ray1022

PM just sent. Thanks.

AS75KFlyer

I have been an Inspirato member for over five (5) years. It WAS a great club, at one time. Now it can only be "buyer beware". When I joined there was approximately 1,500 members. I never paid more than $900 per night and many times under $500 per night for beautiful homes. This has grown to over 10,000 members today through aggressive marketing. The club has grown over five fold, YET THE NUMBER OF HOMES HAS STAYED THE SAME OR ACTUALLY HAS DECLINED. NOW THE HOMES ARE AS MUCH AS $5,000 per night and up on holidays, spring break, summer and ski season. You cannot find a home under several thousand dollars anytime, unless it is the very small extremely limited number of less desirable homes on their weekly "Jaunt" program for use in the next 10-days. Be prepared to spend over $4,000 a night for a ski home during ski season. This is outrageous and you can do much better with VRBO or Luxury Retreats, many in the same complexes as the Inspirato villas.

Inspirato filled the gap in lost homes with hotel rooms. So, are they just a travel agency now that charges a $2,700 annual membership fee? Who wants a hotel room? You join this club for the 4-6 bedroom homes so you can bring the family and friends.

The clubs business plan worked outstanding in the beginning as the housing market was extremely weak, especially in the secondary home vacation markets where owners could not sell. Inspirato entered into long term leases on favorable terms. Unfortunately as the economy and housing markets improved, Inspirato failed to renew these favorable leases and lost many of their finner homes. New homes and lease renewals came with a high price. Inspirato has raised prices on their night rates by at least 100%.

Your $2,700 ANNUAL FEE, generates over $30 million for the company, yet Inspirato continues to raise the nightly prices on their homes. If you delete the hotel rooms from their list of destinations, there is one (1) home per forty (40) members (approximately). You do the math. With so many members and less homes today, no wonder they have raised their nightly rates.

nddomer04

Wow, I couldn't disagree more. I've been a member since mid-2014. In October 2015, we paid under $1,000 per night for a 4-bedroom villa in the Exclusive Resorts enclave across the street from the Ritz Carlton. The villa comes with full access to the Ritz, including resort charging privileges. A one-bedroom suite at the resort was going for about $1,500 per night, and a 3-bedroom was over $3,000 per night.

In February, my family and I will be staying at a 3-bedroom Oceanfront Villa at the Fairmont Kea Lani in Maui. We paid right at $1,000 per night. The Fairmont website currently lists the exact same villa for about $3,500 per night.

The addition of the hotel partners has been fantastic. In December, I stayed at the Trump Chicago, and paid $420 per night for a 1-bedroom River View Suite. At the time of booking, the going rate through the Trump website was over $700/night for the exact same room.

I highly encourage anyone to register on Inspirato.com so you can shop rates and compare to the hotels/resorts you would have otherwise been staying at. There are a handful of properties (i.e., the Fairmont in Maui) where pricing is not available because it's so much lower than through the resort.

Without question, the rates are significantly higher during the holidays. However, try booking a 3 or 4 bedroom residence through Four Seasons, and $4,000/night through Inspirato will still be a value. In regards to the number of members, I've had zero problem booking my preferred residence and dates. Since July 2014, my family and I have taken 9 Inspirato trips and our 10th will be next month. Many of those new members have joined under the Key Membership. It's a great entry to the club, but you're only allowed to book 120 days in advance. So, those of us with CORE memberships have awesome availability, as we can book up to a year in advance.

Lastly, while price is important, data seems to show that most Inspirato members aren't joining because it's a deal. While there are certainly great deals to be had (as shown above), most members love the club for the certainty and the service. It's just like staying at a Four Seasons, except having the room to spread out in a large residence. The destination concierges have been phenomenal on all of our trips, and we've had amazing experiences such as private boat tours, private chefs in our residence, and valet service for all our ski gear. Plus, in many larger cities across the country, there are other perks such as complimentary suite tickets to concerts and sporting events. Here in Denver, we have access to Avalanche and Nuggets games, as well as concerts at Red Rocks, Pepsi Center and Fiddler's Green...all free of charge.

