Companies and organisations involved in legitimate timeshare have hit back at being wrongly tarred when mistakenly referred to in the same breath as fraudulent holiday clubs.

Sue McNicol, head of operations for the Organisation for Timeshare in Europe (OTE), the industry’s trade body, criticised UK publication Travel Weekly for "incorrectly referring to timeshare when covering the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) recent campaign warning consumers of the dangers of signing up to bogus holiday clubs"*.

Timeshare, which has been legislated by the European Timeshare Directive for the past 10 years, is positively received by the vast majority of purchasers. Such is its popularity, there are now more than 1.45 million timeshare owners in Europe, and the numbers continue to grow.

OTE consumer research findings released earlier this year, involving 30,000 respondents across the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, showed 96% rated timeshare over other self-catering holidays, with purchasers citing the value, quality, location and high services standards offered by resorts, and slightly more said it was as good as or better than staying in hotels. A vast majority, 83% were happy, or had no concerns, about buying and almost three-quarters would happily recommend it to relatives and friends.

Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels, with more than 50,000 member families, the majority British, is one of the biggest players in Europe. Major hospitality brands such as Starwood Hotels, De Vere, Hilton, Marriott and Disney have their own shared vacation ownership divisions and recent entrants to UK timeshare include Butlins.

Timeshare attracts very few complaints – the European Consumer Centres reported under 120 for the first half of 2006 compared to the estimated 400,000 annual victims of holiday club fraud announced by the OFT.

OTE, of which Club La Costa is a founder member, has a substantial budget allocated towards fighting fraudsters and works closely with the police and other authorities in Spain and the UK.

Complaining to Travel Weekly, Sue McNicol noted her "disappointment", pointing out that the holiday clubs offered little more than a holiday bookings service and, unlike timeshare, do not tend to own or control the accommodation offered, are not bound by legislation and very often fail to offer even basic consumer protection.

Richard Fletcher, Resort Director for Club La Costa, said the company had 22 fully owned and managed resorts in the UK, Spain, Tenerife and Austria, and its mission, taken seriously in every aspect of the operation, is to exceed customer expectations with its high quality resorts, services and amenities.

About the Author
Richard Fletcher has worked for Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels for the past fourteen years as Resorts Management Director, overseeing the running of 22 resorts in the UK, Spain, Austria and Tenerife. He worked in hotel management in England from 1966 until his arrival in Spain in 1984 and operated resorts in Tenerife, Mallorca, Portugal and Marbella prior to joining Club La Costa.

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