Another year, another merger announcement for Ultimate Resort. On the eve of its merger with Private Escapes, now slated for April, the company has completed the acquisition of Tampa-based BVG Inc.’s fledgling destination club, Ventures Equity Vacation Club. Ultimate Resort paid an undisclosed sum for Ventures Equity, in addition ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort is set to merge with destination club Private Escapes later this month creating Ultimate Escapes, a club with more than 140 properties in 50 locations. But in addition to the merger Ultimate Resort executives have been focused on rolling out new properties, including two outside of the ... Read Full Article »

The $200 million merger between destination clubs Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes is set to close in early January forming a new venture, Ultimate Escapes. The combined company will offer members three separate clubs, each with five levels of plans, and a total of 140 homes in nearly 50 ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort recently announced a merger with Private Escapes, creating the second-largest luxury destination club. Over 1,200 destination club members will be affected by this landmark move, so who better to ask about the merger than the members themselves? Some Ultimate Resort members have seen these gears turning before. Shortly after ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes today announced a $200 million destination club merger to be completed in November. Susan Kime spoke with the two clubs’ respective CEOs Jim Tousignant and Richard Keith about this big news for the luxury vacation home industry. When did you both start thinking that a merger ... Read Full Article »

Combined club looks stronger with more properties Two of the destination club industry’s leading players turned heads today as they announced a merger to create the the second-largest luxury destination club. With 1,200 combined members, Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes’ new entity will be second only to Exclusive Resorts. The $200 ... Read Full Article »

In a strategic move, Ultimate Resort – the second-largest destination club – has partnered with American Express to offer double reward points. Club members that pay for memberships and annual dues on their Amex card are eligible for this benefit. And with 775 members that could cash in, it’s no ... Read Full Article »

Price increases have dominated destination club news this summer, and Ultimate Resort confirmed that they too will increase membership fees on July 31st. Other price increases were announced through Helium Report last week – including Exclusive Resorts, Quintess, and BelleHavens. So why the end-of-summer deadline frenzy? As Helium Report noted before, ... Read Full Article »

There are few better ways to learn about destination clubs than with a world-class chef’s culinary miracles at arm’s reach. While Helium Report can’t serve you an “e-meal” with our PDF guides, Ultimate Resort is planning a destination club information evening at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in Santa Monica. An online announcement ... Read Full Article »

An article in the Denver Post on May 9th about Portofino’s new “appreciation package” caught our attention. According to Post writer Julie Dunn, the package “allows members to share in the financial upside of joining a luxury destination club.” Destination clubs offer luxurious travel, and and focus on their members’ vacation ... Read Full Article »

Jim Tousignant, founder and CEO of Ultimate Resort, called today to update us on his deal to buy the assets of Tanner and Haley. He confirmed that his acquisition closed last Friday, and that Ultimate Resort now owns over $100 million worth of homes that had been in the Tanner ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort and CEO Jim Tousignant made a bold move at the end of 2006 to acquire the assets of industry pioneer Tanner & Haley. The luxury vacation club is making a run at the #2 position in the industry by member size. If you live in the San Francisco Bay ... Read Full Article »

2006 was a busy and eventful year for the destination club industry. No more so than for Quintess. A Quintess member recently provided us with a summary of a recent club member communication. Here are the highlights: Quintess recently hit 300 members, which is up from 90 the year before. We ... Read Full Article »

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 ... Read Full Article »

As we reported earlier this month, Ultimate Resort acquired the assets (in this case, homes) of bankrupt Tanner & Haley for $100 million. Ultimate Resort now takes ownership of about 60 of Tanner & Haley’s residences and hopes to convert several hundred of the destination club’s members. In a final ... Read Full Article »

We spoke again with Jim Tousignant, the founder and CEO of Ultimate Resort and the architect of his club’s bold move to acquire the assets of the bankrupt club, Tanner & Haley. In terms of the deal, Dec. 19th is the date for the final court approval of his ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort, the sixth largest destination club by member count, may rocket to second place after agreeing to acquire the assets of bankrupt Tanner & Haley in a $98 million transaction. The 78-member luxury destination club is buying about 60 of the 67 residences owned by Tanner & Haley at a ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort destination club announced a new member service focused around their Lake Tahoe, NV residence. Ultimate Resort is offering four tailor-made “Seasonal Signature” activities that can be adjusted to meet the member’s needs and tastes. The five-bedroom Lake Tahoe home is located on the 13th hole of the Incline Village ... Read Full Article »

Helium Report provided data on the destination club industry for a Newsweek story last week. We’re often asked by reporters and readers which firms have the largest market share. We’ve compiled some metrics for the Top 5 Destination Clubs by Members in the chart below. We excluded Tanner & Haley ... Read Full Article »

A new website, an updated membership program, an industry-first warranty, and a recent price increase are some of the many changes Jim Tousignant, CEO of Ultimate Resort, shared with us in a call today about his destination club. To round out the list, the firm also recorded its “best selling ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort tends not to get the attention of the some of the other clubs, in part because they do not seem to have made the big investment in splashy marketing materials or a real fancy website. But it’s a small club that makes steady progress, in part based on ... Read Full Article »

In researching our upcoming Guide to Private Air Travel we learned that the Marquis Jet card has been a very effective way to introduce affluent families to jet travel. In some cases those families are then sold into fractional ownership in Netjets, a sister company. We also know that there ... Read Full Article »

The team at Ultimate Resort provided Helium Report with some member testimonials about their club. We selected four that illustrate two key benefits of joining a destination club – the experience and time with family. As you’ll see in the last post, though, sometimes you’d rather have your family in ... Read Full Article »

We’re island island-hopping to the Caribbean for the next of our featured home series. Ultimate Resort’s St. Thomas residence is perched atop Mahogany Run the island’s only golf course and home of the famous “Devil’s Triangle”. This 3,200 square feet “private estate” is located on the northern shore ... Read Full Article »

We always like to check in with other analysts and writers that cover the affluent market, and this week we caught up with Deidre Woollard, who created and runs the very successful blog, luxist.com. We asked her about trends in the luxury and destination club markets and here are her ... Read Full Article »

Ultra-luxury clubs such as Legendary Retreats appeal to jet-set multi-millionaires, but the typical destination club member is just the “millionaire next door.” There’s a broad base of prospective destination club members in the United States. TNS Financial Services estimates 8.9 million households with an averge net worth of $2.2M, excluding ... Read Full Article »

We keep a running list here of questions that we need to ask the destination clubs – one is what does a member receive if they refer a friend who joins? Most of the websites don’t have any details on referral programs, except we did find that at Ultimate Resort, ... Read Full Article »

We spent a couple hours on the phone last month with Jim Tousignant, the founder and CEO of Ultimate Resort, and over the next few weeks we will continue to write about his club , as well as provide a more complete club profile in the Decision Guide. Jim has ... Read Full Article »

Ultimate Resort is closing out the second phase of their Charter Membership program at the end of January. The destination club will place new applications on a waiting list and shift their resources to expanding its current portfolio of 7 homes. An email from Steve Healey, Membership Director, ... Read Full Article »