November 4, 2010

Vill' It Be You?

People attend the Spear’s Wealth Management Awards coming your way on 22 November at the Saatchi Gallery on the King’s Road for many reasons

People attend the Spear’s Wealth Management Awards — coming your way on 22 November at the Saatchi Gallery on the King’s Road — for many reasons. The fabulous reception, filled with pillars of finance, luxury and society; the awards themselves, given to the most deserving and innovative firms and people; the chance to see Spear’s editor-in-chief William Cash shush the people who are enjoying the cocktails too much during the ceremony.

But Banyan Tree Private Collection, a members’ destination club with villas around the world, is providing another reason to save the date: one lucky attendee at the awards will win a three-night stay at its two-bedroom, double-pool villa located at the Banyan Tree Seychelles. (The flights have been kindly donated by Emirates Airways, nominated for last year’s Air Travel Provider of the Year award.) Managed by the Banyan Tree hotels and resorts chain, renowned and very popular in Asia, Banyan Tree Private Collection offers members annual use rights on a perpetual basis for up to seven or fourteen nights per year at its villas worldwide.

Another of its most popular villas, says Marina Kleiman, managing director of Banyan Tree Private Collection, is its Tibetan lodge at the Banyan Tree Ringha, sitting 10,000ft up in a valley: ‘We have a Tibetan farmhouse, which we transferred to our site. People go there for peace and an authentic ethnic experience, something noticeably absent in the shiny cities.’ Or you might prefer Bali, Provence or Phuket — the club offers 78 carefully curated properties in the most idyllic destinations.

The membership structure is simple: for seven nights a year at any of the BTPC or associate villas, you pay a one-off joining fee of $150,000; for fourteen nights, $220,000. With annual dues of $3,000 and $6,000 respectively, Kleiman is confident that you can recoup your investment within eight years, instead of paying for hotels which seem to assume that inflation is a right, not a pain. Your membership is also transferable, giftable and resaleable, so it’s like owning an asset. The lucky winner at the awards won’t need any convincing.