Great Escapes Travel Club reviews and complaints

The sales agents told us we would no doubt save at least the price of the membership (about $4k) on our trip to New Zealand and Australia.

They maybe had a $200 saving on the airfare but a $2000 higher cost on the motor home rental and they would not match the price I could get on the net through KIWI travel.

They made many promises of savings and almost NONE of them are even close to true.

Maybe the "hot weeks" could save you some money, but it would take a lifetime to recoup the cost of the membership.

My wife and I joined about 3 years ago. We paid $ 150.00 per month and were told we'd have unlimited access to prime hotel bookings and great deals on car rentals and other products and services. The first time we used our "membership' was for my wife and my 13 yr. Old daughter to make hotel and car rental reservations for a trip to florida for a friends' daughter's bat mitzvah. Great escapes assured my wife they'd put her in a 4-5 star facility and get her an upgrade for a vehicle rental. On the day she was to fly to florida she found out that the reservations had not been made and that the company scrambled to put her and our daughter in a"hotel"that wasn't even 2-3 stars and that it was almost 2 hrs from where our friends resided. The car was a chevy geo that had not even been cleaned out from the previous renter. Our friends were able to make reservations locally in a 4 star hotel 15-20 mins. From the synagogue where the ceremony was to take place; my wife did retain the use of the car. Final result cancellation charges for what these idiots did not do of $ 75.00 dollars, $ 30.00 in processing fees. No apology to her for the snafu which caused her to get to the synagogue late for the ceremony and a promise to send some discount coupons (never sent) and a"discounted"rate on a new time share program they were launching in orlando, fl. When we requested cancellation of our"membership"they said the contract was structured to be closed ended and that huge penalties would be charged and that their finance"arm" would charge a credit card that we had used to initially sign up with for the balance of the contract. We were told by several other members that they too had had similar problems and were given some recompense (discount coupons and vouchers to local hotels, some of which were for only part credit to the fees charged for the stays. We've decided to pay off the membership (what's left is about $ 900.00) and try to sell it, although we won't if these guys are scamming people; we'll just have to eat it. If anyone reads this that can advise what we could legally do, please post. We'll be looking forward to hear anything helpful.