did you get any response to your post? We were in Playa Real, Costa del Sol, this week and went for the 90 min show around, on face of it seemed good value but cant find anyone who has had first hand experience...we did not sign up to anything only because we wanted to see if we could find out a bit more about it from Joe Public first, and they werent at all pushy. I have 'won' via scratch card a weeks free holiday whereby we will have to undertake to participate in 90 min to once again allow representative to explain the benefits of the Heritage Resorts Private Members Club. It has been explained as not Time Share, although they are affiliated to RCI a time share company, rather you join to have the benefit of reduced cost of apartment rental, it is not fixed time slots and the holiday can be at any of their many locations. To be honest it was difficult to see why you wouldnt want to join??? I've been searching net for any clues but havent found any yet...hence my finding your post.

Pays your money and takes your chance. As far as I am concerned it is just a new take on the timeshare fiddle.
We were approached in Cyprus via Thos Cook for one of these. I said I wanted paying for my time to attend and they quickly agreed. £50.00 per hour. My time is just as valuable as theirs. I enjoyed myself pointing out all the shoddy workmanship at the place we went to, even offered to send in my own team to sort it out. The rep then said you are not interested you are just here for the money, to which I said no I was not interested but I was happy to stay as long as they were paying me. They quickly paid me off £75.00 and a cup of coffee which was not bad.
The best advice is keep away from anything that looks cheap. Someone is making a lot of money from it and it is not you. Think about it. If they were happy to pay me just to look round then they are making serious money from those who do sign up.

fwh

you are going to pay for reduced apartment rental? Reduced from what? If you know your way around the internet you can get reduced apartment rental. The likelihood is that you would even find apartments in your complex online for reduced rental. So do they specify the rental amounts? Is it reduced from the rack rate? Very few people ever pay the rack rate.
Does the reduced apartment rental also include maintenance fees? Do you want to be taking your holiday in the same place every year or try to find another complex where the rental isn't above what you want to pay? Do you absolutely need a specific couple of weeks? What happens if there is no availability?
Timeshare can work for some folks but this is just so vague. And to be honest anyone who uses scratch cards to say you have" won" a week should be avoided like the plague.

just to add I've answered one of my queries. Before you make the reservation you have to pay a maintenance fee.
http://www.heritageresorts.com/uk/members/faq.php

Also note that you didn't need to win on a scratch card to get the week "subject to a small administrative cost".
It is possible to save a lot on a holiday if you do your research. I would stick around here and ask away.

When we were in Benalmádena we kept taking the scratch cards and saying 'Good another week, we don't ever need to go home again'. We ended up having some quite good conversations with the reps on nothing to do with time share, football, children and what it was like to live in Britain. Told one rep in Malta that we didn't like the island, that stumped her (we did like it).

Wouldn't touch one of these presentations with a barge pole, heard too many horror stories and there are so many places in the world to visit, why go to the same place all the time.

they werent at all pushy.

That's called the 'softening up process' - they throw the bait and the poisonous hook comes later.

I have 'won' via scratch card a weeks free holiday whereby we will have to undertake to participate in 90 min to once again allow representative to explain the benefits of the Heritage Resorts Private Members Club.

You haven't 'won' anything, and the representatives will give you the hard sell to join a Vacation Club/Travel Club/ Travel Discount Club - aka a 'Holiday Club', which is an entirely different thing from a timeshare .

To be honest it was difficult to see why you wouldnt want to join???

I could give you plenty of reasons why NOT to join, so, instead of typing out the reasons - I strongly suggest that you read this link and explore the site.

http://www.timeshare.org.uk/holicon.html

There's even sc$ms operating amongst other sc$ms, where people are under the impression that they are dealing with reputable and genuine companies, who offer/promise to sell their timeshare and get them out of the contract for an upfront fee - the person who has parted with their money, never see it again and find that they are still stuck in a contract.

If you do manage to fine a reputable seller, you'll get a fraction of the price you paid - look on eBay, there are people trying to sell their membership and timeshares for as little as 1 pence to 'off load' it.
Some people just want 'out' and have refused to pay the demand for the ever increasing maintenance/membership/ management fees.
They will hound you with intimidating letters, threats of court proceedings and bailiffs for the fees ( even Pensioners) until the day you die and beyond the grave.

Legally, your children cannot be forced to inherit your timeshare and hang a debt around their own necks, but your executors will face a difficult decision, because they can be held responsible for paying your debts from your estate, including all future annual fees ...... leeching it yearly until there is nothing left for your family.

Reputable companies don't use scratch cards, don't do surveys and do not cold call....and anybody that does is a fr**d - Do so at your own peril, because there are enough 'sad' stories on the internet to warn anyone before they sign anything.

Tour operators do not pay people to stand on the street or in the airport with clipboards conducting surveys. They will either ask in your hotel, ask on the plane home or contact you, via the email address, which you used to book your holiday.

