Vacation Clubs For Sale
Vacation clubs are all the rage when it comes to innovative travel programs, and the major hospitality brands all have some type of vacation clubs for sale in their portfolio of travel products. For flexibility and ease of use, vacation club programs often provide the best value when planning vacations – especially when buying on the resale market.
There are some big names behind these clubs, which gives vacationers the kind of assurance that they desire when it comes to choosing the best programs to suit their travel needs.
The Best Names in Vacations
Some of the largest and most well-known programs, such as Disney Vacation Club, Marriott Vacation Club and Club Wyndham, offer intangibles beyond their programs such as priority with the Disney theme parks, the strength behind the Wyndham name or the international recognition and destinations of Marriott.
Other recognizable names such as Hilton Grand Vacations, Diamond Resorts and Holiday Inn Club Vacations can provide targeted destinations with amazing resorts in places such as New York City, Las Vegas and Orlando.
Clubs that are more boutique such as Capital Vacations, Bluegreen Vacations and Exploria offer several destinations in more relaxed settings, while Hyatt Residence Club and Ritz Carlton Club give members excellent choices focusing on the upscale, luxury vacation club market.
Advantages of Vacation Clubs
Needless to say, there is probably more variety of vacation clubs for sale than you would ever imagine, but they all share the common thread of flexibility when it comes to using a club membership. Clubs are primarily based on a points system, with the member buying a certain number of points that can be used at various times of the year for different unit configurations – depending on the amount of points the member owns.
With some clubs, an allotment of points is sold based on the type of purchase. For instance, some clubs sell a package of points that are deeded to a specific resort, established as a home resort, with a certain number of points needed to vacation in a particular unit. An owner at, say, Disney's Boardwalk Villas could buy a package of Disney Vacation Club points that would give them a vacation in a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom unit each year at that resort. Those points could also be used within the Disney timeshare resort network to vacation in other resorts if the member decided to stay at a different resort.
In other clubs, points are sold as pure points, meaning they are allotted from a Trust and the member can use them at any resort within the network for any room configuration, as long as they have enough points to book that size of room. Marriott Destination points operate this way.
Variety of Vacation Destinations
Unlike the traditional timeshare product where the owner vacationed in a particular resort during a specific week every year, vacation clubs add impressive flexibility to ownership. Clubs allow members to use their points in a number of ways:
- Week-long or multiple, shorter stay getaways
- Vacation in different resorts within the club network
- Select among various unit sizes depending on the vacation needs
- Points owners can often borrow from future year’s use for special occasions
- Owners can bank points with exchange companies to vacation beyond their club resorts
- Use points for travel products such as flights, rental cars or cruises
Today’s vacation clubs operate more like travel services, with many providing concierge consultants to help members with their vacation plans. And the real value can be realized when travelers discover that they can buy vacation club memberships for sale on the resale market at significant discounts compared to resort prices.
Because clubs primarily sell their memberships at their resorts, they also have elaborate marketing teams and sales staff on hand to attract prospective buyers and sell them memberships. As a result, club memberships sold at the resorts include sales and marketing costs and commissions which add up to 50-60% of the initial sale price. Removing those costs on the resale market results in amazing discounts that buyers can take advantage of when buying on the secondary market.
