With new membership plans being unveiled by Exclusive Resorts and the rollout of a suite of new plans from the soon to be formed Ultimate Escapes, the playing field at the high end of the destination club market has changed once again. Using our cost-per-night analysis, Halogen Guides took a look at these new plans to see how the latest offerings measure up.

Destination club industry leader Exclusive Resorts just announced an overhaul to its plans adding two more to its lineup and restructuring the offering to include plans with 10 to 60 days. Taken as a whole, the new membership plans do constitute an increase in price. Individually however, certain tiers of membership now have smaller deposits than before, albeit with increased annual dues.

The new 40 day plan, for instance, actually commands a lower membership deposit of $409,900—some $50,000 less than the $459,000 deposit attached to the former Elite plan with 45 days, its closest equivalent in the previous model. At the same time, Exclusive Resorts has reduced the refundable percentage of membership deposits from 80 percent to 75 percent. These changes go along with new procedures for priority holiday access and extended family sharing options.

Halogen Guide’s cost-per-night analysis reveals that the new plans are more expensive on a per night basis than previously, though not by much. The ten-day Associate level plan used to balance out to $1,548 a night, assuming full use, while the new ten-day plan clicks in at $1,740 nightly. Each tier’s cost per night increases by around $200.

When looking at the new Exclusive Resort’s plans versus plans at other destination clubs, we make a few assumptions. First, we calculate the cost-per-night assuming that a member uses all of their nights in a plan. Second we don’t factor in the extra fee that Exclusive Resorts tacks on for allowing unaccompanied use by extended family, a perk that some clubs, including Quintess, LRW throw in for free.

Following the upcoming merger between Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes, the new mega club, Ultimate Escapes, will actually operate three distinct destination clubs based on the value of homes offered. Its Elite club will have homes worth around $3 million, comparable to the average value of homes in the Exclusive Resorts’ portfolio. Ultimate Escapes and Exclusive Resorts plans do not mirror each other in terms of number of days offered or holiday availability, making a direct value comparison difficult, however the clubs offer a similar range of plans.

On a simple cost-per-night basis, Exclusive Resort’s 20-day plan is the better deal at $1,245 per night according to our cost per night analysis, compared to Ultimate Escapes’ Elite Club 21-day plan which costs $1,495 per night. That extra $250 a night does however get you one holiday reservation a year at Ultimate Escapes. On the other hand Ultimate’s Elite 42-day plan costs only $950 if every night is used, less than the cost per night for any of the new Exclusive Resort’s plans, including the comparable 40 and 50 night plans. Looking at annual dues alone, Ultimate Escapes and the new Exclusive Resort plans have comparable annual fees, with the exception of the highest level of plans, where Ultimate Escapes fees clock in lower than Exclusive Resorts.

Quintess, LRW, a destination club where average home values top $4 million has a total of 12 membership offerings, including six plans that don’t include holiday usage. The club does market those non-holiday plans to prospects but had removed them from its website. Next week the club plans to once again begin featuring these non-holiday options online. No doubt the move is, in part, a response to Exclusive Resort’s roll out of its new non-holiday selections.

Quintess’ non-holiday plans range from 20 to 75 days and membership deposits are anywhere from $30,000 to $160,000 less than their holiday plan counterparts. So how to Quintess’ non-holiday plans measure up against Exclusive Resorts’ offering? On the 20, 30, and 60 day plans, Exclusive Resort’s membership deposits are lower than the comparable Quintess plans. The Quintess membership deposit is actually lower than Exclusive Resorts’ on the 40 and 50 day plans. On the annual dues front, the 20 and 30 night plans are close to Quintess plans. The big annual dues difference comes with the 40, 50 and 60 night plans where Quintess’ annual fees are anywhere from $7,900 to some $11,000 less than the Exclusive plans. And it is those annual dues that most impact the cost per night difference between the two clubs. Quintess non-holiday plans are anywhere from $44 to $295 lower a night with the biggest cost difference on the 40 and 50 night plans.

If you take the new Exclusive plans and match them against Quintess’ holiday inclusive plans, the number crunching, well, gets more complex. After all you’ll need to account for Exclusive’s one time holiday supplement of $39,000 or $59,000, depending on the desired holiday. Without factoring in those costs, a basic comparison shows that Quintess’ holiday plans, not surprisingly, carry a higher membership deposit, but those plans still have lower annual fees than Exclusive Resorts and, therefore a lower cost per night.

With clubs turning towards rolling out more plans, rather than streamlining offerings, there are multiple ways to crunch the numbers. Destination clubs will even admit that the mix can be mind boggling and confusing for consumers. The next challenge for destination clubs? Trying to make their portfolio of six, 12, or 15-odd plans decipherable to a whole new group of potential destination club members. Get your calculators ready.