According to Jim Tousignant, the founder and CEO of Ultimate Resort, 675 members of the bankrupt club Tanner and Haley, joined Ultimate Resort and almost 200 have already upgraded to better membership plans. We detailed the Ultimate Resort offer here, and in some respects, we are not surprised that so many members signed on to the new club. We thought the offer from Ultimate Resort was good – even providing a chance for Tanner and Haley members to get a signifigant portion of their original deposit back should they resign the club – but they have to stay members for at least five years.

“A great result and better than expected. We are also planning on another 100 Tanner & Haley members who recently joined Ultimate but have not yet upgraded will upgrade in the near future, as Tanner and Haley members who join Ultimate Resort have up to 60 days after closing to upgrade to a better plan and take advantage of their upgrade credit.”

The road ahead for Ultimate Resort includes a lot of work to get these memebrs traveling with their new club, and then, at the end of the year, agreeing to renew their memberships. Also Tousignant will need to clean up the Tanner and Haley real estate portfolio – canceling many of those leases that were too costly for the old Tanner and Haley to bear.

We expect the transaction to close at the end of January. For the 200 members that did not join Ultimate Resort, they can expect their phone to start ringing from salespeople from other clubs.