Demeure Confirms Rob McGrath No Longer Attached To Upstart Club

By: Destination Club News
Date: October 15, 2010

Rob McGrath, the man who crafted the modern day destination club concept, has not been affiliated with the Demeure Club, a new upstart exchange based club in Canada, for a number of months, but Demeure CEO and Chairman Peter Schwartz wanted to take the opportunity to clarify McGrath's relationship with the club amidst the ongoing chaos at Ultimate Escapes.

Over the last several weeks I have been watching the heightened activity in the Destination Club market and in particular, the bankruptcy proceedings with Ultimate Escapes. Of late, we noticed a recurring theme about Rob McGrath's former involvement with Demeure and what it meant.

For the past 3 years we have been developing and refining the Demeure business model including the input from many experienced travel and industry insiders including Rob McGrath.

Rob McGrath was retained as a consultant from May 1st, 2010 through August 20th, 2010.

We would like to clarify that Rob McGrath is no longer performing any services for Demeure, however we did share with everyone his former business development engagement on our website.

During that period, Rob helped us analyze the pitfalls of the Destination Club model, which he was so much a part of over the years.

To be absolutely clear Rob McGrath has no ongoing financial interest in Demeure.

We believe we benefitted from that experience sharing and tested out stringent guidelines for governance, disclosure and transparency, but above all the core business model on which Demeure is based—one that recognizes the availability of fabulous properties around the world and the flexibility that people want — the ability to pay with time in your property for example.

Demeure is built upon a sound financial foundation and the business model is available for our customers to see. When I founded Demeure I sought the experience and wisdom of industry leaders such as:

Pat Brigham founder of SunQuest Tours, Mark Rider from the Rider Travel Group, Ultimate Escapes Elite Member and successful Canadian business leader Paul McLean in addition to the newly retired chairman of Delloite and Touche John Bowey.

Since then we’ve added industry veterans to our team here at Demeure committed to delivering world class experiences.

After three years of development, the next step was to stress test the model against the framework of what a destination club members expected but never received.

I look forward to reporting back on some the significant developments and great things that are happening at Demeure and I will continue watch the developments within the industry over the coming weeks.

The creator of Tanner & Haley, the world's first destination club, McGrath received much of the praise for the creation of the destination club model. When that club was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2006, he would equally receive much of the blame. Prior to his time with Demeure, McGrath was working on a new venture called The CIMA Collection. When McGrath was brought on as a consultant at Demeure, some believed that CIMA was coming with him, a point that Schwartz was quick to dismiss, and even candidly absorbs some of the blame for the confusion. In a recent phone interview we conducted with Schwartz, he confirmed that Demeure did not contract any services from or affiliate itself with CIMA in any way.

As hinted on by Schwartz, McGrath's name is a sharp edge for many ever since his club, Tanner & Haley, filed for bankruptcy in 2006. When the CIMA Collection was announced, an anonymous individual would create a CIMA Collection Twitter account, making such postings as "Want to make one million dollars? Just give us $2 million and we will return $1 million to you. That sounds fair to us," and "Our business will definitely make money for us." Several years from the Tanner & Haley bankruptcy, it showed that many still felt anger towards McGrath and his businesses.

Schwartz has told us that he wishes McGrath the best in his future endeavors and that Rob's insight was valuable during their launch phase.

Demeure has shouted the benefits of their unique model from the rooftop since their inception. Using what they call an "innovative property exchange program," the club's portfolio consists of residences contributed by second home owners looking to capitalize on their vacation property. Our dear friend Susan Kime spoke with Schwartz last month about the inner workings of their structure, which you can learn more about here.

Demeure is one of the many clubs that members of Ultimate Escapes is considering as their club makes its way through their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Joined by the recently launched club by Quintess, DUO, Exclusive Resorts, The Discovery Club, and others outside the destination club sphere, Ultimate Escapes members many decisions in front of them, including a possible bid from another company that will continue to provide operations for the club properties. Stay tuned for more information and check back frequently for more news on the destination club industry.