I saw these parasites crawling with their clipboards amongst the queue for my flight home from Malaga, I noticed the minute CLC ( Club La Costa) embroidered on their polo shirts.
I was wishing one of them would approach me, I was wishing please please do come.
I made contact with her eyes and she must have seen the contempt I have for these scumbags, so she moved along further down the queue to a young couple with a baby.

I've never understood why anyone who says they have no intentions of signing anything, why they go to these presentations in the first place?
Anyone who does want to buy membership in a Holiday Club or Timeshare, they would investigate, they would initiate the contact with a reputable company, and have a solicitor go through the contract with a fine tooth comb before signing or the expiry of the 'cooling off period'.

A fool and his money are soon parted.!!!!

Sanji

RCI are a Timeshare company - end of.....
No matter how they wrap it up, they are trying to sell you "holiday ownership" in one guise or another.

RCI own the "resort" where we go to 2 or 3 times a week here in Cyprus. We live permanently in Cyprus and have been here since March 2004. We've been going to this particular timeshare complex since the summer of 2004 and have seen it steadily go downhill. It changes bar managers every year. It's gone from being highly maintained to as it is now:
Lack of cleanliness in the pool - it's gone green 3 times this year.
Pool area not washed down regularly leaving sticky residues which brings numerous ants.
Crockery and cutlery often not cleaned properly.
Bar staff give out glassware for use at the poolside because they run out of plastic glasses.
No tablecloths at the pool restaurant this year (previously, they had paper cloths with the complex name/logo on them.
Failure to replace broken sunbeds - now there are approx half the amount than there were 2 years ago.
The most recent money saving option: the restaurant manager switches off the drinks fridges every night which means there are no cold drinks available next day until the fridges are fully cooled again (after about 2pm)!

Before, you could not stay at this unit unless you were an RCI member or had "bought in" to that particular unit. Now, the rooms are available on UK and Cyprus based agent websites. Exactly the same is happening in another resort which we have visited in the past while on holiday in Malta...

My parents bought into one in Malta (without our knowledge) and were promised the earth. They paid 3,000 GBP for 1 week for 18 years with a "guarantee" they could have an additional 3 weeks added on (paid for initially at 50.00 GBP per week per apartment). They got the "extra" weeks the first time they went back but not again after that and every year the price went up - it was 75.00 GBP per week plus the maintenance fee had doubled by the time we told my parents to simply walk away from it three years later. (This was actually a pretty cheap price for a timeshare). The same company at the one we go to in Cyprus said that price would have only bought them a "trial" for 2 visits.

Strangely enough, I was looking only this morning while on the phone to my mum for a month in Malta for early next year.

Four weeks at a hotel in Qawra with Mercury (2 weeks on half board + 2 weeks on bed and breakfast) was just under 610.00 GBP per person.

Four weeks at the timeshare unit they had previously bought into (again, with Mercury) in an apartment on a self-catering basis was 660.00 GBP per person...

My advise - steer clear! Use the week as a holiday by all means but do not agree or sign anything....
Find out how many apartments there are on the complex, how many weeks they are available to be booked for (usually 50 out of 52 weeks) and then do the math! Amazing how much those apartments are worth

Wholeheartedly agree with Sanji... The whole business is founded on a lie... the lie being that you've 'won' something on a scratchcard or some other contest you likely didn't enter... anything founded on a lie deserves to be avoided... their representatives are approaching holidaymakers in the street, purporting to interest you in one thing and, in reality, are selling another... you wouldn't buy a car, or your main property, in this way.. you wouldn't buy a pint of milk in this way... why on earth would you commit a sizeable amount of money, then, on a commodity, originally pitched to you as something else entirely?
How many people who go on to sign up were actually walking down the street, when approached, thinking: "I fancy buying a timeshare today?" I would contend it is not prudent financial sense to end up committing large sums to something you never considered owning in the first place and end up with on the turn of a scratchcard... every one a winner and you still end up a loser.

I know all this rubbish and I’ve been in sales for 15 years it’s what I do every day of my life but I went to the presentation got 3 free tickets to sea life and a voucher for a free hotel stay for a week. All I want to know is has anybody been on the free week away because I can say no to another presentation no problem because at the end of this one I twisted his mind so much he couldn’t wait to get me out the coz I took the absolute piss out of him free beers taxis sea world voucher and holiday voucher so had anyone been ????

Hi Matty

Are you absolutely certain it will be totally free? I have seen this elsewhere where it is a free room for a week but you just have to pay the AI/HB part ,or the service charge, or the taxes.... This was in Mexico. Out of interest I found out how much the extras would be and then went online and found a good deal, not much different to the "free" week. Those who had actually agreed to the presentation were chased up every day, including very early morning calls. Might get someone to reply to say that in this case, they did quite well of course.