A discount vacation membership club is an organization which people pay to join in order to get special discounts on travel or travel-related activities. Most of them offer discounts on accommodations. There are clubs for specific destinations such as Cancun. There are others for cruises. Generally you do not have to belong to a club in order to get flight discounts.

These clubs rose as people began to lose interest in owning timeshare units and condominiums in resort locations. Many of these offer a number of amenities and ample if not actually luxurious accommodations.

Typically three factors lead people to consider such memberships:

• They love to travel, with or without friends and family. Many are enthusiasts of a particular sport such as skiing or surfing or deep-sea diving. Whatever the case, membership in a discount vacation club allows members to travel to more places more frequently with more people than they could afford on their own.
• They love to save money. Virtually everyone loves to save money.
• There is a certain cachet - or a level of coolness - attached to being an insider and getting insider privileges and benefits. Sometimes, though not always, club members have exclusive access to a particular facility. More often the primary benefit is the deeply discounted prices enjoyed by members.

There are also advantages to the providers from whom the club purchases its offerings.

• They are paid in advance for units that they might not otherwise be able to fill.
• The club markets their facilities for them.
• The club generally is branded so that its marketing has a consistent look and feel. In addition, the club markets to its members exclusively and knows not only what its members want but also how they like to receive their messages and can use the preferred channels.

Still, vacation clubs are not for everyone. Those who get the most value out of such memberships are those who love to travel, travel regularly, have large families, and/or want to stay at top holiday destinations while saving money.

Club membership can give you the chance to stay at hotels, apartments, or even take a cruise that would normally be out of your budget's reach.

Memberships are often a very good choice for people traveling with families because you can enjoy the best locations at prices that you can afford. You could also get to stay at resorts, hotels and other accommodations that you may not have had access to in the past.

Once you have decided that such a club is for you, what should you consider when you are choosing one. One obvious criterion is price: what does it cost to belong to the club you are considering? You will want to pick the one that offers the most value for your money, and that depends on your situation

There are, however, a number of other things to think about.

There are a great variety of discount travel providers. Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity were all founded in the late 1990's, well after the advent of the Internet. Expedia was founded by Microsoft, Orbitz by a consortium of major airlines, and Travelocity by American Airlines. They have all been through multiple changes of ownership in the intervening years.

These are not true membership organizations in the sense above. Virtually anyone can book a vacation through any of these three - and a number of others. They do have club-like aspects, though. They may offer special travel deals to a population interested in a certian type of vacation opportunity or points toward future travel to those "joining" a certain club or mailing list, usually at no charge.

Exclusive Resorts and Ultimate Resorts are relatively new on the vacation membership club scene, and neither can be considered discount organizations. They cater to a highly upscale market, and have prohibitively high membership fees that may start at tens of thousands of dollars and run up into hundreds of thousands of dollars. They may have annual dues as well..

Coastal Vacations Club and Global Resorts Network offer memberships at reasonable prices and vacations at discounted prices, sometimes highly discounted prices. Global Resorts Network is the marketing arm of an organization that has been in business and prospered for 22 years, well before the Internet became a fixture of everyday life. Coastal entered the arena about 13 years ago. There are a multitude of others at different price points, some catering to a specific population, some offering vacations in only one location. You can find them by googling " discount vacation membership clubs."

Typically, they buy large blocks of rooms, which are then reserved for their members. Because they buy at huge volumes, they are able to secure these rooms for far less than individuals would pay by booking individually. They then pass these low prices on to their members.

The star designation can be taken as a general ranking of quality. In addition, more stars indicate more amenities such as swimming pools, golf courses, number of restaurants, and so on. When choosing a resort, choose the one that has the units and amenities you want. If you don't play golf, there is no point in paying extra for a golf course.

You might not want or need a 5-star facility. And even if one is "on sale," you might be more comfortable in a lower-ranked facility. When I had my small child traveling with me, I would have been less able to relax in a luxurious 5-star resort.

However, the star rating is an indication of the types of resorts that are willing to associate themselves with a given travel provider, whether at attractive low per-night rates or full price. So it's a general gauge of the quality you will find on that discount site.

Most accommodation prices are quoted per person per night. That is, when you are given a price for a room, that price is for each person and for each night of your stay. For example, if you are given a price of $100 per person per night and you have two people staying in your unit, and you want to stay for three nights, you will be charged $200 per night for three nights. So your total for six days will be $600. (None of the prices quoted include taxes or other fees.)

You cannot find out a club's prices unless you are a member or are given them by a memer. Since I am a member of Global Resorts Network's, I know that its prices are for the unit you want for for a stay of a week. So a price of $298 is for an entire week. That price includes up to six people. For example if you have four people sharing a room, the cost of the room for a week will still be $298 (again, taxes and other fees are not included).

The difference between, say, $300 total and $300 per night for 7 nights is quite large: at $300 per night, the total for one person would be $2,100 without hotel fees, taxes and so forth. The difference is $1800. For two people, the total would be $4200, while the per week charge would remain $300, for a difference of $3900.

Global Resorts Network features hotels and resorts. Many of the resorts are condominium or timeshare units which have kitchens and living rooms in addition to bedrooms and baths. They may also have laundry facilities. Such features can make vacations more affordable by enabling visitors to cook some or all of their own meals rather than having to go out all the time.

In addition, they may make for a more relaxed family style vacation since they allow people to feel more at home when they're not at home. Because they're on vacation!

Word of mouth is the best way to discover a club's reputation. If you know someone who is a member or who has accompanied a friend to a resort booked through a club, ask them about their experience,

Websites generally show testimonials from satisfied customers. To find out about unsatisfied customers, the Better Business Bureau is a resource. You have to know where the club's home office is and contact the BBB at that location in order to find out whether there have been complaints and, if so, how they have been resolved.

Customer service is really important in travelling. Many testimonials will talk about this. It's good to know that there is a human being who can help in travel arrangements if you have questions. Testimonials may mention some specific person's name. Some, but not all, clubs have people experienced in the travel business who can help.

The best test, of course, is your own experience. While it's wonderful when things go smoothly, the ultimate test is when they are not so smooth. A club having really good customer service will go to bat for you if something goes amiss. If you arrive at your destination resort, confirmed reservation in hand, and the hotel has no record of it - and, to compound the situation, they tell you they are full, can you reach your club contact? Do they try to work out the situation with the facility's reservation people? If the facility refuses to budge, will the provider help to find other accommodations for you so that you don't have to sleep on the ski slope or the beach? My own experience with several discount travel services is that you generally don't have a name to contact and that, if you do manage to reach someone, they will absolutely not touch situations like this, so you're on your own.

It's always good to feel that you are dealing with people who will help you in a pinch. It's even better to feel that they have succeeded in helping you arrange a trip that has no such incidents. You have a better chance of encountering this situation with a membership club. You may be able to deal consistently with the same person. Even if you can't do that, membership clubs are likely to have a more stable situation so far as retaining good staff members is concerned.

All in all, these discount vacation membership clubs can be a very good deal for people who want to travel and who may want to take others along with them. If this describes you, then you probably want to consider joining one.