Royal Holiday Vacation Club
Reviews and Complaints

We felt this club was ripping people off from the start. However since we had to pay the yearly maintenance fee, we did use the vacations every other year. We would roll our credits over the first year and take a longer vacation, or take others with us on the second year. We did this for many years just waiting to be over our contract.

Fast forward to 2020, the year of the Pandemic. We had already booked a two-week vacation to Aruba for the middle of June. As the Pandemic worsened, more countries began limiting travel. Airlines stopped having flights and we decided we would not be able to go. Aruba had stopped allowing people to visit altogether.

I called Royal Holiday to cancel and had to argue with them for hours not to be charged a cancellation fee in addition to losing all our credits. They told me that the hotel is still open so we have to give these things up. I told them the Island was closed and there were no flights going there, what were we supposed to do swim? After about two hours of arguing, and speaking to several supervisors they finally cancelled our reservation with no out of pocket money and gave us our credits back.

Well the Pandemic continued the entire 2020 year so come January of 2021 they want their yearly maintenance fee. Why should we be charged for a year which we could not travel? We wanted to, but circumstances beyond our control dictated that we could not. They took all of our credits for 2020, (which we had rolled over the 2019 ones for a better vacation in 2020), so this amounted to two years of credits. We also paid the maintenance fee for 2020 which we could not travel in. Now they want us to start with zero credits and pay for 2021? Please investigate whether this is legal.

I would be happy with just eliminating the year 2020 altogether. Leave us with the credits that we rightfully paid for and credit this years maintenance fee to cover 2021. It was not our fault the world shut down.

We have had this vacation club for many years and there were several in which they have added special fees to the normal maintenance fee due to weather problems, hurricane damage to hotels, etc. This year should be null and void during this difficult time we went through.

Below is a copy of an email I sent to local Royal Holiday staff (Kirsche Mieses Strees and Ruth Fortunas) on March 20, 2021, after going back and forth with various people, but nobody honoring what was said and done on Feb. 7 and Feb. 12, 2021. Today, I received a call from Kirsche stating there is nothing she can do for us, and if we want the rooms, we have to pay $107 per person, which is almost 3 times as much as we were told.

I can email you all the audio messages I have and all the WhatsApp screen messages, if you can provide me with an email where I can forward you the below email i sent on 3/22/2021.

I am so frustrated with your organization and lies, that I plan to join a lawsuit and will publicly scrutinize your organization through any sources, incl. social media, if resolution cannot be found to the various verbal (audio messages) agreements.

******************
On Sunday, Feb. 7th, Mike & I met with Olfa, Carlos and Carolyn about possibly signing up for your Royal Holiday program, but more importantly, we wanted to know if they could offer us a special group deal for our upcoming group travel in Nov/Dec 2021. At that time, we were told by all three of them, but primarily Carlos, that if we signed up with Royal Holiday, they would give us a SPECIAL GROUP AGREEMENT OUTSIDE THE CONTRACT of $49 per person per night for PLATINUM VIP SUITE rooms at the GRAND BAVARO PRINCESS, as long as we did not stay beyond Dec. 15, 2021 because then it would be high season, but if we traveled in Nov and early Dec, it would be no problem at all because then it's low season and we could have as many rooms as we wanted. We were excited to receive this offer and advised that our travel dates would be from Nov. 24 through Dec. 11, 2021, so never beyond Dec. 15th. We also stated that Mike & I, plus our son, would stay that whole time, but most others would probably stay only about 7-10 days. Frankly, we were definitely very hesitant to sign up for your Royal Holiday plan because we had never experienced any of your properties, but if you could offer us that SPECIAL GROUP agreement for Nov/Dec 2021, outside the contract, we would consider signing up for the 3-year plan. Carolyn even tried to convince us that if we took the whole long-term plan, she would give our whole group FREE Platinum rooms in Nov/Dec 2021, but we felt that was too much of a commitment since we never experienced any of your properties. So we ended up agreeing and doing a firm handshake, which meant that we signed up with Royal Holidays for 3 years, and in return, you promised to give us the special group agreement (outside of the contract) of $49 per person per night for Platinum VIP suite rooms at the Grand Bavaro Princess in Nov/Dec as long as we did not stay beyond Dec. 15. In addition, we agreed on advanced Platinum room assignments, Platinum room locations, the use of all 14 restaurants incl. the 3 platinum restaurants, occasional advanced reservations at restaurants, airport transfers, and finally that we would not have to use any points from our Royal Holiday contract. We even joked about the boundary lines on the beach volleyball court that were missing and we really wanted them to be there when we showed up because many of us like playing beach volleyball, and you promised they would be there then too. So we signed the contract with Ruth after all the handshakes with Carlos and Olfa, and the loud, embarrassing cheer in the room!