As with anything, do your research. We've been nothing but pleased with our experience, and we've found the club to have only gotten better since we joined.

zaccaggie

any more opinions of the current state of Inspirato? I'm being heavily contacted (i.e. phone calls, emails, a request to meet face to face in DC). i'm still on the fence but the key membership goes up (they say) next friday to 5500, but my cost would be 2500 (with a new discount this week of $500) and 275/month.

any latest chatter or words to the wise? i am prob their market, kids grown, parents like to travel with us (if I arrange it), 2 income household, do rent upscale VBRO and timeshare places, do like their selection, etc. etc.

thanks in advance......

ray1022

I am headed to their house in Telluride tomorrow (the Gold Hill 7500 sq. ft. residence) and will be posting on twitter, etc. Happy to chat about the club as well with you in more detail. Yes prices are going up for the Key membership, but there will likely be discounting on the new higher rate. Still better to join now though if you are seriously considering it. There should be other incentives/promos they can offer if you join now, so let's chat offline as well - will DM you.

nddomer04

Just returned on Sunday from a week in Maui at the Fairmont Kea Lani. We stayed in a 3-Bedroom Beachfront Villa for significantly less than we would have paid directly through Fairmont. When we arrived, our groceries were stocked in the refrigerator, the high chair and crib were set up for our 18-month old. Also, the concierge set us up with a private whale watching tour. This was our 10th trip with Inspirato since joining in July 2014, and we have constantly been impressed with the high level of service and consistency. Lastly, Inspirato just had their single largest new property release (65 new vacation options plus 6 new experiences), and there are seven other large property releases this year. The next one is coming in April.

ray1022

I am now back from our Inspirato Telluride stay at their Gold Hill residence. Find my trip report and photos here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...residence.html

gold23

We've been members of Inspirato for about 4 years. Conceptually, it's great. When we actually use them, it's great. The problem is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a fit.

Membership has skyrocketed, and residences have only grown slightly. When we joined, you could punch in dates for your vacation and find a myriad of options. Now? If it's not in shoulder season, the only availability is at stratospheric prices. I'd say Inspirato rates for their residences are 30-40% HIGHER than Airbnb or VRBO for almost identical and adjacent properties. Yes, you receive a much higher level of service and generally higher end furnishings. But we bought in hoping for all of this AND a price break and we never see that anymore.

Where Inspirato shines is their club-specific trips like the cruises and their hotel relationships. The hotel deals are absolutely solid- offering significant savings over the rates you'd find anywhere else. The problem is that they only have one or two rooms available at the hotels on a given date, and there are often black outs.

Finally, their cancellation penalties are restrictive. Basically, you can't ever cancel. Makes it difficult to book 10-11 months out. But when you don't....there's nothing available.

Again, conceptually Inspirato is great. Their homes are amazing. The times we've used them we've been extremely happy. But beware...unless you want to spend $24k for a week in a 3 bedroom in Vail (the actual current price for several units) , availability and cost savings are almost non-existent.

nddomer04

Large residence release today:
In my opinion, the best value proposition isn't against VRBO or Airbnb. Rather, it is when you can compare residences directly against what you'd spend for the exact same property while booking directly through the resort (ie, Terranea in Rancho Palos Verdes, Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman, Fairmont Maui, Solaris Vail, etc.) For these types of homes/residences, it's more like a hotel room in that you can compare directly against the same type of unit. In these head to head comparisons, I've never seen Inspirato more expensive. Comparing around the holidays becomes a bit more difficult, as many of these resort companies have those dates blocked out online.

If you aren't wanting the resort benefits, Inspirato might not compare as favorably against VRBO and Airbnb when it comes to price. Obviously the service and certainty of the homes are a big factor, but it becomes harder to compare price. We've taken 11 trips in our 22 months with the club, and with 3 little kids, we've never booked a "standalone" residence, as we love having 3-4 bedroom residences with resort access. Each residence has been between $500 and $1,500 less per night.

