Sometimes there’s no glory in being first – you wanna be Tim Berners-Lee or Sergey Brin? Sears or Wal-Mart? John Belushi or Jim? OK – maybe not that one.

Same thing for Destination Clubs. Arguably, Tanner and Haley – formerly A&K (approx. 900 members) and Exclusive Resorts (approx. 1,700 members) created the category. These pioneers spent a disproportionate amount of brain damage on legal and regulatory issues, chopping down acres of trees on fancy brochures and training a generation of Sharp Looking People to serve as concierges, sales people, operators and marketers.

Meanwhile, craftily waiting in the wings, were the “fast followers,” rubbing their hands together and cackling as they plotted their leap past version 1.0 to 2.0.

Did the pioneers’ early due diligence earn them any gratitude from the subsequent arrivals? Does the pope sh*t in the woods??

Tanner & Haley and Exclusive Resorts pretty much get picked on by the other clubs relentlessly. The other clubs offer pointed criticism of the biggies in their sales and marketing efforts, detailing what they do wrong and why they just don’t “get it.” More to-the-point, the newer clubs benefit from the feedback of early Exclusive Resorts/Tanner & Haley members, and fine-tune their plans accordingly. They also get to poach early employees, ripe with the knowledge of How Things Work.

In some cases, former employees & associates go out and start their own competing firm (it helps if you’re more a Jeff Katzenberg than a Bill Rancic). Karen Short, President of Quintess had been a consultant to Exclusive Resorts, and Richard Keith, founder and President of Private Escapes had been the COO at Tanner & Haley.

Steve Case, the owner of Exclusive Resorts, did a masterful job at AOL by learning from the mistakes of the early leaders Compuserve & Prodigy. Time and again, he executed better, faster, and with greater focus on his target customer. Who would you rather be: happybunny@aol.com or 3534,433@compuserve.com? (Answer: depends which one’s not Jim Belushi).

This time around, Case is the incumbent and there are several well-managed competitors gunning for him.

We have a healthy amount of respect for the leaders – for the institutional knowledge they’ve established, the portfolio they’ve acquired and the sheer advantages of scale in this business. But we’ll be watching closely at their flexibility and nimbleness as they adapt to changes in customer preferences, real estate markets and competitive innovation. Check back here frequently to get our take on this chessmatch. If you have any insights, we’d love to hear them as well. Our email is tips@heliumreport.com.