Complaint Review: Royal Holiday Club - Mexico City Internet

From May 14, 2014 to May 21, 2014 we traveled to the Grand Riviera Princess Resort In the Riviera Maya located at Punta Bete Km 296, Carretera Chetumal Puerto Juarez, Playa del Carmen, 77710 MX. While we were there I was solicited to attend a presentation for a vacation package, after I was asked some pre-qualifying questions by a scout, one of which was if any of the members of the party was over the age of 50, which only one individual in that party was me, my son-in-law (31) and friend (29) were told they too could come to the presentation too because they saw that I was hesitant to attend and had very little interest. I specifically remember they had pre-qualified me for the membership based on the fact that I was over the age of 50 and was employed, and to encourage the other members of the party to get me t to go to the presentation by Royal Holiday Club they said we would receive a coupon to use for tourist attractions just for listening in on a 60 minutes presentation, so after the scout was very persistent we agreed and signed up for the presentation the next morning.

While we were at the Royal Holiday office at the Gran Riviera Princess Resort we were given a presentation that promised significant discounts on a vacation membership package for the next thirty years, and that members could travel practically anywhere anytime they want, the representatives made several verbal promises to entice me to purchase a membership. They claimed it was not a timeshare. The package they really pushed was the silver membership package which was $14,000 USD. I don’t’ vacation a lot so I was reluctant and while the numbers they showed were impressive, along with the flow of alcoholic beverages (bottom-less mimosas and other drinks, they really caught the interest more of my son in law, and friend, because they and their families do travel a lot and they were impressed by the benefits that royal holiday members supposedly enjoyed. This is when the representatives said they could make an exception and allow all three of us (two of which were not of the pre-qualifying age as explained previously) to share and split the cost of one royal holiday membership. According to the agents there were enough points for all three families to enjoy the benefits of being a member. This of course we discovered later was not true, the points that come with the membership hardly cover a minimum stay for two in most locations.

However, they began to use high pressure sales tactics offering more incentives on the spot. Right at the middle of the presentation my granddaughter had a bad fall onto the marble floor while at the Royal Holiday office, she was seven months old at the time, my daughter and my son ran out with her to get medical attention. The Royal Holiday representatives told us that as member’s medical insurance coverage is also included, even offered to pay for the medical expense charged to my daughter for the doctor on sight to examine my granddaughter. This of course never happened as my daughter had to pay for this expense upon checking out of the resort. But, at that point we just wanted to get out of the office, we had already lost half a day being there, and we wanted to make sure my granddaughter was ok, but it was not to long after my daughter had left with my son in law and granddaughter to get medical help, that they returned but again we were all tired and just wanted to relax and enjoy the rest of our day. We asked if we could think about it and come back the next day, but they really began to wave the steak in front of us, they offered to increase the amount of the redeemable coupon to use towards any of the touristic activities around the Riviera, which was for immediate use, offered a free accompanying flight for a second traveler for our first trip we planned with Royal Holiday, three years of unlimited visits to the Royal Holiday Locations in Mexico and the Dominican Republic without the use of any membership points except for the all-inclusive fee of $45/per person per day, among other things. We specifically inquired about blackout dates in which they stated only included two weeks out of the year that were subject to blackouts which included Christmas week and Passover week. This was a big point for us because we often travel during holidays such as 4th of July, thanksgiving, memorial, and Labor Day and it simply would not make sense to sign up for a membership that excluded those dates. The three of us agreed to sign up for the membership and pay one third of the membership up front ($5,000 USD) and finance the rest thru Royal Holiday financing company Comercializadora Travel Advisory, S.A. de C.V. The finance terms were explained to us as follows, we were to pay four payments of $350 beginning June 15th, 2014 thru September 15, 2014. The remainder of the membership was to be paid in 36 monthly installments of $268.67 beginning October 16th, 2014. We were also told about a membership fee that would be a fixed $575 for the next 30 years which was the term of the membership. Once the contract was done we went on to enjoy the rest of our vacation. We were at the resort for about a week, we signed the contract on the second day of being at the resort. We began to do some research out of curiosity about the membership towards the end of our trip and saw some pretty terrible reviews online about Royal Holiday. Our mistake was giving the company the benefit of the doubt and figured we would make the best of the situation.

