Solstice Collection
Resignation and Redemption

The leading ultra-luxury destination club in the industry for most of their tenure, Solstice Collection offered two different resignation policies, allowing members the ability to choose their own redemption structure.

At the time a member joined the club, they would choose which option would be best for them.

Future Value

Members joining under the future value model received just that: the future value of their membership at the time of their resignation. The club would determine the value of their membership by averaging the most four recent comparable membership sold. The member would receive the averaged amount of those four, less a 20% transfer fee.

Many other destination clubs use similar models, in effect rewarding members of the club who purchase their membership early and stay through several price increases. Obviously, once the club increased their prices by 25%, they would be breaking even on their membership, receiving 100% of their original deposit.

Fully Refundable

And for those who simply wanted their membership deposit returned, members could elect to receive 100% of their deposit refunded when they elected to resign their club membership. Rather than enjoying any additional proceeds on their membership, these members were simply refunded the same amount that they initially contributed to the club.

This type of structure benefits members who do not intend to remain with the club for an extended period of time, not yet fully sold on the concept or club, or unsure about the significance of the potential upside. For example, when Solstice increased their prices early in 2007, the three membership plans averaged approximately a 6% increase. For a member with a future value membership, it would take five comparable price increases to achieve any gains on their membership. During this time, the member would be continuing to contribute non-refundable annual dues for the potential gains.

Unfortunately, very few got the opportunity to go all the way through the resignation process as Solstice filed for bankruptcy early in 2009 as a result of the financial climate and decreased interest of 2008.

If you resigned a membership from Solstice and would care to contribute your thoughts on the experience, please feel free to contact us at contribute@destinationclubnews.com.