Frequently Asked Questions with Steve Laver,
President of Storied Places®

Firstly, you have to value a luxury home experience. These are sizeable homes of exceptional standards. They work great with just a few people in residence, but they can also easily accommodate an extended family or two or three couples with children. These are homes that would easily rent for $10,000 a week or more in prime season — and while we don't allow rental in most of our locations, this is a useful comparison.

You need to be willing to plan in advance and have a certain amount of flexibility — both of which are common elements of all equity Private Residence Clubs. We completed our selections for the 05/06 Ski season and next summer in August 2005. My wife Janet and I spent about 15 minutes looking at the calendar together, identifying dates and time periods that worked for us. We took into consideration major holidays, our kids' school calendar and our own knowledge of the times we most like being at Whistler, and there were several dates that met our needs. Conversely, if you want to have a home for only Christmas or your kids' spring break every year, this is not the best product for you.

Your ownership generally should match your use. At Whistler, each one-tenth interest gives you two weeks in the ski season and two in the summer. When we bought we purchased two interests because that matched our historic use of Whistler. We generally were going 4-5 times in the winter, and liked going up in the summer for golf and other outdoor activities. If we can't use the time we want, we give it up to friends — or we trade it with other owners in the Storied Places® network. Therefore, if you want to be in the resort most weekends of a season, whole ownership is probably a better alternative. Likewise, if you don't view yourself as having some loyalty to the resort for most of your use and simply want trading options, non-equity travel clubs are probably better suited to your needs.

Finally, you have to value the personalized service element — the Resident Innkeeper and staff who take care of all your needs. About 20% of the annual homeowners' dues relate to this service. It's about having a team that ensures your home is perfect when you arrive, who stocks your home with groceries if you need it, makes your dinner reservations, books your tee time and shuttles you to the Village, ski lifts or golf course, so you don't have the hassle of driving and parking. It's not traditional luxury hotel service however, it is casual and unobtrusive and most importantly, tailored to individual owner needs.

Non-equity destination clubs are very complementary with what we do ' as a developer, we have built product for two Clubs, and look to do more in the future.

Many of our owners consider both. But the mindset and promise are different:

Each project is tailored to the unique seasonality of the location. At Whistler, there are 10 owners per home. Each owner receives two weeks in the winter and two in the summer, using a priority system that rotates the selection order. In other words, we plan 40 weeks out of the year, and leave the remaining weeks — generally the shoulder seasons — for owners to access on a space availability basis.

In theory if every owner wanted exactly the same weeks, you would get access to each holiday once every 10 years. But that is not how it works in practice. Every owner has unique needs. Some owners want to be at Whistler for Christmas — others have family traditions that always keep them away. Spring Breaks for kids are different from location to location as well. We designate 10-12 'prime weeks' each season (holidays and the historic 'best weeks'), and the reservation process assures that each owner will be able to get at least one of them each season.

While rental is generally a right that goes with ownership, our starting point with each property is not to allow rental however as our network grows, this is likely to vary depending on our buyer demographics. Lake Tahoe and Whistler, as examples, have a large 'drive-to' market, that we are able to sell the properties on this basis. 90% of our Tahoe owners are within a reasonable drive, and 60% of Whistler's.

Other 'fly-to' markets require giving owners the option of renting. It is simply not realistic to expect every owner to fly to Aspen 5 or 6 times a year ' and almost all of our owners reside outside Colorado. Our properties under review in France and Italy will almost certainly have a rental component. There are many people who will want to visit these properties from time to time, but few who will visit five or more times a year.

In general the more remote the property, the more likely we will allow rental. The more proximate to major population centers, the less likely.

When we do allow rental, it is important to us that the homeowners association control it and set the policies and rates. Again, these will be determined property by property, and generally will require a sharing of fees with the community to compensate for administration, cleaning, and repair risks.

Trading planned weeks with other owners ('Trading Stories®') is a means of enhancing the ownership experience.

Many owners bought to have the opportunities to go other places in the world — they liked having a 'home resort' but valued the chance to travel with their investment. Many other owners are 'resort loyalists' — they really don't see themselves giving up any of their time to go to other properties in our network.

Accordingly our system of trading is voluntary. There is simply no requirement (or pressure) to do so. When a trade is desired, our Storied Places OnCall® team works to facilitate that trade.

Many trades are within resort. In our family's case, we were not able to use one of our planned summer weeks this year. The Storied Places OnCall® team contacted the owners in our home, and worked a trade the next day. The trade allowed us to have our home for consecutive weeks in July — which worked great.

Other trades are between Storied Places® properties and a 5-star hoteliers' residence clubs (disclosure of this partner's identity is made when you become an owner). Despite being in the early days of this program we have already had several successful trades.