Steve Case Pioneers New Vacation Concept for the Rich
The Associated Press reports that Steve Case, who co-founded America Online, has purchased a company that is growing rapidly by offering a menu of luxury-vacation options as part of a club that requires members to pay $200,000 or more to access its $750 million portfolio of vacation properties throughout North America, the Caribbean and Europe.
The article explains that this is how the company, called Exclusive Resorts, operates. Members pay a one-time upfront fee ranging from $195,000 to $395,000, which gets them between 15 and 45 days at any of the club's destinations, including the Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Lake Tahoe, the French Alps and Tuscany. They also pay annual dues ranging from $9,500 to $25,000. When a member leaves the club, he gets back 80 percent of his membership fee.
For vacation rental owners, one of the most interesting things is what gave Case the idea of his new venture. The Associated Press reports, “Case said his own experiences convinced him of the market for such a product. He recalled renting a vacation home in Hawaii for his family. He was chagrined to find out on arrival that the bedrooms for the children were essentially isolated from the rest of the house and required people to go outside and down a flight of steps.�
This kind of experience was also one of the motivating factors for the establishment of VacationRental.org (VRO). Our own experience with vacation rentals that did not live up to expectations and our experience in building a successful vacation rental business that tries to exceed expectations led us to found VRO. We felt a need to try to establish industry standards and encourage advertising that provides a full and accurate description of vacation rental properties. Thus VRO only accepts listings from owners who pledge to meet our standards of quality. Our newsletters and blog constantly urge VRO members to exceed those standards and make their properties unique.
We don’t believe that people should have to be millionaires in order to be assured of good luxury vacation rental choices