On Friday, Feb. 12th, Mike & I returned and spoke again with Olfa and Carlos (with Carolyn nearby, as well as another male manager [can't remember his name]). After reading all the contract info, I was concerned that we had nothing in writing about the special group agreement. Once again, Carlos GUARANTEED us that all would be good to go per the verbal Special Group agreement, which is summarized in detail below, and it would all be OUTSIDE of the contract. Olfa witnessed this completely (ask her!). The other male manager even tried to sell us the long-term package again (I even still have that oofer on paper), but once again, we told them that we wouldn't be able to decide THAT until the end of our trip in Nov/Dec when we've had a chance to actual experience your property; everyone understood that completely. So here is a detailed summary of what Carlos and management VERBALLY promised us again as the SPECIAL GROUP AGREEMENT outside the contract (which we went through verbally step-by-step) with Olfa as a witness:

• Stay between Nov. 24 - Dec. 11 - low season (with different lengths of stay no problem, as long as nobody stayed beyond Dec. 15)
• $49 per person per night for Platinum VIP Suite rooms at Grand Bavaro Princess
• Advanced Platinum room assignments, grouped in buildings near Platinum beach
• No limit on # of Platinum rooms (even though we knew it for sure would not be more than 20 rooms)
• Use of all 14 restaurants, incl. the 3 Platinum restaurants.
• Occasional advanced reservations at restaurants (not buffet) for whole group (most important date was Nov. 29 since one person in our group is celebrating his 70th birthday). More than likely, we will probably have dinner in divided groups most evenings, so won't need reservations, but we do really want all to be able to eat dinner together on Monday, Nov. 29, 2021).
• Airport transfers for all of our group (we even shared that many will be on the same flights, but for sure not everyone, so we would need different transfers, and were told that is absolutely not a problem as long as we provide the flight info a few weeks prior to arrival).
• Lines on the beach volleyball court. (As I mentioned above, we even joked about this again because we for sure want boundary lines for the court as we all like to play a lot).
• No contract points used at all for this special group agreement because this agreement would be OUTSIDE the CONTRACT.

On Feb. 7th and Feb. 12th, we were told over and over by Carlos and management not to worry at all, and that the special group price he promised above, would definitely be honored. Many times during both visits, we asked him to reiterate the $49 per person rate, and he told us more than once (with Olfa as witness) that basically we were getting the Platinum VIP suite rooms for FREE, and that the $49 per person rate was covering the all-inclusive portion, so it was the best special deal that we just couldn't pass on. Carlos and management even told us that children under 5 were free, and children from 5-11 were 50% off that $49 rate. When we were driving through the resort, we even pointed out to the Platinum rooms we were expecting to get, and it was confirmed that they were indeed those rooms in the Platinum area, where also the Platinum pool, roof-top restaurant, etc. is. It was indeed a special deal we didn't want to pass on, so that's why we signed up with your Royal Holiday program on Feb. 7th, and simultaneously, shook hands and agreed that our group would benefit from your special group agreement for our travel in Nov/Dec 2021 outside the contract. We left on Feb. 12th being totally assured that all would be okay with the special group price of $49 p.p.p.n. with all the Platinum VIP accommodations and services. Upon request, I even ended up writing some names down of people in our group, but also stating that I couldn't write down everyone because I still had to talk to some of the group, including our daughter. But in total, we would for sure not need more than 20 rooms. Once again, Olfa was a witness of all this at all times!

When we returned to the USA, I reached out to Olfa by WhatsApp on Feb. 18th, just to make sure everything was still as we agreed upon, because we were supposed to hear from them on Monday, Feb. 15th (the day before we left Punta Cana) regarding our special group agreement, but we hadn't. Then I got an audio message from Carlos via Olfa's WhatsApp on Feb. 18th (see below WhatsApp message and attachment 1, audio PTT-[protected]-WA0000).

The audio message says: "It's cool. I already talked to Ruth. I gave her all the information. She was off a few days. They are going to be calling you as soon as you get home to confirm all the information you give me. So relax. Everything is fine!"

On Feb. 23, I asked Olfa to give me her email address, so I could give her an updated group list, since I had had a chance to speak to some more of our family/friend group. Then Olfa asked me to send the email with updated group list to [protected]@royal-holiday.net, which I did, but that person never responded, so I reached back out to Olfa, who then directed me to Carlos' WhatsApp, and he actually called me on Feb. 24th after I WhatsApp'd him (see below) but we got disconnected and we couldn't make connection again. Meanwhile, I had shared that I was concerned that I was not hearing back from anyone, confirming in writing what we had agreed upon verbally in Punta Cana about our special group agreement. Then, Carlos responded by WhatsApp on Feb. 27 and March. 3 (see below), and then he also sent me another voice message on March 4, 2021 saying everything was going to be okay, not to worry, and Ruth would call me. See below WhatsApp and attachment 2: audio PTT-[protected]-WA0000).

