Distinctive Retreats
The next evolution of Rob McGrath's Private Retreats, Distinctive Retreats launched late in 2003 after Private Retreats reached its capacity of 400 members. Shortly after the Distinctive Retreats's launch, McGrath entered into a brandng agreement with Abercrombie & Kent to collect the two destination clubs under the newly created Abercrombie & Kent Destinations Clubs brand.
With the success seen at Private Retreats and their collection of $1.2 million properties, Distinctive Retreats launched with a collection of properties in the $2.5 to $2.8 million price range. The infusion of the Abercrombie & Kent name helped the club enjoy similar success to its predecessor. The proprietary model used at Private Retreats was duplicated for the new club. Limited to only 400 members, members would ultimately have access to just over 70 residences and boats. Members could travel on an unlimited basis, subject to reservation policies, and were entitled to a 100% refund of their membership deposit if they elected to resign their membership.
The success of Distinctive Retreats soon spawned Distinctive Retreats II, a continuation of the Distinctive Retreats offering once the original club reached its 400 member capacity.
The club would eventually launch an even more elite level club in Legendary Retreats in July of 2005. Near the same time, the collective clubs failed to pay Abercrombie & Kent for several months and lost their branding arrangement and were forced to rapidly remarket their club without the A&K name. McGrath named the new club after his two children, Tanner & Haley.
Almost exactly a year after the Legendary Retreats launch, the collected clubs were forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing their "members-first" approach as unsustainable. Each of the club's at Tanner & Haley guaranteed reservations to members, forcing the club to make numerous short-term leases to accomodate members. Factored in with increasing competition and insufficient annual dues, and the club was unable to survive.
In December of 2006, after a bidding war between Ultimate Resort and Ciel for the Tanner & Haley assets, a federal bankruptcy judge chose Ultimate Resort's $100 million bid and approximately 650 members from Tanner & Haley elected to join Ultimate Resort via either a dues only membership or an option to upgrade to full membership when the acquisition was completed in May of 2007.
Just four months later in September, Ultimate Resort and Private Escapes announced their merger to form what would eventually be Ultimate Escapes with the collected members of Tanner & Haley still a part of the club.
To learn more about Distinctive Retreats, please visit any of the club's quick links found to the right. To learn more about Ultimate Escapes, please visit our Ultimate Escapes Overview or request a free copy of our Destination Club Guide.
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