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| Sat, Dec 21 2024, 22:26:49 | [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, [8], 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: Beware Holiday Clubs | |
Author: George | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: Sat, Jul 15 2006, 14:12:12 Holiday Clubs (including Vacation Clubs & Travel Clubs) Holiday Clubs are BAD news and should be avoided Holiday clubs are booking systems for which you pay a large joining fee to enable you to book holidays at prices which are generally no cheaper than on the Internet or High Street. Key reasons for avoiding membership of a holiday club: lack of certainty that you will get anything, let alone what is promised. If the club goes "bust" tomorrow, you have lost everything the lies told by salesmen to get their commission the lack of any "club" structure to enable members to influence how the club is run the inability to check what the club can offer until after all the money has been paid (the Scots phrase "buying a pig in a poke") no time (cooling off period) in which to check salesmens claims they take a deposit so as to lock you into the contract there is no "second hand" market to enable you to recover some of the capital sum when you want to "get out". the cost of taking holidays in the club is generally no cheaper than in the open market - the membership fee is therefore worthless. many purchase agreements appear to be void in law, lacking certain essentials of an enforecable contrcat Holiday clubs come in three flavours: Bogus with neither a formal structure nor an administration service, they have no arrangements for delivering the promised holidays. In legal terms they simply do not exist. Run by unsavoury people with criminal records they eventually “disappear” having stolen a LOT of money. The majority of holiday clubs fall into the “bogus” category. Many thousands of consumers are defrauded every year. Fraudulent a superior version of the bogus club – where a formal structure may have been established (usually a limited liability company or proprietary club) and a small administration service has been set up. These clubs last longer than the bogus ones – because they initially appear to provide a service – but close down when complaints about failure to deliver the promised holidays get too great. Many tens of thousands of holiday club members have already been “left in the lurch” when their club disappeared. Established where a legal structure exists, an administration service is in place, and members do get holidays – but generally not where, when or at the price promised by the salesman. Although very poor value for money, they may survive for a number of years. An increasing number of holiday clubs are Internet based - booking of holidays can only be done using a website, often based in the USA. These internet clubs are no more reliable than their "land based" cousins. Holiday club salesmen tell lies for a living. Typically: lies about where in the world you can take the promised holidays lies about the time of year you can take the promised holidays lies about the quality of accommodation lies about the costs of the accommodation lies about the savings they offer fro flights etc. lies about who endorses the club - Disney, Marks & Spencer and other highly respected organisations. Those holiday clubs that DO provide some holidays usually operate by renting spare timeshare or hotel accommodation. They find it near impossible to rent periods in high season (ie. school holidays when most holiday makers want to go away) and places in high demand (the very places you want to go). And claims that they are members of ABTA or IATA (even if the claim is true) does not provide any comfort as the joining fee and the membership fee is not covered by the bonding schemes run by these two respectable organisations. Holiday clubs that do provide holidays either: pay a full rental fee (which they pass on to you with an uplift) which is exactly what you could do for yourself using the internet or teletext. Or they book timeshare weeks on the understanding that you attend a timeshare presentation (6 hours of sheer hell) from which they receive a commission if you buy. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |