We’ve written on clubs’ marketing materials several times already, with industry heavyweight Exclusive Resorts garnering the most ink (er, pixels) for their 14-minute DVD and 71-ounce brochure. The difference for clubs like Exclusive Resorts and Tanner & Haley (as opposed to the condo developments here in SOMA) is that size of their brochures often does represent what they have to offer. As the two clubs with the most operational residences, they need more glossy stock to paint the full picture of their offering.

In addition to the traditional media they use to tout their profile, more clubs are investing in their web sites to deliver their brand message and membership experience. The images on Quintess’ recently redesigned web site are so perfect that you can hear the waves lapping at the shore outside of their St. Thomas property. And Solstice offers a unique backstory for many of their properties in addition to images and floorplans. But this week it’s the recent additions to Dream Catcher Retreats’ web site that are holding our attention. While they’re not the first club to add virtual tours of their homes, no one else is doing a better job. The images are not the grainy type you often see on real estate web sites and they are large enough to provide a good overview of each room. Each tour includes a 360-degree view of nearly every room in the residence and the tours are available for more than half of their properties. To see for yourself, visit the Destinations section of their site and look for homes with “Virtual Tour” in their menus.

Many destination clubs use their websites to interact with their membership pools. Members of a club will log into their online account to book vacations. To give an introduction to this experience Dream Catcher now allows prospective members to search their portfolio of homes for availability over 30-day, 60-day and one-year terms. While the search results for the 30-day and 60-day windows appear slightly differently than the one-year window, a Dream Catcher representative advised the Helium Report that every residence that appears in the search results is available for a minimum of 3 days.

As the industry matures – and grows more competitive – we expect to see more clubs offering this kind of “Insider” perspective to prospective members. It’s been our experience that the clubs with the most “transparency” – whether in their financial structure or reservation system – are the ones with the most to offer. When clubs on your short list aren’t already revealing these details, be sure to ask for them before joining. On Monday we revealed a few of top-20 due diligence questions. Visit us next Monday as we’ll discuss a few more.

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Related Destinations:

• St. Thomas

 

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