A peer-elected register, not a paid award: here’s how Platinum Clubs of America selects the nation’s top 300 private clubs for 2025-2026, who governs it, and what the badge actually certifies.
Tag: Country Clubs
Two clubs can quote the same six-figure fee and offer completely different deals. A plain-English guide to equity vs. non-equity memberships, refundable deposits, transfer fees, and what really sets the number.
June is the last practical moment to course-correct before Q3 planning locks in another year of assumptions. Here are the seven funnel metrics — from inquiry-to-tour through marketing ROI — that separate clubs running on data from those running on intuition.
Palm Beach prices are up 117% in five years and Dubai 147%. The next generation of private beach clubs is being engineered around hyper-personalization, wellness infrastructure, and lifestyle ecosystems — not cabanas and rum punch.
Tropicana lost 20% of sales in two months. HBO Max came back after two years. Tribune undid Tronc within eighteen months. KSL’s playbook for the next sixty days has one obvious move that the market, the membership, and the management team are quietly waiting for — restore the name.
Industry initiation fees rose 8.7% YoY and dues 6.2% — but at the top of the market, waitlist depth, not pricing, decides who gets in. A breakdown of what real membership costs in 2026.
Memorial Day Weekend compresses 4–6% of annual F&B volume into 72 hours and stress-tests every dues-justification a club has built. The pricing architecture, programming inventory, and operational habits that separate the clubs that win the weekend from the ones that don’t.
The survey questions that actually predict member churn — and the ones that waste everyone’s time.
How private clubs are turning outdoor dining into their most profitable summer program.
We sat down with Zack Bates to talk about how Private Club Marketing started, what he has learned working with 200+ clubs, and where the industry is headed.