Festiva Development Group
Reviews and Complaints

We are unable to keep up with the fees that are continually being assessed on our "account". We have tried to give our "timeshare" back by calling Festiva, but they won't do it. It is not a deeded asset that we know of, we only got a fake looking certificate in the mail.

We feel we were victimized by deceptive marketing and high pressure sales techniques. They took our credit card at the beginning of the presentation and would not give it back until they kept us there for 4 or more hours. My husband got upset and just signed the paper because I was having a low blood sugar episode because of all the stress. I can't honestly said I remember even signing it, but they claim I did.

After this episode, we did not realize that the maintenance fees could be increased whenever they decided without even asking us. Then they add INTEREST and LATE Fees that just keep mounting up. There is no relief they said when we called. They just as good as told us that we were screwed, we were prisoners and good luck coming up with all the money they are going to take us for. The lady was very rude and unkind.

We don't want any refunds, we just want OUT of it.

Please consider just taking this off our burden.

Thank you.

I have been a timeshare holder with ellington at wachesaw east for over 10 years. First the "maintenance fees" go up dramatically where I can rent the same dates online for a cheaper rate. But my main issue is that I cannot reserve a week (april 9-16, 2022), because they are full. This week is in my timeframe from when I signed. They indicate they are full until mid may, but an upcharge will be required.

Needless to say, this is all more of a scam from this company.

I purchased a vacation package/timeshare from Festiva Resorts back in October 2018 and didnt find out until January 2020 that if you aren't one of the first people to pay your maintenance fees then you don't get the 2 free weeks that go along with that. It's first come first served. I was never told that. Plus there are only a certain amount of rooms allowed for points. There are always rooms to stay if you pay. Why have points if you can't use them? Why offer the 2 weeks for paying the maintenance fees if there isn't enough for everyone?

I tried to make reservations on my Timeshare as deed in June for Unit 502 for 5th week in 2020 and was told that I had to prepay my maintenance fees in advance of when they are due in January 2020. They claim the board approved these term but I have never been advised of this policy nor does it spell that out in my recorded deed. This is a shame and it is time for me to write the attorney general in Asheville, NC and Charleston, SC. If any deed holder wants to join me please email me at
[protected]@comcast.net

06/18/2019

Board of Directors
C/O Stonebridge Village COA
1 Oak Lane
Reeds, spring, MO 65737
Owner Name: Billy Cross/Emma Cross
Owner ID 623284

