Hi Kornbaby
Can you tell me where exactly they sent you and what you thought of the resort? I've been offered a week in the Costa del sol, (I requested Turkey), and think I will go but wondered about the accomodation.
Thanks

Hi Eirefolk,
You were wondering where they are sending us? Is that on our Prelude week, or is this just for the courtesy tour, which we've just got back from?
If it's the Prelude week, we have been offered, Costa Del Sol, Tenerife, or UK.
The week we've just been on, we were offered basically the same.
The Resort on CDS is very nice, the apartment they give you is one of their more "basic" ones, but nevertheless, its nice compared to some of the ones we've been in, and paid a lot more cash for.
It's a 5 min walk away from the beach, and about 15-20 mins into the resort of Fuengirola.
All the on site restaurants are of excellent standard, and the food is lovely. Reception is available 24 hours a day, so if you need assistance at all, they are there.
When you arrive, if it's before you can check in, they store your luggage etc till its time, and the porters take you to your apartment, and bring your luggage in for you.
When you check out, they also store your luggage all day, so if you have a later flight, you can do what you like for the day, and pick them up later.
It's all very nice, so to everyone who is umming and arring about this trip, I suggest you take it, even if you do the courtesy tour and say no at the end of it, it's still a very cheap holiday. We loved it!

Hello all.

We too had a cold call from Club La Costa, and attended a meeting in the UK. We experienced a similar type of response to everyone else (it seems) when we said 'no'. Although I did not feel we were bullied as much as some people write.
We said 'no' and walked away.
A few weeks later we had a follow up call, and decided to take a gamble to go on one of the promo holidays. We ended up going to a resort in CDS Spain, and had a fabulous time. The resort is one of the finest we had stayed at - a huge bonus was that the resort is not available by walking in to any high street travel agents and this means that there were no groups of 'lads/lasses' looking for a cheap alcohol fueled holiday in a cheap resort - I dont mean to offend, just that is no longer my type of holiday......
Any how, had a great holiday, and on the strength of what we saw, we signed for the 3 year trial membership package. Our first holiday was the 'Prelude' week, that we decided to take at their resort in Tenerife. Being a prelude week they go out to impress and we were put up in a fantastic apartment with huge balcony, jacuzzi, plasema screen etc. Had a great time, and came home again.
Since then we have been back to CDS and signed up for their vacation club membership (points system) and have just come back from an associated resort in Rhodes.

All I can really say about them is.............. they are a genuine company whos holidays have been great so far. I am dubious about their sales techniques in the UK, but the times we have had presentations abroad from them (to get us to increase our membership etc) they have been informative, non pressured, and when we have said 'no'. there has NEVER been any hint of bullying etc.

If I may offer any advice, it would be to ignore any UK presentation, book a trial holiday and get the presentation there (saves having to listen to it twice) enjoy a cheap holiday, and walk away at the end if you dont like it.

I hope this helps?

Yup, just shows what you find out too, I found out this week that my manager at work is a CLC member too, and she signed up to the 3 year trial on the promise that they could take 2 weeks in hawaii to get married.... they sorted it for them

Do you have to go to the meeting in the UK. They told me i just had to come and pick up something, not that i had to sit through a two hour sales pitch. I asked them what the catches were on the phone and they said none. I am gutted this is the 2nd time i have "won" a holiday from doing surveys only for it to be a con.

I have a 7 year old who won't be happy about sitting through a two hour pitch. Maybe i will phone them up and tell them to sod off.

