Is it a con?
Those people unfamiliar with Timeshare often have a negative perception of it - words such as scams, high pressure sales, conmen, etc are often heard when the subject is discussed among the uninitiated. But holiday industry giants such as Hilton, Marriott and Disney are all main players in the Timeshare system and advocate it to their customers - so why does this mainstream product attract adverse publicity?
- Timeshare - a regulated system
- Holiday Packs give Timeshare a bad name
- The source of negative publicity
- Street touts
- The non-existent cash reclaim
Timeshare - a regulated system
Over 6.7 million people worldwide are owners of Timeshare. The product's widespread appeal among holidaymakers lies in the high standard of accommodation, great flexibility, an exhaustive choice of location and undeniable value for money.
These days, the Timeshare industry is fully regulated - with government legislation and independent trade bodies ensuring proper business practice, and a series of industry regulations in place such as codes of ethics and cooling-off periods to further protect the consumer. Buyers of Timeshare can rest assured that their investment in future holidays is a sound one and that the system is an authentic and respected way of holidaying.
If resorts are of a high quality and customers are buying into a holiday product that offers value for money and is highly flexible, where does the conflict lie? Why do people have complaints about Timeshare scams?
Holiday packs give Timeshare a bad name
The truth is that these complaints do not refer to the long-standing, properly regulated Timeshare system. People tend to confuse this legitimate and well-regarded product with the murky world of Holiday Packs or Discount Holiday Clubs.
If a developer wants to build a resort that is of high enough quality to be affiliated to one of the Timeshare exchange companies, they must work to the very highest standards. Top quality building structures, fantastic facilities and amenities, stylish interior design and furnishings, and ultra-modern equipment are all necessary considerations - and they don't come cheap.
If this sort of money isn't readily available to a developer or promoter, how does he create a tangible luxury product to sell? Quite simply, he doesn't - he just makes one up. And so the Holiday Pack is born - a typically worthless product that allegedly guarantees a lifetime of luxury holidays.
Throw a glossy brochure and a sales office into the mix and our Holiday Pack con man is on his way to duping the public into buying his "product" - at the fraction of the cost of actually building a first-rate resort.
The source of negative publicity
Marketing a non-existent product has got to be one of the trickiest jobs around. A genuine luxury Timeshare resort - bricks and mortar evidence of the type of quality holidays promised to owners - speaks for itself.
Without such a product, unscrupulous developers are unable to legitimately promote their Holiday Pack and so they resort to scaremongering tactics in an attempt to discredit their competitors. Stories include:
- Timeshare maintenance fees will sky rocket in future
- Timeshare owners will have to pay new taxes next year
- Availability through the exchange companies is low, so owners have to holiday in the same place year after year
- Timeshare resorts are constantly going out of business, meaning that owners will lose their investment
- Timeshare is subject to the burden of inheritance tax which is passed down to their children
And the list goes on. In actual fact, the income of a Holiday Pack marketer is based on how well he can criticise the Timeshare system. The perpetrators of this false information have fuelled an unproven, but nevertheless harmful, view of authentic Timeshare.
Street touts
Another source of confusion between this type of shady Holiday Club and the Timeshare industry is the use of "OPCs" or street touts to promote the Holiday Packs. Unpopular and confrontational, this aggressive marketing approach is used to entice couples off the street and into a hard-sell presentation - at the end of which there is of course no actual "product" to speak of.
Timeshare companies once used touts to help market their resorts. Nowadays, legitimate Timeshare developers invite prospective buyers to stay in their resorts on a promotional holiday or inspection visit. This way, not only do people get to see the resort first hand, but they are not hassled by street touts and are free to enjoy their holiday.
Aside from the false stories and hard-line sales tactics, there is an even darker side to the Holiday Pack scam which often gets wrongly publicised as a Timeshare scam. Consumers are not only persuaded to hand over huge sums of money for a flimsy product that scarcely offers any benefits at all, but are lured into a sale by the promise of a Reclaim Cashback Certificate - which is in fact a blatant lie.
The non-existent cash reclaim
The concept of the Cashback Certificate was a totally legitimate one, originally introduced in the late 20th century to increase sales of white goods. The idea behind it was that when you bought a kettle, for example, it came with a Reclaim Certificate which you had to register before a certain date and which would then entitle you to reclaim the full price of the kettle in 51 months' time.
The Reclaim procedure was devised in such a way that customers only had a short window of time during which to make their claim. If this was missed, they would lose the opportunity to claim back their money. As the value of these goods was low, most of the time people would forget all about the reclaim, netting the kettle company a tidy profit.
This concept is at the centre of the Reclaim scam used in the Holiday Pack sales pitch. The client purchases a holiday product worth £7,000 and is told by the salesman that they will recoup all of their money in 51 months' time. They are given a Reclaim voucher that appears to be an authentic bank cheque when in fact it is not - and all hopes of being reunited with their cash are soon dashed.
If any of a buyer's money does in fact make it to Reclaim, this is only ever a fraction. Chances of a payout are pretty slim, not least because of the convoluted windows of opportunity for registering and making a claim. We have even heard of some people who have received backdated certificates and delayed correspondence which have deliberately denied them any time to claim.
There is, then, a clear distinction between the deceitful Holiday Pack products and the mainstream, credible, Timeshare industry. With a strong and reputable history and attracting five million owners, Timeshare continues to resist adverse publicity and enjoys huge success worldwide.
