Club Seasons worth £2950.00..

snozzleblue

Mypython.
I understand what you say, however there are thousands of people who have either paid or won with Club Seasons. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
It is all very well going off the comments of 'Money Saving Expert', but.... our experience which cannot be denied, was a great weekend which we expected to be honest and were not dissapointed, but there was certainley no hard sell, or pushy salespeople, and whats more, if we do not like our first week away (Portugal) in November, we will receive the money that we have paid for this year,and come out of the Club Seasons, so what have we to lose? :T
If we decide to keep it, then as we will have the weeks for the next 61 years, and we can leave in a will to our children.
I think therefore, before you cast doubts on Club Seasons in particular, that you should experience their offers and then criticise if warranted.
I am aware there are others like Club Costa where there is a very large element of hard sell and unpleasantness and their offers of £29.50 for a weeks holiday is gobbledegook ( I have been to these as well), but do not view all of them just based on MSE. Study the comments from people who have actually been, and then see for yourself before doubting all before you. MSE is there to assist nothing more. He is not right all the time.:rolleyes:

snozzleblue

Sorry Mpython, misspelled your title.

deewrigg

I have read this thread with interest as I also "won" in an internet competition.

My husband and I decided to take a chance, pay the maintenance and go on holiday in February this year. We chose Clowance in Cornwall, rather than one of the European sites, as we could at least drive home again if it turned out to be a scam.

We had a fantastic week at Clowance, being golfers we paid the greenfees and had unlimited used of the golf course, used the leisure facilities and the restaurant. We would highly recommend Clowance as a place to holiday, so much that we paid another years maintenance and are due to revisit next week. We have also booked our short break to go back in November.

During the week we were invited to attend a business meeting, (let's face it we all know it is going to be a timeshare presentation). We chose to go, took in all the information and said no.

Since February we bought a floating red week privately and used it to go to Lanzarote earlier this month. Again, we had a great time and can also highly recommend this venue.

As expected we were again invited to a business meeting which was very low key.

As we bought our second week privately short breaks, winter sun breaks and exchanging with II are not available to us, these are only available to those who purchase directly from the company, so with hindsight this was not the best use of our cash.

We do have to pay an annual maintenance fee for our green week and our red week but consider this to be reseasonable in comparison to renting privately.

For those of you who receive notification of a prize. Look at the website, there is sufficient information there for you to make an informed choice.

Our prize stated that if we were unhappy about the first holiday week Seasons would refund the maintenance. In our case it didn't apply, we took a chance and it paid off.

mpython

Hi deewigg

Welcome to MSE, hope you enjoy it here.

Would you be so kind as to tell us how much you paid for your first visit to Clowance and the membership you took out? Have they improved the facilities for families with Children yet?

Would you also tell us how much you paid for your floating red week & where you bought it privately?

Finally can you tell us how much your red membership fees are and for how long you have signed up to them for?

nototentsdirect

i just noticed on this thread someone on page two called loveitloads said this was like holiday property bonds. this may seem like a scam and timeshare is definitely dodgy would not touch it with a barge pole. but my family have money in the hpb company and they are totally legitimate and have really nice places if people would search the hpb they would find this out. if you want good accomodation and have the money i would say make the investment. but as we are trying to save money and it will cost you i leave it up to you

mpython

Hi nototentsdirect,

Could you tell us how long you'r family have had holiday property bonds for? & how much you bought them for and how much they are worth now (so as we can work out how good an investment they are)?

Is hpb the company advertised with Judith Chalmer's image in the weekend papers?

deewrigg

Hello mpython

Thank you for the welcome.

From memory I think the initial fee was £250 and we had a free green week as a "competition winner".

The floating red week was bought from a couple who were moving to Spain and it cost £1000. I have noticed some for sale on ebay which look tempting, but only allow you use of home sites with none of the extras.

The current maintenance fees are £367 for the one bed green week and £390 for the two bed red week. http://www.seasonsholidays.com/aboutmembership.html

Both the weeks are available to us until 2069.

I must admit my husband is the most skeptical person on this earth, whereas I am more open-minded. I have done a lot of reading and cross-referencing on the net. I also have spoken to lots of "owners", some of which paid £000's for their week and have used them for years. We are now both happy with Seasons Holidays.

I hope this is useful.

mpython

Thanks deewrigg.

You said you bought a membership to Clowance after your Feb visit - how much was this?

You say you've signed up to Clowance for the next 61 years (2069?) - are the mainenance fees capped? Can they increase by RPI or more each year?

Did you notice whether there were any facilities for familes (i.e. children) at Clowance

How much are the 'maintenance' fees for your Red week and how long have you signed up to with it?

deewrigg

Sorry I am new to forums and I obviously haven't made myself very clear.

I won, just like everyone else a membership to seasons holidays. This is worth £3750 and is a green week one bedroom sleep 4 accomodation.

I bought a floating red week two bedroom sleep 6 accomodation.

The cost of the maintenance is based on the size of the accomodation. I am sure the maintenance is not capped so will increase on a yearly basis just like other timeshares.

The green week is a sweetener. It has an increased value for 3 years ie short breaks and being able to book in the red time zone in the first year, but after the third year it can only be used in the green (winter) time zone. During this initial 3 year period I would imagine that you would be invited to a business meeting so that the reps can inform you about the service and how you can upgrade your week or accomodation. If you are not interested you just say no. not everyone has the money or the inclination to upgrade.

I you look at the seasons website http://www.seasonsholidays.com/clubseasons/index.html

the system will be explained.

We chose to go to Clowance for our first visit, we like it so much we have booked it again, however we could have gone to any of the other sites available, subject to availabity. We went to Lanzarote for our red week, and arranged our flights through the sister company. Flights cost just over £300 for the two of us in June, had we found them cheaper elsewhere they would have refunded the difference.

Both the weeks are available to us for the next 61 years and we can will them on to our families.

You can read all about the free green week on http://www.seasonsholidays.com/clubseasons/membership2.html

Personally I think this is a good deal.

We will take our grandchildren on holiday at some point, Clowance has a heated indoor pool, tennis court play area, tree house, mini golf. Lanzarote has two pools, a childrens play area, a children's club. All of this is described on the web site.

mpython

Thanks deewrigg.

So you've agreed to pay maybe more than £100k over the lifetime of your membership to seasonholidays............after they offered you a free membership..........

Personally, I think that's an appalling deal.