Hello, i just won a holiday through a survey too.
went to the 2hrs presentation about club la costa (no kids under 7 allowed)

they were very nice, not pushy at all, we got 50pounds argos voucher (this was at lakeside)
and free ish holiday, we have to pay airport taxes and a fee i think.

but we were pretty impressed with the offer so joined for a 3yr trial.
3500ish, we go on holidays alot around the world, and realised that in 3 yrs 7 weeks (adding winning holiday) of free accommodation is well worth it, as you can take 6 people each time.

if it was just club la costa places on offer we would have said no, but as the other company rci are also choices (have more countries to choose) we said yes.

gonna go to spain (malaga) in november as prelude (2 adults 2 kids)

then within 3 yrs, florida, malaysia, dubai and who knows what else we can fit in.
our speaker lady said try to do all the expensive holidays in this 3yrs, you know you've got more than your money's worth already.

one week my hubby's gonna go with five mates to south africa or america maybe. each holiday by ourselves will cost us for 4 over a 1000 anyway, so whats the harm.

just have to pay for flights and choose accomodation from list.

if we were full members 65yrs, then we could give our week holidays to other friends and family to go on, just say if we can't fit it in.

but as trial members this privledge isn't there, but can go as biggger groups (6+) pay a bit extra.
end of 3yrs if we have 1-2 weeks left can give away they said, if we don't join full time.

oh to trade a CLC week for rci there is a 150 pounds to pay for week.

also we can have mini breaks during the year for cheap prices (mainly europe cities)
like mid-week 4 nights to paris £90 accomodation and pay for flights, weekend for 3/4 nights is just over hundred.

excellent prices i think, as my sister can't find a weekend in paris for less than 130 a night, for her anniversary end of july.


i'm hoping it's all gonna work out well.

lot of info i know!!

hope it helps some people as to what is on offer.

i'd love to hear from someone who has already been a member and maybe been on some holidays too.

thanks

hi,my sister owns a timeshare in the paradise club in tenerife.All our family have been at one point and have only good things to say about it.The accomadation is luxury compared to other holidays you pay a fortune for, i know this from experience!We are going in july with two kids for two weeks and it is only £1300.

I "won" one of these Club La Costa holidays too.
I am a member of RHI so I can use the Club La Costa resorts if I want. The San Diego suites on the Costa Del Sol are fantastic, dishwasher, DVD player etc. We've been a couple of times and they are very well run resorts.
CLC got in touch with us and I think it was £29 we had to pay then the same again for taxes.
We declined but if you have the money it would be worth it for a family holiday in a good resort.

Yup, we are going back on our "prelude" week for my other half's 40th, I think its the "San Diego" suites we are going to, have looked around them and they are lovely luxury apartments. We are really loking forward to it

What a great forum! Like you all, we 'won' a free 7 day holiday. On the promise of £50 of vouchers, we attended the presentation at Leeds. As sales originated people, we found the sales technique textbook - even down to the attitude change and rudeness when we said no - that's there way of putting you off claiming the holiday! We took our vouchers and I am booking our 7 nights regardless. The £59 booking fee is also a way of putting you off claiming the holiday when you say no - so, even if the holiday doesn't come off, with the £50 vouchers, we stand to lose only £9 if it all falls through. We await a response from Sunbreaks with interest!

Keep the comments coming!

Can anyone tell me if you have to sign up to anything before you get to go on the 'free' holiday? People that are talking about a trial offer and prelude weeks, is this something that comes afterwards? Hope you can assist before I go to the UK presentation (if I go).

quote:

Originally posted by DazzaRia:
Hello all.

We too had a cold call from Club La Costa, and attended a meeting in the UK. We experienced a similar type of response to everyone else (it seems) when we said 'no'. Although I did not feel we were bullied as much as some people write.
We said 'no' and walked away.
A few weeks later we had a follow up call, and decided to take a gamble to go on one of the promo holidays. We ended up going to a resort in CDS Spain, and had a fabulous time. The resort is one of the finest we had stayed at - a huge bonus was that the resort is not available by walking in to any high street travel agents and this means that there were no groups of 'lads/lasses' looking for a cheap alcohol fueled holiday in a cheap resort - I dont mean to offend, just that is no longer my type of holiday......
Any how, had a great holiday, and on the strength of what we saw, we signed for the 3 year trial membership package. Our first holiday was the 'Prelude' week, that we decided to take at their resort in Tenerife. Being a prelude week they go out to impress and we were put up in a fantastic apartment with huge balcony, jacuzzi, plasema screen etc. Had a great time, and came home again.
Since then we have been back to CDS and signed up for their vacation club membership (points system) and have just come back from an associated resort in Rhodes.

