The Houstonian Club has run a number of promotions to encourage members to refer new members to the high-end club. Incentives have included iPads and tickets to concerts and a Houston Texans football game. Photo courtesy of The Houstonian.

New members of The Houstonian Club will attend the Taylor Swift concert in November at Minute Maid Park in Houston, compliments of the club. The four-ticket package, valued at $600, was included as a promotion for all members who joined the club in June.

The promotion, along with the start of summer, the oppressive Texas heat and the completion of club renovations, factored into a record-breaking month for the high-end club. Even with initiation fees of $14,000 and $24,000 (depending on the type of membership and services purchased), the club brought in $720,000 in initiation fees in June on a budget of $352,000, says Colleen Kennedy, director of membership sales at The Houstonian.

The aggressive marketing perks are not limited to new memberships. The Houstonian has offered existing members a new iPad 2, a $400 hair dryer, concert tickets and tickets to a Houston Texans football game as gifts for referrals.

“Most clubs think, ‘We’ll give personal training or we’ll give nutrition or we’ll give the things that you are selling,’ because that’s what you think goes with the membership,” Kennedy says. “Sometimes, it’s nontraditional things.”

High-end clubs such as The Houstonian have remained afloat even as the economy remains sluggish. In-city private membership clubs that offer high service levels and expensive pricing also have fared well during the past few years, says Rick Caro, president of Management Vision Inc., New York. Among those clubs are the New York Athletic Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle and the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, OR.

“They require current members to sponsor new members,” Caro says. “The fitness component is at least adequate, if not huge, depending on the facility. They benefit from history, positioning, pricing and their social component, often tied to the food and beverage element and the facilities.”

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