The Troubles of Naming A Destination Club

By: Destination Club News
Date: September 20, 2009

One of Shakespeare's most famous lines comes from Romeo and Juliet.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Largely accurate from most points of view, but when that rose is a destination club that depends on a continual stream of new potential members to find and buy into the club, that name suddenly needs to smell a little sweeter.

Darin Gilson, now the Senior Vice President of Membership Sales and Business Development at Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club, was formerly the Founder of BelleHavens, a leading equity destination club. Enjoying a great deal of success from their launch in September of 2003 up until early in 2007, Gilson saw something that could slow down their progress: the pending collapse of the similarly named destination club Havens.

Havens launched just three months after BelleHavens. The two clubs were located over 2,000 miles apart, used vastly different models, and had highly different futures in front of them. While BelleHavens had established themselves as a player in the destination club industry, Havens had bankruptcy in the future. The club had but a few fractional interests and appeared to be on the brink of closure.

Based on the similarities of the club's names, Gilson approached Havens' Founder, Alex Cole, and would eventually absorb about 40 Havens members. A primary reason was to help continue the growth of BelleHavens, but Gilson admitted that a strong motivation was the Havens name and a desire to protect his club from any negative associations attached to Havens' probable bankruptcy.

Gilson would again be attached to a naming issue when BelleHavens was courted by Abercrombie & Kent for their new destination club, the Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club. Years earlier, Abercrombie & Kent had licensed their name to Private Retreats, widely considered the first destination club and, at the time, still one of the leading players in the industry. The club operated under the brand Abercrombie & Kent Destination Club and enjoyed banner years, but unfortunately, an unsustainable business model would eventually tear down the club and force it into bankruptcy. Seeing the writing on the wall, Abercrombie & Kent had pulled their license from the club over a year before their eventual demise and had no say in the club's day to day operations or the management of the club, but many questioned using the A&K name for their new venture.

Not exclusive to Gilson, the rest of the destination club industry has gone through their fair share of naming issues. Two small destination clubs, Legacy Destinations and Legacy Luxury, had website addresses that were just one letter apart. The ultra-luxury Solstice Collection elected to launch the first version of their website with neither "Solstice" or "Collection" in the address. A search for "My Stones Collection" will help you find the destination club, but also an overabundance of people with exhaustive collections of Rolling Stones albums and merchandise. There is a Luxus Group and a LUXLife, no relation. Dream Catcher Retreats was based in Colorado and Dream Circle Destinations is nearly 10,000 miles away in South Africa. Today there is a club called the Emperum Club, earlier there was a club called the Emperor's Club. To make matters worse, a different Emperors Club was the international escort service connected to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer that eventually led to a federal investigation and the discovery of an illegal prostitution ring. The Emperor's Club is also the title of a film from 2002 with Kevin Kline and Emile Hirsch.

Even the big clubs get involved. Exclusive Resorts and Private Retreats squabbled over the Exclusive Resorts' website domain early in the sector's history, both claiming ownership.

While having a great name won't make or break a destination club, in this day and age of search engine optimization and organic lead generation, it can play a critical role in the club's growth, especially during the important launch phase of a club. To learn more about the vastly more important issues when joining a destination club such as pricing, destinations, redemption policies and other important due diligence points, please request a free copy of our Destination Club Buyer's Guide that will provide you a great deal of information that can help you evaluate destination club membership.