We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
* WARNING: £78 for 3 night hotel accommodation for 2 in July *
Options
PhylPho
Posts: 1,443 Forumite
Cold calls are currently being made by representatives of a company called Minibreak Away which, according to its website, has been in existence for 15 years and functions as follows:
"We hand pick hotels across the UK that supply a high standard for our clients to enjoy. Our company's aim is simple...... To fill the hotels and create quality clients that will respect and enjoy the destinations. The resorts are looking for clients to spend money in the bars and restaurants to increase the revenue of their hotels."
A third-party operator ostensibly specialising these past 15 years in the provision of alcoholics and gastronomes to hotels seems not to be widely known in the industry. It is usually the case that capacity is maximized through the use of online booking agencies, and especially by hotel groups who benefit from a commission system under which the more hotels there are, the less commission per booking is charged.
Nevertheless, cold callers are telling those they telephone that Minibreak Away is working on behalf of a number of hotels and is currently able to offer value-for-money rates, these being £78 for three nights bed and breakfast accommodation for two in a hotel in various areas of the UK. For some unfathomable reason, all such hotels appear to be having difficulty in directly attracting guests of their own in mid to late July.
Anyone cold-called by a Mini Breakaway representative should not make a £78 accommodation booking there and then but first visit the company's website:
where it will be seen that, for a yet further unfathomable reason, the company states:
"Please note our company is not and does not represent itself as being RCI, Interval International, Diamond or Club La Costa. Any resorts offered on this website are promoted via direct contracts either with the resorts directly or an external marketer."
Quite why a company which for 15 years has existed solely to help hotels maximize occupancy should disavow connection to a Timeshare industry trying to maximize sales isn't clear -- until Minibreak Away's Terms & Conditions are examined. These T&Cs include the following:
"As a couple, you will be required by the resort, hotelier or marketer to attend an exhibition showcasing ways for you to improve your future holidays and lifestyle. The exhibition appointment will made with you upon arrival and will be on a morning or afternoon convenient to all parties. Please be aware you are under no obligation to buy or enter into any contract but must attend the exhibition. Failure to do so without good reason will result in you paying the full rental cost for the accommodation."
Another T&C:
"You undertake to us that the details you give to us are correct and in particular that the credit or debit card you are using is your own and that there are sufficient funds to cover the cost of the product or service. In order to ensure that the payment details are your own, we may ask you certain security questions such as your mother's maiden name and the 3-digit CVV code on the reverse of your credit card."
Obviously, no-one should EVER provide their mother's maiden name because this data is -- regrettably -- a so-called 'security question' specified by many financial institutions for online IDs.
Minibreak Away's T & Cs also state, in bold type:
"Please be aware we sometimes we sell our accommodation packages to clientele who have holiday ownership products i.e. timeshare weeks/points and holiday packs. If you fall into this category then please make customer services aware of your ownership details. Failure in supplying customer services with this information may result in the cancelation of your holiday or extra charges being incurred whilst on your holiday."
And:
"Mini Break Away offers its services for a 12-month period. If after this time members wish to continue utilising the service, they will be subject to a variable annual fee."
In much the same way that no mention is made in the website's large print of the essence of contract -- to attend a half-day sales presentation in exchange for discounted accommodation -- no mention, either, is made of this company operating a members club at an annual fee.
In accordance with distance selling regulations, the company's website states:
"Mini Break Away offers a 14 day cooling off period from the point of sale. If you wish to cancel during this period you must make your decision known in writing no later than 14 days from the point of sale. After the cooling off period has finished Mini Break Away honours no refunds or cancellation requests."
It will be noted that the right to cancel via telephone call or email is excluded and that no address is given in the T&Cs for cancellation by post. Elsewhere on the website, however, a postal address is provided: a Wakefield, Yorkshire, multi-office business centre whose occupants also include mail forwarding accommodation address providers.
Confusingly for what appears to be a UK-based company, another address also appears in smaller print:
Easy Consulting SL, Ametler Amarg, 10, Alfaz Del Pi, 03580, Alicante, Spain. CIF: B-53788626 0034966860550. Registro Mercantil de Alicante, Tomo 2679, Libro 0, Folio 135, Hoja A-78111, 31/07/2003.
Ownership of the website minibreakaway.co. is obscured by domain identity protection provided by a Guildford, Surrey, anonymizer company. According to one of several who-is trackers, the website is around 180 days old and appears to be based in The Netherlands.
Needless to add, anyone paying less than £100 by credit card for any product or service is not protected by UK Section 75 legislation; protection only applies on payments of over £100.
"We hand pick hotels across the UK that supply a high standard for our clients to enjoy. Our company's aim is simple...... To fill the hotels and create quality clients that will respect and enjoy the destinations. The resorts are looking for clients to spend money in the bars and restaurants to increase the revenue of their hotels."
A third-party operator ostensibly specialising these past 15 years in the provision of alcoholics and gastronomes to hotels seems not to be widely known in the industry. It is usually the case that capacity is maximized through the use of online booking agencies, and especially by hotel groups who benefit from a commission system under which the more hotels there are, the less commission per booking is charged.
Nevertheless, cold callers are telling those they telephone that Minibreak Away is working on behalf of a number of hotels and is currently able to offer value-for-money rates, these being £78 for three nights bed and breakfast accommodation for two in a hotel in various areas of the UK. For some unfathomable reason, all such hotels appear to be having difficulty in directly attracting guests of their own in mid to late July.
