The Destination Club Association is making some progress – they just appointed Richard Keith, founder and CEO of Private Escapes, to work as Vice-President with DCA President, Adam Wegner. Even more interesting is the association’s updated list of their first six members:

• Exclusive Resorts
• Private Escapes
• High Country Club
• Quintess, Catch the Dream
• Ultimate Resort
• Parallel

You may have noticed that five of these six clubs overlap with our list of Top 5 Destination Clubs by Members. One notable ommission is Leading Residences of the World, who, as we have reported, are no longer accepting new members.

We think that a club’s membership in the DCA should provide some level of comfort to a prospective member. That is, assuming the DCA enforces stringent membership requirements around issues such as disclosure and financial strength.

But what about clubs that are not members? Very early stage clubs, for example, would probably not qualify for membership, or may elect not to incurr the expense of membership until they have at least 25+ members or mutliple homes. As a prospective member, you need to do even more due diligence on a club not approved by the DCA.

Approach the decision as you might when investing in a friend’s business – you are, after all, committing several hundred thouand dollars to a new management team launching a brand new business. Even industry giant Exclusive Resorts was once a start-up club. The first question you should be asking is: Can the team running this club successfully grow to at least several hundred members?

For more advice on how to assess and select a destination club, download our free guide.