The audio message says: "I have a broken ….[?}, that's why I haven't been able to get information. I just fixed it and pass information to Ruth. So I sent everything over there and she going to take care of everything, sweetheart. Relax. It's in November. You still have 6 months to go!"

With this audio from Carlos, I felt like everything indeed would be okay and as we agreed upon. Then Ruth called me on March 4th, and she gave me her email address so I could send her our group list and that I would be working with her for the final details. I told her that I would like to see the $49 price per person per night confirmed in writing now, so I can give the group their final statement. She said she would get back to me. Then I got the attached email back from Ruth (see email attachment 3 and 4) on March 4th, which basically let me shockingly know that the $49 would not be applicable. I don't feel like recapping all of my communications with Ruth, because I really never made an agreement with Ruth, so she's just a middle person (or more so, the "contract person"), just like you. However, our special group agreement was made with Carlos, Olfa, Carolyn and anyone else who was present on Feb. 7th and Feb. 14th OUTSIDE the contract. But, if you want to see all the WhatsApp messages between Carlos, Ruth and me, just ask Ruth. Anyways, at that time, she did say that she could book the whole group at the member's rate of $99 per person per night, but I told her that that price is not acceptable because we were offered the special group rate of $49 p.p.p. n. by Carlos and management, and that we could actually get the Platinum room at $197 per room ($98.50 per person) via Booking.com, so that's not ANY deal at all. On March 5th, Ruth changed her quote to approx. $93.75 per person per night ($3000 for 16 nights for my husband and I, even though our stay is now 17 nights due to flight availability so at first I thought she offered a price of $88.23 p.p.p.n.), but that was still nowhere near the $49 p.p.p.n. agreed upon. That was still almost double the price, which is outrageous.

In general, I'm not really understanding why we continue dealing with you and/or Ruth who are "contract people" that constantly refer to the contract when you talk to me; yet that's not really applicable because this special group agreement is OUTSIDE the contract. On March 9th, I shared this frustration with Carlos by WhatsAPP (see below) and told him that Ruth is not honoring the $49 p.p.p.n. special group price he agreed upon outside the contract, and I even recapped everything we had agreed upon in our handshake agreement twice! As you can see below, his response was "I'm working on that", so clearly, Carlos knew that the price we were getting offered from Ruth was not according to our handshake agreement.

A few minutes later (on March 9th), I actually received another message from Carlos with 6 audio messages. See below WhatsApp message and the attached 6 audio files (attachments 5 through10): PTT-[protected]-WA0000/WA0001/WA0002/WA0003/WA0004/WA0005)

Carlos 6 audio files say:
Audio 1: "We're doing this from outside, and we're supposed to have the lowest price possible, but the hotel is going to be a special those days because of the covid vaccine. Prices are going up for the end of the year, okay, and that's the reason she is telling you that because that's the price we're going to have for that particular dates."
Audio 2: "So my Mexican boss come, so I'm going to talk to him to see what is the best, the best, the best that I could do"
Audio 3: "If you check the prices in Punta Cana for those days, they are all over $150 per room, most of them. This is a 5-star hotel. All the restaurants are going to be open. 14-days a la carte. Going to have VIP services on it; a Suite for everybody, so you have to consider all those things too."
Audio 4: "I am going to see what the best is I can do about it. I'm waiting for my Mexican boss to come down, and I promise you I will get the best, the best, the best, the best of the best."
Audio 5: "Honey. Everything is going be good. Everything is going to be fine, sweetheart. Have a nice day. Say hello to your husband."
Audio 6: "My phone was broken down, so I bought a new one, and that is the reason why I didn't answer you before. I will get back to you during the week. Next week, Monday or Tuesday, with a final confirmation!"

You can see my written response above to his audio messages. Of course, this message seemed very promising that Carlos would keep his word and honor his agreement after he spoke with the "Mexican boss." I understand that your resort may be hopeful that things will get better due to the covid vaccine, but let's be realistic, that may not be the case at all, and we as group can guarantee we will show up unless the USA or Dominican say we cannot travel or the airlines shut down. Additionally, all resorts are actually discounting and slashing their prices significantly to encourage people to travel; definitely not raising their prices! Look at all the specials out there with www.expedia.com; www.booking.com etc. Many of us even starting booking airline flights and locking in our dates because we understood from Carlos' message that he would do everything possible to honor the agreed price of $49 p.p.p.n. which was made in February, and it is very unprofessional and wrong to suddenly raise the agreed price now.

