In June of this year Interval International introduced a unexplained unit size upgrade fee to its clients without their knowledge. It has been brought to light by a member who wanted an explanation as to why this charge was applied without their prior approval and without any sort of pre warning.
Interval International run a point system along with a comprehensive exchange programme to allow its members variety in their holidaying needs. They offer nearly 3,000 resorts in over 80 different countries giving them varied choice in their holiday destination. The members are supposed to be able to use these points to stay at any resort operated by the timeshare company and are responsible for any maintenance and property taxes.
Interval initiated the new unit-size upgrade fees with no notice and no explanation to its members. Interval members who attempt to exchange timeshares found themselves paying $99 for each additional room added to their booking. So a member trading in a studio unit to reserve a three-bedroom unit would be charged nearly $300 extra for the additional space.
Yvette Battalla a spokesperson for the company, released a statement on an Interval blog which was in reply to the many angry complaints made by long standing Interval members in connection to the to the unexplained charge. This response was only posted after the fact:
We have heard your concerns and apologise for not providing advance notice about the new unit-size upgrade fee. We assure you that we will improve our communications in the future. Prior to launching this fee, we reviewed data and conducted member research to better understand member behaviour and inventory utilisation. We learned that members often confirm larger units than are necessary to accommodate their travel party.
This finding, along with the fact that points based members already relinquish more points when receiving a larger unit, the trend toward shorter booking windows, and other factors, influenced the introduction of the unit-size upgrade fee. As always, if a unit-size upgrade is offered during Flexchange, there is no additional fee.
The unit-size upgrade fee supports Interval’s commitment to providing comparable exchanges to members around the world. Our inventory control and optimization processes are designed to create the greatest number of exchange opportunities possible for members, while maintaining fairness across the system.
So Interval is charging the upgrades because they found that its members are confirming larger units than THEY think their members need. A family of four might be confirming bookings and paying for three-bedroom units, only to be charged the upgrade fee because Interval thinks they only require two bedrooms.
When did it become the companies right to decide what is best for their members, would their time not be better spent listening to their customers needs and working to accommodate them?
Companies like this should take responsibility for giving their members adequate notice of changes in information or additional charges which they will be responsible for, one would expect at least a head’s up before these sort of changes are put in place.
Once again the consumer is paying the high price for Intervals inability to communicate with its members.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk