The Odyssey Club
Annual Dues

One of the earliest entrants into the destination club industry, The Odyssey Club would trail only Private Retreats, Exclusive Resorts, and The Portofino Club, amongst the major players in the very young sector.

Late in 2003, The Odyssey Club announced their plans to launch on January 5, 2004. The club's executive team would include Thomas Gottlieb, John Pritzker, and Andrew Harper, the Editor and Publisher of Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report.

As the club geared up for launch, they were acquired by a destination club they were planning to compete against, Exclusive Resorts.

In May of 2003, Steve Case, AOL's Co-Founder and former Chief Executive Officer, began speaking with Exclusive Resorts about becoming a member and potential investor in the young company. Within a few short months, Case was a 50% owner in Exclusive Resorts.

With the new investment capital and Case's name attached to the club, interest reached a new level and the club quickly passed the 100 member mark late in 2003, purchasing new properties at a breakneck pace to keep up with new membership growth.

With The Odyssey Club's launch looming, Exclusive Resorts acquired the new club along with Mirabella Estates, another new destination club. The acquisitions not only brought in new properties, marketing data, and customer service technology, but also limited their competition, primarily to just Private Retreats.

"The benefit of these acquisitions was not incremental but rather exponential," said Exclusive Resorts' Co-Founder Brad Handler. "Everyone wins as a result of these transactions, not just the companies involved, but also the industry as a whole. It is our members, however, who are the ultimate beneficiaries. As circumstances warrant, we will continue to make strategic acquisitions that provide similar benefits and scalability."

Due to the fact the club never reached their launch date, the annual dues that the club planned to charge members is not available. The Odyssey Club did plan on providing their members unlimited annual travel benefits and the early adopters of the club were offered "the option of converting their Odyssey Club membership reservations into Exclusive Resorts memberships on an extremely favorable basis or having their membership reservation fees refunded."

If you would like to learn more about The Odyssey Club, please access the club's quick links to the right. To learn more about the club that acquired them, please visit our Exclusive Resorts' Overview, who has since gone on to dominate the destination club space with over $1 billion in real estate holdings and thousands of club members.