Luxury destination club Distinctive Holiday Homes is offering a special upgrade offer during October. New members will receive either a complimentary one membership plan upgrade, or a complimentary 7 night stay with a pre-paid membership card.

This new destination club had just started its launch program this summer, but in the current financial market turmoil has decided not to move forwards.

The SherpaReport in-depth "Destination Clubs: A Guide for Prospective Members" has been extremely popular since we first published it last year. The newest edition has been brought up to date with details on all the new clubs, merged clubs, new membership plans and services.

Renting a vacation home or villa is an established option for family vacations. The destination clubs provide a full service alternative for discerning families. The key differences are covered here.

Ultimate Escapes is gearing up for ski season. With the two new homes that it just opened in Steamboat Springs it has a total of 5 homes across the three different destination club levels.

For its first European residence, destination club Lusso has chosen a meticulously restored 5 bedroom farmhouse, situated just outside Cortona in Tuscany.

Abercrombie & Kent are launching their new destination club today with a "Founders Offer", providing some special benefits for new members.

The South African equity destination club Dream Circle, launched at the end of last year. We recently touched base with Ian Beauchamp the clubs Managing Director.

Off-season on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas is profoundly and refreshingly quiet. For a city-dwelling New Yorker like me, the silence was almost ghostly, but completely rejuvenating. On Abaco, you share the roads with large land crabs instead of taxis, and on a typical outing are likely to encounter more butterflies than people.

Additional travel offerings amongst the major destination clubs are evolving rapidly. The trend is to offer one-of-a kind vacation adventures, providing more travel options for members in addition to stays at the clubs luxury vacation homes.

The Markers, a destination club for avid golfers, has formed recent partnerships to give its members access to new golf courses and new residences around the world.

With the membership plan changes that Distinctive Holiday Homes just announced, the destination club also announced that a new home in Hawaii will be available to members, plus it laid out plans for the other near term home additions.

As of September 1st this year, Distinctive is making some changes to its membership plans and increasing prices. On the whole the changes give members more flexibility in their usage of the club homes.

Quintess added a boat to its collection of residences earlier this year, and during its recent trip to Boston we went down to the harbor to meet the Captain, Jamie Van Pelt.

Adding to its collection of homes in two of its destination clubs. Ultimate Escapes has added a villa and a condo at Reserva Conchal in Costa Rica.

The Lusso Collection just announced a special promotion offering frequent flyer miles on seven major airlines. 

This new destination club is currently in its "Friends & Family" period as it builds for it's more formal launch this Fall. SherpaReport recently met with Founder, Geoffrey Kent, and President, Jarvis Slade, to discuss the future plans for the club.

Effective August 31st 2008, luxury travel club One Key will be increasing the prices for its three membership plans. At the same time the club is changing the plans from offering a fixed number of nights to being a points based system.

A new membership plan, from boutique destination club Lusso, will offer 21 days of usage per year.

This new independent advisory service helps consumers identify the most appropriate destination club, and then also helps secure the best membership terms available.