From August 29th Exclusive will be adding $20,000 to its membership plans. It has also changed the terminology it uses and is now talking about an “initiation fee” rather than the “non-refundable portion” of the member deposit.

Exclusive Resorts Tahoe Residence

A common analogy for the structure of destination clubs is to compare them to country clubs. While a country club gives you access to the golf course, swimming pool, tennis and restaurant, a destination club gives you access to vacation homes around the world ........ and also potentially golf courses, pools and tennis courts around the world.

The change in terminology to talk about an “initiation fee”, on joining Exclusive Resorts makes the analogy all the more closer. The numbers are essentially the same although Exclusive has rounded them up a little. So for a 20 day membership plan the “initiation fee” is $50,000 and the “100% refundable fee” is $150,000. Up until now Exclusive had talked about a $199,900 membership fee for this plan, of which 75% (essentially $150k) was refundable.

Exclusive Resorts is also offering new members the ability to just pay the “initiation fee” and first years dues on joining and defer the payment of the refundable deposit until December 31st 2008.