On the surface not a lot, one is usually luxury accommodation in a lovely resort in a desirable location, whilst the other can often be seen as a box room on wheels in the middle of a field, but it seems that both do have a commonality, they both bring large sums of cash in annual fees.
Regular readers will know that the subject of maintenance;especially during the current Covid 19 pandemic, is causing timeshare owners great distress having to pay large sums for something they cannot or may not be able to use. It would appear that caravan owners at certain parks are also suffering the same dilemma.
Hundreds of angry owners who can’t visit their caravans have slammed a holiday park operator for refusing to offer any refunds. Parkdean Resorts, which runs 67 parks across the UK, sent out an email on Thursday (14thMay 2020) warning caravan owners that it would not be giving back a penny of their fees, which can reach up to £6,941 per year.
Holidaymakers are calling on the firm to ‘act morally’.
Parkdean has since confirmed their pitch fee ‘does not guarantee that the park will remain open or that owners will be able to use their holiday home at any particular time’. An extract from the email is shown below:
The company is standing firm – offering 10 per cent more off the costs of food and drinks instead of maintenance refunds and was also unable to confirm if they would be increasing site fees for 2021.
A spokeswoman for Parkdean Resorts said: “We understand that this is a frustrating and worrying time for everybody, and this is not the outcome that some owners had wanted.”
“We value our relationship with owners and have a number of initiatives to support them at this time, including direct debit support and owner discounts on foods and drinks.”
“We are doing all we can to ensure our owners can return to park and look forward to welcoming them back as soon as it is safe to do so.”
“The pitch licence agreement allows owners to keep their holiday home on the park, in exchange for paying the pitch fee.”
“It does not guarantee that the park will remain open or that owners will be able to use their holiday home at any particular time, especially in the event of a public health emergency such as this where the government has ordered entire industries to shut down.”
So it would appear that there is a similarity between both holiday products. Apart from the fact that they are chalk and cheese, it would seem that they are equally owned by greedy companies that in reality pay little or no favour to their respective owners!
With only certain countries opening their borders, will you be able to make use of your timeshare this year? Are you happily going to pay maintenance fees for 2021 knowing you were unable to use it in 2020? – Even though you still paid your fees and received nothing back from your resort. If you have been affected, we highly recommend completing our survey.
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