And then after these March 9 messages and the promise he would get back to me on Mon or Tuesday after speaking with the Mexican boss, I did not hear from him again, until I finally received a message from you, Kirsche, stating that Carlos is no longer working there. That was totally shocking news! You and I talked back and forth, and I sent you our updated list (reflecting many of us with our booked airlines flights). Of course, I realize Carlos now may be gone, but if you reach out to Olfa, you or your manager will know that I am being completely truthful about all the agreed pricing, accommodations, services, etc. that were promised to us in February for our Special Group Agreement in Nov/Dec. Olfa was a witness to that! And Olfa is still working there, right?

Then today, March 20, you come back and tell me that you talked with your manager, and the price she can offer our group is $107 per person per night. Needless to say, I was totally shocked again and absolutely horrified. Not only is this more than twice the $49 price we agreed upon with Carlos and management in February, or the prices you can buy on expedia.com (with a bundle, the expedia price for a Platinum suite room was $186 per room on March 15th when many of us booked our flights), but it's actually even higher than the price of $93.50 p.p.p.n. that Ruth quoted on March 5th. That just can't be right! That's no deal at all! That is nothing like the special group agreement we were offered. We feel so betrayed by everyone at your organization. How can you do business this way? This whole experience thus far has been an absolute nightmare and I'm so tired of trying to negotiate with you and Ruth as contract people, when from the start this agreement was supposed to be OUTSIDE the agreement (even Carlos says that in his audio message!). I don't even know how to react anymore or who really to talk to. Everyone now is giving me different comments and prices, but nothing matches the special group agreement.

So, what I really want and/or need, is to be able to speak to a manager (or "Mexican boss") who is not referring to the contract, and who can actually make decisions and honor our rate of $49 per person per night for the Platinum VIP suite rooms with platinum services, etc. for our whole group per our schedules in Nov/Dec. But, I realize now this is probably not going to happen. Basically, we've been deceived at its worst, told complete lies by Carlos, Carolyn, and every other management person there in February, with Olfa as a witness. Clearly, what we were told several times by Carlos (and Carolyn; with Olfa as witness) regarding our agreement that the $49 p.p.p.n. rate would cover the all-inclusive portion and that the actual room would be free for the whole group, is one big lie! Meanwhile, we have told our group about this special group price of $49 and you make us now look like complete fools if we have to offer them a ridiculously higher price, which I know they won't accept because it all even sounds very strange and deceitful to them too. But at this point, I just want to reach some REASONABLE agreement, because I can't take these lies and frustration any more. I do not want to feel completely resentful before we even get a chance to enjoy your resort.

***********************

Mike & Danielle Koetterheinrich
Membership # [protected]
Phone: [protected]
Email: [protected]@msn.com

Please include us in any class action. We paid for our membership in full. Since we have gotten a divorce and just want to relinquish our membership. However there seems to be no way to do this. We are tired of throwing money into something we are not using. Everytime we contact them all we get is another sales pitch.

[protected]@gmail.com

I would like to cancel my contract as you do not provide the service I was promised. No matter how much notice I give, I still do not get the service I require and I have to settle for "scrape off the bottom resorts", in the middle of no where, at times no one else wants, just so I don't lose my points. I do not want to be a member where I feel fobbed off all the time I ask a question. My members number is 10-81862. My number is +[protected]

We were pressured into purchasing this package. They talked us down to a 1 year Pay 3 year use of 60, 000pts with extra certificates that we could use when we ran out of points that would have to be purchased, and we only had to pay for flight... THAT'S IT! They told us we use our points for our destination and all we had to do was get there. Well here we are trying to use our points and we are being asked to pay an excessive amount that makes entirely no sense. If we already paid for use why pay resort fees... what are we paying for then!? Especially during a pandemic... there should be a bit more compassion. They never said anything about these resort fees... PER PERSON PER DAY! E we may have booked it straight n out would've been cheaper! This is a complete scam to get peoples money. They are rewording the fine print and verbiage to be misleading. We were swindled. It wouldn't soo bad if the properties were all decent and we didn't have to pay excessive fees.

I purchased RHC vacation plan in 1998 and paid it off a few years later. I never use it nor have any desire to use it. However, I keep getting billed for annual maintenance fees. In April 2019 I retained Primo Management Group, Orlando FL, to get me out of this timeshare nightmare. They have currently been unable to wrest me free from this contract, citing that RHC won't respond to the emails and certified letters, or that it is sent to the wrong department. Bottom line, RHC continues to avoid responding to my request to cancel the contract. Among the many things I am very upset about is that "we" have no legal recourse against a company that practices business in the USA, and has a physical presence in the USA. Additionally, RHC continues to engage in misleading practices, and fraudulently victimizes customers with unconscionable in perpetuity contracts! I would be very interested in any US sponsored class action suit with other aggrieved customers against this Mexican company.

