One Key World
Members

When One Key World launched, Founder Jay Sapovits felt that a specific audience had yet to be captured by the rapidly growing destination club sector.

"One Key is the next generation destination club," said Jay Sapovits, the club's Founder and CEO. "We wanted to offer a simple and flexible solution that allowed travelers to make the most use of their membership, without the considerable upfront capital or long-term commitment."

Rather than charging a large, up front membership deposit as many of their competitors did, and instead evolve the model with a series of benefits for the weary destination club prospect, including:

• No large up front fees to join the club
• No annual dues to remain a club member
• No waiting to resign their membership
• No expiration dates on unsued nights

Bringing his experience as a former Vice President at Marquis Jets to the destination club industry, Sapovits designed the club to operate much like the jet card leader. Members would purchase pre-paid travel cards with no expiration date. To keep the costs to join the club low, rather than purchasing resort real estate, One Key would enter into strategic alliances with luxury residences and not own any of the club's properties.

"Quite simply, One Key gets you access to a variety of homes and destinations around the world," Sapovits said during an interview with Fox Business. "Essentially what One Key is doing is bringing to the travel and accomodations space what my former company, Marquis Jet, did for the private jet world, which is reducing it down to a pre-paid, quality assured, one time fee in exchange for services delivered, in this case beautiful, gorgeous luxury homes with all the amenities you get at a resort."

A solid alternative for those who did not want to put down a large deposit and be tied to a club for an extended period, One Key World approached 100 members over their tenure.

As 2008 came to an end, the club announced its 100th reservation, a trip scheduled for January of 2009 to Palm Springs. Unfortunately, at nearly the exact same time the trip was scheduled, One Key World announced that they would cease operations.

"One Key has ceased its operations and is conducting an orderly wind down of its business," the club released. "Like many other businesses and individuals, One Key was subject to a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis that has left few untouched."

The same "economic crisis" that led to the closure of One Key World also played an important part in the demise of other leading clubs in 2008 and 2009, including The LUSSO Collection, High Country Club, Yellowstone Club World, Solstice Collection, and several other clubs, new and established alike.

Based on the structure of the club, where large sums of money were not owed to members nor substantial real estate holdings involved in the wind down, One Key World managed to execute one of the most seamless closures in the history of the space.

If you are currently evaluating a club, a good place to begin is requesting a free copy of our Destination Club Guide, a resource to help you learn more about the various destination clubs in the industry, suggested due diligence questions, and the benefits and risks of joining a club, with contributions from members, executives, and destination club insiders.