Bad Publicity

As a mainstream and reputable sector of the holiday industry, the Timeshare system provides millions of luxury holidays every year

So where does the bad press come from? It comes from a lazy media and a shady Holiday Pack industry that relies on running down Timeshare for its own crooked gain.

If you have recently purchased with Resort Properties - congratulations, you're now a member of one of the world's leading Timeshare companies and can enjoy one of the most popular and valued ways of holidaying.

 

So, you're satisfied with your new acquisition. You've visited the resort, all the aspects of your ownership have been explained in detail to you, and you're happy that your Timeshare will provide you with a wealth of unique vacation opportunities for years to come. Later however, friends may cast doubt over your decision by remarking that Timeshare has been known to attract negative publicity. But where does the bad press come from, and does it hold any weight?

 

Timeshare is a long-standing, reputable sector of the hospitality industry, governed by legislation and trade bodies. It originated in the 1960s in France and has since become extremely popular throughout the world, particularly in America, South Africa and Europe. The Timeshare system has attracted the likes of Hilton, Disney and Marriott, and over 6.7 million people worldwide are Timeshare owners.

 

The only bad press to emerge about Timeshare was during the 1980s, when the underhand activities of three well-known fraudsters were highly publicised. As with any apparent scandal, the hazy facts can linger for years - but it's only by getting behind the hype that we can understand the nature of genuine Timeshare and discover its benefits.

Since the dubious deals exposed in the 1980s, the Timeshare industry has tightened regulations and sets out strict Timeshare laws and codes of ethics to ensure that this doesn't happen again. With all the proper legislation in place, Timeshare has thrived and has become one of the fastest growing sections of the travel market today, enjoying a global turnover of £6billion per year. Major hotel chains and household names are on board and high street banks are happy to assist with funding.

The type of activity that attracts negative publicity doesn't come under the umbrella of legitimate, regulated Timeshare - it is simply a shady imitation. The main activities that have fuelled damaging press attention are Holiday Packs, illegal street touts and resale scammers.

 

The Holiday Pack, or Discount Holiday Club, is most certainly not the same as Timeshare. It is a concept dreamt up to imitate Timeshare, by dishonest developers who don't have the resources to build quality resorts. With no credible product to sell, the developer markets the Holiday Pack entirely on glossy brochures, a professional-looking office and a wing and a prayer.

In fact, the success of a Holiday Pack marketer is based on their ability to rubbish their competitors - the Timeshare industry. This scaremongering tactic includes telling clients lies about Timeshare to legitimise the nefarious Holiday Pack:

These are just some examples of the sort of misinformation that has harmed the view of Timeshare. Alongside the above untruths, at the core of the Holiday Park scheme is a shady ploy - the Cash Reclaim.

The client buys a holiday product for thousands of pounds and is told that they will recover all of their money within 51 months if they claim within a small window of time. The salesman hands them a ‘reclaim voucher' that looks like a genuine bank cheque but is in fact worthless.

Bogus Holiday Packs claim to offer large discounts on luxury holidays, but they are not trusted companies and do not belong to the relevant industry trade bodies.

 

Street touts, or "OPCs" are frequently employed to promote Holiday Packs. This marketing approach by Holiday Pack peddlers can be aggressive and is often accompanied by hard-sell. A favourite ruse of the Holiday Pack OPC is the use of scratch cards telling the client they have won a fantastic prize and that they need to go to their sales office to collect it. When the client dutifully arrives at the sales office they usually find they cannot claim their "free" gift until they have purchased a Timeshare product. Not the most honest of practices.

Resort Properties doesn't use street touts for any of its Tenerife resorts but instead offers inspection visits, whereby clients can try before they buy. By spending a week in one of its resorts, clients of Resort Properties can see the quality of the accommodation first hand before making a purchase decision, without being pestered by street touts, and can relax and enjoy their holiday knowing they're not obliged to purchase anything.

 

Particularly unsettling news for the consumer are resale scammers. A real thorn in the side of the Timeshare industry, these tricksters will claim to be a reputable company and cold call a Timeshare owner to tell them they have found a buyer for their property. Not only that, they say, but the buyer is willing to pay much more than the original price. A chic website and other marketing materials provide a smokescreen of credibility for the company - which then requests an initial fee from the client which can be up to £1,500.

Some of these fraudulent resale companies then disappear into the sunset, whilst others take the scam a stage further. They tell the seller that they must submit a particular tax form in order for the sale to go through. However, this tax form is non-existent and the sale falls through.

Sometimes the Timeshare owner is even told that there is a buyer waiting to purchase their Timeshare who is abroad but wants to meet up in person. So the unsuspecting owner pays for a flight to Spain (for example) to meet their buyer, only to discover that they have been duped - the "buyer" is in fact a Holiday Pack salesman whose only interest is in convincing them to part with yet more money for another product.

The Office of Fair Trading and the Timeshare industry trade bodies are working to eliminate the fraudulent activities of Holiday Pack marketers, who do not comply with the correct legislation. Resort Properties is equally committed to maintaining high standards of integrity within the industry, and is affiliated to both the RDO and TATOC.

 

When a Timeshare company provides a quality product and adheres to all the appropriate laws, it stands the test of time. Timeshare is a mainstream and thoroughly regulated business that has existed for over 35 years - but like any industry, its reputation occasionally suffers from negative publicity caused by a handful of dubious ventures, which are wrongly publicised as Timeshare scams.

Measures continue to be taken against this parasitical fringe business - Holiday Pack companies jumping on the back of the established, regulated system. Inshort there is no such thing as a Timeshare scam today - Timeshare is a respectable and regulated industry that will continue to defy such unfounded adverse publicity - and its 6.7 million happy owners surely can't be wrong.

(+34) 922 75 02 82

info@resortproperties-group.co.uk