We have used our timeshare # 3-103567 only about 5 times in 20 years. We feel we were taken advantage of. Ken Waller & Louis Tello tagged team us, we felt to much pressure. We went back in the next day to cancel and the manager became irate and threatened to call the police and we were scared to death and left it alone. We have had this timeshare since 7/9/2000 and rarely use it. My wife is scared to death to use it, because of our experience there. I have talked her into it a few times but she can not believe the treatment from the manager there. I am not sure if that is illegal there but in the United States, you can not threaten someone to force them to stay in a contract they do not want

We went to a trip in Mexico in May 2018 were we were lured to purchased the Royal holiday membership. During the presentation we denied interests multiple times due to the price. After we expressed our disinterest we were offered multiple different packages that was cheaper then the one before. We continuously expressed our disinterest until they provided us with a short cheap trail option to see if it would be more beneficial for us. This timeshare was explained in a manner that interested us as We were informed that we would receive a booklet upon our purchase and the booklet contained several different certificates that could be used. We were shown the booklet and it was explained how each certificate was worth a specific amount that we would use towards a vacation. We were told that we wouldn't have to spend any additional money besides the flight. However that was not the truth. Some examples of the certificate was a cruise ship, various days spent at resorts and airplane plane tickets. Along with the purchase of this time share we received two free five night stays at the Mexico resort and a buy one get one free plane ticket. We opened a payment plan to purchase this timeshare as we could not afford the whole amount upfront, the down payment was 500$ and we would pay 150$ a month for one year.
Once we arrived back home we looked into using the timeshare at a hotel in New York or Boston, and we were told it had to be minimum of a three night stay and they had no options available. While this was upsetting we thought no big deal we could use it on another bigger vacation. A couple months later we tried to use the free plane ticket and each site that we went on it stated our certificate was expired. We contacted our rep and she stated she reactivated it and to try again. We tried again and it did not work so therefore we contacted the rep again with no response back . We emailed and called multiple times and never got a response back. Finally a month later another person contacted us back stating the original person we were in contact with has gotten fired due to giving out false information. We were told that our ticket was never reactived and that's why we couldn't use it. At this time we had already purchased our airplane tickets so we did not have any use for that certificate at that moment. Fast forwarded to May 2019, my father got married and we wanted to purchase a vacation for him to use for his honey moon. We tried to book online and it seemed everything was sold out. So we called and spoke to a rep on what would be the best way to purchase a vacation. We wanted to use one one of the certificate as at this point we had not used any and thought we could get a good deal.
Over the phone we were told that we have to pay to activate each certificate, and this did not cover the all inclusive stay which we had to purchase per person per day. The vacation came out to over $5000.
This was misleading and was totally different than what we were originally told when we purchased the vacation at the presentation. At this point we felt that we were misrepresented. This could have been due to the multiple people trying to sell us this timeshare over the course of four hours during our vacation.
We filed a complaint with the Connecticut attorney general. At this point we had completed all payment except the last payment.
When we filed a complaint with the attorney general of Connecticut back in November of 2019 they did not respond until three months later (February 2020) During this time the company continuously contacted myself and my significant other through email and phone trying to collect the last payment. We politely denied their request and ask for any communication to go through the attorney as at this point we were lied to on multiple occasions and wanted our money back. Once this occurred they had a collection agency that is not licensed in Connecticut to try to collect the debt. We told the collection agency that we filed a complaint against this company and the amount due to misrepresentation.
At this moment we are requesting a full refund.
We have seen many complaints about this company and only wish we did more research.

I'm writing to let as many people know what happened to me dealing with Royal Holiday and the unscrupulous aggressive sales practices they exhibit at their resorts, promised gifts offered in exchange for listening to their timeshare/vacation clubs that are illegal per Mexico law, the fraudulent contracts and claims of benefits not in writing. Then I experienced first hand staying at one of their resorts and as members it took 45 mins to check in when there were no others waiting in line at the general check-in desk. Even though we were members we felt like we were being stalked on the property (i.e we went down for breakfast and upon leaving the restaurant our host was literally waiting there for us) with aggressive and badgering to sit down and discuss my membership. My gfriend got angry after telling her 3x that we were not interested until she was more assertive by telling her to "LEAVE US ALONE we're trying to enjoy our vacation!". Yes, this was on our 2nd day first thing in the morning. At Park Royal Cancun we experienced the elevators constantly out (not working) where we were FORCEd to walk up and down the stairs to our rooms. We even passed a couple of groups in the stairwell doing the same. And to add insult to injury with our experience one of my guests got TRAPPED in their elevator for 35+ minutes. That same guest was there celebrating their anniversary and the 3 nites they were there the air conditioning wasn't working whch I noticed looking at reviews of this property AFTER we left there has been numerous complaints from others about both elevator issues and lack of A/C. The GM at the resort named Jose Santacruz did NOTHING to remedy the problem. He played off a good front by wanting to sit down with me to hear all of our complaints but after leaving the resort back in late Dec it is now 2 months later and no followup from him whatsoever. Royal Corporate called to find out more details but as expected they did nothing. I would NOT recommend this resort to anyone.

