Club Select Holidays UK Ltd

mpython

daijames wrote: »

the basis is that a client gives us X amount to join the club followed by an annual subscription of X amount, *fixed at the time of joining.

So a 10 year membership costs 11X?? I thought you said in an earlier post a 10 year membership cost £2,500 + £69 a year?

daijames wrote: »

For that we arrange holiday services , flights, hotels, apartments, car hire, at cost price, that is to say where we get paid comission through our agencies, we deduct that. We have a choice of over 80.000 places, some we have direct contracts with, others we obtain through suppliers. If a location becomes popular with our members , we will contact direct to cut out the middle man and pass this saving on. There are times that we cannot beat prices, and they generally are when you have a specialist company dealing with a specialist type of holiday, or flight which pay very low comissions. In the case of flights a lot of times we cannot beat the prices offered by the low-cost carriers because they pay no comission, but part of the service to the member is to find the lowest cost, not the best saving, so we will match the holiday accom to the lowest possible price, which is part of the service.

So you do have access to all the costs that a holidaymaker would be liable but are unwilling to share what that is.

Lets make some assumptions then.

1 week in Spain for a family of 4. 4 Returns flights @ £800, 1 car hire of £200, so £1,000 on top. For a 10 year membership thats £2,500 + £690 + £10,000 = £13,169.

Plus any on site costs such as cleaning, tennis courts etc etc which could well be included as part of any package holiday

daijames wrote: »

The only cost that is mandatory is the £X subscription fees as this goes to cover running costs.

Which I understand is payable whether you go on holiday or not? Doesn't sound very money saving to me.

daijames wrote: »

So on any holiday clients can choose.
This is the reason you cannot factor holiday costs, because the only money we basically recieve as a company, is opart of the original joining fee, and the yearly subscription.

No, you can factor in holiday costs, so many customers spend X, so many spend Y, so many spend Z etc etc and then do a weighted average. You are just choosing not to share the info you have.

So I guess my £50k is an underestimate then for a 50 year membership.

Thanks for your time daijames

daijames

mpython wrote: »

Thanks for your honesty daijames in agreeing my estimate is an underestimate.As for the annual subscription, I'd hope you'd agree that a fair number of people join gyms in January after their excesses at Xmas only to find they don't use it & therefore cancel. With this type of holiday I'm given to understand the minimum term is 10 years.......potentially a lot wasted of years of membership.Just to sign off with what Martin (who owns & runs this site) thinks about these kind of holidays....

Once again I am in agreement also, with what Martin states, we know what the competition has to offer, and I have not seen any other holiday club that delivers, most are timeshare based or linked. I will always defend our company which has been in existence for a long time because I know the ethos we operate by, and yes where we have a lot of happy members, we have also had unhappy ones, mainly caused by Reps, working for other companies who are lisenced to sell the product, telling porkies!, (we do have procedures in place to try and prevent & remedy this) As to the Xmas Gym analogy, most people, apart from reccommendations, sign up whilst on holiday so most can use the product. I will sign off for now also,, If you look through enough coal, you will eventually find a diamond.

jacgab

Hi, new to this, so if this is already posted sorry!

Not so sure about Club Select Holidays (abroad). Dad bought a 'membership' in May from Poras Villas (CSH SL Travel) in Lanzarote. He is still waiting for his membership pack etc. In fairness to Club Select Holidays they have told dad he can book direct with them. But what's the point if you can't look online for the 'best deals' and where you want to go etc

Just checked Club Select Holidays site and now it doesn't mention Poras Villas at all!!!

Can any one help?
Thanks - jacgab

jacgab

Further to my previous post, Dad has now got his membership pack, albeit 3 months later than the advised date of 28 days after subscribing.

