Luxury travelers looking for an exclusive experience in Europe have more options to choose from with BelleHavens, thanks to a new partnership with Stein Hotels and Resorts. A Bespoke Teaser for New Members Members joining BelleHavens before September 15th can also receive a personalized vacation this fall – over the winter holidays ... Read Full Article »

Exclusive Resorts, Quintess, and BelleHavens have implemented deposit increases in the context of significant membership changes. Quintess announced a side fund to expand its development and acquisition of new homes, and BelleHavens chimed in with a similar plan. BelleHavens was first in the wave of summer price increases. A membership deposit ... Read Full Article »

When Helium Report recently covered BelleHavens we highlighted their effort in trying to break the “chicken and egg” problem by growing its destination offering faster than their membership. Today, we had a chance to speak again with BelleHavens’ CEO Darin Gilson regarding new options for European travel. ... Read Full Article »

BelleHavens will be announcing next week eleven new homes along with a new membership plan. Helium Report today got a chance to talk to Darin Gilson, BelleHaven’s founder and CEO. “We have just announced to our existing members the addition of eleven new destinations,” said Gilson. “The addition of these residences ... Read Full Article »

Several luxury travel and real estate companies are starting to show their green wares and promote eco-friendly travel. You can spend over a $1,000 per night and sleep comfortably in the knowledge that you’re not trashing the environment. We’ve already told you about the efforts to fly carbon neutral. Here’s ... Read Full Article »

It’s not all about competition in the destination club industry. A couple of clubs are actually co-operating! BelleHavens has a reciprocity agreement with The Markers Club, allowing members to book The Markers’ homes in Scottsdale, Arizona, where BelleHavens does not yet own real estate. According to Darin Gilson, founder and CEO of ... Read Full Article »

BelleHavens, the membership-owned destination club, has announced its acquisition of Havens, a non-equity destination club that struggled over the past year. About 40 Havens members will be joining BelleHavens as non-equity members with travel reservation rights and they have the opportunity to upgrade their membership to have the same ownership rights ... Read Full Article »

From now until year-end, BelleHavens is offering a lifetime “Friends and Family Passport” to new members of their luxury destination club. The program allows members to share their reservation rights with designated guests—unaccompanied and with no restrictions. Typically, destination clubs allow members to designate a limited number of guests and usually ... Read Full Article »

A BelleHavens member recently sent in this review of the Norman Estates home in La Quinta, California – a 3,100 sq. ft. residence and the destination club’s 11th and latest home. Ffrench is a senior vice president, branch manager at Studley, a national commercial real estate firm. La Quinta is a ... Read Full Article »

BelleHavens President Darin Gilson sent an email to members last Thursday to “alleviate any concerns [members] may have as a result of [the Tanner & Haley bankruptcy] announcement, and remind [members] of the sensibility of the BelleHavens equity model.” BelleHavens provided Helium Report with a copy of the communication, which we’ve ... Read Full Article »

We spoke to three C-level executives of destination clubs on their reaction to the announcement of the Tanner & Haley reorganization. As you would expect, all remain confident in the industry and their own clubs. The three are also aware of the potential that some observers and analysts may ... Read Full Article »

“Each time we visit a BelleHavens location, we feel like kids at Christmas…” Dr. Hank Capps wraps up his story about his family vacation to Los Cabos, Mexico. Dr. Capps is a member of BelleHavens and has no affiliation to Helium Report. If you’d like to share your own story, ... Read Full Article »

“The destination concierge was in the house waiting to welcome us with our pre-arrival grocery selections…” Dr. Hank Capps’ story about his vacation continues, below. Click here for Part 1 and click here for Part 2. Trip Report for Los Cabos (Part 3 of 4) Each time we visit a BelleHavens ... Read Full Article »

“We have now been a [BelleHavens] member for over a year and wanted to share some of our experiences on a recent trip to Los Cabos, Mexico.” Click here to read Part 1 of Dr. Capp’s story. Trip Report for Los Cabos (Part 2 of 4) Closer to the trip, our ... Read Full Article »

Dr. Hank Capps, a BelleHavens member, sent us a detailed trip report of his recent vacation to Los Cabos, Mexico. We’ve split his story into four parts, which we’ll post over the next few weeks. If you’d like to share your story about a destination club experience, write us at ... Read Full Article »

Since mainstream media has been so positive about the destination club concept for the past two years (see post from earlier this week), it’s only a matter of time before the sentiment might turn a little bearish. A new article from Time magazine is the first we have seen ... Read Full Article »

From the outset, we were inclined to like the club philosophy and structure of BelleHavens, since it is very conservative – and the long-term ability of the club to return member deposits seems embedded in their thinking. They have a club structure that is unique but offers better asset protection ... Read Full Article »

We spoke earlier this month with a reader (a doctor from North Carolina) who joined BelleHavens about 18 months ago, and who shared with us his due diligence work – his level of research was very impressive. Over two hours, we talked about his thinking and analysis – everything from home ... Read Full Article »

Good question. And we would not be surprised if you are confused, especially since we are starting to see ‘equity’ or ‘appreciation’ creep into the sales lingo. But it’s not so easy, since ‘equity clubs’ look like an investment, and if so, are subject to some SEC overight – similar ... Read Full Article »

We are not really fans of the Crazy Eddie style of selling Destination Clubs (we think that people dropping several hundred thousand on a luxury club don’t respond well to “What’s it gonna take to have YOU drive away in this shiny, new Cadillac TODAY!”). But maybe they do. If you ... Read Full Article »

You might be surprised to learn that not every destination club has destinations to visit. Almost every club features a map with locations of their homes on their website, but some homes are simply “planned” or “under construction.” Several startup clubs are in the process of recruiting charter members and ... Read Full Article »

We reviewed each destination club website to see how the various initiation fees and annual dues stack up. Some destination clubs do not publish pricing information while others offer multiple membership programs. In this overview, we listed the highest tiers for destination clubs that offer different levels of ... Read Full Article »

BelleHavens offers five types of luxury vacation residences—BelleSol for beach and golf locations, BelleSummit for mountain resorts, BellePlaza for metropolitan destinations, BelleVista for regional getaways, and BelleVentures for unique travel adventures. After closing out its charter memberships, new membership plans will be released in 2006: BelleHavensâ„¢ Inc., the world’s first ... Read Full Article »

<!-logo and address-> Membership Inquiries: http://www.bellehavens.com Click here to request more information <!- profile data-> Membership Members (as of 1Q06) 50 Member cap 1000 ... Read Full Article »