RCI recently communicated the news to timeshare owners at the Panereti Pafos Resort with opening line “Resort 6480 Panareti Pafos Resort is no longer affiliated to RCI. Unfortunately”, RCI also confirmed the following:
“If you are a week’s owner you can no longer deposit your 6480 Panareti Pafos Resort week with RCI for exchange purposes. If you are a points owner, you will no longer receive future annual points for your resort. Any exchanges/reservations you already have confirmed against deposits/points at 6480 Panareti Pafos Resort will be honoured. All future deposits/points for 6480 Panareti Pafos Resort will be removed from your account. Any previous years Trading Power/Points remaining on your account can still be used until they expire.”
No mistaking that! As a timeshare owner, especially those with fixed weeks, this would mean there will be only one place to go to as the exchange programme is now unavailable, but why did this happen?
The resort
Searching Mr Google shows photographs of the resort that don’t look at all bad. Unfortunately, RCI didn’t specify their reason for the deletion, but all will become clear later, however doing a little research we found some pretty horrific stories from people who have holidayed there recently. Tripadvisor is the one stop site to get comment on holiday accommodation; in the case of this resort the comments are pretty bad. An example is shown below:
Most others on the site are in a similar vein. The consensus seems to be that the resort, politely putting it, was tired and very run down, some suggesting that the furniture has probably not been renewed since the resort opened.
Despite all these negative comments, this is not the real reason for RCI delisting the resort.
TCA comment
Small owner operated resorts, otherwise known as legacy resorts, are all suffering problems. A vicious circle starts to emerge, maintenance fees don’t seem to make ends meet so standards drop. Timeshare owners experiencing deteriorating resorts often vote with their feet or alternatively withhold maintenance fee payment. As income and capital reserves diminish, so does the standard of the resort. The scenario creates a downward spiral and lack of finance spins out of control resulting in financial collapse.
In the final analysis, legacy resorts often end up insolvent and are forced to close. The final nail in the coffin for Panereti Pafos was when we tried to check accommodation dates and costing, but we could find no availability at anytime. This was answered by further investigation, and also answers why the resort was removed from RCI:
There you have it, yet another legacy resort closing its doors. For timeshare owners it’s the end of the road. We will attempt to find further information but for now our best guess is insolvency. It’s hard to second guess why the closure? Was it caused by the RCI withdrawal or did the resort close of its own accord prompting RCI to remove it, a sort of chicken and egg conundrum which no doubt will become clearer as time goes on.
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