Joining a destination club can be a way to ensure great luxury getaways several times per year. Before committing to a club, potential members should be well-equipped to choose the club that best suits your needs. As minimum night requirements vary from club to club, it is important to look at the minimum number of nights for any given stay and be sure they suit your travel plans.

Most clubs allow for spontaneous short notice stays and flexible planning options. Some even offer single-night reservation possibilities throughout their portfolio of homes or at least in urban locales. Some clubs, however, require minimums of three to four nights, so it is important to check into these facts before choosing a club. For travelers looking for a place to drop in for a one-night stay, or those looking for longer getaways, there are several options.

The table below compares clubs by their minimum reservation requirements to help inform your club selection:

Ciel Club
Ciel's three-night minimum requirement may be waived on a space-available basis, as the club's philosophy is to grant as many of your requests as possible.

Solstice Collection
The minimum reservation period is three nights, similar to One Key World, Ultimate Resorts and Quintess' non-city locations. Any stays within a "space available" window do not count against your nights of use in your membership plan.

Quintess
All membership plans and all booking windows at Quintess require a minimum of three nights, except city destinations, which allow for one-night stays in places such as London and New York City.

M Private Residences
M Private Residences has three types of reservations: long term, short term and space available. All reservations have no minimum nights requirement. The maximum nights stay is seven, although for long-term reservations two long-term reservations can be used to book up to 14 days at one home.
(Interestingly any stays within a "space available" window do not count against your annual nights of use - Solstice has a similar plan offering)

Exclusive Resorts
All Exclusive Resorts reservations require just a one-night minimum, regardless of the type of membership.

Ultimate Resort
Ultimate Resort reservations allow any plan members a minimum of three nights and maximum of 21 nights for any single trip. This is an ideal club for members booking long weekends and longer trips, but would not be convenient for those hoping for brief, one-night stays.

Private Escapes
Similar to Exclusive Resorts, Private Escapes simply calls for reservations in one-night increments, offering members flexibility and making the club a good choice for all types of travelers. With the announced merger of Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes the new reservation policies for new members will be consistent between the two clubs.

LUSSO Collection
All members can book one- night reservations within 14 days of their stay. All other reservations must be for two or more nights.

Distinctive Holiday Homes
Distinctive Holiday Homes requires a two- night minimum reservation for all members. You can reserve any two or more nights for space available booking up to 14 nights total. Advanced reservations can be made for two nights up to seven nights, and members can combine two advanced reservations to make a 14 night vacation.

BelleHavens
All four BelleHavens plans have the same simple guidelines for making reservations within a one-year booking window:
Short-notice reservations are those booked up to 60 days before arrival. Arrivals and departures for reservations made within this timeframe can be on any day of the week and in any nightly increment.
Advanced reservations are those booked 61 to 365 days before arrival and must be made in three, four, or seven night increments, with a maximum of 14 nights. These reservations require arrivals and departures on Thursdays or Sundays.

One Key
Non-city stays require a three-night minimum. Certain destinations and peak travel periods may be subject to arrival/departure day restrictions, such as Saturday to Saturday booking, or more extensive minimum night requirements of seven or more.

Portofino Collection
The club's reservations all require a two-night minimum.

High Country Club
High Country Club recently announced changes to its reservation policies, such that members will be able to make three-day or four-day reservations up to one year in advance. The minimum drops to two for reservations made within one week of the travel date.

Before joining a destination club check that the reservation policies and minimum nights fit with your typical travel plans. For instance, if you love to do one or two night getaways, make sure that your membership will let you do this - with some clubs you can and others you may only be able to do it at short notice (in "space available" reservation windows).

Also bear in mind that for most clubs there is a limit to the number of advanced bookings you can make at any one time. So if your membership plan lets you have 3 advanced bookings at any one time, and you use all of these to make 1 night reservations, then you won't be able to make other (longer stay) reservations until you've been on one of your advanced reservations. So in a lot of cases it will be better to use these one or two night stays for quick, short notice getaways, that fall within your clubs and your membership plans "space available" reservation window.

For more thoughts to consider before joining a club read our in depth Guide to Destination Clubs.

Please contact us with any thoughts or questions about the items we've raised in this article.