As most of us know, the timeshare world has often been touted since it started in the 70s as a world of scam artists. Well here we are in 2009 and nothing seems to have changed.
Once company based in Mexico that operates as Royal Holiday Vacation Club offers hotels around the world based on a system of points. But, their way of selling these points to unsuspecting travelers to Mexico has often left many vacationers with more that a sour taste of Tequila and lemon in their mouth. The situation got so terrible that the ABC program 20/20 investigated. Here are some of their results.
What´s the secret to Royal Holiday´s Success?
“20/20″ interviewed a cross-section of an ever increasing number of members who say Royal Holiday misled them about the club, how the club operates, and the availability of vacations that they originally signed up for. Most say the only thing royal about their membership was the way they were ripped off.
John and Robin Chomko, who are from the St Louis area, joined in the Dominican Republic in 2006. “They’ll tell you anything,” John says of the Royal Holiday salespeople. “They’ll lie, I mean, they lied completely to us.”
Karen M: “We bought into this on vacation at the Crystal Palace in Nassau Bahamas, in April of 2003. When we arrived home we canceled it. It was within the 7 days and we sent the certified letter as instructed when we called. Now 2 and 1/2 years later, we received a letter from a collection agency. They are rude and call us liars. I have the proof and they don’t want to hear it or see it. They just want the money…”
The tales don´t seem to stop coming. Indeed there are even websites dedicated to raising awareness nowadays and perhaps previously people felt ashamed to admit they´d been suckered – well, not any more. Many people now are telling their tales – some more revealing than the last!
So How Are People Suckered Into Buying?
It starts at the airport and follows potential buyers across Cancun, Acapulco or many other desirable Mexican coastal resorts. When “20/20″ traveled to Cancun in January, producers found a Royal Holiday sales presentation with offers of free meals, free tickets to events, a spa day and other enticements at the airport. On accepting the offer of a free breakfast at the Hyatt Cancun Caribe hotel, a producer questioned a Royal Holiday worker whether the sales presentation would include high-pressure tactics or hard selling. The employee said emphatically no.
But the “20/20″ producers who were posing as tourists were insistently solicited by Royal Holiday representatives bearing gifts. During the first cup of coffee at breakfast, the saleswoman — who sat right down at the table to eat with the producers — started serving a classic high-pressure technique: the limited time offer. “If you join the club today, you have incentives, only today,” she said. “If you wanted to come back tomorrow we cannot.”
The BBB rates Royal Holiday with an “F”
Royal Holiday says 97 percent of its approximately 65,000 members never complain. But Mexico’s consumer protection agency, Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor, or Profeco, says Royal Holiday has 1,800 complaints. Questioned to comment, Royal Holiday referred 20/20 to its Mexico City lawyer, Agustin Garcia. 20/20 pointed out to Garcia that in 2005, Royal Holiday had 282 complaints; 506 complaints in 2006 and 761 complaints in 2007.
The Federal Trade Commission says the travel, vacations and timeshare industry was in its top 10 complaint categories in 2007. And it says complaints about Royal Holiday are also piling up at the Better Business Bureau of South East Florida and the Caribbean, located in West Palm Beach, Florida where Better Business Bureau Senior Vice President Carol Venello says the pattern is of members reporting high-pressure sales, misrepresentation and failure to tell conditions of the offer.
The Better Business Bureau gives Royal Holiday its lowest rating, a mark understandable in Spanish or English: an F. Royal Holiday’s lawyer Garcia acknowledged to ABC News’ Jim Avila that “F’s not excellent, even in elementary school.”
With that kind of complaint record… how do the salespeople get tourists to bite? Long of West Virginia says, “They are excellent. I will give them that. They are excellent.”
If you are going to Mexico, get clued up on what could happen to you. Take three minutes to read some of the tales about customer´s experiences with this company at: www.royalholidayclubbed.com/op_stories.htm
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