Snake oil salesmen will continue to prosper

Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)

The new European timeshare directive is a disaster for that sector of the industry and for companies that have invested millions trying to win the confidence of the public.

A few years ago, I attended a timeshare conference in Florida, where industry veterans shared stories from decades ago of the ‘snake oil salesmen’ who ran the industry. Unfortunately, the new legislation will be greeted with glee by the new breed of snake oil salesmen who now run holiday clubs.

The timeshare industry has come a long way since those grim days of the 1970s when unsuspecting holidaymakers would be literally attacked in resorts and bullied into buying some inappropriate property.

The US has cleaned up its act, even renaming the business as ‘vacation ownership’. Companies would never get away with that in the UK – the press would give them terrible stick – but there’s no doubt that De Vere, Marriott, Disney et al have changed perceptions. Timeshare may not be suitable for everyone, but it is a quality product.

Holiday clubs, on the other hand, which have flourished in recent years, adopt pressure sales tactics and offer nothing more than the false promise of discounted future holidays. A quick search on the Internet will often be enough to find better bargains.

These clubs have been the scourge of the timeshare industry and the Organisation for Timeshare in Europe has done more than most to try to stop them; it does not want its name tainted by the clubs.

But that is exactly what the legislation does. It lumps these groups together and, in the eyes of the consumer, makes it even more difficult to distinguish between the two.

The new directive states: “The new rules should ensure that consumers are equally well protected across the EU and will create a level playing field in the market for timeshare and other holiday related products.”

A worthy aim, no doubt. But it creates the illusion that everyone is as bad as each other and in need of legislation.

Crucially, it also presents this image to the press, who have been notoriously difficult to win over by the timeshare industry. Many of them do not know the difference between holiday clubs and timeshare companies and this legislation won’t do anything to change that.

I fear the legislation will also do nothing to stop the aggressive sales tactics of holiday clubs or prevent people being sold empty promises. Consumers will only realise they have been sold a dud after the “cooling off period”, when they try to to take advantage of so-called holiday discounts.

There may well be some legitimate holiday clubs which provide a good service to the public. I would like to hear from them. I write a newsletter for a travel company and, when I aired this issue, I received dozens of emails from unhappy, sometimes desperate, holidaymakers who had parted with thousands of pounds for holiday club membership and were receiving nothing in return.

It is easy to wonder how people would be so gullible to part with so much money – one couple wrote to me saying they had spent an incredible £18,000 – simply to join a club which claimed to offer holiday discounts.

But usually they are targeted on holiday, when they are vulnerable and more willing to listen to people than they might be during their busy lives at home.

And even the most cynical of us know how plausible some sales people can be.

A year down the line, do you think people will still be getting ripped off by unscrupulous sales people from holiday clubs? I do.