This week the Ritz-Carlton Destination Club announced the opening of its newest ski-in/ski-out property at Northstar, Lake Tahoe.

The equity-based destination club has a limited-time offer, under which prospective members have the chance to buy into the Club for 40% less than the initial membership pricing. Annual dues remain the same, all Club benefits apply and the offer expires March 31, 2010.

Located on the French side of the island, these two free standing, ocean front villas will be available to members of the destination club starting in February next year.

Under the heading “A Shared Destiny”, Lucy Warwick-Ching wrote a very balanced article on destination clubs and fractional ownership. It appears in this weekends House & Home section of the FT.

Evolution at Whistler has announced new lower pricing to provide Whistler enthusiasts with the most attractive opportunity yet to purchase prime ski-in ski-out real estate at Whistler Creekside. Evolution's fully furnished two-bedroom resort homes now start at $144,900 per quarter interest.

The luxury second home fund, Equity Estates, has announced the addition of properties in Florence, Italy, and Naples, Fla., to its portfolio. The fund has added five new properties to the portfolio since December 2008 and hopes to add several more properties by the end of first quarter 2010.

In a continuing sign of the times, destination club Distinctive Holiday Homes has quite a few members on it's resignation list and is making adjustments to it's portfolio of homes.

Off-Season in Los Cabos Mexico can be amazing - quiet, peaceful, spacious, un-crowded. But because it's off-season, with all the dicey weather and other challenges that accompany it, you just have to be a bit more flexible.

There's a new fund launching in the UK that is bringing an established investment model to shared vacation home ownership. The company plans to buy luxury vacation homes around the world and balance its portfolio with UK based rental properties.

The second largest destination club, by number of members, has seen a lot of changes over the last year. CEO Jim Tousignant recently shared his thoughts on these developments.

The luxury second home fund, or fractional property club, Hideaways has been very busy adding new homes for its 100 owner/members. Over the past 6 months the club has opened seven homes around the world.

This expanding equity destination club just formed a member council last week to help advise the managing members.

The destination club has achieved good growth this year, even despite the economic climate. It now has over 500 members.

The newly named destination club just launched its "Portfolio Membership" earlier this year, but in the slow economy has announced it is delaying any new developments.

Many of the destination clubs and several private residence clubs have been offering trial memberships over the last year. A&K Residence Clubs new offer is one of the longest trail periods that we've seen.