at Jack Falstaff in San Francisco. We sat down with Ben Addoms, a co-founder and EVP of Quintess, and Don Kerchof, a founding member and VP of Membership Development (means sales) – and I paid. Seems like the Destination Club business is attracting former internet high-flyers – Exclusive Resorts has ex-AOL money and executives (Steve Case, Donn Davis and maybe some others we don’t know about). Quintess was been founded with ex-Excite management – both Addoms and one of the other co-founders, Pete Estler, were there in the heyday.

Outsiders might have the view that former internet executives might not be the best guys to run a business that is really real estate investment combined with outstanding hospitality delivery. I mean, would Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton hire these guys? But a closer look at the management teams at both companies and you see managers with lots of relevant experience. We will look at all the clubs with the same lens: do they have the necessary real estate and service delivery experience?

I left lunch with the impression that there is a lot to like about Quintess – a more complete review will come soon. It looks like others agree – they have grown from 30 to 92 members in 2005, primarily via referral. They have avoided the brochure wars, keeping their direct mail piece down to 6 ounces. Click here to compare them to the rest of the dead-tree crowd.