Anyone cold-called by a Mini Breakaway representative should not make a £78 accommodation booking there and then but first visit the company's website:
where it will be seen that, for a yet further unfathomable reason, the company states:
"Please note our company is not and does not represent itself as being RCI, Interval International, Diamond or Club La Costa. Any resorts offered on this website are promoted via direct contracts either with the resorts directly or an external marketer."
Quite why a company which for 15 years has existed solely to help hotels maximize occupancy should disavow connection to a Timeshare industry trying to maximize sales isn't clear -- until Minibreak Away's Terms & Conditions are examined. These T&Cs include the following:
"As a couple, you will be required by the resort, hotelier or marketer to attend an exhibition showcasing ways for you to improve your future holidays and lifestyle. The exhibition appointment will made with you upon arrival and will be on a morning or afternoon convenient to all parties. Please be aware you are under no obligation to buy or enter into any contract but must attend the exhibition. Failure to do so without good reason will result in you paying the full rental cost for the accommodation."
Another T&C:
"You undertake to us that the details you give to us are correct and in particular that the credit or debit card you are using is your own and that there are sufficient funds to cover the cost of the product or service. In order to ensure that the payment details are your own, we may ask you certain security questions such as your mother's maiden name and the 3-digit CVV code on the reverse of your credit card."
Obviously, no-one should EVER provide their mother's maiden name because this data is -- regrettably -- a so-called 'security question' specified by many financial institutions for online IDs.
Minibreak Away's T & Cs also state, in bold type:
"Please be aware we sometimes we sell our accommodation packages to clientele who have holiday ownership products i.e. timeshare weeks/points and holiday packs. If you fall into this category then please make customer services aware of your ownership details. Failure in supplying customer services with this information may result in the cancelation of your holiday or extra charges being incurred whilst on your holiday."
And:
"Mini Break Away offers its services for a 12-month period. If after this time members wish to continue utilising the service, they will be subject to a variable annual fee."
In much the same way that no mention is made in the website's large print of the essence of contract -- to attend a half-day sales presentation in exchange for discounted accommodation -- no mention, either, is made of this company operating a members club at an annual fee.
In accordance with distance selling regulations, the company's website states:
"Mini Break Away offers a 14 day cooling off period from the point of sale. If you wish to cancel during this period you must make your decision known in writing no later than 14 days from the point of sale. After the cooling off period has finished Mini Break Away honours no refunds or cancellation requests."
It will be noted that the right to cancel via telephone call or email is excluded and that no address is given in the T&Cs for cancellation by post. Elsewhere on the website, however, a postal address is provided: a Wakefield, Yorkshire, multi-office business centre whose occupants also include mail forwarding accommodation address providers.
Confusingly for what appears to be a UK-based company, another address also appears in smaller print:
Easy Consulting SL, Ametler Amarg, 10, Alfaz Del Pi, 03580, Alicante, Spain. CIF: B-53788626 0034966860550. Registro Mercantil de Alicante, Tomo 2679, Libro 0, Folio 135, Hoja A-78111, 31/07/2003.
Ownership of the website minibreakaway.co. is obscured by domain identity protection provided by a Guildford, Surrey, anonymizer company. According to one of several who-is trackers, the website is around 180 days old and appears to be based in The Netherlands.
Needless to add, anyone paying less than £100 by credit card for any product or service is not protected by UK Section 75 legislation; protection only applies on payments of over £100.
0
Comments
-
They sell accommodation at hotels/ resorts that also have timeshares. It is a condition of some of these resorts that you attend a presentation whilst you are there, no big deal.
Is that all your post is about? There's lots of pointless information there.0 -
They sell accommodation at hotels/ resorts that also have timeshares.
No they don't.It is a condition of some of these resorts that you attend a presentation whilst you are there, no big deal.
It is to those who thought they were agreeing only to help boost a hotel's bar and restaurant turnover.Is that all your post is about? There's lots of pointless information there.
:rotfl:Please don't worry about your attention deficit disorder. If you'd like to grow up to be a real Editor, your Mum can always help you understand the info from the NTCJ.0 -
NTCJ?Please don't worry about your attention deficit disorder. If you'd like to grow up to be a real Editor, your Mum can always help you understand the info from the NTCJ
Did you mean The National Council for the Training of Journalists?
Surely that would be NCTJ . . .
http://www.nctj.com/
#ironic0 -
You could always dig a bit deeper and find:
https://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2016/1/Easy-Consulting-SL/SHP_ADJ_313217.aspx#.V1sc4JErLIU
which is very interesting...
Also they were operating 6 years ago:
https://forum.holidaywatchdog.com/Timeshare-&-Holiday-Clubs-Bonus-Week-Breaks-Easy-Consulting-SL-Thread-7669-Page-8.html
and
https://forum.holidaywatchdog.com/Timeshare-&-Holiday-Clubs-Bonus-Week-Breaks-Easy-Consulting-SL-Thread-7669.html
So they've been doing the rounds. Both whois lookups come up with names, but they appear to be fake.
So this is quite intruiging as to who the company is.0 -
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 351K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.9K Life & Family
- 257.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards