ThirdHome is the mansion-sharing agency that lets the ultra-wealthy travel the world in style
From castles to yachts and beyond, there’s a new hack giving well-off travellers luxe accommodation for next to nothing. Here’s the catch.
When American singer and songwriter Kenny Loggins honeymooned in Mexico, he took 15 of his closest friends to a palatial villa. Given Loggins had retained the estate’s 12 staff during the stay, the entourage wanted for nothing, partying around the pool with drinks in hand.
Loggins is a member of ThirdHome, a unique American-based system whereby wealthy homeowners offer available weeks in their own homes in return for travel credits to stay in other members’ homes virtually rent free in more than 100 countries.
The brainchild of real estate mogul Wade Shealy, ThirdHome, established in 2010, now has more than 20,000 homes valued at more than $US24bn ($37bn) on its books.
ThirdHome’s properties include castles, ranches, residences, chalets, mansions and private islands, as well as pieds-à-terre, yachts, safari camps, wineries, estates, over-the-top villas worth more than $50m, and boutique hotels. The average home is valued at $1.5m.
Last year it opened its third international office, choosing Queensland’s Gold Coast, from where it will also oversee New Zealand’s luxury home sector. Headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, ThirdHome’s second office is in Marbella, Spain.
Shealy says that the company operates internationally, positioning itself to cater exclusively to owners of second homes.
The first year of the annual membership is free and then it’s a $US295 fee charged in January of the year following enrolment.
ThirdHome says the cost of its accommodations is about 90-95 per cent lower than hotels or resorts. ThirdHome fees range from $US495 to $US1995 for the week.
As in the case of the Kenny Loggins booking, it’s often wise to retain the house’s staff for an additional sum, says Shealy, who has 7000 properties on his books in Cabo, Mexico, alone.
“A lot of the homes have staff,” he says. “It’s worth it if you go to Mexico.
“Kenny, who is a friend, took 15 people to Mexico on his honeymoon. He is a member of the club and kept the staff of 12. The staff did all the meals, the guests ate all the meals right there and everyone was served margaritas around the pool.”
Shealy won’t say how many Australian and New Zealand homeowners he has signed up to the private home exchange network, only that he opened on the Gold Coast last year.
But many of the company’s Australian listings are in prestige regional locations – Byron Bay, the Mornington Peninsula, Noosa, the Southern Highlands, Daylesford, and the Hunter Valley – where owners are using their homes not for income but for experiential ROI.
“Our members aren’t looking for tenants,” Shealy says. “They’re looking for global access and lifestyle returns.”
He employs 75 staff mostly to take care of members – 17 in Marbella, and another four on the Gold Coast.
He says the only people who can use a home in the network for a stay if they don’t have a multimillion-dollar home to offer are real estate agents if they have introduced members to ThirdHome.
“You have to have a luxury second home to enter ThirdHome, otherwise if people were taking out homes we would have no inventory. It wouldn’t work. It’s like a checking account – you can’t keep writing cheques unless you make a deposit.
“We don’t use the word rent, [so] we are not governed by a lot of rental restrictions.
“If you have a $2m house you might get a $4m house. You get your credits or keys based on the value of your home and the week you offer,” he says.
“Not all weeks are the same, if you give us Christmas in Australia, that might be worth a lot more than June or July in Australia.”
He says the idea of staying in people’s homes is becoming more acceptable given the advent of Airbnb-style accommodation.
Asked what he thinks of the standard of Australian high-end homes, Shealy says “it depends where it is”.
“We have some crazy homes in Aspen, where the average home price is $US16m.”
Shealy wants to attract more North Americans and Europeans to Australia to stay with ThirdHome.
“People from the US and Europe want to come here to Australia for three weeks. We are going to package it up for a one-week stay in New Zealand and two weeks in Australia. It’s a long trip, it’s expensive, and they don’t want to come for a short period.”
On the security front, he says he has never had any problems. The company does security checks on the owners and people can read the reviews, which are not edited.
“I have stayed in hundreds of these properties. I am staying in a beautiful penthouse in Auckland at the moment. The owner made sure there were things for us in the kitchen, and spent two hours with us when we got here.
“It’s very much a trust thing. It’s pretty incredible.”
This story is from the June issue of Mansion magazine. Inside The Australian this Friday, June 27.
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