Right at home

TRAVELLERS seeking out the traditional Thai holiday experience needn't look further than Anantara Phuket Villas, a luxury Phuket resort with the ubiquitous thatch-roofed villas and sprawling lily pond that stretches from the lobby right to the hotel restaurant.

That sense of exotica is noticeably absent in its new sister property across the road - Anatara Vacation Club - with its contemporary villas and apartment block that project a more cosmopolitan, family-oriented image compared to its more genteel older sibling. The difference, explains general manager Lyndon Ellis of the Bangkok-based hotel group, is that each property caters to a different demographic. "Europeans come into Thailand and they love the Thai houses and architecture, but when Asians come here, they want more contemporary facilities," says Mr Ellis. "Most of the owners - nearly 20 per cent - are Chinese nationals, followed by the Thai at 16 per cent, and the rest are mostly made up of people from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong."

He says "owners" because Anantara Vacation Club operates on a timeshare concept, where buyers commit to purchasing a certain number of points each year for 30 years, which can be used to redeem a certain number of days at the vacation club. Notwithstanding the dubious reputation of timeshare properties in the early days (thanks to a number of scams linked to it), the timeshare concept has slowly but surely gained popularity in recent years. "The credibility of vacation clubs and timeshares has definitely gotten a lot better," Mr Ellis notes. "If you sit down and do the numbers, you realise that buying a timeshare has greater value than staying at a hotel if you come to Phuket on a yearly basis."