We have discussed before the emerging trend of multi-location private residence clubs, such as the Ritz-Carlton Club, and how they hope to offer the ownership benefit of real estate with the flexibility of a destination club.

One such club is Boutique Club International, a new club run by a very experienced team coming from the high-end timeshare companies such as Cendant and Starwood. We recently spoke with one of the founders, Jay DiGiulio, to better understand their strategy and offering.

DiGiulio describes their approach as buying and developing a suite of small, intimate boutique hotel residences, that will then be sold in whole or as fractional ownership slices. The properties will also be available for hotel booking for guests, in the range of $300-$1800 per night. He expects that owners will buy into one property that they know they want to spend 14-21 days at each year and then use a point system to get access to other properties in the portfolio.

Boutique Club has started with with four locations: Aspen, Newport, Rhode Island, Barbuda and Costa Rica – and a property in New York is one the way. The sizes vary, from Aspen to New York (planned 65 owners) to Newport where there could be as many as 200+ owner families. The club intends to renovate or develop to the same 5 star standard in each location, with the same level of services and amenities. The delivery of this service level is supported by an operating agreement with the Leading Hotels of the World.

DiGiulio clearly understands the high-end fractional business and is structuring the club to accommodate issues that owners will face: reservation windows, peak travel periods, open reservation windows to allow for last-minute travel and so on. He was also very frank about the decision to buy in. In his opinion, it is a lifestyle decision and as such, he acknowledges that there is no proven resale market yet for luxury fractional products.

We think that multi-location residence clubs offer an interesting option – particularly if you plan to spend several weeks a year at the same location. In that case, a club like Boutique Club may be a good option for you. You can make one of their properties a primary location for your vacations – adding in the additional locations for variety. We should expect to see more clubs/developments like these as the luxury fractional real estate industry reacts to the stunning success of Exclusive Resorts and the other leading destination clubs.