All I can really say about them is.............. they are a genuine company whos holidays have been great so far. I am dubious about their sales techniques in the UK, but the times we have had presentations abroad from them (to get us to increase our membership etc) they have been informative, non pressured, and when we have said 'no'. there has NEVER been any hint of bullying etc.

If I may offer any advice, it would be to ignore any UK presentation, book a trial holiday and get the presentation there (saves having to listen to it twice) enjoy a cheap holiday, and walk away at the end if you dont like it.

I hope this helps?

Hi Lynngin.
No, you dont have to sign anything for your free holiday, you go there for a week, and in that week you have to take another one of their "courtesy" tours of the resort, and see it all again, you only sign up AFTER the presentation if you want to, you can say no too, but to be honest, if you can afford it, it looks like an excellent deal, and they treat you like kings/queens after that lol. I'm not saying Do It, but we're happy with what we are getting so far.
Hope this helps

I was called by Acuario Marketing a year ago; just 48 hours after a stay at club la costa, and informed that I had "won" a free holiday with flights... It sounded too good to be true, and it was. I had not "won" anything - it was an "award" with charges and as it turned out I had to go to a presentation I couldn't attend this for a year because I had only just visited club la costa (something I told them rather than them knowing the information)We did not have a problem with this; and so, here we are a year on with the rearranged presentation attended at Club la costa in Greenhithe. This was one of the hardest sells I've ever been to - ranging from people wanting to be my best friend to others who accused me of "wasting their time". We were constantly moved,with the conversation broken into by various managers being brought over to 'assist' the presentation, almost at random. It became very hard to keep track of where you were and what you were looking for out of the meeting as well as what the figures actually were and would mean..
After not two hours (the stated time period needed) but nearly four hours I left there feeling annoyed, conned, upset and in fact embarrassed that I couldn't afford to take up the offer - but without a cooling off period I would have had to sign up on the spot for £3595 worth of credit that I may not have been able to afford! My wife was reduced to tears by the continuous barrage of salespeople telling us that this was the only way to get our children on holiday each year.
Still, we felt that being given a free holiday was worth the upset and time spent; especially as it would mean we could see club la costa and maybe look into buying in while on holiday. However, with three children of school age we would only be able to travel in peak school holidays, something we had been assured from day one was possible and could be arranged. But on reading the terms and conditions we find that we can only pick one date out of four in school holidays, we are not guaranteed to get that date and the date can not be re-arranged. To add insult to injury you cannot guarantee that you are even going to the country you request!
How can we take our children if the only holiday you offer is in term time and as a result could be fined £3000 for taking our children out of school? My advice to anyone with a family is avoid this at all costs, which is a great pity as the Club la Costa brand is actually very good but these underhanded and shameful practices mislead the public and leave the Club la Costa name in the dirt.



Not that

yes you do get the holiday, i use to work there, however you will be expected to do another presentation when you are there, they will tell you its not in one of there resorts but it is, it gives a second chance for them to sell to you, however this is not such a bad thing you stay in a lovely place for next to nothing and IF IF you decide to buy it will only inhance your holiday, thats for real but that is only if you take a regular holiday every year, ps if you do decide to buy make sure you haggle they can drop the price but only by a little

Hi, i went to this uk presentation in Birmingham, we also bought into it on a 3 year trial. We was offered a prelude holiday to 1 of 3 destinations paid flights for 4, accomodation for upto 6, I decided tenerife at whitt 08. got comfirmation ok. also the next holiday also includes flights + car hire.THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER 5 MORE OFFERS OF A WEEKS ACCOMODATION. With the welcome pack you get lots of offers eg, paid flights to various places on accomodation conditions, family days free child places which im using in devon in a couple of weeks, based on the two inclusive holidays i thought it was very good value for money we oftern get calls or emails from clc about different offers or just to see how things are. YOU CAN EVEN GO ON A CRUISE,also there gold rewards are good insentives to encourage others to view this holiday club.don't be put off by this different way of business ive had holidays to florida + bahamas cruise this way and although its not the british way it is quite common around europe a good and oftern very cheap way of seeing the world. It's worth a thought when priced against the high street prices i would of had to pay another £2000 for these two holidays at peak times. Thats worth a thought if nothing else. Hope this puts minds at rest, also this company is long since been trading world wide and is endorsed by Jenny Bond.

