Kidnapped! On holiday (Time-Share Holiday Brokers in general)

Member Name: jo@145

Product:	Time-Share Holiday Brokers in general
Date:	01/05/06 (949 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Different way to holiday

Disadvantages: May not work out well and become costly

Good Evening and Congratulations! You’ve just won a holiday for 2 in Florida. What do you think to this news, I bet you’re so excited you can’t speak etc….. Haven’t we all received such calls and probably haven’t taken the holiday as by the time you pay the insurance and flights you could choose your own destination at a time that suits you and not the promoters.

Time share people come in all guises, it can be like that on the telephone coming into your home unasked and usually at dinner time or it can be as you walk along a pretty promenade enjoying the view whist on your holiday that you are accosted. It was such a scenario that happened to us a few years ago in Malta.

We had walked from Sliema to St Georges Bay, probably took us an hour or so but the sun was getting hotter and we walked up into the town to find a café for a long cold drink. A very polite older lady (at least in her 50’s!) spoke to us, and it turned out she was touting for business, yes she was the kidnapper as they are fondly called. The offer to see a brand new 5 star hotel and a cold drink was enough, the pretty little gold earrings and pendant in a Maltese Cross design and a bottle of wine for 1 hour of our time was incidental, it was the cold drink and to get out of the sun that was priority! So we followed her to a lovely hotel where we had our drinks and chatted to “the Babysitter”. He chatted away like an interested friend, are you enjoying your holiday? , have you been to Malta before? how many times a year do you go on holiday? …. I’m sure you’ve heard the questions before. Time passed our hour was up and we hadn’t even seen the hotel. I was sure my husband would be getting itchy feet and want to be off, but he seemed quite comfortable. This was unusual as he is often quite rude to Timeshare people, which is not in his nature.

Eventually we did a tour of the hotel. Well it was definitely 5 star, you sunk into the carpets, the staff were all very polite and very smart, the facilities were excellent , there was an indoor and outdoor pool, the sun bed area was huge and the loungers well padded for old bones! There was a leisure centre complete with climbing wall, which could be used by guests but was run separately and used by local people and even some film stars whilst filming in Malta had been in that week. Several types of restaurants both indoor and outdoor during the summer season and larger facilities for conferences and weddings etc and there was even an IMAX theatre and ordinary cinema underneath the hotel building if you fancy a film session. The apartments were still in the process of being built or at least the framework was there but the finishing touches were needed. But of course they had some ready for viewing. We saw the larger apartment first, beautifully furnished and fell in love! The smaller studio was more than adequate and very similar, but only had one bathroom. We only have one bathroom at home so no problem there.

Tour over, here comes the bit…..DRUM ROLL

This can be all yours to enjoy if your purchase a holiday ownership. The posh way of saying timeshare! By now we had moved to a more comfortable lounge/bar and had been served with coffees, and had the holiday ownership explained to us, we agreed we were interested in knowing more and so details were taken of when we would like to have our holiday. Our babysitter who was from New Zealand and was called Jason left to go to his superior (I guess he was the salesman) with our requirements and to work out the relevant details. MONEY wasn’t mentioned, after this is a very discreet way of selling!!

We were left to sit and chat. Was the area bugged I wondered? No. Pretty sure this was above board, we decided to see what it cost and what our limit would be and soon the Salesman/Manager was back. It started all again, are you enjoying your holiday etc.. I’m sure you’ve got the picture. But no pressure, and he was very pleasant, we discovered he was from England, living and working out in Malta because he suffers with rheumatism (all together now Awwwwwww!)

Pages of figures were produced but eventually it was sorted out to 1 week at a time to suit us, as I don’t like it too hot we choose Week 17 on their calendar the last in the Yellow period which is the middle price range. We choose a 1 bedroom studio, which sleeps 4 and has a small kitchen and bed settee in the living room complete with balcony with table and chairs. The bedroom had a door opening into the bathroom making it en-suite, but there was also another door so guests could enter without disturbing you. Small points, but if you like to be in the bathroom by yourself you need to lock both doors!!
He was not to persistent, the decision was ours, my husband was happy we decided to go ahead and forms were printed, explanations made and we signed a Visa form for our deposit promising to pay the balance a month after our return.

EASY PEASY! We shook hands and were put into a taxi for the return to our hotel complete with our FREE (LOL) wine and jewellery, signed and sealed documents and a huge book of all the places we could visit on holiday breaks, which would seriously put our luggage over the weight limit plus an invitation to go back in a day or two to look around and use the facilities if we wished and discuss any queries we had. In other words there was a cooling off period if we had major doubts of what we had done in the heat of the moment so to speak!

We did go back and looked around and asked some questions, mainly over the problem of flights from Glasgow being on a Thursday but our holiday runs from a Saturday. This wouldn’t be a problem in the early days of this Resort we were assured, they would be able to accommodate us.

On return home we did wonder if we had been rash, normally we are careful and have always turned our backs on time share experiences. Talking to people we discovered that “INTERVAL INTERNATIONAL” whose organisation we were now members of, was huge and seemed very reliable, one of the big groups with places all over the world which were now within our reach. I was amazed at just how many people were members of such groups and I had always thought their holidays were just booked like ours at a travel agency or over the internet. So we felt a little more reassured. Life went on, we returned to work, received a welcome letter from the resort and reminder to send the cheque. We sent our cheque and didn’t hear any more, we didn’t receive a receipt even, but on paying the Visa for the deposit we discovered the exchange rate was against us and it cost us another £70 so a copy was sent off and they forwarded a cheque for this amount as was their agreement. I then emailed the resort as we hadn’t received any correspondence about the cheque which had been cashed, and they replied very quickly that there was a problem and no sign of our money. The man sorting this out gave me his home email and worked it out during the night, we received another e –mail in the wee small hours and over the next few days and eventually things were processed.

