Royal Oasis Timeshare Owners a Few Steps Closer to Closure

Though details remain sketchy, timeshare owners band together for a legal fight.

The publicity surrounding the Crowne Plaza Golf Resort and Casino at Royal Oasis, located on Grand Bahama, highlights a worst-case scenario for any timeshare owner. The resort was damaged by a hurricane in September of 2004 and rendered unuseable. Since then, no improvements or repairs have been made. Timeshare owners have been issued no information about the fate of the resort, especially the timeshare arm of the operation.

I have spoken with a number of concerned owners, most of whom are asking “could this happen to me?” For this reason, I’d like to point out that scandals of this nature are hardly commonplace in the industry, epecially these days. Though rotten apples exist in any basket, there’s plenty of good apples too. This is especially true of timeshares in the Bahamas, among which can be found some of the most opulent resort properties in the world.

With big resort companies investing more and more money into timeshares every year, smaller companies cannot afford to conduct themselves dishonestly. They simply can’t compete with the big boys unless they offer owners and guests the same guarantees and level of service as their more established competitors. In business, ailing organizations which can’t compete are weeded out in favor of those which can. Maybe this is what we’re seeing here, in the case of this resort. The real tragedy here is that timeshare owners are caught in the middle.

We reported on this story back in January. Since then, important developments have come to light:

• Timeshare owners have banded together to file a class-action lawsuit in order to recover money lost through this fiasco.
• Several high-profile resort development companies have expressed interest in purchasing this property. Among these are Planet Hollywood and Westgate Resorts.

Remodeling/repairing a facility of this size is an extremely costly undertaking. It may be more economically viable for the new owners to sell new timeshares. If this is the case, what about those who already own timeshare at this facility?

Hopefully this lawsuit can bring closure for the timeshare owners concerned. The small number of “worst practices” operators in this industry make it hard for all other legitimate vacation/travel companies to do business, simply by association.

It’s time for the “bad apples” to demonstrate some basic accountability. Enough is enough!

See Also

• The Freeport News
  “No Word Yet on Royal Oasis Sale”