THIS IS A LITTLE LONG BUT PLEASE READ ALL OF IT.

I have been a points owner with Club la Costa for over two years. Don't believe a word they say.

I firstly bought a week of timeshare at the Paradise club before CLC took them over. It was okay at first as they had gold crown resort status. We used it to exchange for a few years. It was very good quality accommodation but the downside is that they are all quite a distance 'out of the way'. Nevertheless we had some good holidays. Then CLC came on the scene and by this time Paradise had lost its gold crowm status. We were then coerced at one of the presentations to convert the timeshare into vacation points. We got 1000 points in exchange for the timeshare week plus an additional £3000. We were given a very attractive story about the points. We were told that if we wanted to sell the points at any time this could be arranged through the trustee company. (Not true!) The points were being sold at £25 per point initially and we were told they would appreciate in value like property does. In fact they were increasing the cost of them within a few weekstime they said. We went to further presentations where they tried to encourage us to upgrade our status by buying more points but we resisted. For peace of mind I asked again about resale of the points and was given the same answer. When I asked how much I would likely get for them I was told 'an absolute minimum of £12 per point' i.e £12000. I have just received my cheque for the value of £500, the best deal I could get. This was through a resale agency who told me that CLC have by far the most expensive annual fees in the business. And guess what! CLC charge for transferring the points so they got more out of the deal than I did. On top of the points cost there is an annual fee which is presently about £639 for 1000 points. It costs more if you have more points. I also had 2000 points stored for this year but could not take the time off so I have lost those to CLC who will sell them on to some other punter. Finally I used the points once to go to Casa Blanca apts in Tenerife for onew week. The points and flights cost me the equivalent of £2500 for one week for three of us. I have since booked two weeks for half that cost, booking directly with Casablanca.

NEEDLESS TO SAY I HEARTILY RECOMMEND THAT YOU STEER CLEAR OF CLC AT ALL COSTS. DONT SAY YOU HAVE NOT BEEN WARNED. I AM GLAD TO SEE THE BACK OF THEM. I CAN NOW BOOK MY HOLIDAYS CHEAPER ON MY OWN TERMS AND WITHOUT BEING PESTERED BY SUPER SLICK SALES PEOPLE.

Although this isn;t pointed directly at CLC i wouldn't recommend (ANY) Point based timeshare as there are so many horror stories, CLC now deals in "deed" ownership which you can transfer as a title deed infers, the resorts arn't high energy resorts, they are ment to be bespoke for the more luxury traveler, who enjoys a little peace and tranquility for your hard earnt money, at £11995 - your trade of £3595 for your trial with unlimited travel accomodation do your own sums,any where in the world as little or oftern as you like.... No im not on comission, i am however a trial owner. though.

I and my wife attended the two hour(but realy 3+Hrs)presentation yesterday 12.7.07.at Haydock in Merseyside. We thought after being offered a 5 star holiday self catering and a voucher for £50 to the high st store it was at least worth attending. After the presentation and grilling for 3+ hrs we decide not to do any busines with them for the following reasons : The free holiday offered is nothing more than a basic package holday,flights at 29.50 plus as i found out up to £40 extra taxes your holiday choices & dates are very restrictive on where & when you can go and it is deffinatly not 5 star.
The rep who we had at our table during the presentation took out a small phot album and said it was his child on the photo at one of the timesare sites they were trying to sell us.
On this furum another person mentions the same photo album at another area.At the end they tryed to sell me a tempary share at £4000 with 4 extra holidays thrown in but you must pay the same day once you leave you lose the special deal it must be there and then. The application form the showed us was nothing more than a chhep photocopy with the heading in felt tip pen at the top. When we won the holiday we thought this looks to good to be true AND IT WAS. after getting home I looked them up on the internet and I was not happy with what I read.
This forum is very accurate in what the other complainants have said my free holiday is ripped up and in the bin at least we got £50 instead of costing us a lot more Whatever you do DO NOT SIGN or PAY ANYTHING IN ADVANCE IT COULD COST YOU DEARLY.