On June 30, 2007, my husband and I entered into a contract with Escapes, INC. d/b/a in Texas at the Escapes! To The Gulf at Galveston, INC. At the time, we told the salesman that we did not travel much and we were just about to leave when he ask us to wait and then he came back saying there was a very economical one just opened at Stonebridge in MO. We told him we still did not travel and he then said but you can come here at Galveston as your exchange if you like. At that time, we agreed and continue with the sale.
We paid $6, 500.00 for the timeshare and it was paid off on April 6, 2009 and we have the Warranty Deed. We were very pleased to have our vacation every year at Galveston until Escapes sold their Galveston resort to the Holiday Inn Club and our contract was under Festiva afterwards. Since then we were unable to get a vacation there and we feel that as of August 28, 2014, that our contract with Escapes was broken. We tried a number of times to still get reservations there but they never came to pass.
Since then I have researched the internet and found out the information I have added below.
March 2, 2016
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III recently announced a $3 million settlement with Festiva, a network of vacation and timeshare companies, for alleged violations of the federal Telemarking Act, federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, and the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.
Under the terms of the settlement, Festiva has agreed to provide $1, 250, 000 in cash restitution and up to $1, 000, 000 in loan forgiveness for eligible Tennesseans, and make a $750, 000 payment to the State of Tennessee. In addition, Festiva has agreed to specific guidelines prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or misleading acts or practices in connection with their telemarketing and face-to-face sales of vacation or timeshare products.
Certain consumers who purchased vacation or timeshare products from Festiva companies, including Festiva Adventure Club and Etourandtravel, will be eligible to have their Festiva contracts cancelled and receive partial refunds of the money they have paid to date. In addition, some consumers who financed their Festiva purchases will be eligible to have the entire balance of their Festiva loans forgiven.
"Tennessee prides itself on being one of the top tourist destinations in the country. Our office has zero patience for the type of activities exhibited in this instance and will take swift action against companies that do not play by the rules, " Slatery said. "We hope this settlement will remind consumers to always do their homework and research a company before turning over hard-earned dollars to that company."
The settlement resolves allegations that Festiva operated a telemarketing and direct mail enterprise that used fraudulent and deceptive tactics to lure Tennesseans into attending high-pressure sales presentations designed to sell them expensive vacation memberships and products. According to complaints reviewed by the Tennessee Attorney General's Office, consumers were misled into believing they had won or been selected for a valuable prize, but to claim the prize, had to comply with many undisclosed requirements including a lengthy, high-pressure sales presentation.
Once consumers purchased their vacation or timeshare products, they learned the vacations were different from what was promised at the sales presentation or during the telemarketing call. Onerous rules and terms allegedly made the products difficult to use, and desirable vacation locations were difficult to book because of unavailability.
The defendants, all headquartered in Asheville, NC, include Festiva Development Group, Inc., d/b/a Festiva Adventure Club, Festiva Real Estate Holdings, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Resorts, LLC, Festiva Resorts Adventure Membership Club Association, Inc., Festiva Sailing Vacations, Inc., Human Capital Solutions, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Resort Services, LLC, Resort Travel & Xchange, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Travel & Xchange, LLC, Patton Hospitality Management, LLC, f/k/a Festiva Management Group, LLC, Zealandia Capital, Inc., f/k/a SETI Marketing, Inc., Zealandia Holding Company, Inc., f/k/a Festiva Hospitality Group, Inc., as well as Festiva principals Donald K. Clayton and Herbert H. Patrick, and Festiva marketing executive Richard A Hartnett. Additional Florida and Arkansas-based defendants were later added to the case including Etourandtravel, Inc., Escapes Travel Choices, LLC, and Festiva/Etourandtravel principal J. Lance Croft.

Therefore we feel that Festiva since it took over Escapes that it cancels our contract and pay us compensation for our paid up contract with them.
Or else, Stonebridge takes back the timeshare and reimburse us for the contract we paid. Then they can resell it to whomever they choose.

I will send a cc of this letter to the following people:
Attorney General Paxton in Texas
Governor Abbot in Texas
Festiva Development Group
Meridian Financial Services, INC

We look forward to hearing back from you regarding this manner.
If you should have any other questions or concerns email me at [protected]@gmail.com or call [protected]
Sincerely,

Billy Cross and Emma Cross

We have been members of FAC (Festiva Adventure Club) for many years and have found it to be a total waste of money as we've not been able to exchange for any resorts with the points we have. The maintenance fees are over $2, 000.00 and have gone up every year from the $800.00 they started at many years ago.
When I contacted Festiva Member Services about giving up our membership, based on the fact that we're not traveling anymore and we've not been able to make any exchanges, we were told that it wasn't an option.
I indicated that we could not afford the $2, 000. + a year for maintenance fees and again we were told that we were responsible for them. That we could set up a payment plan.
We don't want it, need it and feel totally trapped - held hostage by a corrupt company.

Shame on Festiva. I just paid 450.00 dollars on special assestment fees and today I got my maintenance fees. Is Festiva running a scam here. I am angry and want to know why maintenance fees increased. I bought my timeshare years ago and paid it off. knowing I pay maintenance fees every year and now some special assestment fees you guys are ripping the kind folk off. I tried making a complaint in other site that had complaints and everytime got kicked off. I want to know if Festiva is in a class action lawsuit and like more information as to why folks that have had there timeshare for years and paid off are getting increases in maintenance fees and paying for other fees. Last year I paid 658.00 dollars and now my fees are 819.00 dollars. I know you recently went through a hurricane but that no reason for timeshare holders have to pay more, thatts why they have insurance. I will be searching to see if there is any legal action going on against Festiva because I am sensing a scam from this board members.

