The Clubhouse.

Members tell us the people they travel with are part of what makes Exclusive Resorts special. But the Portal had no way for them to find each other, share what they know, or extend a trip relationship beyond a single week. That gap matters to the business: Members who feel connected to other Members renew, upgrade, and bring guests who become Members themselves.

I led the Clubhouse from concept to launch as a feature-flagged beta to ~200 Memberships participating in the Seabourn Once-in-a-Lifetime Journey (a cohort small enough to learn from quickly, passionate enough to engage honestly). The MVP shipped four core surfaces (an onboarding wizard, a landing page, a Member directory, and a discussion board) built on GetStream, Salesforce, DynamoDB, and Algolia. The questions framing every scoping decision were measurable: will Members complete a profile, what fields will they choose to share, will they post on the discussion board, will the directory help them find Members they want to connect with.

The cohort gave us real answers — and the harder lesson that a directory and a discussion board aren't enough on their own. Connection without context falls flat. The signal is clear: engagement needs to live where Members are already thinking about ER, when they're planning a trip and when they're on one. That's what Phase 2 builds toward: destination-specific discussion forums embedded in the trip-planning flow, a My Feed homepage that surfaces relevant conversations, and notifications that close the engagement loop. Community woven into the Member experience, not parked next to it.