Owners Seek Answers From Bahamas Timeshare Resort
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
After fifteen months, no communication, and exchange hassles, some Bahamas timeshare owners may resort to legal action.
While checking Google News this morning, I found an article which describes certain problems surrounding a timeshare development on Grand Bahama.
According to this article, since September of 2004, Crowne Plaza Golf Resort and Casino at the Royal Oasis on Grand Bahama has been closed for business. Those who own timeshares there have received no word on whether or not the current management has any plans of selling this property. To compound matters, when these owners attempt to exchange their timeshares through RCI, they are told that their points have been frozen.
If these allegations are true, what does this mean? Not only have these owners been unable to use their vacation time because the resort has remained closed, they can’t exchange the time they’ve already bought.
In my opinion, this sort of thing does more damage to timeshare’s reputation than thousands of one-man “take-the-money-and-run” scam operations. Here we have a report of not just a lone “timeshare spammer” but at least one major company at fault. This is the kind of story which undermines the whole industry’s credibility at a fundamental level. Thanks to this, thousands of people will reconsider buying a timeshare. After reading this account, who can blame them? Where and with whom does accountability lie? What does this mean for Bahamas timeshare in the future?
My sincerest hope is that, if the resort company is to blame, RCI will seek restitution from the resort on behalf of the many timeshare owners who bought time there. People bought these points with the natural expectation that they would be able to use them! If these points are now useless, this situation just might effectively sabotage the entire concept of timeshare points systems.
My associates and I have personally seen points systems work extremely well on thousands of occasions, but if these kinds of complaints recur, a new solution should be developed by exchange companies.
However, despite this negative publicity, I still have faith in the system. RCI’s parent company Cendant has been rearranging its corporate structure of late, leaving one with the hope that such an ambitious restructuring might mean smoother sailing in the future.
My company and I will be following this story over the weeks and months to come. Our readers can expect more updates as events develop.