Not a happy timeshare holder

I am a member at the Vacation villas at Fantasy World II in Kissimmee, FL...I received a phone call a few days ago regarding a special of $299 to tour one of the 6 newly acquired resorts, to get the word out from it's owners these other places are good to stay and spread by work of mouth. Out of the $299, I'll get a $100 Visa card to use however I wish and $100 food voucher to use at resort, once I book...I have 18 months in which to use. I called today to book in myrtle beach, SC and was told there is a daily surcharge and is different depending on which property THEY book me at (I have no choice). So in addition to the $299, today cost $275 (never did get exact address of where I'm staying, fantasy harbor blvd). I was also asked to set up appt for a 90 minute tour! Are you kidding me? I told the girl I was already a member and at the initial phone call I asked would a tour be a part of this $299 deal and I was told NO. I also asked at initial phone call would it cost any additional fees, I guess surcharge should have been the word I should have used. So I wonder when I check in will they withhold Visa card and voucher until I set tour appt or if I have to sign a document to get room key will it state in document I MUST take tour? I'll keep you posted. Bad way to do business!

If anyone has any information on how to get out of this waste of hard earned money, please let me know. We signed up under the pretense that all we had to do was call and we could get an ocean front room anytime. We can't even get one away from there. Lies! Lies! Lies! Direct misrepresentation of what they could provide. Tired of working and not being able to get any benefit from this scam. Please let me know if there is a class action suit South Carolina. I know the NC suit won.
-Jerry & Marion Beverly

This company is nothing but a SCAM with nothing but lying, seedy sales people that are hired to push hard in suckering people out of their money! We stayed at Fantasy World 2 in Orlando this weekend which is a dump and we were made to sit through a 90 minute presentation even though we paid full price for our room and did not receive any perks. The sales people are liars! Don't take my word for it, do your research! This company should be shut down they are nothing but scam artists suckering money our of people! Shame on them, STAY AWAY!

My wife and I Purchased a timeshare unit for $18000 on November 27 2015. Every time we try to book a vacation there are no available units any where. we have points we are going to lose we cant use them. Name of sales persons were Steve and MICHAEL [protected] MELODY [protected] CONTRACT # 478127. ADDRESS of company Festiva Development group. 39 Patton ave. ASHEVILLE NC 28801. WE just want to get out of this contract. WE are tired of paying for something we cant ever use.

I own a timeshare for deeded week at Cabin at Green Mountains. They promise you the moon to get you to buy, then don't want you to use it. They even promised us dual use at another resort, Stormy Point but now say they don't own that and you can't do anything about it. They even wrote in stuff on our contract that was never honored. You can never get through to even attempt to make a reservation without waiting 20 minutes to up to an hour just to check reservation. Then, there are never any reservations for deeded week owners. Don't ever buy anything from these people. You will be sorry!

Something needs to be done about this company and not honoring what was told or WRITTEN ON CONTRACT!

Judy Talley

We purchased the Peppertree at Atlantic Beach NC. We were told our yearly maintenance fees would ensure us the resort would always stay looking as good as it does the day we purchased. Also the annual dues hasn't raised in over 5 years. With everyone joining, they don't see them ever raising over 2% every few years. Our salesman was ever so sweet and convincing.
He also informed us, we were making an investment in prime ocean property. And in the event we wanted out Festiva would buy it back, we just would have to understand they would only give us the amount they were selling for at the time we wanted to sell.
Once back inside the sales office the cost of the membership was just to much for us. 27, 000 dollars. Kent called over his sales manager and explained we loved it but just couldn't afford it. The sales manager worked his magic (for 2 hours, we're hungry) and got us down to a very reasonable price. So we ask him about the maintenance fee. Check (not going to go up over 2%) Real Estate Investment? Check..(you are getting a good deal, you could turn around tomorrow and sell it back, wait 6 months and make a profit). Your sure (Oh yes, this is the opportunity of a lifetime, the deal you're getting is from an owner who just sold it back to us).
Well color us stupid. Not only has the maintenance fees gone up every year and when we tried to sell it back they pretty much laughed at us. We were billed for a special assessment because the resort needed repairs!
We tried to sell through sellmytimeshare and some other yahoo. What a complete joke.
We have finally gotten out thanks to another gentleman. If anyone is suing Festiva or wanting more info you can reach me at [protected]@cheerful.com
Best advice...stay far away from Festiva. The guy who helped us did find our our wonderful salesperson had multiple drug and drinking arrests.

