Back in April 2022, TCA asked the question as to whether Club la Costa was slowly disappearing. Club la Costa otherwise known as CLC World seems to be morphing into something entirely different. We all know that there is an operational partnership between CLC and Wyndham which has resulted in former CLC resorts being labelled with various Wyndham brands such as Ramada. When looking deeper it appears that there are much bigger changes.
The old CLC World website has disappeared and been replaced with nothing more than a members booking site known as My Club la Costa. Gone is any reference to resorts or any other information, just a login page:
Further investigation reveals a Wyndham website looking suspiciously like the original CLC World site. The site is entitled Wyndham Residences Costa del Sol
An old company with a new name
CLC has for a long time run a real estate division, in our previous report we pointed out that what was previously known as Club la Costa Estates had been rebranded as IDILIQ, a play on the word idyllic, it seems that this was just the first of a number of changes which we will look at as we go through this article.
At first, we could find no reference to any registered company named Idiliq, however when checking the privacy policy of one of the Idiliq websites we found a statement that Idiliq is a trading style of RMF Europe Limited. RMF was incorporated nearly 10 years ago on 1st July 2013. The address as quoted on Companies House website is in fact the same address as CLC, Hallswelle House, 1 Hallswelle Road, London, England, NW11 0DH. Some of the Directors quoted both past and present are also, or have been Directors of CLC, Graham Wilding for example.
From estate agency to group
Idiliq is no longer just a real estate brokerage it has grown into:
- Idiliq Hotels & Resorts
- Idiliq Developments
- Idiliq Estates
- Idiliq Management
When looking at the main group website we see some familiar names that are/were Directors of CLC. If that wasn’t enough of proof that Idiliq and CLC are in fact one and the same, a press comment on the main group website states:
“Chairman and Founder of IDILIQ Developments, Roy Peires, today launched the company’s latest development of 104 branded residences at the Royal Marbella Golf Resort.”
For those not in the know, Roy Peires was also the founder and creator of CLC. We find it rather odd that the parent company RMF Europe Limited is coming up for its tenth birthday and yet the following statement appears on the group website:
“Idiliq Developments has come a long way since founder Roy Peires opened the company’s first resort on the Costa del Sol 38 years ago. Since then, the company has inspired generations of holidaymakers by developing a dynamic and diverse collection of international resorts and hotels.”
The reference to 38 years above is directly linked to Club la Costa, not Idiliq or RMF Europe.
What do the group do?
The names of the different parts of the group tend to give you an idea but for clarity, we will give a brief explanation of the component parts:
Idiliq Hotels & Resorts
This is the holiday retail side of the group. As CLC is predominately a timeshare company, this part of the group allows non owners to book holidays directly at all the previous CLC resorts, now of course branded Wyndham.
Idiliq Developments
Responsible for the sale of properties on existing resorts. Also the development of new resorts together with other real estate projects.
Idiliq Estates
This is an estate agency; although they do retail properties within the former CLC resorts as “exclusives” they also list many other non CLC/Wyndham properties.
Idiliq Management
Provides resort management services to in house resorts and external resorts not related to either CLC or Wyndham. Through a subsidiary Alfresco Stays, management and rental services can be provided to individual holiday home owners.
The new Idiliq companies are for the most part a rebranding of existing CLC group companies. Although not the easiest of charts to read, below are the CLC companies:
Note the three main Directors, Roy Peires, Eugene Miskelly and Martyn Aldridge, both Aldridge and Miskelly were former Directors of RMF Europe Limited.
Floating weeks?
The only part of the CLC Empire that seems to have been ignored, for now, is Canaltime. This is the division that has a fleet of canal boats based at various marinas in the UK. The website still bears the corporate identity of CLC with the contact address being quoted as Club la Costa in Mijas, southern Spain.
TCA are not surprised because in reality canal boats hardly fit in with the Wyndham business model and are also incongruous to the way Idiliq is structured. For now this part of the organisation seems to be floating on its own, excuse the pun.
TCA comment
We asked the question “Is Club la Costa slowly disappearing?” we honestly think that slowly should be replaced with rapidly. Over the years the CLC brand has been picking up more and more negative reviews so maybe it’s advantageous to get rid of the old and bring in the new. Most of the negative reviews we read are concerned with availability issues, admittedly most were trial membership owners. However, how would you expect to convert trial members into full members if they can’t actually get to experience the resorts and what the company offers because they can’t get availability?
It’s not our job to spread misinformation and everything we quote is directly available on the web. Trustpilot is one of the must see review sites because both praise and disparaging comment cannot be adjusted by the company the comments are aimed at. What we find odd is that although the company, in this case CLC, can’t have their reviews removed, they can respond. Despite both negative and positive comments all go unanswered by CLC. Comments such as the one we republish below should be addressed otherwise it shows a company who just doesn’t care about their customers:
In conclusion, as we pen this article very little is left of either Club la Costa or CLC World, with the exception of the online booking platform, My Club la Costa and the Canal Boat division.
All resorts now carry a Wyndham brand name and everything else is handled by one or other divisions of Idiliq. It also has to be remembered that this all started with the placing into administration Club la Costa UK Plc and Club la Costa (UK) Plc Sucursal En España. Commentators suggest that this action was engineered to avoid the potential millions of Euros’ awarded by the Spanish courts for the retailing of timeshare contracts in contravention of statute laws 42/98 and 4/12.
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