HANNA ZIADY: Spotlight on crooked holiday clubs that fleece consumers
The abuse by the vacation ownership industry has been laid bare in a 135-page report published last week
A light is finally being shone on the nasty practices of holiday clubs, which for too long appear to have fleeced thousands of consumers to enrich a handful of companies by peddling points as timeshare. Just how egregious the abuse of consumers by the vacation ownership industry has been was laid bare in a 135-page report published last week, the work of an inquiry panel established in 2017 by the National Consumer Commission after it had received about 4,000 complaints from consumers over their treatment by vacation clubs. The panel’s recommended changes to the regulation and practices of the industry, which alarmingly has had no focused regulator up to now, are rightly far-reaching. At the dark heart of the swindle is this: over the years, members of the public have been conned into surrendering to holiday clubs their perfectly functional timeshare weeks in exchange for points. Points, salivating sales agents assured them, would give them access to a range of accommodation all ove...
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