to bring in more members. Just wondering, since 95% of the membership deposit goes into acquisition and you already have $25 million positive in the LLC, How are the membership deposits treated in the secured vs unsecured creditor chain? Other DC's have set up Depost Trust LLC's (Lusso) or have equity memberships(BH) or have a significant track record(ER) to make us comfortable. Or they have had some more disclosure. The Santa Monica office is only a PO Box which makes me a little nervous. I showed a friend the pictures of the Paris Apartment and the 86 ft yacht and is ready to sign on if I do.
Hi
This forum is very cool , it is a great place to see things from the Members perspective in a much clear way , which will help us react better to our Members overall needs , lots of good ideas ....
The best way for you to be certain , is to try us out before you join. The only down side to this is you may miss the cut off for our price rise and have to pay more , but we do have availability at most properties in September ...
We are in the process of joining the DCA , and will be after our year end this year in December having an independent audit of the company's accounts , and also we will continue to publish the net asset to Membership deposits Ratio which at the moment is just ridiculously high.
Members are the very next person in line for money after any Mortgages we might have, this is clearly stated in our club rules.
We do have more than a PO BOX in Santa Monica , we have an office with staff , as well as in France , and New Zealand ...
There are no 100 % bets in life , we have tried to make the risk as low as possible for our members, it is then up to them to decided if we stack up, i nor can any other club give you a 100 % money back guarantee.
The reality is we have less than $1 million in Membership Deposits to date and we have $25 million of Net property Assets , so you cover today is over 25 : 1.
The DCA ( Destination Club Association) currently advocates .66:1 ie less than one times cover ... we will have a much higher cover than what is advocated by many other clubs for the foreseeable future ...
Hope this helps you to decided, we would of course love for you guys to join us, we want to add some more Destinations soon
We are in the process of joining the DCA , and will be after our year end this year in December having an independent audit of the company's accounts
I am impressed at how fast your replyed. I would like to join at the corporate level but may just join at the Lite level to try it out (at least to save $25,000) The new destinations that you mention in the previous post. I understand that the Mageve home is in contract and the 63 ft Yacht is in process. You mention other beach front homes. Have they been identified and in process or are you "just looking" at this point? With real estate prices droping, you may be able to get some better deals now in some of the markets.
Could you pleasea respond to the issue about ER and no one else can have units on the World?Just caught me at a good moment ...happy for you to join at whatever level suits you, we are not into heavy sales methods ...we just expect our service and Destinations to do the selling so to speak, for us ....
Yes Megeve is in the process of being renovated , it is taking longer than we would like to get it just right, so looks like it will be ready end of January instead fo for Christmas ...
We have been looking in Hawaii, Miami & New York for a few years been to both places over 5 times looking but have yet to find something that matches our high standards at a fair price , we wanted to wait until the market softened , which we predicted it would do, we think that there will be good buying very soon. We are researching the Caribbean, have visited a few locations , and have settled on St Martin as it has international flights in from Europe direct , and also from the US ... and we can get beach front with a pool there in our budget range ...
We don't buy unless the property is just right , and fits the budget , so in some places this means lots of visits, in Megeve in the French Alps , we went 5 times before we actually put an offer in on a property as we wanted ski in/out but also walking distance to the town center ( 300 meters ) as parking in winter is a bitch ....and it is a small village with limited number of these properties...
Our aim is to have in the first round of property , a few sunny beach destinations, a city destination, and a few ski destinations and a boat in each region ie Americas, Europe & Pacific ... and then to add where members what the property next ...
The maximum stretch out period is acatually 2.5 years from date of joining and not two years from your description . if you join now, you have 6 months to decide if you want to roll forward,and hvae two years from that 6 months date to roll. Thus if I join on Sept 1, I have until March 1, 2008 to decide to roll forward, and if I so desire, I can book thru Sept 1, 2010. Is that correct??Hi
You will be able to move a week forward to the next year up to 6 months from your anniversary date so if you joined on the 15th Sept you would have until 15th March 08 to move it forward, but can move it or a week from next year back up until 1 week before 15th of Sept 08. If you move it forward to the next year then yes you have until the 15th of Sept 09 to use it , however the weeks are not distinct , so you can still move another week forward in the 08 /09 year so in effect you can keep moving one week in total forward forever if you like ...
Cheers
Nick Wood
Many of us already have our vacations planned going forward for the next 12-24 months. Also because of the international nature of the destination, advance planning is required. The ability to allow one week of the membership of any plan to move forward to the next year, o bring one week from the next year to the current year makes a lot of sense. If I subscribe to the 7 day play on Sept 15, 2007, are you saying that the 7 days does not have to be used until sept 14, 2009? If that is the case, how would the booking be affected? Can I book now for Sept 2009 usage? Also , Question: are members joining now on or before Sept 31, 2007will be able to take advantage of these amendments or are these rules enhancement applicable to those paying a higher rate ?
The maximum stretch out period is acatually 2.5 years from date of joining and not two years from your description . if you join now, you have 6 months to decide if you want to roll forward,and hvae two years from that 6 months date to roll. Thus if I join on Sept 1, I have until March 1, 2008 to decide to roll forward, and if I so desire, I can book thru Sept 1, 2010. Is that correct??
The maximum stretch out period is acatually 2.5 years from date of joining and not two years from your description . if you join now, you have 6 months to decide if you want to roll forward,and hvae two years from that 6 months date to roll. Thus if I join on Sept 1, I have until March 1, 2008 to decide to roll forward, and if I so desire, I can book thru Sept 1, 2010. Is that correct??
Could you pleasea respond to the issue about ER and no one else can have units on the World?
I have been on "The World" and it is absolutely beautiful and luxurious. But, it is VERY quiet and not very kid friendly. They have kid quieting rules but also do have some kid activities. You can't even take any photos in the public areas. The other problem with "The World" is that over a period of a week, it may make only two stops. It is basically a hotel in the port for three or four days. You really need to be on it for two weeks to be able to see several destinations. Much of the time it is less than desireable destinations (Jordan, East African Coast, etc) while it is moving to the next destination.
Common charges are also astronomical, I think about $160,000 per year for a 2 bedroom last I checked about 18 months ago. So I am mixed on my opinion of it. In the right location with the right people, it is unbeatable. I would still like to go on it when in the right place.
i would even prefer to charter year round for the club a Penthouse Suite on the Crystal Cruise Line which is very cool ( we have sued them quite a bit in the past ) , ...
thats not really feasible is it?i would even prefer to charter year round for the club a Penthouse Suite on the Crystal Cruise Line which is very cool