The global travel industry is always looking for new ways to satisfy the wanderlust we all have in us. The option to stay in hotels has now been joined by the option to sleep in truly extraordinary houses, either for their architecture or for their unique location. What’s more, the chance to go to a different destination each time we travel is what Wade Shealy must have had in mind when, in 2010, after being a successful real estate agent, he founded THIRDHOME.
Based in North America and Europe, THIRDHOME is a private luxury-home exchange club that offers its members the opportunity to make the most of unused time in their second home, while offering those same members the chance to travel the world. For THIRDHOME, owning a second home doesn’t have to mean spending most of your holidays in the same place.
After travel uncertainty caused by Covid-19, countries around the world are once again welcoming international travellers. Not only was the pandemic an unsettling time for the tourism industry, but holiday-home owners faced the consequences of their luxury properties sitting empty, with no guests to secure rental income. But now luxury second homeowners have their passion and drive back again, both to make the most out of their holiday homes and also explore beautiful destinations around the world. THIRDHOME has come up with the perfect solution.
Positioned as a private club for owners of luxury second homes, it has partnered with more than 80 world-class resorts, such as The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and The Reef Atlantis. Members give up their property during the time they are not using it for other members to use. In return, they receive travel credits, which they can use at any of THIRDHOME’s 13,500 properties in 1,700 destinations around the world.
Many of these properties are not available to the general public and the minimum value of a home to join the club is US$500,000, while the current average value in the portfolio is US$2.2 million.
Golf is one of the reasons people travel the world and THIRDHOME’s portfolio features luxury properties in close proximity to some of the most prestigious and award-winning golf courses in the world. In Europe, birthplace of golf, THIRDHOME has properties by the Old Course at St. Andrews (UK), Trump International Golf (Ireland), PGA Catalunya (Spain) and Golf de Andratx (Spain) and Quinta do Lago (Portugal). In the United States, it has homes by some of the best courses in the world, whether along the Hawaiian coast at Golf Makai, amidst the greenery of North Carolina at Pinehurst Resort or in legendary Palm Springs at Indian Canyons Golf Resort.