quote:

Originally posted by john351121:
I and my wife attended the two hour(but realy 3+Hrs)presentation yesterday 12.7.07.at Haydock in Merseyside. We thought after being offered a 5 star holiday self catering and a voucher for £50 to the high st store it was at least worth attending. After the presentation and grilling for 3+ hrs we decide not to do any busines with them for the following reasons : The free holiday offered is nothing more than a basic package holday,flights at 29.50 plus as i found out up to £40 extra taxes your holiday choices & dates are very restrictive on where & when you can go and it is deffinatly not 5 star.
The rep who we had at our table during the presentation took out a small phot album and said it was his child on the photo at one of the timesare sites they were trying to sell us.
On this furum another person mentions the same photo album at another area.At the end they tryed to sell me a tempary share at £4000 with 4 extra holidays thrown in but you must pay the same day once you leave you lose the special deal it must be there and then. The application form the showed us was nothing more than a chhep photocopy with the heading in felt tip pen at the top. When we won the holiday we thought this looks to good to be true AND IT WAS. after getting home I looked them up on the internet and I was not happy with what I read.
This forum is very accurate in what the other complainants have said my free holiday is ripped up and in the bin at least we got £50 instead of costing us a lot more Whatever you do DO NOT SIGN or PAY ANYTHING IN ADVANCE IT COULD COST YOU DEARLY.

I dont agree with you here, we looked up CLC on the net before taking our holiday, and we weren't too sure either. We went ahead with it anyhow, I'm sure you wouldnt turn down a weeks holiday in Spain for not a lot of money. Had a lovely holiday, and signed up for the trial. You DO NOT have to pay the full £3995 straight away, we paid a deposit, and are paying it in instalments. I think you were silly putting your holiday form in the bin, you could have had a really nice holiday for a week, done the courtesy tour, then said no, and that would have been the end of it, but hey, your loss.
We are quite happy with what we are getting for our £3995.

can i just say my husband works for the trading standards and that is a lot of rubbish, BY LAW in this country you DO HAVE A COOLING OFF PERIOD, companies can do nothing about that if they wanted to, so whoever you spoke to gave you wrong information.
also my friend went on one of these presentations, and although it did go over the 2 hours she was told it would be a minimum of 2 hours, at the start of the presentation by the manager, she got £50 worth of vouchers, not bad for 3 hours, do you get that at work? and the holiday at the end, which if you had read the terms and conditions on the back of the letter it says about the £29.50 booking fee and airport tax, but she's been on the holiday and absolutly loved it, I think a lot of what happens depends on the rep you get, but the company itself has delivered everything it says, and no i'm not on commision

If in doubt do not sign up. There must be a reason for a company to use pressure sales techniques. Avoid companies that are not what they seem - would you run a business like this?
Take a quicklook at some of the last minute booking sites for a cheap holiday. Also check out the prices you can buy time share points from those that now wish to offload their mistaken purchases. Do not be taken in by slick sales people. How good are they if it is necessary to be rude if you do not agree to buy? To be fair most of the reps seem to be doing a job of work -it seems that these so called managers are just too slick and greasy to get a proper job selling a proper product.

quote:

Originally posted by eirefolk:
Hi Kornbaby
Can you tell me where exactly they sent you and what you thought of the resort? I've been offered a week in the Costa del sol, (I requested Turkey), and think I will go but wondered about the accomodation.
Thanks

If in doubt do not risk your money. Do not be fooled by sales techniques that are at best questionable. Try a last minute web site for a cheap holiday. Check re-sale valueofyour timeshare points through a reseller.