Lets see how it goes....

pathulse

Good news to all, I have just found out that G P Travel, or Graig Park Travel as it is sometimes known has just been prosecuted by the Office of Fair Trading under the Trade Descriptions Act plus other laws as well. This may mean we may be able to get our money back. Dont get too optimistic though as I tried to phone them to ask if they were intending to give me my money back and the phones have been ceased. Will keep informed if I find anything out further.

JOHN_KILLIP

We were conned and paid £3.5k for membership of Club Select Holidays UK Ltd in May 2005. We have had two holidays in the caribbean through Freedom Travel World at Graig Park and a Free week at Graig Park. I presume I don't need to pay the £59 annual membership fee if they are no longer providing any service?
John Killip

pathulse

We refused to pay the £59.00 last year as we had heard nothing from them since we had joined. We said make contact with us and we will pay the £59. As expected no contact was made. We therefore didnt pay the £59 then and we certainly will not be paying this year.

BCEJM37

I too was conned by these people.

There are various actions by the OFT against not only Club Select Holidays but also GP Travel you can see details of these on the OFT website

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/consumer-regulations/traders/a-by-trader/?la=Denbighshire+County+Council#body.

I paid my money by credit card so am about to try to claim my money back from the credit card company - using section 75 of the consumer credit act.

I hope this information helps someone else to try and get their money back.

BCEJM37

I noticed tonight on Companies House website that Club Select Holidays was dissolved 19/02/08.

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/683b7693af7e15c2dbb75c73f1968418/compdetails

standel

daijames wrote: »

Membership fees are set by the licensed marketers, but I guess an average would be about £2500 for a ten year membership. The aditional costs are a fixed yearly subscription of £69 this subscription helps pay the wages and running costs of the club, brochures, staff etc. The subscription is fixed at the time of joining for the period of membership. (we still have members on a £5 annual sub who joined in the 70's)

As most of our members take on average 2-3 Holidays a year, (membership covers all family members) and the club makes no profit on the holidays / flights arranged, for most the cost of membership is more than covered, depending on the type of holiday the cost of joining can be recouped in 1 holiday.

In reply to the above, my wife and I took a 10 year membership with the CSH and we were assured (verbally unfortunately and not written down) that we would be entitled to a £250 discount off any holiday we booked. We were then told that the max price of a 1 week holiday would be £400. I have mentioned this to staff at CSH and what we were initially told was a lie to get us to sign up.

Further, in our contract it startes discount charter and schedule flights? Well let me state that the same flights which CSH seem to get their members are to be found on any website (ours was found on Thomas Cook). I noticed a web discount from Thomas Cook for £20 - and no discount or special prices for CSH members.

What is the point in payng £2500 into a holiday club for 10 years when virtually the same deals can be found on the web? It's no use trying to justify a £60 fee on top each year to cover phone calls, emails and letters (which we have never received apart from our glossy brochure)? Where does all the membership money go towards as I doubt very much of it goes into offering discounted holidays. I would be so happy if the £2500 was indeed payment towards 10 years worth of holidays, but I very much doubt that.

One very important thing I did manage to get was a cheap hotel transfer in Fuerteventura. I recently booked a weeks stay at Jandia Mar and was informed that the two options for transfer was either hire a car for a week costing £112 or cough up £180 for a taxi return trip. I nearly choked when I was told this. I then decided to use Globallatedeals.com and what did I find out: transfer to hotel for £21.80 pp.

CSH do not promote shuttle bus transfers and indeed on their website under hotel transfers, taxi (private transfer) costing £190 approx return or mini bus (5 to 10 passengers) £284. Once I complained about the prices and about the cheap taxi (£30 to £40 each way I was informed by Globallatedeals), we were then booked onto a shuttle bus costing £30 each way. GLD had also told me that shuttle buses run every 45 mins from Fue Airport to Jandia.

So, taking all the above into account, I do not see any reason why we should remain in CSH - but Daijames I will listen intently to anything you may wish to say in your defence of CSH as I know you will never allow them to be criticised?

Will anyone else agree with my statements?

steve