When we returned home to the states we attempted to take advantage of the membership and book a vacation to Orlando, Florida for the 4th of July holiday this was in 2014. We spoke to a representative who offered a stay for two suites at their Orlando Location, High Point World Resort, which was not the quality we expected and were told all of their locations offer, but the price seemed fair for a three night stay, we had called late in the evening so he said he would need to confirm the reservation in the morning but had taken my credit card information and quoted us the amount that would be charged. The next day we got a call from our membership representative, she began to explain that the representative we had spoken to the night before had not quoted us a correct amount, that we did not have enough credits, and would need to pay an activation fee and purchase additional credits that ended being more than, actually doubling the cost, of that which was quoted the night before by the previous representative. We obviously were taken back by this and began to ask more questions regarding exactly how the membership worked and this so called “activation fee” that we had not heard about before. She began to explain that anytime you make a reservation if you don’t have enough points we would have to purchase additional points and each “certificate” for a certain amount of points has and additional cost. We know we probably should have asked what are the amount of points needed for an average stay etc. when we bought the membership, which we did not, once the agent explained this to us we realized and it became clear that there is no real savings based on how the membership works as the points allotted each year are not enough to book practically anything even here around the states let alone a trip abroad without having to purchase more points! We did not go thru with the reservation with Royal Holiday and ended up making a reservation on our own, saving us much more money then what Royal Holiday was offering. We were very upset but again we said well the only option is to take advantage of the three years unlimited visits to Mexico and Punta Cana which was part of the deal, that would not require the use of any points to make it worth the investment. So we continued to make the monthly payments.

The principal name and so called contract is under my name and all statements arriving from Royal Holiday are in only one members name, and never in the name of the other two members that signed the same contract too. It is also important to mention that when we call Royal Holiday especially when it's one of the two members who's names are not on the statements, regarding the membership they can never find their information in the system they must always give my information in order for them to find the “membership” details. We found this to be very odd. Also, every time the other two members call and discuss something in regards to the membership they conclude the call and then follow up with a call to me to confirm our “plans” to use the membership. But of course they have no issue taking the monthly automatic withdrawal for the membership out of my son's checking account.

Later in the fall of 2014, as we continued to keep up with our part of our commitment and make the scheduled payment for the membership, we called again to get information regarding a trip to Punta Cana. We spoke to another representative because our assigned agent was not there, he gave us a price that seemed reasonable which included the $45 per day all inclusive fee that we were told about, and we agreed to call back to make the final reservation for this trip. Our assigned agent called us back and explained again that we had been given the wrong information. She began to tell us the cost of the all-inclusive was $95 not $45, that all bookings had to be Saturday-to-Saturday (this was never told to us at any point or does it state it in the contract) among other limitations or rules. Again, the cost of the trip was more expensive thru Royal Holiday then it was booking thru another agency such as Orbitz.com. This is when we really began to feel that we had been lied to and scammed by Royal Holiday. The way the membership was sold to us was not in any way close to being the truth. There is always an excuse or reason for everything and every time we call we are told something different by each one of the representatives we speak to.

The most recent incident occurred in February of 2015, when we called to make the 2015 annual membership fee of $575. The payment was made over the phone and we inquired about a reservation for July in Playa del Carmen, we were given a quote and we were to call back the next day to confirm the reservation once we discussed the price with the rest of the traveling party. When we called back we were transferred to our assigned agent who gave yet again a different price, and then told that she could not make the reservation at this time because there were no rooms yet approved for members for the dates we were inquiring about, that she could book a reservation if we used points, but not using the privilege certificate of unlimited visits to that location that was given to us when we signed up. We were very upset and she stated that there was nothing she could do, she would need to check with her supervisor to see when and if rooms would be available with that certificate. This is when we began to do more research about the company and realized that we are one of many others who were sold a lie by Royal Holiday. We began to research ways to cancel the contract membership and get our money back, and this is when we came across the information for PROFECO and we are submitting a complaint to see if they are able to help us cancel this ridiculous contract and get our money back. To this point Royal Holiay has taken over $8,000 USD from us in exchange for absolutely nothing!

We have contacted our service representative and have asked that our complaints regarding the above mentioned issues be address and have asked again and again to have our contract cancelled and our money returned. Our assigned agent will continue to repeat and repeat the same thing over and over again stating that we cannot cancel the contract as we only had five days to do so according to Mexican Law. We feel that we have been victims of a scam and fraud at the hands of Royal Holiday. As many others have reported. The BBB revoked their accreditation for the same reasons!

If anyone has had success getting their hard earned money back and cancelling the membership please share with us the best way to go about getting out of this nightmare!