What is Anantara Vacation Club (AVC)?

What is Anantara Vacation Club (AVC)?

You may have seen Anantara Vacation Club reps during your travels, or have even been invited to attend a presentation in return for a small gift such as a voucher, massage, or discounted stay.

Being able to book a holiday to the Maldives with points rather than cash sounds great, but what exactly is the Anantara Vacation Club and should you bother attending a presentation?

How does it work?

Anantara Vacation Club is a programme which gives members an allowance of points every year in return for an upfront financial commitment. These points can be used to book holidays at Anantara and other Minor Hotels properties around the world including the Maldives, depending on your membership tier.

Points can also be transferred (for a fee) to a multitude of other hotel and travel booking platforms for use outside the Minor Hotels group.

At the time of writing the club claims to have around 18,000 members or “owners” and growing. Contrary to wording used such as “ownership” you don’t actually own anything tangible like property or a residence. We think this can be confusing, so to be perfectly clear, what you buy is a club membership which grants the holder points ever year.

The membership or “points ownership” lasts for 30 years from the date you join. The purchase is upfront, with an option to finance it over 8 years. There are also annual fees. The sales pitch is that at some point you break-even and thereafter your holidays are effectively free as your bookings are funded by your already-paid-for recurring points allowance.

AVC also assert that the points cost for booking rooms and nights is fixed indefinitely and will not increase with inflation, unlike cash pricing. However, the annual fees are subject to increases which may eliminate much of the ‘fixed price’ benefit.

Finally, it’s worth noting that whilst your annual points level can be revised upwards at any time, you cannot reduce your commitment. Membership can however be transferred to another party, ie gifted or sold, for a relatively small administration fee.

Do points expire?

Yes, Anantara Vacation Club points expire after 24 months. This means that you can save up for bigger purchases but also that you need to be on top of things to avoid losing points. To avoid total loss, you can convert almost expired points to partner programmes where points don’t expire, but this is a one-way transfer out of the club and attracts a fee. In addition, you can borrow up to one year worth of points from the future if you really want to splash out.

What are tiers?

Anantara Vacation Club tiers are membership levels that require a certain number of points and therefore a bigger spend to access. The main benefit of higher tiers is access to more hotels, especially the more expensive ones, and invites to exclusive experiences.

The exception appears to be Royal, as many of the hotels in the Royal tier are neither better nor more expensive than those in the Platinum tier. From what we’ve seen it’s more a case of new hotels being added first to the Royal tier exclusively before being made available to other members.

Currently, there are a number of membership tiers: Ruby, Emerald, Diamond, Platinum, Elite Platinum, and Royal. Opal appears to be deprecated.

Whilst we don’t currently have verified information for all tiers, we’ve seen Ruby level members with as few as 1,500 points, and see Diamond pitched around 25,000 points, (Elite) Platinum around 50,000 and Royal at 100,000 points. Take this as a broad guide only.

How much does it cost?

Pricing is not publicly available, and in all likelihood isn’t fixed. What one person is offered could be dramatically different to the next. It’s completely opaque.

However, what we do know is that the price scales up with the number of points you buy, and we can relay some approximate information based on feedback from members, people that have been to a sales presentation, and educated estimates.

Should Anantara Vacation Club ever publish transparent pricing we’ll update this page.

The Buy In

The upfront purchase price per point seems to be between $3 and $6.

That means a basic Ruby membership giving 1,000 points per year will likely cost between $3,000 and $6,000 upfront. This also puts the 100,000 Royal Tier buy in at somewhere between $300,000 and $600,000! As a reminder this is a 30-year membership so the buy-in price is a one-off and the points allocation is recurring each year.

The upper pricing suggested here is based on using the 8-year financing option which is frankly expensive with interest rates of nearly 10% APR. $6 won’t be the number you see on paper, but could be the true cost after interest. The lower end requires taking advantage of a discount for paying the balance in full upfront or within the first 3 years, meaning both a lower cost and no or at least less interest.

The sales team also have discretion to close a deal which will add some variation to final pricing.

So, unfortunately the upfront cost is very much a case of “it depends”, but this is more information than we were able to find online ourselves.

The Annual Fees

In addition to the upfront cost there are also annual fees.

At the time of writing, the base annual fee is estimated at between $0.04 and $0.06 per point. Therefore, a membership of 1,000 points will attract annual fees of between $40 and $60, with Royal members facing an on-going charge of $4,000 - $6,000 per year (more in fact, as you’ll see below).

If your membership tier offers all-inclusive packages called ‘Escapes’ or ‘Adventures’ there are additional annual fees. Expect an extra $0.02 to $0.03 per year per point for ‘Club Escapes’, another $0.01 to $0.02 per year for ‘Platinum Escapes / Adventures’ and perhaps further for Royal tiers.

In total, the annual fees are estimated at approximately $0.04 to $0.12 per point, with higher tier members facing higher per-point costs for access to the best resorts and experiences. I’m told the annual fees have not been increased for a number of years, but it’s still important to be aware that contractually these costs can be increased at any time.

What to expect at a presentation?

Let’s call it what it is: a sales pitch. A long face-to-face sales pitch utilising many techniques from established playbooks, but it is delivered in a warm and pleasant manner.