I also agree that it comes down to when you typically book vacations. The Key Membership is the reason for the surge in members, but those members can only book within 4 months. Availability is phenomenal outside of that. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years tend to get booked one year out at the most popular destinations and residences.

Lastly, if you cancel at least 90 days out, you get 100% of the nightly rate, taxes and fees back in the form of Travel Credits (so, similar to Southwest Airlines, except that Inspirato gives you 3 years to use them). Cancellations made 60-89 days out get 67% back, and reservations cancelled 30-59 days out get 33% back.

ray1022

I recently returned from a stay at Inspirato's Cabo, Mexico property in their Casa Ensueno residence within the Esperanza resort. Find my trip report and photos in the "trip report" section of Flyertalk:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...za-mexico.html

Kagehitokiri

how many residences do they have / lease ?
(not hotel & resort residences, hotel & resort rooms/suites, experiences)

http://www.dhisco.com/inspirato-part...otel-bookings/

nddomer04

According to the latest media kit, "More than 290" residences directly controlled by Inspirato, not including the hotel/resort ones and experiences. There are "More than 320" hotel/resort rooms/suites that are NOT leased by Inspirato. Here's the link: https://cms.inspirato.com/media/9194035/mediakit.pdf

Kagehitokiri

sounds like that includes hotel & resort residences
some hotel & resort residences may be leased, but some are definitely not
in recent addition of 65, only 15 were residences

"manage" is different from lease

nddomer04

Good point. My choice of words was poor, but the vast majoirty of the hotel/resort residences are leased and exclusive to Inspirato members. For example, the 4 villas at the Fairmont Kea Lani in Maui, the 2 villas at the Andaz Wailea, 5 residences at the Montage Kapalua (leased through Exclusive Resorts), the 4 Ho'Olei residences associated with the Grand Wailea (leased from ER), the 4 resort residences in Sea Island Georgia (leased through ER), the 6 resort residences at Los Veneros in Punta de Mita, the 5 resort residences at the Terranea in Rancho Palos Verdes, 2 residences in the ER encalve across from the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman, plus the 4 newly-added resort residences located on the actual Ritz Carlton property, 2 hotel residences at the Vdara in Las Vegas (leased through ER), a residence at the Trump Chicago (leased through ER), 6 resort residences at the Dorado Beach Resort in Puerto Rico, plus 5 resort residences at the Bahia Beach Resort.

There are a bunch of others as well, but you get the idea. Each of the ones listed above fall under the "hotel/resort resdiences" category and are LEASED (terms are typically in the range of 2-5 years) and available exclusive to Inspirato members. These residences are fully branded with Inspirato stuff, and they receive all of the Inspriato benefits (daily housekeeping, grocery service, etc). The only difference I've noticed is the hotel/resort residences often utilitze the hotel or resort's concierge instead of an Inspirato concierge. For example, when we stayed at the Fairmont Kea Lani, there were two ladies from the Fairmont who were dedicated to the 4 Inspirato villas.

So, you're correct that the "more than 290" residences from the media kit does include the hotel/resort residences. But the vast majority of those are leased. The ones that are not exclusive to Inspirato members, and not exclusively leased, would be the new hotel/resort rooms and suites, and those were broken out separately in the media kit ("more than 320" of those). While Inspirato members receive incredible savings at these properties, access to them is not exclusive, and it's not necessarily the same room every time...just the same category. It's like booking through the hotel directly, except savings it at least 35% or so from the standard hotel rate.

Hope that helps clear it up a bit. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Kagehitokiri

tiny hotel room vs residential style hotel accommodations - makes tons of sense on website

however, they should ideally split hotel residences into 'inspirato' and 'hotel'
my point was basically that some of the hotel residences are definitely not leased

my wording was poor, saying "some" "may be" as i've posted those examples myself

ray1022 et al, might suggest they see re 1 year lease of great units at new RC waikiki