As CLC owners will know, after the “operational partnership” with Wyndham, all resorts now bear the Wyndham branding. For years now we have all known that virtually no timeshare resorts are exclusive to owners anymore. Most developers will allow non members/owners to book directly and also the majority of resorts may be booked via the various online platforms, such as booking.com.
Developers would have you believe that “outsiders” are only allowed to book where there is spare capacity, if this were true, why is it that the biggest complaint TCA receive from CLC clients is no matter how they try, they never seem to find availability? Tis the time of year, where especially in the UK, the January sales are in full swing. It would seem that such sales are not confined to the high street but to timeshare developers as well.
Wyndham January sale
Whilst performing our regular research to bring our readers current timeshare news. Imagine our surprise when we spotted the advert below on the Wyndham website:
Plain as day, if you own at the largest of the CLC resorts near Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, Wyndham are offering you’re paid for accommodation at a 40% discount to all and sundry, and yes this is for the whole of 2024.
Now if that’s not enough to make you spit feathers, linger on the site for a while and a “pop up” appears with even more incentives to book:
Our question might be “If this marketing exercise is successful and many hundreds take advantage, what availability will be left for timeshare owners?”
TCA comment
Talk about having your cake and eating it! TCA would be the last organisation to criticise ethical business practices, however when we are on the receiving end of so many CLC owner availability complaints, how is it fair to offer such deals as stated above.
We often think that for those holidaymakers who book into timeshare resorts benefit from costs that are not too dissimilar to owners’ maintenance fees. Whilst on the site, we thought we would put this to the test. We only tried once and below is the result:
So from this we can assume that a junior suite for a 7 day stay would normally cost €665, but with the January sale discount, the cost reduces to just €399. How many CLC junior suite timeshare owners pay less than €399 in annual maintenance fees? We guess not a lot.
Time to leave it here as we think we’ve made our point. As a CLC owner we think you may be a little angry with our research but all we can say is the ball is in your court. You’ve made your bed; now lay in it, which is of course on the understanding that there is availability to lie in the bed you’ve paid for dearly.
We remind you of CLC clause 11 of the booking conditions:
11. Prices where advertised are correct at the time of publication, and are subject to change, depending on availability, date of travel, duration and room type.
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