Is the terminology starting to get confusing or are the larger destination clubs really starting to transform into luxury vacation clubs. Many of the leading destination clubs now offer their members a variety of unique tours and travel packages, and have partnered with luxury hotel groups to offer more destinations to their members.

Once you start looking at all the options, you realize that many of the clubs are really aiming to be the single source for their members vacations.

Through its partnership with The Leading Hotels of the World, members of Quintess enjoy membership in the Hotels “Leaders Club”, which gives them a specially customized level of benefits at nearly 450 hotels around the world.

Abercrombie and Kent Residence Club has a partnership with 13 Stein hotels in Europe, including London, Paris, Provence, Mallorca and Monaco.

Last summer Ultimate Resort announced the “Ultimate Resort Collection” offering the availability of 60 luxury hotels in over 30 cities in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America.

Members at the destination clubs can typically use the hotels as a straight exchange of their member nights. So they provide a greater choice of locations, but the trade off is smaller hotel style rooms rather than single family homes.

With the launch of its “Once in a Lifetime” program last year, Exclusive Resorts became the first club to start offering exotic and unique travel experiences. The program was expanded from 4 to 16 experiences at the end of last year and now includes locations such as Fiji, Bhutan and the Galapagos islands.

Quintess launched its exclusive travel opportunities called Q Leading Experiences in February this year. The initial launch had four experiences, with a plan to eventually offer 40 to 60 experiences at up to 15 select Leading Hotels of the World hotels around the globe.

Earlier this year, Ultimate Resort announced a strategic partnership with Bruce World of Travel, part of the American Express Travel Network. Ultimate members can arrange all their travel needs including luxury adventure vacations through Bruce World.

Last month Abercrombie & Kent entered the destination club arena. As part of its launch it announced that its members could trade some of their club vacation time into A&K’s luxury tours and trips to more than 100 destinations around the globe. members of this emerging club brings one of the leading luxury tour operators.

The pricing for these tours varies, some are included as part of the annual membership fee, but many also have an incremental cost. 

The hallmarks of all destination clubs are the private vacation homes, villas and apartments that offer members the opportunity to host and entertain their friends and family.

A&K Residence Club includes 12 private European villas and manor homes in addition to its club owned homes.

As the club offer more travel options and services, they learn even more about their members travel preferences and so can provide a much more customized level of service