With the merger between Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes set to close soon, the first pricing for membership plans under the new combined entity, Ultimate Escapes, was recently released at the Ragatz Fractional Interest conference. Club executives tout that the combined club’s membership numbers put it squarely in the number two slot, in terms of club size, just behind industry behemoth Exclusive Resorts. Potential destination club members, or current members of any club looking to make a switch, will no doubt be comparing these two clubs side by side comparing membership costs, plans, and the breadth of the property portfolio.

Membership plans

Ultimate Escapes has a wider membership plan offering than Exclusive Resorts, primarily due to the fact that it represents a combination of two clubs that already offer what are effectively clubs within clubs; membership levels at both Private Escapes and Ultimate Resort are broken out by home value. Ultimate Escapes’ model is essentially three clubs, each distinguished by the average cost of homes that members can access. For instance the Premiere club has a collection of $1 million homes, while the residences in the Elite club have home values averaging $3 million. Within each club there are four plans geared towards families and one corporate plan. Individual plans range from 14 to 42 days and have membership deposit requirements of $220,000 to $370,000. Exclusive Resorts offers just four plans, with anywhere from ten to 45 days of use included.

While Ulimate Escapes’ plan diversity is a nice perk, making the club more affordable to a wider swath of travelers (the least expensive 14-day plan in the Premiere level is $80,000), the challenge for the club will be selling potential members on the subtle differences between the membership options. After all, does a plan with higher average home prices mean larger floor plans, or residences in better locations such as oceanfront rather than oceanview?

Membership cost

Exclusive Resorts’ portfolio has an average home value of $3 million, so we’ll compare that to the highest level Elite plan at Ultimate Escapes. While the clubs’ included nights of usage aren’t an exact match, overall, members at Ultimate Escapes will get better access to holiday reservations and space available reservations than those with comparable Exclusive Resort’s plans. For instance, the top level Ultimate Escapes plans allow space available reservations within 180 days, in contrast to just 90 days at Exclusive Resorts. Exclusive Resorts wins on the annual dues front, with lower fees on its ten-, 15- and 25-day plans. With Exclusive Resort’s priciest plan, $459,000, the annual dues are slightly higher than the comparable Ultimate Escapes plan, but members get an additional three days of use. Overall, in comparison to Ultimate Escape’s Elite plan, Exclusive Resort’s membership fees start lower (it’s $129,000 entry-level plan includes ten days of use), but end higher.

Portfolio diversity

For sheer number of homes, no destination club can top the buying power of Exclusive Resorts. When they enter a market, they pick up ten, 12 or even 30 residences, as they did last year in Las Vegas. The club now has 375 homes in some 35 locations. The combined Ultimate Escapes club boasts a greater diversity of locations, however, with more than 50 destinations. Still, for those with specific locations on their wish list, there are differences between the clubs that will warrant a closer look. Exclusive Resorts has homes in Devon, England, Grand Cayman and the French Alps—areas where Ultimate Escapes doesn’t have a presence. On the flip side, Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes have homes in Sun Valley, Id., Stowe, Ver. and Belize, outposts that Exclusive Resorts doesn’t count in its portfolio roll call.