Recent Destination Club News

[TarheelTraveler]

http://www.fractionallife.com/news_us_fractional_sales_down_38_per_cent_in_20101405.asp

Some pretty sobering stats. on fractional and whole ownership vacation sales. Hopefully, things have bottomed out.

"The latest research from Ragatz Associates in to the North American fractional real estate market has revealed a 38 per cent drop in year-on-year sales...

On a brighter note, fractional ownership fared better than whole ownership vacation homes sales, which fell by 60 per cent during the same period, and roughly on par with timeshare sales which were down by 32 per cent."

 

[willmyclubmakeit]

inspiratio

are they offering the weeks without joining/paying the membership feee?

are all non-prime weeks being discounted or only short term availability which I have seen.

M

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

http://destinationclubnews.com/News...Christian_Kirschner_For_Misrepresentation.php

Christian Kirschner, the Founder of the bankrupt High Country Club, has been sued by the Chapter 7 trustee Jeffrey Weinman, who claims breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, and concealment of material facts by Kirschner. High Country Club's accounting firm, BKD LLP, has also been sued, with claims including aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty and professional malpractice and negligence.

 

[NeilGoBlue]

Anything to Gain?

Very interesting. Can fraud claims like this stick after a bankruptcy? Or do they get discharged (his personal bankruptcy)

I assume this is civil not criminal. So, I wonder what the recourse is of bankrupt individual.

 

[willmyclubmakeit]

impact

if nothing else it helps substantiate tax deductions which could be better than any settlement from BK court when there are so little assets and so much debt.

 

[TarheelTraveler]

I believe fraud claims are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Also, the accounting firm is presumably a deep pocket to go after.

I'm actually surprised that we haven't seen more of this with respect to all of these DC disasters. As willmyclubmakeit notes, it can help substantiate a tax deduction. Might as well help the members to the extent that you can and make things a little harder for those that had direct involvement in the disasters.

What's even more shocking is the number of people who have started DCs, which then went bankrupt and are back in it again.

A number of people have received emails from Lifestyle Assets - the Rich Keith startup. I suspect the only way they could have gotten my email address is from the PE/UE marketing lists. Is the marketing list not an asset of the UE bankruptcy estate (as opposed to Rich Keith)? Seems like that would be a saleable asset to other DCs/travel providers. Wasn't that purchased by Demeure?

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

successful version of everlands?

club site - http://patagoniasur.com/
auction for 6 nt trip - http://www.charitybuzz.com/categories/34/catalog_items/256024

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1043072#post1043072
4+ PE execs > http://www.lifestyleassetgroup.com/About_Us.php

how did they suddenly get zoning permission in charleston?

4 initial residences are presumably owned by RK etc (originally mentioned being donated) and are being leased then sold to club

appears subsequent residences are debt free like rocksure/luxus - at least thats sustainable

but funny how 8 x $30K dues = $240K, for $2.4MM properties that have no mortgage
thats $20K/mo and 10% of property value
EE's per property figure is $125K
thoughts anyone?

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Frome the web site refered to above -

"In 2003, Keith co founded Private Escapes Destination Clubs, which quickly become the 3rd largest company in the luxury real estate/travel industry. Private Escapes was acquired in September of 2009."

Simply omits "and then went bankrupt within a year...and Keith was a senior executive..."

Amazing. :annoyed:

 

[NeilGoBlue]

but funny how 8 x $30K dues = $240K, for $2.4MM properties that have no mortgage
thats $20K/mo and 10% of property value
EE's per property figure is $125K
thoughts anyone?

Based on AK numbers, they can operate a home (all expenses and overhead but not interest expense or profit) for $183K a year (assuming 270 days a year of occupancy)

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

and RK goes back to TH apparently. no one ever leaves the DC industry. another example of ridiculousness.

Based on AK numbers, they can operate a home (all expenses and overhead but not interest expense or profit) for $183K a year (assuming 270 days a year of occupancy)

interesting.

 

[SciFrog]

$125k a year to run the properties is too low. Between taxes, HOA, utilities, housekeeping, maintenance and the local host, $180k seems more true.

