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 have acquired less than three homes in total. That’s a tough sell when you have the opportunity to join other clubs with anywhere from 10 to 300 residences around the world.

We believe that for most clubs, the right number is at least 3-5 homes per location, allowing the club to spread the cost of concierge, maintenance etc across several homes, and giving members better availability in those locations. Many clubs are not there yet – so the question is which clubs will have the necessary growth to make it possible. We will tell you in our full report.

One challenge facing clubs is that high-end developments in popular resort locations are increasingly resisting fractional ownership models, making it hard for companies to acquire multiple properties…unless you’re Exclusive Resorts and buy 20% of the homes. With that clout they are able to convince the developer (and the property owners association) to allow a fractional club in.

At the other end of the scale, the very small, high-end clubs (eg. Solstice) will likely only have one home per location – and the assumption is that they will be able to manage the demand for the home, and bear higher cost-per-home maintenance costs – through higher fees.