The luxury vacation club BelleHavens today announced it's next 11 planned locations and also introduced new membership levels and future price increases.

Yesterday Ultimate Resort announced that it had closed the acquisition of substantially all of the real estate assets of Tanner & Haley. This $100m acquisition gives Ultimate over 750 members and luxury homes located in 25 resort destinations in the United States, the Caribbean, Mexico and Europe.

Exclusive Resorts, the largest destination club, announced today that it has passed the $1 billion mark in the value of its owned residential resort real estate.

Ultimate Resort has over 100 luxury vacation homes split between its two clubs, the original Ultimate Resort and the new Ultimate Resort Elite. The club grew rapidly last year with the acquisition of Tanner & Haley.

Portofino club has introduced a new membership option that lets members participate in the increase in value of the membership fee.

Portofino has introduced a new luxury destination club - the Continental Collection. This is the third club for Portofino and complements their Signature Collection, with $1.2m homes, and the Portofino Collection with $2.5m homes.

This article compares the financial aspects of owning a luxury second (or third or fourth) home to being a member of a destination club. It includes a spreadsheet to let you compare the economics of these two popular forms of vacations for wealthy families.

About a month ago, the two destination clubs entered into a reciprocity agreement to allow each others members to use some of their luxury vacation homes. We checked in with both clubs on how this was going.

With each of the destination clubs having different fee structures it requires a little math to put them on a par to compare the cost per night. This article walks through the calculation and provides you with a downloadable spreadsheet showing the calculation for most of the clubs.

The Markers has just announced an investment in Private Club Network that gives Markers members access to the 192 private golf and country clubs in the Network. In addition members of the Private Club Network can try out The Markers Club with a specially priced preview "experience".

We recently talked to Vicki Vorhees, the President of Premier Destinations to find out the latest details on this luxury destination club. The club has just launched its membership program in January this year and is in discussions with 15 charter members.

In a first for a destination club, BelleHavens just launched GreenHome, an energy conservation program for its portfolio of luxury vacation homes. Many of the homes are already well on the way to conversion to being energy efficient and the club overall will be carbon neutral.

Exclusive Resorts recently announced a membership financing plan that allow members to defer payment for up to 5 years on up to 80% of their initial membership fee. Members who join under the payment plan have all the other full rights of membership.

High Country Club, one of the lowest priced destination clubs, has recently announced a new Associate membership level. For an initial membership fee of $30,000 and annual dues of $3,500, members can use the clubs properties for up to 15 nights a year.

BelleHavens recently announced the acquisition of another destination club, the Havens Club. The signs are that almost all, if not all, of the Havens Clubs 40 members will be joining BelleHavens, giving BelleHavens a total of about 90 members. BelleHavens is also reviewing the acquisition of some of the Havens Club's properties, although many of these were not owned by the club.

Ciel is an ultra luxurious destination club that offers its members a variety of unique customized experiences, in addition to providing access to its multi million dollar homes. Founded by billionaire J. Joe Ricketts, the founder of Ameritrade, the club is limiting its numbers to just 100 members.

Another destination club has now passed the 100 member mark, with M Private Residences just reaching this number in February. The clubs 100 shareholders have completed over 500 trips and according to Ken McLean the CEO are using the properties for an average of 42 days annually.

Destination clubs have been increasing in popularity over the past few years. They provide a good alternative to luxury vacation homes, in fact some destination club owners have sold their second homes when they join a club. But, there are pros and cons on both sides. If you're thinking of buying a vacation home or joining a destination club read through the factors below before making your choice.

With its successful acquisition of Tanner & Haley properties Ultimate Resort has introduced Ultimate Resort ELITE. Members in this club enjoy luxury homes with an average value of $3.5m. Approximately half of Ultimates overall 105 homes are part of the ELITE portfolio.