Destination club Ultimate Escapes recently extended an offer to High Country Club members and announced plans to give real estate agents and travel agents a commission for member sign-ups. We caught up with CEO Jim Tousignant to talk about the challenges for destination clubs now and his club’s newest exchange partnership with a resort developer.

Ultimate Escapes just announced plans to offer commissions to real estate agents and mortgage brokers. Why are you tapping into this market?

Tousignant: High-end brokers have very large, affluent customer bases. We were starting to get calls from real estate agents and mortgage brokers—a network of professionals who are reaching the same target demographic that we want to reach. We’ve never done a formal program for third-party agents. With this program for real estate agent and brokers, we are paying 4% commission on the cost of a membership. On our most expensive plan, that totals $18,000.

Why are you reaching out to High Country Club members?

Tousignant: We got a number of member inquiries. We are always respectful of the other clubs, and I know the principals of High Country Club. As they were putting out their plan to reorganize, we opted to let that process take its course. But as the weeks went by and the plan went through a number of iterations, it became more clear to us that the plan, as crafted, was unlikely to pass. So we extended the offer to their members in a low-key way, with no advertising.

How are you appealing to those High Country Club members who might be frustrated with the destination club model?

Tousignant: I understand members who are frustrated and angry. I very much feel for anyone in that circumstance. I’ve dealt with hundreds of such members from Tanner & Haley. One thing we tell them is they can join a club that is being run in a sustainable way. How do you buy million-dollar homes in a club and then charge $20,000 or $30,000 to join? We have always charged a legitimate membership fee. You have to charge a proper membership fee to join and charge proper dues. You can’t overpromise.

Are you expecting any members will join?

Tousignant: We knew the demographic of the customer base at Tanner & Haley had already paid a deposit of $250,000 to $1 million when we made an offer to them. But it’s not clear to me that this is the same demographic that can afford or even wants to spend more money on a membership. If we don’t bring on any or many members, we don’t lose anything. Rather, it demonstrates our forthrightness as a club.

How are you expanding the property portfolio?

Tousignant: We have introduced a new affiliate reciprocity program with luxury resort developer Capella. It gives affluent consumers who are buying whole ownership resort residences or fractional homes a chance to experience our club through an exchange program. Our hope is that many of them will become buyers of club memberships. Our members can stay at Capella homes, and developers pay us substantial fees.

How is the club adjusting to the economic downturn?

Tousignant: We are managing our costs and trying not to be all things to all people. We are well positioned. We have recurring revenue from our membership fees. We’ve been paying down debt obligations. We don’t agree that real estate values have come down 30, 40 or 50%—any club that says that may have overpaid for properties.

I’m cautiously optimistic. This is the worst global economic crisis that I have ever seen. There are always ups and downs, but this market has aggressively pressed down. We have people in our pipeline very interested in wanting to join the club, but the consumer confidence piece is huge for this industry.