Regarding the above issues about aggressive sales practices, badgering people at the resort to listen to presentations, gift and fraudulent contract I will explain now. Our other poor experience was at Playa del Carmen Royal Grand Riveria. Beautiful resort but the same problems with the harassment of their employees. They erect timeshare booths near the entrances to the restaurants where you have to go past them. They are relentless on trying to get you to goto their presentations. AFter several attempts they started offering us gifts which I later found out it is illegal per mexico law to exchange gifts to listen to a timeshare presentation. Initially they said you can only listen if you're married. We were not but they insisted we go. When we arrived we told them again we weren't married but a manager stated we should listen. After 30+ mins of listening we decided to leave but told we would not receive our gifts. So we stayed awhile longer to get them. Toward the end I thought the vacation concept was different than the extremely negative perception of timeshares so I thought I'd try it. While filling out the contract they put married. I questioned it and they said it was ok because the lady I was with was not on the contract. In a sense it was true that she wasn't nor would she be liable but after I left it dawned on me it was a fraudulent contract. If they were honest they would have changed right? They made promises that you could save up your points to stay at better properties or upgraded rooms which I later found out in year 2 that was FALSE. you have to use them by the end of yr 2 or you lose them. Another false claim the sale person stated. Regarding the points THINK ABOUT THIS. Why do you have to spend a minimum of $15, 000.00 to join a vacation club when you can do everything yourself by going under any of the travel websites that don't cost a PENNY. With that outrageous membership cost you really don't get any discounts on rooms. I've done a cost analysis on 10 different rooms and on average I noticed by doing it yourself you are still saving $120-300 by doing it yourself without any obligations. yes, no fees, no maintenance dues, no harassment of sales or customer service dept which I experienced all the time. There were a couple of months where I had customer service reps calling me 3-4x per month insisting that I call them so they can help me book a vacation using my points. With all of the above problems I personally experienced and have noticed numerous other people who've mentioned very similar problems with Royal Holiday I'm informing you to do your DUE DILIGENCE! Like they say the grass isn't always greener on the other side. One can always go spray paint the other side to make it look beautiful but when the rain and problems come the true colors come out. I'm building a website called SQUEAKY WHEELZ which should be up and running shortly showing the number of true complaints about Royal Holiday. Consumers will be able to see a common theme of problems and the ones that I always hear/see on the internet are unscrupulous aggressive sales practices, offering of gifts, fraudulent contracts and benefit claims, no true savings and I'll post more as I continue to assimulate my findings.

We cancelled the membership while still on vacation at the resort that sold us it and were given an addendum stating we would get our money back in 1-5 business days and that the contract would be cancelled. It's now past that time frame and we still haven't been refunded. What do we do now? How do I pursue this further? It's almost $4000 Canadian!

Gentlemen,
I would like to file my complaint with the Royal Holiday Vacation Club, which since I signed the contract number 30-658546 when I visited Cancun has been having several annoyances. From the beginning when I started to complain about payment terms promised by the seller and not fulfilled, the answer I heard was that the seller's word was worthless unless it was written in the contract.
After that I tried to cancel the contract, and the answer I got from the employee Danilo Pedro Amaral from the financial department of Royal Holiday, was that I could only cancel the contract, after paying everything, which I considered absurd, and I asked to answer it formally, his answer was that they do not answer anything in writing, probably following this orientation that the word of the Royal Holiday employee is worthless, so I questioned where was the Royal office in Brazil, and the answer was that they had no more, that had been closed, perhaps to avoid legal proceedings here in Brazil.
But finally, with the help from Mexico's consumer protection agency PROFECO (www.profeco.gob.mx), who helped me at a time when I was already desperate with my financial situation, which was extremely complicated, and I couldn't get any support from Royal Holiday, but with the help of PROFECO I managed to cancel the contract, and as I made a point of receiving it formally, the representative of the Royal legal department, Diana Maldonado Flores, signed the letter of cancellation of the contract, in which she confirms that the same was definitively canceled, and that all previous documents are without legal effect.
But now when I finally thought that I would not have any more problems with this company, the employee Danilo from the financial department continues to harass me, charging me for pending issues of the contract that had already been canceled.
So I ask, what is the pending issue? since the contract has been canceled, or now, Royal will claim that beyond the word of its employees is worthless if it is not written, neither what its legal department sign before the Mexican authorities has any value?

