At 6am on August 3rd, 2013 police officers, code enforcement officials and town inspectors came storming into our house with a search warrant in one one and ticket pads in the other. They woke up dozens of surprised and tired friends demanding IDs. For a grueling 90 minutes they interrogated me, Susan and all our guests while handing out tickets and court subpoenas.
At 7:30am, they left. We were dazed and confused. We didn't know what this meant for each person, the house and the future of the Hamptons as we knew it. I stood up on my usual dining room chair and gave a comforting speech (in spite of my own internal turmoil). I told everyone we'd get through it together. No one went back to bed. People put on their bathing suits, relaxed by the pool and contemplated what this all meant...
At 7:45am I called David Schreiber who is the owner of Club Getaway. I said, "David, I have bad news for me and good news for you. How would you like us to move the Hamptons to Club Getaway?" He said "No problem!" He welcomed our group with open arms and we finished out the 2013 season at Club Getaway.
I spent the fall of 2013 & winter of 2014 reviewing my options. My Hamptons attorney confirmed that there was absolutely no legal way to do house rentals any more. The solution seems obvious now. However, the idea of hotels never crossed my mind until necessity forced me to look into it. After 6 months of hotel "shopping", I found our new home on the ocean in between Amagansett and Montauk.
In February of 2014, I announced the "Summer Share Redefined" with 1 weekend in Atlantic City, 2 weekends at a legal house rental on Fire Island, 3 weekends at our new-found Hamptons hotel and 9 weekends at Club Getaway. By the middle of Summer 2014, it became apparent that the concept worked! I realized that the fun group dynamic was location independent and the social experience was portable.
For 2015, I expanded it to 4 weekends in Fire Island, 6 in the Hamptons and, once again, 9 at Club Getaway.
I just hosted over 106 guests between Club Getaway and the Hamptons this past weekend. Now I can safely say that we have all moved on from the dark days of August 2013 to a new era of weekend group trips that are fun, social, active and filled with great people. And as a very nice bonus, it is all 100% in compliance with town code :)
Thank you to all the guests who have been with me over the years and supported me as I transitioned to the newest, latest and greatest way to bring friends together at the top 3 destinations in the region!!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
David
212-579-4844
