You would have come across a person offering you a lucky
coupon at a store in a mall or at a petrol pump. These are the holiday club
membership coupons where if you fill them, you’d be invited for a presentation
and a voucher which you can use for a 6N/7D domestic and international holiday.
If you have the time and patience of listening to the person detailing you
about the holiday, you might consider going, listening and taking the “free”
holiday voucher and come back. However, you should be very clear before going
into the presentation that you’d not be buying the club membership. Do your
homework – search the internet for the reviews before going for the
presentation. More often than not, they’ll be bad.
Certain points that you’ll hear from the sales person (SP)
and counterarguments you (U) can give to them:
1.
SP:
If you buy your own holiday home, you’ll have to pay for maintenance, security
of the home, limited choice of holidays (e.g. if it’s in Goa, you’ll have a
holiday home only in Goa) etc. While if you take our membership, you don’t have
to bother about all this stuff.
U:
If I buy a holiday home, I buy it to use as a holiday home. Plus I am also
looking at capital appreciation. If I buy your holidays, it’s just the holidays
and nothing tangible. While if I buy a holiday home, say in Goa, I have
something which will appreciate with time. It’s similar to paying rent
vis-à-vis paying an EMI. If I keep paying rent, at the end of a certain time
period I don’t own anything. If I pay EMIs, at the end of it, I have my own
home. Which one should I prefer?
2.
SP: Our
properties are 5 star.
U:
Please do your home work. Most of the properties are not 5* but 3* or 4*.
3.
SP:
You’ll be protected against inflation, if you book our holidays for 10/25
years.
U:
But I’ll also be losing on the interest if I pay you the booking fees. I can
get even higher returns, if I invest the money somewhere else.
Other counter arguments for not buying the package:
1.
We’d like to take the free coupon, use it and
see how the services are. Only then we will consider buying your membership.
2.
Who would want to stay in a single place for
6N/7D when it is not worth those many days? For example, generally Goa packages
are 3N/4D. Why would I want to stay only at Goa or only at Bangkok or only at Kuala
Lumpur for 6N? I would rather want to cover Goa and Mahabaleshwar in that time
or perhaps Phuket with Bangkok or Genting with Kuala Lumpur. These clubs only
offer you to book for 6N/7D in a year. So for example, if you want to book for
2N/3D then you’ll only get 2 sets of 2N/3D which is a total of 4Nights and
6Days in a year at 2 places/2 times. And you’re at a loss of 2 nights and 3
days.
3.
Also consider whether you travel alone or with
another couple family. If you take a membership, you restrict yourself to
travelling alone!
4.
Only the accommodation is included in the
membership. You might/will have to pay for airfare, airport/station transfers,
sightseeing, meals, visa for international trip. All these can be more than 50%
of the cost of your trip. Add to this the hassle of dealing with multiple
people. And some of these like food are
said to be too expensive at their resorts. Please check with the company what
they are offering and what they are not. In fact, if you book the same package
with a tour operator (www.holidaycooker.com),
it might cost you lesser than opting for the membership with much more –
breakfast and sightseeing is almost always included.
5.
Flexibility: With these clubs, you have to book
certain period in advance. Also the availability of the resort at the time you
are planning to visit is under question. If you are booking through a tour
operator, you can book even a week in advance.
Important points to note:
When one has spent almost an hour and a half listening to
the sales person, one has a tendency to sign the docs without reading them. One
is actually in a hurry to go out of that room. Even if one finds the plan
interesting and wants to enrol for it, one should spend time to read the
documents carefully before signing them. There are certain clauses which are
either not told to you by the sales person or are misrepresented. For example,
dates at year end 25th Dec – early Jan might be blocked out dates and you
cannot book your holidays during this period. Or the sales person has told you about club membership (start nights etc.) also but they are not marked in your form. Such things most likely will not be told
to you but would be written in the documents. Therefore take you own time to
read the documents and ask questions before signing and making the payment.
Have you ever faced such a situation? Are you a holiday club member?
Are you happy? Or do you feel cheated? Please share your thoughts.
Issued in public interest.
The article represents my own personal opinions/suggestions.
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