We were deceived when we purchased this timeshare in Paradise Island, in I think 2004. We thought our base was there in Paradise Island. When we received the contract, they had slipped in Mexico. We have never been to Mexico and have zero desire to go there. The timeshare is paid off. Then they tell us that we can use RCI but did not tell us that they have a yearly membership fee too. We go in at least two vacations every year and can NEVER find anything available when and where we want to go with Royal Holiday or RCI. We end up hotel accommodations or resort accommodations while still paying forever increasing maintenance fees every year and a WORTHLESS timeshare. Wyndham/Royal Holiday needs to be shut down with their predatory practices.

When I first purchased my membership, it was a 1 week Ambassador membership. This gave me 1 week/year in a room that slept 4-6 people. There were over 180 resorts in the catalog, none of which were all-inclusive.

In 2008, at the Crystal Palace resort in Nassau, I "upgraded" to a 30, 000/year points membership after being convinced that my weeks membership would soon be worthless and I would need a points membership to continue using Royal Holiday. The upgrade cost $8000.00 additional.

Over the next couple of years, most of the available resorts were Royal resorts, all requiring all-inclusive payments over and above the maintenance fee. The resorts that were once available disappeared, replaced with locations in South America which I had no interest in visiting. The non-Royal resorts that we tried to reserve were never available and they always tried to point us to the Royal, all_inclusive resorts. It appears that the resorts that are not owned by Royal Holiday only set aside a few rooms for Royal Holiday members and they are always reserved.

If you compare the list of available resorts today with those in the original catalog, which I still have, you will see what I'm saying. I desire to terminate my membership and end the maintenance fee payments. As a result of spine surgery I can no longer use the membership and the fee is a drain on my limited income.

The trip to Cozumel was the end with Royal Holiday!, after so many year putting money and upgrade the membership, and paying thousands of dollars!, this is an SCAM!
lier, paying for an all inclusive more than a regular guess, poor service, poor food,
poor customer service, . Annual feed incresing more and more. Is not worse it!
Try to book any other place than Mexico imposible and when there is availability is more expensive, end to to be cheaper online!.
UNFULFILLED PROMISES ROYAL HOLIDAY SCAMMED ME!.

My husband and I thought we were getting a great deal by buying a Silver member club deal with 15000 point to use. They promised up to a week free in any of their locations around the world any time per yr. We backed out once they mentioned a down payment however they stated they where waving it and that we only had to pay monthly payment starting next yr in Feb for $198.73 x 60 months and a annual fee of $630.00 a total of $15049.00 (which is actually a total of $ 15073 when we did the math), however we got an alert from our credit card that a transaction of $4085.00 was completed that same day. We notified our CC right away and the case is under investigation. I have tried to call Royal Holiday to cancel the whole thing but I haven't received a call back. The contract doesn't say we authorized the charge at all, the contract and email we got from them states we gave authorization to have them take $198.73 starting next Feb for 60 months and $630 annually. I am worry though because the have copies of out Driver License and signatures. Hope my CC can help me or else what can I do?

We purchased in March 2019 and my husband paid over $4, 000 that day for the down payment. We were told our next payment wouldn't be due until May 2020 but we have been billed every month since then. So they are double dipping! I've called and emailed numerous times. I keep getting blown off, they won't respond to any calls or emails. I'm sick over this feeling of being duped.

