Firstly we need to sort out the acronyms. ARDA, as the logo states, is the American Resort Development Association, the trade body for the timeshare industry in the States. BBB is the Better Business Bureau; best let them explain what they do:
“The Better Business Bureau has empowered people to find businesses, brands, and charities they can trust for over 110 years. In 2022, people turned to BBB more than 250 million times for BBB Business Profiles on more than 5.3 million businesses and Charity Reports on about 12,000 charities, all available for free at BBB.org. The International Association of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organisation for the local, independent BBBs in the United States and Canada.”
We have offered our explanation before, for the benefit of UK readers, the BBB is sort of like the Citizens Advice Bureau with a bit of Trading Standards and Advertising Standards Authority rolled in to one.
TCA recently discovered that the BBB had carried out a study specifically relating to timeshare complaints. This new study revealed in the last three years, the BBB received 20,118 complaints about timeshares. They included the main difficulties of getting out of the agreement and aggressive sales tactics as the major complaints.
Naturally, when an organisation with the size and public recognition of the BBB goes to press effectively criticising the timeshare industry, the industry mouthpiece, ARDA has to reply.
Statement from ARDA
“ARDA commends the BBB for providing overall guidance to consumers about the information they need and questions they should ask before purchasing a timeshare. We are also happy that the BBB brought to light the predatory practices that the industry, as well as timeshare owners, have observed from the timeshare exit industry.
Despite the fact that the 2022 Timeshare Owners report, which was independently produced by Ernest & Young, found that 90% of timeshare owners are happy with their overall ownership experience and 84% of owners would purchase a timeshare product again, ARDA was proactive in providing resources to owners who no longer feel timeshare ownership is a fit with their lifestyle. In 2018, ARDA, through the Resort Owner’s Coalition (ARDA-ROC), was proud to launch its Responsible Exit program, providing safe and trusted resale and exit resources to owners and to help protect them from engaging with ill-intended third-party exit companies. Here are some additional examples of the work ARDA does to directly educate or to help others to spread the word about resources that are available to owners:
- This press release warns consumers of unsavoury exit companies that use dangerous and threatening tactics
- This article by AARP on timeshare exit company scams and how to avoid them
- 4 Things to Understand About Exiting Your Timeshare Contract
- This is an article re-published by ARDA-ROC and originally published by US News & World Today: Looking to Get Out of a Timeshare? Here’s How to Do It Legally
As for advocacy, ARDA and ARDA-ROC, also represent the collective voices of hundreds of thousand timeshare owners, working with federal, state, and local officials to protect and defend the use of their timeshares. Both organisations have been involved with helping regulatory agencies in the US, and beyond, to pass legislation that not only helps the industry to grow and provide vacation options to meet the needs of modern-day travellers, but to also provide a high-level of transparency and consumer protections for the end users of the product.
ARDA is proud to represent world-renowned and respected hospitality brands that strive to uphold professional standards in sales, marketing and resort management practices.”
Whitewash or not?
The ARDA statement is no doubt factual, however it glosses over the two main problems cited by not only the complaints survey data produced by the BBB but the thousands of other timeshare owners who have experienced uncomfortable aggressive sales methods and now find themselves tied into a contract with seemingly no end.
The survey referred to shows that 90% of timeshare owners are happy with their lot. FYI, the survey was carried out with a cross section of just 1,600 U.S. timeshare owners, against ARDAs own statistics that state there are over 10,000,000 timeshare family owners in the USA, our question would be, can this really be representative of the timeshare owning American public in general?
Another statement we would draw issue with is the following:
“In 2018, ARDA, through the Resort Owner’s Coalition (ARDA-ROC), was proud to launch its Responsible Exit program, providing safe and trusted resale and exit resources to owners and to help protect them from engaging with ill-intended third-party exit companies.” In a previous article TCA investigated the “Responsible Exit” website and as expected the “supporters” were the usual suspects, as may be seen below.
If you read the article you will see we tried to establish just one of the developers above who hit the exit question head on, our research found not a single developer basically said something akin to “If you want out, no problem”. The majority of the wording on the sites we visited went every which way but loose rather than address “Responsible Exit” head on. In fact both the Diamond Resorts and Marriott Vacation Club sites even had this disclaimer at the bottom of their so called exit help pages:
THIS ADVERTISING MATERIAL IS BEING USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF SOLICITING TIMESHARE SALES.
No I don’t want to buy anymore, I just want out!
Attack the exit companies
A predictable section was to attack third party exit companies. Once again we point out that fraudulent and scam companies deserve all they get and TCA would never endorse such practices but there are good guys out there who unfortunately get tarred with the same ARDA brush. If Responsible Exit was doing its job properly by actually persuading developers to truly allow exit, responsible or otherwise, then there would be no secondary market or need for exit companies. Attempting to close the stable door when the horse has bolted, or put another way, fighting fire with fire is a complete was of time. The problem is a self inflicted wound exacerbated by the intransigence of the industry.
TCA comment
Quoting a lyric from the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” by Joan Baez & Bob Dylan:
“When will they ever learn?”
The BBB survey highlights two major areas of complaint, both of which are easily fixable by the industry. Stop high pressure selling and whilst we are at it stop sales gained by downright lies. Add an exit strategy into the purchase contract and make sure prospective buyers are aware of their rights. Whilst we have a shopping list, add in the removal of the draconian “perpetuity clause”. This last one may already be on the cards. Mark Wang CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations has been quoted as saying that he feels timeshare will be moving towards a 10 to 15 year style of ownership. Well done Mark, let’s hope your vision comes true.
Businesses globally survive and flourish on the goodwill and contentment of their customers, for timeshare USA the industry really doesn’t benefit if the BBB start questioning the product and report on complaints of disgruntled customers.
Maybe it’s a bit unfair to compare Coca-Cola to timeshare but there is a lesson to be learnt. As a product Coca-Cola gets very few complaints, OK it got a few when it changed the recipe and maybe a few dieticians weren’t happy until low sugar variants became available, but Coca-Cola holds a 43.7% market share of global sales in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. So nearly 50% of the global fizzy drinks market, or soda as our American friends may say, is held by Coca-Cola.
From a brand perspective it must be one of the largest and well known brands on the planet. A simple message to understand this success is customer satisfaction. Every supermarket chain around the world sells its own brand of a cola drink and much cheaper than the “real thing” but still customers buy the genuine article. It can be said once again, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction go hand in hand and are key to the success of any business.
If Coca-Cola is the largest non alcoholic beverage brand on the planet, then Wyndham are surely the largest timeshare provider on the planet, how do they fair in customer satisfaction? A quick trip to Trustpilot gives us a glimpse:
We didn’t have the time or inclination to read all 224 reviews, a massive 210 with 1 star, but below this summary is the very first review we did read related to a Wyndham experience from January this year would seem to echo the BBB complaints and the general context of this article:
The odd thing is that there are no replies from Wyndham to the myriad of similar postings either understanding or offering solutions or better still apologies, that really isn’t good for customer perception, satisfaction or loyalty. Seems the message is, stick to Coca-cola, it’s safer, cheaper and better than timeshare.
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