Do not be intrigued by a tempting "unique and exclusive offer which will not be repeated". In other words, do not buy a membership in holiday clubs directly at the presentation where you will be offered exquisite conditions. Check in advance who your contract partner is, if this company is credible (on the internet, with a lawyer or at consumer organizations), find out exactly who you are giving your money to. We have met with a large number of mostly elderly people who purchased a membership in holiday clubs from an agent who later claims no responsibility. The consumers will then never see their money again nor will they enjoy a stay at the sea.

Unfortunately, it is a problem in the whole European Union. Mostly senior citizens get intrigued at the presentations by a tempting offer of an exclusive club and sign completely disadvantageous contracts for them. The price that they pay for a membership in the club ranges from 20,000 CZK up to 600,000 CZK. In some cases they lost all their savings or money from restitutions. In addition, the contracts are, in all known cases, absolutely dishonourable and the cheated consumers are extremely unhappy!


HOW TO RECOGNIZE RISKY AND OFTEN FRAUDULENT CONTRACTS?

All such contracts are signed at presentations! The easiest step is not to go to such presentations. A contract between so—called holiday clubs and the consumer can be signed either on the sojourn at the seaside, mostly at Tenerife or Lanzarote, or in our office. The consumers will take part in presentations organised by the agent (who isn’t a contracting party) where membership in a holiday club is offered to them.

The contract itself is, unfortunately, only a graphically arranged form which appears to be credible and which basically only states that "the applicant is applying for several months (or years) membership in the club." He/She is only buying a membership in the club, nothing more. Then it also states the length of membership, the code of the apartment, the number of weeks which the applicant can spend at the seaside, a list of vacation spots and the price for membership.

In the majority of cases the contract doesn’t state in which vacation spot the consumer has a right to spend his/her holiday, which is used by the clubs, for example in cases of technical problems at the vacation spot, and it is not possible for you to prove to them that while signing the contract you had a particular vacation spot in mind.

On the contrary, the clubs know very well which vacation spot they have in mind, and in cases where the apartment is already occupied, the consumer doesn’t have the option to claim his/her right to the apartment. In such cases the contract doesn‘t allow for any penalties for the club. It even doesn’t include any liability for the club to fulfill its obligations, this means to enable the consumer to spend the weeks he has a right to at the sea. In cases the reservation system is overloaded, the consumer doesn’t even have a claim to get back his membership fee and is still obliged to pay a maintenance fee which is often over 10,000 crowns per year.

Moreover, membership in the club is financially disadvantageous for most consumers. The contract sometimes states that the consumer is obliged to fulfill the regulations of the club, which however are not made known upon signing the contract.

It is often the case that the contract is not signed with the company who makes the presentations about membership in the club but with a company who, according to the Register of Companies, has a seat in the British Virgin Islands or the Isle of Man or some other exotic country. The British Virgin Islands are not a member of the EU and so consumer protection, which we are familiar with in Czech law or continental law, does not apply there. It is the same for contracts in which the second contracting party is a company from the Isle of Man. Every cheated client then thinks twice if he/she wants to plead their case thousand of kilometres away! And so they lose their money.

This fact alone that the second contracting party is from a country outside the EU should warn the consumer.

It is important to say that under normal conditions the consumers would probably never sign such a contract but they are so bewitched by the professional manipulators that mostly they do not even read the contract and completely believe everything that the presenter tells them. Also the presenters themselves are well—trained and there have been cases in which the presenters were even actors.

The companies abuse the duped consumers to such a degree that they do not let their victim out of their sight, and straight from the presentation they go with them to their homes or bank or cash dispenser where they take their money directly from them. Most of the cheated consumers wake up from their stupor at home in the evening and often try the following day to withdraw from the contract in accordance with the civil code, but all in vain.

According to the words of cheated customers, the negotiating company is hard to find in the place where it has a seat. Letters to the clubs are returned as undeliverable and the consumer will never see his/her money again. And in case the consumer wants to warn others at the presentations organized by the same people, he/she is shown out by a guard.

Therefore the advice is not to sign anything on the spot! A serious company will be interested in signing a contract with you after the presentation, at the seat of the company, or through the post. In cases where you do not have this opportunity, there is something wrong. Moreover, if the offer was as advantageous as they say at the presentation, an ordinary advertisement would suffice. And do not believe that the offer is exclusive and was given only to you. Presenters and clubs want only to profit!

If they promise at presentations that membership in the club is an advantageous investment and that you can always sell it, do not believe them, so far we have not observed any successful sale.


See examples of Holiday Clubs cases here.