We’ve talked before about members needing to “master” the reservation system of their destination club, especially for very popular homes or when booking at peak travel times.

This challenge has probably been most acute with Exclusive Resorts, simply because they are the first club to reach scale and need to balance the release of new homes with the demands of over 2,300 members.

The Race To Reserve

For all destination clubs, the reservation process is a very important representation of how the club operates as well as the member experience. Reservations need to be easy to access and book, transparent in terms of their methodology, equal in its treatment of all members, and resemble a luxury process – not an online lottery or casino.

Until this month, Exclusive Resorts released a new home to the membership at a published day and time – setting up the dynamic of members or their assistants hitting the “refresh” button to book an online reservation before other members. Members had to race to book the high demand weeks – a fair process, but not necessarily one that suggests a luxury service.

New Reservation System

This month, Exclusive Resorts will release a new reservation system for new properties when they are added to the inventory. Helium Report was given a sneak preview of the new online system.

We like many of their starting assumptions: no new rules, no change to membership agreements, and complete integration into the existing Exclusive Resorts reservation system, called Compass. Here is how it will work:

One week prior to the home being “released,” members can go online and preview the property and location. They can then select up to 5 reservation requests for the new residence within a 24 month travel window. The system will then randomly assign a number to each member, and then work from the top of that list down, attempting to match one of the members’ 5 requests (in order of priority) to the availability of that residence.

Helium Report Perspective

Clearly, success will be based on your random number and what you request for travel dates, since the holiday weeks will likely be very frequently requested by most people on the list. However, the new system is a balanced approach to divvying up the availability of Exclusive Resorts’ 300+ homes – and eliminates the frenzied race to reserve.

You can search seven different reservation examples on the Compass system at Exclusive Resorts’ website or request a guided tour. We selected “Spring Break 2007” and found 229 possible week-long reservations in 25 locations.

Screenshot of search results. © Exclusive Resorts.