Exclusive Resorts: Entrepreneurial Positioning and Nonmarket Defense

In the summer of 2002, Brad and Brent Handler established Exclusive Resorts, a luxury vacation residence venture, to meet the demand for luxury vacation residences that avoided the hassles of owning a second home and being tied to a single location. The challenge was to position the venture in both the market and nonmarket environments. The positioning in the market environment was successful, and Exclusive Resorts was an instant success. In the nonmarket environment, Exclusive Resorts was organized like a country club, allowing it to avoid state time-share regulations. The success of Exclusive Resorts soon spurred others to enter the luxury vacation residence club industry and, at the same time, nonmarket threats began to grow. The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) had many concerns: Were luxury vacation residence clubs operating outside the law (consumers were not protected by state time-share law)? Were contractual arrangements transparent to consumers? Could possible fraud or failures among the clubs tarnish the entire resort development industry, including its members? ARDA sought to have luxury vacation residence clubs registered in the states in which they held properties and in which they sold memberships. If state registration were required, Exclusive Resorts would be subject to costly and burdensome regulations. Indeed, a core component of the Exclusive Resorts business model, inventory replacement via the sale of residences, would be prohibited.

• Government policy and regulation
• Entrepreneurship
• Marketing strategy
• Business law
• Product positioning