It’s also the only route to get information about the Anantara Vacation Club or join it. Nothing is divulged remotely and even other staff will plead ignorance, instead directing you to attend a sales pitch.

First, it’s long. A minimum of 90 minutes, providing ample time for reps to build rapport, warm up potential customers, gauge their interest (and ability to pay), all whilst selling the benefits of the club. They’re also very keen to ensure couples attend together. In fact, it’s a requirement for many of their gifts, in order to increase their chances of a successful close.

The meeting starts with friendly conversation about typical things such as travel, your current holiday, plans, interests. Non-threatening topics to get you comfortable and talking. Drinks are served, pleasantries exchanged, and plenty of smiles. After a while the sales rep will begin their presentation.

The presentation itself starts with some basic information, introducing the points concept and the tiers concept. Then there’s showcasing fabulous properties you can book around the world, particularly in Thailand, often large villas with private pools. You might see beautiful resorts in the Maldives or luxurious hotels in the Middle East. All of these, accessible with your points.

Maybe there’ll be emotive language like committing to holidays for your family. Paying once instead of spending cash every year. You’ll be told that the costs per night are fixed and won’t increase in future. You can bring friends or family to larger villas without paying more per person, and can even make bookings for your loved ones if you have spare points or aren’t travelling yourself one year.

Along the way there are plenty of props and tools like surveys and infographics prompting you to agree that the concept makes sense. The sales rep will aim to keep everyone present engaged and interested. Lots more friendly conversation and trying to understand what matters to you.

The one thing that won’t be discussed is cost.

Whilst you might see a room that costs 1000 points per night, you’ll still, even after two hours, have absolutely no idea what 1000 points actually means in terms of dollars and cents. The focus seems to be on separating the concept of points from cash in your mind. No one wants to pay cash, right?

Frustratingly, any information about pricing is withheld until the very end. It’s not until the sales rep has made their pitch and confirmed potential interest that the “manager” is brought in to crunch numbers. The sales rep will always be on your side!

We felt some techniques such as showing people the cash price of certain properties on booking.com to be a little underhanded. That’s because unlike other sites which show prices from multiple systems, booking.com is different and has their own system where hotels themselves control the prices displayed. In other words, a hotel can show $1000 on booking.com whilst offering it for a fraction of that on their own website. I can’t say for sure that the pricing was inflated for the sake of the presentation, but it’s not a comparison I’d trust, and many other travellers may not be aware of how booking.com works.

The constant priming for TODAY was also not really appreciated. From early on in the sales pitch through to bonuses and offers to get a deal done, everything is about making a decision today. It’s a classic sales technique but I wish they’d just give you the information and space to evaluate the product. If it’s a great deal, shouldn’t it be… obvious?

The close will usually involve sweeteners, discounts, vouchers, maybe your next holiday, whatever is needed to get the deal done. Within reason. If you go ahead there will be the formalities of contract signing and initial payment. If you opt to walk away there is of course some persistence from staff, but it’s handled professionally and you’ll keep your attendance gift regardless of your decision.

Is it worth it?

Honestly, I don’t know.

That’s right, after hours of discussion with AVC I can’t answer the question conclusively. That’s because whilst the cost of points can be understood, the value of points is less clear. It’s simply not possible to explore in depth how many points each hotel costs and how that compares to the best cash price. All of that information is locked away in the walled garden of membership. You get a peek inside during the presentations but you don’t get free reign to make these comparisons.

That’s why I walked away.

Does that mean it isn’t worth it? Not necessarily.

I think if you’re smart with how you use your points and flexible on where and when you go then Anantara Vacation Club may well offer a great deal to those with the capital to effectively pay for holidays in advance. The club has many members across their various tiers, and it evidently works for many people.

Where I think it may be less effective is if you primarily want to use points for hotels and locations beyond the ‘Anantara Vacation Club’ branded properties, including other Anantara properties. Here you’re competing with guests paying cash, especially if you want to travel in peak seasons. From what little I saw, the points don’t go very far in these cases.

Using points to visit the Maldives is perhaps nice to do if you already have an Anantara Vacation Club membership or can justify it on other grounds. If you only want to visit the Maldives there are better ways to do it (cash!).

Whilst some people attend these presentations just to pick up free gifts, it’s not something I’d recommend. Attend if you actually want to know more and think it might be worth your time.

Anantara Vacation Club vs GHA Discovery

These are two completely different systems. AVC is a paid membership with a significant upfront cost giving members annual points that can be used to pay for holidays. GHA is a free loyalty programme offering discounts and perks for repeat customers paying cash.

Secondary Market

Anantara Vacation Club memberships can be transferred or sold to another party. Unsurprisingly, there are people looking to sell their existing memberships at discounted prices on secondary markets.

These memberships will have less than the original 30 years remaining, but can present a significantly cheaper entry cost. Prices here are often as low as $1 per point with 15-20 years remaining, but you will take on the annual fees as per the original contract and the original membership tier.

It's not possible to unlock higher tiers by combining points from third party purchases, but it might be viable to start with a second-hand purchase and pay to upgrade it by buying more points through the official channel.

With significant depreciation it's important to view any decision to join Anantara Vacation Club as an expense for travelling, not a financial investment.