- Report: #208477
Complaint Review: VIP Travel Club - Miami Florida
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Author Confirmed
Why?
VIP Travel Club
44 Brickell Ave. Suite 51 Miami, 33131 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
866-810-0493
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VIP Travel Club - Caribbean Resales is a complete ripoff you will never get to use your weeks STAY AWAY Cancun Mexico
VIP Travel Club is a well established vacation/timeshare selling operation. They have several companies under them such as Caribbean Resales LLC.
VIP sells "ownerships" of weeks in two Cancun resorts: Royal Sunset and Club Lagoon. You are supposed to be able to use your weeks at these resorts by simply scheduling your travel dates, paying the maintenance fee and then an "all inclusive fee" if applicable.
To sweeten the pot they go to great lenghts to tell you that you can rent your weeks out for $1000+ per week which would allow you to recoup most, if not all, of your investment in a short amount of time. Upon your agreeing, as part of the contract they sign you up with a rental company who is supposed to advertise and facilitate the rentals of your weeks. As a final bonus, they often give you some "free" weeks. These are certificates that give you some weeks free of maintenance fees.
In a nutshell, VIP's selling of timeshares does not seem to be any different than any other timeshare seller. However, the problem is what happens after you have bought your weeks. There are several things that make this a ripoff:
1: The rental company (Resorts International Marketing or vacationweeks in my case) almost NEVER rents weeks. I have had mine listed for three years without a single inquiry.
2: The rental company charges an annual fee regardless of whether your weeks are rented or not.
3: Your "free weeks" are very limited. The Corporate Weeks" as they are called are only good for the resorts that have an all inclusive fee. Although you are getting around the maintenance fees, you will be paying an even higher all inclusive fee.
4: VIP does not expect you to ever really use your weeks. They make sure of this by making the maintenance and all-inclusive fees so expensive that you would have to be an idiot to waste your money in the two subpar resorts when you could spend the same for a five star resort. (i.e. in August 2006, it would cost me $1657 for two people at the Royal Sunset. This is more than the Oasis, RUI Cancun and several other higher rated all inclusive resorts during the exact same time period). Therefore it is obvious they do not expect to see you after they have sold you worthless weeks.
I fully intend to alert as many people as possible to steer clear of not only VIP Travel Club, but also their resorts in Cancun in particular. They are clearly selling people worthless pieces of paper and adding insult to injury by making it impractical to even use the weeks they bought.
John
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
VIP sells "ownerships" of weeks in two Cancun resorts: Royal Sunset and Club Lagoon. You are supposed to be able to use your weeks at these resorts by simply scheduling your travel dates, paying the maintenance fee and then an "all inclusive fee" if applicable.
To sweeten the pot they go to great lenghts to tell you that you can rent your weeks out for $1000+ per week which would allow you to recoup most, if not all, of your investment in a short amount of time. Upon your agreeing, as part of the contract they sign you up with a rental company who is supposed to advertise and facilitate the rentals of your weeks. As a final bonus, they often give you some "free" weeks. These are certificates that give you some weeks free of maintenance fees.
In a nutshell, VIP's selling of timeshares does not seem to be any different than any other timeshare seller. However, the problem is what happens after you have bought your weeks. There are several things that make this a ripoff:
1: The rental company (Resorts International Marketing or vacationweeks in my case) almost NEVER rents weeks. I have had mine listed for three years without a single inquiry.
2: The rental company charges an annual fee regardless of whether your weeks are rented or not.
3: Your "free weeks" are very limited. The Corporate Weeks" as they are called are only good for the resorts that have an all inclusive fee. Although you are getting around the maintenance fees, you will be paying an even higher all inclusive fee.
4: VIP does not expect you to ever really use your weeks. They make sure of this by making the maintenance and all-inclusive fees so expensive that you would have to be an idiot to waste your money in the two subpar resorts when you could spend the same for a five star resort. (i.e. in August 2006, it would cost me $1657 for two people at the Royal Sunset. This is more than the Oasis, RUI Cancun and several other higher rated all inclusive resorts during the exact same time period). Therefore it is obvious they do not expect to see you after they have sold you worthless weeks.
I fully intend to alert as many people as possible to steer clear of not only VIP Travel Club, but also their resorts in Cancun in particular. They are clearly selling people worthless pieces of paper and adding insult to injury by making it impractical to even use the weeks they bought.
John
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Jennifer
Cancun,Other,
Mexico
Response from VIP
#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, September 06, 2006
The membership you have with VIP is designed to be used for individual or guest use and is not intended as a commercial investment. This is stated in your contract with VIP of which you signed acknowledging this. You have a seperate contract with your rental company and any issues you have with them you should direct to them not to VIP. Your corporate week certificate states that you must pay the all inclusive fee. You were made aware of this at the time of purchase. Also, even though you are not required to pay a reservation fee, there are still taxes and insurances on the unit which must be paid. Hence the slightly higher rate. It is still a great rate to come and stay at a quality resort, get great service, and have a hassle free vacation. We do expect you to use your weeks. That is why we offer a huge selection of real time availability worldwide. Since I can not go back and see what the rates where at in August at other resorts in the area I did a search and invite you to go back and do the math again when comparing the price of a week staying at one of our resorts through VIP. Im seeing an average of savings of $500 usd per week. If there is anything we can do to help clear up this, please feel free to contact us. We are more than happy to help you out in any way that we can.
