Timeshare companies aren’t hard to find. Go to any vacation destination you can think of — Las Vegas, Hawaii, Florida — and you’ll find salespeople eager to reel you in to an hours-long timeshare presentation.
They’ll all take hours to sell you the same dream of “vacation ownership” with high-pressure sales tactics. And, in each case, what you’ll get is largely the same: glorified hotel rooms in gigantic family-friendly resorts, with a similarly huge bill for maintenance fees. Oh, and you won’t be able to get rid of it without a lot of trouble.
Holiday Inn Club Vacations Incorporated, also known as Holiday Inn Vacation Club, banks on you recognizing the Holiday Inn name, which has been used by a trusted hotel operator for almost 70 years. And it uses that goodwill in a bid to convince you that it is a trustworthy timeshare company, here to help you and your family create lasting memories.
The reality is not so pretty. In truth, Holiday Inn Vacation Club timeshares are no better than those from any other company, and in some respects, they can be quite a bit worse. This article will take a look at Holiday Inn Vacation Club and its customer complaints. We’ll also discuss alternatives to joining the club.
Finally, if you’re a timeshare owner and you need to get out of a bad deal, we can help you too. We’ll talk about your options and the best way to achieve a legal, ethical timeshare exit with Centerstone Group.
The Holiday Inn name is owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) and was licensed to Orange Lake Resorts to create Holiday Inn Vacation Club. The Holiday Inn brand has been attached to a range of full-service and budget hotels since 1952. The Vacation Club is considerably newer, having been launched in September of 2008.
The Holiday Inn Vacation Club timeshares work on a points-based system, much like Marriott Vacation Club or Disney Vacation Club. Its offerings, though, are considerably narrower in scope than some other timeshare programs.
While they typically offer two- and three-bedroom villas with golf courses, lazy rivers, and easy theme park access, there are not as many of these resorts as you might expect. In fact, there are only 28 timeshare resorts in the Holiday Inn Vacation Club network, and all of those are in the continental United States.
So, from the beginning, the Vacation Club membership limits you to locations like the flagship Orange Lake Resort in Orlando, the New Orleans Resort, or the Great Smoky Mountain Resort in Gatlinburg. If you want more destinations to choose from, you’ll need to enroll in a separate timeshare exchange program like RCI.
The experience of being an owner in the Holiday Inn Vacation Club is depressingly like the experience with other timeshare companies. Chief among the problems is the high-pressure sales experience that does not end once you have purchased your unit.
Rather, club members report being continuously pushed to buy more points soon after check-in, sometimes before they’ve left the front desk. You can also expect to be offered an IHG Rewards credit card to keep you in the system.
Reviews show high maintenance fees are a common problem, as are making reservations and exchanges with RCI. Other owners have complained about cleanliness and properties being in general disrepair. Perhaps most tellingly, one owner on Yelp described it as “the worst timeshare we have ever owned,” comparing it with both Marriott and Diamond Resorts.
But what if you like taking annual family vacations in Branson, Myrtle Beach, or Lake Tahoe and, for that reason, Holiday Inn Vacation Club seems like a good idea to you? In that case, keep in mind that you have lots of options for putting together vacations to those places, and most of them are much better.
First, let’s start with the cost. According to Holiday Inn Vacation Club’s website, the average cost to its new members for a timeshare points membership is $15,870. That cost alone is too great for most owners to pay upfront, so they often get mortgages to pay for their timeshares. The interest and fees on a mortgage should also be considered part of that price.
But you’re not done with the fees yet. According to the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the average amount of maintenance fees is $1,000 per year.
Add that to a mortgage payment of $200 per month (or more), membership fees, and any other special assessments, and you could be paying $4,000 per year for a week at your timeshare. No fitness center, fancy resort swimming pool, or mini-golf course in the world could possibly be worth that.
To put that in perspective, if you put that $4,000 toward a hotel in any of these destinations, you would have over $570 to spend per night, which would easily get you a luxury hotel room at the finest resorts. Or, you could halve that amount to $235 per night — still a very nice hotel room — and take a two-week getaway instead.
If what you want is value for your money and clean, stress-free accommodations, you have hundreds of hotels vying for your business. They all have swimming pools, spas, and free Wi-Fi just like the timeshare resorts, but at a fraction of the price. When you consider these other options, buying a timeshare just doesn’t make any sense.
But maybe you don’t need us to explain any of this to you. Perhaps you ended up reading this article after you signed a contract and became an owner with Holiday Inn Vacation Club. You’re already losing money, they won’t stop trying to sell you another “vacation package” (i.e., more points), and you feel like you’re trapped.
You’re in a bad situation, but you’re definitely not trapped. Centerstone Group is a company that was founded by people with collective decades of experience in the timeshare industry. We know the ins and outs of these companies and how they make decisions. We can put our knowledge to work in order to find you the relief you need.
Perhaps you have been trying to get out of your contract for some time, and Holiday Inn Vacation Club is ignoring you or failing to honor its agreement. In that case, we can use our proprietary pressure campaign techniques to pursue them with correspondence, administrative complaints, and other means to convince them to do the right thing.
Some cases require a more in-depth legal approach. In those instances, we can also help. We maintain relationships with several attorneys and law firms who specialize in contract and timeshare work. If you need to go to court or find another legal answer, we can help guide you through that process with more favorable attorney fee rates than you would get otherwise.
But don’t take our word for it. Listen to our clients. Centerstone Group is an A-rated company accredited by the Better Business Bureau. We hold an excellent 4.67-out-of-5 stars in customer ratings, and the reviews tell the rest of the story.
Vacations are expensive. You should make sure that the memories you get are worth the money. In the case of Holiday Inn Vacation Club, the owners tell you all you need to know. Instead of relaxing, luxurious vacation ownership, they are getting stress, headaches, and a large annual bill.
Getting involved with this company, or any timeshare company at all, is risky and usually disappointing for the majority of people. It’s in your best interest to stay away.
But if you’ve already committed and find yourself stuck, there is hope. Contact Centerstone Group today for a free consultation and case evaluation. We’ll take a look at your situation and let you know the best plan for getting you the timeshare exit you need.
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