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

depending on taxes, those kinds of numbers make some hotel management seem downright reasonable.

for example, not sure about taxes (leasehold) and "usage levies" but its $150K/yr for residence at phinda game reserve, including 8 staff and vehicle.

http://www.africanhomesteads.com/
http://www.signatureresidencesworldwide.com/African-Homesteads-Phinda-Private-Game-Reserve.html
http://www.andbeyondafrica.com/luxu...nda_private_game_reserve/own_a_home_on_phinda

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

http://destinationclubnews.com/forum/general-discussion/lifestyle-assets-launch-and-member-opinions/

Yet another piece of fiction coming out of the UE camp. From RK: "I said, 'What have we learned from this industry to create a far safer model?' We took four months to create this product and right out of the gate the No. 1 concern was how do we mitigate the risk?"

Do a WHOIS lookup. Lifestyle Assets created their website on October 11th which is less than a week after when he formally resigned as Chairman. The four months that were spent creating Lifestyle was while he was still serving as Chairman, fully knowing that UE had no chance of survival. Then for them to go after the UE members despite Demeure's acquisition seems unethical at best. Like PE member Gary Hoover says in the article "That's just an absurdity to me."

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142754

 

[TarheelTraveler]

Hideaways Club

http://www.fractionallife.com/news_the_hideaways_club_adds_three_new_properties1433.asp

Hideaways adding 3 new villas. Seems like they've had some very significant growth.

Interview with founder:

http://www5.zawya.com/radio/default.cfm/sidDE110328074707613428

 

[TarheelTraveler]

Inspirato

Inspirato announces $11M funding round:


http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inspirato-announces-11-million-funding-round-120853744.html

$4M in sales to date

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

so
2mm in 2.5 months
2mm in 1.5 months

 

[willmyclubmakeit]

what's the real story

so if it cost $10,000 to join (before the recent price increase) can you believe that 150 people joined in the past couple of months? I can not. Maybe the sales is rental income (with a corresponding expense) for the original 200 people who joined booking their holiday trips--at $1500 - $2500 per night it would not take too many people to book to get to $1.5 million (750 nights at $2,000/night). That seems possible. what do you think?

 

[TarheelTraveler]

so if it cost $10,000 to join (before the recent price increase) can you believe that 150 people joined in the past couple of months? I can not. Maybe the sales is rental income (with a corresponding expense) for the original 200 people who joined booking their holiday trips--at $1500 - $2500 per night it would not take too many people to book to get to $1.5 million (750 nights at $2,000/night). That seems possible. what do you think?

That is rather impressive sales volume. I know it's not much of a non-refundable deposit, but that's a lot of new members if it didn't include nightly dues.

 

[AKTHUE]

Sales

Does anyone believe self-reported unaudited sales numbers from any destination club? Caveat emptor.

 

[TarheelTraveler]

ER and Eden Club in St. Andrews enter into an exchange relationship:

http://destinationclubnews.com/News_Exclusive_Resorts_Announces_St_Andrews_As_Newest_Destination.php

"Members will have access to the three and five bedroom private residences attached to The Eden Club, located on the grounds of historic Pittormie Castle, just a few short minutes from The Old Course in St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf. The Eden Club's dedicated golf concierges can handle arrangements at St. Andrews and more than 30 other local golf courses can be found within 45 minutes of the castle. Exclusive Resorts members will also have access to select golf tournaments and activities, including The Founder's Cup in St. Andrews."

 

[Kagehitokiri2]

http://www.linkedin.com/company/exclusive-resorts

Came from...Castle Hill Inn and Resort, Event Sales Manager
Came from...The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, Group Sales Manager

 

[Buon Viaggio]

Inspirato

Looks like you can now rent by the month for about half their usual price. What does that mean? I thought they were growing by leaps and bounds?

 

[willmyclubmakeit]

inspirato

looks to me that the pricing of the homes is becoming a good alternative to DC membership except around holidays (cabo is still $3,000/night at xmas/new years for example) but if you are flexible on dates there are some good values. The mountain locations now looks to be good values in the summer (and cabo in the fall also) and not that bad in the winter in my opinion (much less than they quoted me in the past actually). On the other hand you have to pay $15k also to join, so this has to be factored into your daily rate so you still need to commit to renting from them a decent number of nights to make this pay off (and of course you have no idea what the rental charges will be in the future).

 

[deansimons77]

You got a very informative news there. That's great and helpful to us. Thanks!






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