We're Royal Holiday members since 2011. At the beginning of every year we try to book our vacation for 2 adults. Same happened this year too.
Rep Ana (x.2536) gave us over the phone a price $2, 648.45 for Bavaro Princess resort in Punta Cana. To estimate total cost for this reservation we have to count our $460 annual fee which gives us 5000 points towards vacation every year and $267 cost per every year of our 30 years contract. Adding all these numbers for this 2019 booking bring us to $3, 375.45 ($2, 648.45 + $460 + $267 = $3, 375.45)
We checked online prices for the same vacation from major travel sites and found that it cost only $2, 569 for the same dates and accommodation. I can send a screen print from www.kayak.com. So Royal Holiday charges for the same vacation $806.45 MORE for 2 adults. I asked Ana where are our savings Royal Holiday promised to their members. Ana offered to try another resort. We have tried to book Grand Park Royal Cancun for the same dates. Like in the previous booking total cost of booking with Royal Holiday was hundred dollars more than it cost on major travel web sites.
Then we tried other resorts in Royal Holiday family. All the bookings with Royal Holiday were hundreds of dollars more expensive for the same dates and accommodations compare with online travel sites. I emailed screen prints from www.kayak.com to Ana and Juan Fonseca to prove these low prices on the same bookings. However, Royal Holiday responded to us that nothing they can do and we have to pay $806 more than non-members for the same vacation and accommodation. What's a point to be a member?
Royal Holiday promises solid savings on vacation compare with prices from major travel agencies. They promise and demonstrate solid savings on the paper to make Americans to sign into contract. As soon as people sign they realize that Royal Holiday can't fulfill their promises. That's why huge amount of American consumers complain on this company. ABC News "20/20" even made their investigation to respond to thousands of complaints from American consumers who were scammed by Royal Holiday (https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4627886&page=1). The company intentionally was registered offshore to be immune to US law. However, they target mostly American consumers and thousands of them were scammed.
Now why you see here some people have positive responses about Royal Holiday. I teach math in universities for many years. From my experience I see that many people can't do math calculations for their real life situations. So Royal Holiday exploit the fact that Americans trust and believe what they hear and most of them are not good with math. I'm sure people who rate Royal Holiday 4 or 5 stars are those people who never compared actual cost of their vacation including contract cost and annual fee versus costs on sites like kayak, Expedia, Orbitz, CheapCaribbean and others. They would scream if they calculate actual costs of their vacations including contract cost and annual fees that grows exponentially.
Well… it's their problem if they believe they save money with Royal Holiday.
The only time when we found the Royal Holiday vacation cost is acceptable is around hurricane season. However, the price on major travel sites also drop dramatically at this time. Again, no sense to buy from Royal Holiday even then.
We also were scammed by Royal Holiday promise to save on vacations because it looked great on the paper and we didn't have any experience with them. All these years we just deposited Royal Holiday points with RCI to get much better deal when we exchange. However, I have no problem just to stop paying them rising maintenance fee. They can't do anything to me because they are foreign entity with so bad reputation. Plus I keep all my booking examples as future arguments in fight with Royal Holiday in case if they try to bother me which I have big doubts based on other members experience.

While on vacation in Princess Hotels in December 2018, we were approached by a guy offering a tour of the resort and free t-shirts. He took us upstairs and we had to sign saying we would listen to a presentation. So much for the tour?! An hour turned into 4 hours.

The sales persons in the hotels are really scammer, they ask you to bring your ID and credit cards with you before coming to the sales office. Because they don't want you leave without paying. And they will tell you that we don't need to see the number on the credit card, they just need to see the credit card logo to get commission. It is totally scam.

First we sat down with sales person. To make a long story short, some of the points is they showed us this limo that you supposedly get picked up in when you travel, not true, you take a bus like everyone else. They take you to this room with jacuzzi, living room, the works and promise you will always get this sort of room or BETTER. When I called to book they told me it's a regular room, but not to worry becasue it's a 5 star hotel (still not what they showed us during the sales presentation).

And we really regret that we spent most of our vacation quality time in the sales office. And left with signing the contract. But the 2nd day after, I just came back to the office and ask for cancellation, but they told me it is not possible to cancel it. what a scamming company? As we know that it is legal to cancel it in 5 business days in Mexico. But the sales person told me it is not possible.

It's cheaper to book the same room/vacation directly yourself than through Royal Holiday. They'll tell you everything is booked. They will make all kinds of promises during the sales pitch, then after you sign none of those promises are true. THen you find out you signed a clause in the contract stating that all verbal statements are not valid unless in writing. (which by law is misrepresentation) I refuse to pay the annual fee! Looking for other "members" to join forces and start a class action lawsuit! Put it this way, if you don't pay your membership fees you can use the money for a good lawyer! has anyone had any success in cancelling? I even complained to Better Business Bureau, but don't seem to be getting anywhere... They are SO unethical!

I filed a fraud case with MasterCard demonstrating a pattern of misrepresentation with the accounts posted on different Internet sites. I found out more by researching a lot of sites. I believe the thing that helped me the most was reacting fast. If you are becoming aware you too are a victim of this fraud, use the support of others though the Internet. I was strengthened knowing I was not alone, others had gotten results, and others were being warned not to fall for this.

The most helpful group is a yahoo group: RHC_scam@yahoogroups.com

If royal holiday club claim that it is a normal and good business, why they are scared when customers want to cancel the membership? They always threaten customers to collection agent if they don't pay the membership on time.

I am currently staying at the grand sunset princess where we signed a contract with royal holiday. Upon reading the fine print we discovered that what we were told does not match what is in our contract. We went in today which is only 3 days after we signed to cancel and we were told that we would have to come back tomorrow at 9 am to speak with their lawyers and that we will most likely have to pay for the "3 free years" they have given us to to tune of $3000 us per year even though that is not stated any where I the contact.