We were contacted last year by Festiva develpment group and ETour and travel. They were selling owner vacation packages. We purchased one of the packages to use this summer. I made over 15 phone calls and either no one would answer, they would transfer my call or give me another number to call. No one ever returned my calls by the way. My last call was to Melissa on 5/12/2016. She said she was with Festiva owner marketing. I told her that I needed to cancel my reservation because my husband has been diagnosed and he will be getting treatments for the foreseeable future. She told me that they did not issue refunds. She told me to call back when he was better and reschedule. We lost my husbands brother 2 years ago to cancer and now my husband is sick and I obviously don't know if and when I can use this vacation package. When I told Melissa this she said to hope for the best and maybe we could go in the future. I really am not in the mood to hear that. I just need to cancel this reservation and be done with it so I can concentrate on more important things. Evidently Festiva needs my money more that I do ! This company is such a scam. DO NOT get involved with this company at all!

ON our way to vacation in August 2014, we called to check and found out Resort is condemned because of stairways and insurance was dropped and we could not show up for week 34. This was 2 days before we were heading down to NC from PA. If we had not called we would have driven 12 hours stayed in a hotel for nothing. As it was we had our vacation time lost at work, turned down work because my husband is self employed. We received no apology, no compensation, no status updates. Got our Maintenance fee bill and when I called I was told, I owed it no matter what the circumstances. Closed or open because I have a deed, we owed the money no matter what, just like at home. I asked if it would be okay to camp there since if my house was uninhabitable I could live in a tent or bring a camper. She was taken aback and said if I felt the need to do so I could. So should I show up with my camper and deed and tell the Police its legit?
This is crap pure and simple, the Maintenance fee's say they are for insurance which has been cancelled, staff which have been let go, electric which is shut off and a million other things that are not costing them anything because the RESORT IS CLOSED! I asked about guarantee it would be open this year, No mam we do not know that, compensation for last year, no mam, you own you pay. So why should I pay this bill. I think they are going to scam everyone and sell the property. What happens to our Maintenance fee then? If I pay a second year for nothing I am almost at the cost of the unit which was $3000. Do I cut my losses now? Can they collect maintenance fee's on a property they are apparently not up keeping? They broke the contract first. They were paid to upkeep the property and failed 5 months later there is still no word or work or communication of any kind. They forced us to change our unit last year because the wanted to tear down our beautiful unit 11B because some shabby ones were condemned. Something is rotten here and the owners need help.
Mary St. Clair
What are other people doing?

I was an owner of the Odyssey Vacation package where I financed my vacation basically a try it before you buy it full package. I was informed that I had 18 months to take my vacation from the time the package was paid in full. When I called to book my vacation, the idiots informed me that I had to take my vacation before 9/2015. So I waited a little while to call back since I had some time left. I called back 12/15/2014 and they advised I had to take the trip before 9/2014 (wasn’t not 18 months after paid in full more like 8 months) So I guess I just gave the fools almost $1000 just because! They are scammers and could care less what type of service they are giving their customers. I was advised that I could pay an additional $89 to have an extension. Are u freaking serious? So now I have to pay an additional $89 for a mistake that you made! Save your money and if you are looking for a real travel/vacation agency don’t waste your time on these low budget fools! They are the absolute worse!

