Anyone else think the Demeure website is slow and not very good? Very odd considering their expertise is in technology and software design.
In looking at the Demeure website, I had a couple of additional questions:
Capacity - "Demeure guarantees that it will not exceed a Member-to-Home ratio, or Capacity Ratio, of 6-to-1 (based on a 60-day Membership Plan), which means the capacity committed is guaranteed." Using a 60 day plan, doesn't that mean that is 360 days out of 365 days sold or 98.6%? Normally, clubs will use a 30 day or 45 day membership plan equivalency, or occupancy between 50% and 80% (on the high side). Isn't that even higher than UE was?
Website says the following: "There are no agency fees, as would typically be the case if you were dealing with a rental agency." A few questions down it says: "Here’s an example to illustrate how the formula works: Let’s say another Contributing Member stays at your property for two nights at an average nightly rate of $1,000. So your property “earns” $2,000. Of that total, the Club retains 25% ($500) to run the club. You get the remaining 75%, or $1,500, as a combination of accommodation credits and cash from the OCRF pool. The cash component may be as much as 25% of the total earned (in this case, $500), and you’ll receive the remainder in accommodation credits. This specific mix between cash and accommodation credits will be determined by your property’s relative value to club members, which is calculated by Demeure’s proprietary software based on popularity, seasonality, how far in advance time was contributed, and posted nightly rate. This is approximately 75% of the net rental income paid by the non-Member." Doesn't that conflict or are they saying it is an exchange if you are trading with another member, but they get 25% if a non-member leases the property?
Website seems to indicate that they don't generally inspect properties, so how do they know that the accomodations are acceptable? As an example, the better villa rental companies have at least inspected the properties, and most of the DCs have routine site visits and maintenance.
This seems to at least in part answer one of my earlier questions about why would anyone rent their place for 40%-50% off for prime properties or peak times.
"The Demeure system also allows you to set quotas for the amount of days you would like to provide to other Members during various seasons. For example, you might elect to keep two weeks during high season (mid-June to mid-September) available for the Club’s proprietary vacation rental agency or other rental agencies in order to maximize your rental income and provide the other two weeks to Demeure." Basically, the website seems to indicate that as long as you contribute at least three weeks equivalency during the year, you can rent the rest of your weeks to a normal villa leasing agency to maximize your income.
Seems the 40%-50% discount is a little misleading, because presumably if you are getting exchanged accomodations at that discount, but you're obligated to provide time at that discount, it is a wash, right? Is that just marketing or what am I missing?
Someone posted this on their website which was interesting and didn't see a response yet:
"In terms of financial transparency, if Demeure is successful is getting enough UE members to join, is there ANY financial gain whatsoever involved for Tousignant, Keith, their various partnerships and interrelated companies, or the restructuring agent and his firm? Any ‘commissions’ or ‘success fees’ paid to any parties?"
The Demeure system is a lot to absorb and hope the webinar is instructive. Maybe they'll touch on some of those issues. I will give Demeure kudos for their board.