Deep sigh of relief. Oh boy, we were really worried! All the tales of dodgy timeshares came to mind. Happily this was sorted out and we met the gentleman in question on a visit back to the Fortina Spa resort (see my diamond review on Ciao!) We decided to visit to see that it really existed as the only mention online when we logged on to the site was “Under restoration” so we were slightly worried as it had been due to open in the summer.

We soon had a membership number and access to the web site for Interval International where we can exchange our holiday if we wish and go somewhere else in stead of to Malta for this there is a fee to be paid, the amount I cannot remember at the moment or we can buy Getaway breaks which come available, the price depends on the time of year, availability and size of the apartment. Anxious to see how it worked we crammed in another holiday that November when we went to Marbella (for which guess what! There is another review!) We booked a Getaway break at a wonderful 5 star hotel in Marbella for a week for £320 plus our flights. It was so easy to do, just a few clicks online. We thought it excellent value for money as there was room for another 2 people if they were happy to share the bed settee and the apartment was fantastic, with a huge balcony complete with table, chairs and 4 sun loungers, a fully fitted kitchen with dishwasher and washing machine – useful if you go for a long holiday.

Our holiday ownership lasts a long, long time!! For 30 years!! We, even if we are still alive will be too old probably to be pushed in our wheelchairs or race along on our zimmers but we can leave it to our family in our will. In fact they can now benefit as we can buy holidays for them. Just in case they read this I will re-phase that, we can purchase on their behalf and perhaps add a little on to make up for our original outlay! I forgot to add that each year you have a management fee to pay in our case this was £170 so basically once you have made the bulk of the money, you have a one week holiday for £170.

So I would say if you have a spare £6,000, then if this holiday experience appeals go for it, we did and so far we are very happy. Our investments were losing in the bank, so this sounded a good option, hopefully should we decide in the future to sell then we will recover some of our money and we will have had holidays, maybe we will be lucky and will make a profit (HA.HA) you never know, but as we are not gamblers this was quite a risky thrill for us!

The book shows details of the entire properties available world wide. There is a huge section in Canada and the USA, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Eastern Mediterranean, Central Europe and the Low Countries, Scandinavia and Finland, Middle East and Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific and Asia. There is a wonderful choice of beautiful apartments.

So far we have not done an Exchange so I cannot comment on how well it works, but the instructions are well set out both in the book and online. It does say in the book under helpful hints, that units with more private sleeping areas generally yield more trading power because they are in higher demand. We were told to have the best trading power you need 2 weeks in the Red High Season, but not everyone wants or can afford that. Having said that we have now traded in our 1 bedroom Studio at the Eden Bay Resort in Malta ( the hotel it is attached to is the Hotel Intercontinental) in the Middle season for a larger apartment with 2 bathrooms in the High season which is overlooking the gardens, only a few weeks later but hopefully slightly better weather!
Our family are looking forward to joining us, once they accepted their inheritance is being spent!

We purchased the Interval Gold Membership at an additional fee in the hopes of benefiting from other things, so far we have only saved on our Getaway break but as it lasts for a few years we live in hope! Getaway breaks are discounted by £15 for Gold Members. You can make savings on Travel, car hire, money off cruises and city breaks. There is a Gold Concierge available, like a PA who can organise tickets for special events and find out information world wide for places you are visiting. Savings for Golfers, Travel Insurance and parking.


My conclusion is this, that if you want the best and also like several holidays a year, and if you can afford the outlay go for a time share deal.

Recently we have had 2 or 3 holidays a year and each of these holidays have cost in excess of £1000- £1500 for the 2 of us. As we have stayed in hotels for a number of years I wasn’t too sure of having an apartment, but it was great, we could eat breakfast in the hotel which was part of our resort if we wished and did so on the first day as we arrived in the early hours of the morning so didn’t have any supplies and in the evening the choice is your own, there were several restaurants in our hotel which we used and also went out into the town to sample different things. To us this is a better option from Half Board. Normally we like to try local foods but we visited a Mongolian Barbecue which was great fun! It probably wasn’t much of a financial saving but we had a better class of hotel and facilities and most of us like a little (or a lot!) of luxury whilst on our well deserved holidays. Flights from Scotland are sometimes a bit harder but you can shop around and find a deal which suits you from which ever airport you want, Interval International will do this for you if you don’t like browsing on the internet, but I guess if you are reading this then the Internet is a comfy place to be!

We weren’t bothered by Time share people until our last day, when we were accosted 4 times in 20minutes! But we dealt with them firmly and politely and walked on! Not a job I would want to do but it presumably keeps them fed and housed.

Earlier this year we heard that our resort had been taken over by Sunterra who encouraged us to exchange our holiday week to points we could take anywhere. So far we have resisted as we had booked our flights for this month. It will be interesting to see how much hassle we receive to change.


Roll on the next holiday after Malta! I wonder where that will be......

Summary: Timeshare or holiday ownership, it amounts to the same. Decision to buy or run is yours!