I am handicapped. It takes about 2-4 hours on the phone after you have done your searches on the Internet to find places that are available. You can only use points on 3-4 day weekends. We were never told that when we purchased 2 years ago.
There is never a handicapped accessibility unit listed in their properties. When one accidentally is found and reserved, we got there and someone else was in it.
Got to one of their properties in Atlantic Beach, NC and there was a wet towel hanging in bathroom and bed had not been changed. Went to Manager and she said they only changed linens when residents requested. Called home office about this and the one at Edisto. It was not supposed to rented. Commode lid missing, no air filter in air conditioner, screens torn on porch & many more problems. Horrible place.
They tell you to call months ahead and make reservations but there is never anything available. Horrible investment!

I just dealt with what I believe may have been a fraudulent phone call. The person selling me the "deal" offered a 4 day 3 night stay at any of your resorts PLUS a "bonus" 4 day, 3 night cruise or could be used the same as the first at any of your resorts. All for $159 (originally quoted $199) with no tour since I had done the tour in a previous stay. I asked many questions & was initially told that each package was for 5 people & could be used at any time. I gave my credit card info & was transferred to the verification dept where I was then told that each package was for 2 adults & 2 children. This made me VERY uncomfortable as I felt I was completely lied to. The original sales guy, Nick, got back on the phone & then said he made a mistake & that it was for 4 people...I questioned if it was 2 adults, 2 children or could be 4 adults...he said that he can guarantee that I can set it up for 4 adults when I call to reserve. Then he sent me back to the verification/confirmation dept & she repeated 2 adults, 2 children...I immediately informed her what Nick had told me & "guaranteed" that it could be used for 4 adults, she said no, 2 adults, 2 children. I said that I was not interested then but I had already given my credit card info to him. I also said that what he had said was a direct lie then & that I should report it because that is fraud. She then hung up on me.
I'm very concerned that my credit card info is out there now. It's very disappointing as I did enjoy my 1st stay with your resort a while back. I'm not sure that I'm even contacting the correct place here but if you are interested the number the call came from was [protected]. I did call this number back of course BUT it just went to a message that said the box was full. I hope that this does not happen to anyone else.

I'm not usually a sucker for falling for scams but this time my husband and I decided to go to one of those resort demonstrations. The caller I found out later was just a third party. Festiva knew nothing of who called. We were hesitant but there were so many salesmen running around like ants high pressuring us and trying to lower the cost so we thought we were getting a good deal. Since then we have not financially been able to go anywhere because much of vacations comes out of pocket. Our children are grown and they too are just beginning their lives. Maybe this package would be good for a rich elderly couple but from the complaints I've seen about people not using their vacations because of unavailability and other problem, I think the whole thing is a scam. Where is all the money going if no one can use anything? We have to come up with almost $800 maintenance fee for nothing. If we don't pay, our credit gets shot. I could kick myself for falling for this scam. It would take an attorney to understand all the legal jargon and mumbo jumbo in the contract. Now I wish I had told them I wanted to have an attorney look it over. I called several times to voice my complaint and was told there was nothing I could do about it but sell it. After researching, I found that was nearly impossible. I discovered people were paying lawyers fees to transfer titles and disreputable companies out there would promise you money to sell it and you would end up paying to get rid of it. Why can't Festiva just buy it back? They already have my money. No loss. Then they can dupe some other poor sucker into buying it again. They make me sick. Don't fall for any of these calls that promise you a gift if you check out their resorts or property. The gift we got was a vacation for 3 days/4 nights to somewhere in Florida. Of course, we had to pay airfare and taxes and all sorts of other fees to even take that trip. Who scams people into buying vacation packages and then gives them a barely paid for vacation as a prize. Festiva is a rip off. I wish they would go bankrupt.

I decided to order Advantage Nights package from the company Festiva Resorts Vacations. They told me that this package contained the hotel room and tickets to any resort from their website. After I paid them $2, 900, they promised to call me back and provide the necessary documents. I called them after 4 weeks and asked about my order, and they told me to wait, because they were busy. I asked to return money, but they refused. So disappointing, please be careful if you deal with this company.