Compass Destination Club On Hold

By: Destination Club News
Date: June 18, 2009

Announced late last year as a destination club not reserved for the high net worth individuals, Compass Destination Club would plan to make their formal introduction to the destination club market in Q1 of 2010. With the current state of the economy, those plans may be in jeopardy.

We reached out to CEO Will Roadhouse for an update on the status of his young club.

"Our club has been put on the back burner because our developers projects are currently on 'hold.'" Roadhouse told us. "Until they receive builder financing we will not be investing any more time."

Calling membership in their club a "no-brainer," Compass Destination Club would use a model that many don't believe fit the true destination club structure. Members would pay a membership fee between $2,000 and $5,000 to join and receive discounts on participating studios, condos, and single-family homes with none of the residences available to members owned by the club.

Focusing on Central America hotspots like Costa Rica, Belize, and Panama, Compass Destination Club would leverage the experience the executive team had in the area to build their portfolio with developers. "A lot of developments are virtual ghost towns," Roadhouse told us last year. "We want to provide our members with these two bedroom condos that are being unused."

With luxury travel down, those rooms may continue to go unused for the foreseeable future.

In the interim, Roadhouse is working on producing some episodes of HGTV's "House Hunters International," a program he has been featured on before. "In addition to working with HGTV, we are working on a couple of new 'pilots' focusing on living abroad, world travel, and talking about real estate," Roadhouse said.

While Compass Destination Club may be on hold, it is in a far more preferential position than clubs like Diamante Residences and Botiga who both launched and began actively selling memberships before announcing their respective suspensions, eroding all goodwill before even entering the industry.

As their planned 2010 launch date approaches, check back to see if anything for the club changes. If you are currently evaluating destination club membership and would like to compare the different models used throughout the industry, request a free copy of our Destination Club Guide.