Club La Costa scam?
250,000 guests say not

Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels has 26 years’ experience of providing quality holiday experiences, with wide ranging services and facilities. Each year it manages 250,000 holidays for its members and guests.

We have a worldwide portfolio of resorts which continues to expand as we grow. Our success rests on our particular formula of mixed use resorts, which include timeshare and freehold, and a private members’ yacht club, all designed to make luxury holidays affordable to the average family.

You may not have seen Club La Costa advertised on any of the UK terrestrial television channels, or in any of the very many glossy magazines; though journalists have written in praise of our resorts which are widely recognised as having the “wow” factor. We prefer instead to follow the proven, and frankly less expensive, path of direct marketing along with ‘word of mouth’ - as many of our members choose to recommend us to their family and friends.

The company has a workforce of more than 2,000 across all operations and this includes a sizeable sales and marketing division. As our number of worldwide resorts increases, and new holiday experiences are introduced, it is important to keep the ‘Club’ growing by introducing new families to our concept. We do this with a programme of offers and discounted holidays that allow people to come and see just what it is we offer.

Lots of our original members, who joined Club La Costa back in the 1980s, continue to enjoy holidays with us. Many of them, along with those who have subsequently joined, have ‘grown’ their membership, increasing their options as their desire for more and better quality holidays increases. Some eventually graduate to their own freehold Club La Costa resort holiday home.

All members enjoy the services of Club La Costa Travel, a one-stop shop for travel needs and enhancements which carries the assurance on flights of holding both ABTA and ATOL licences and also, as of 2010, automatic ‘Supplier Failure Cover’ for all other flight providers. Through Travel, members can arrange international hotel bookings, cruise holidays, car hire, insurance and airport parking and privileges.

We understand that some members of the public might be concerned or even alarmed when they see the word timeshare in relation to our range of activities, due to the scam and ‘fly by night’ operations which continue to attract negative publicity; damning by implication legitimate companies. We are pleased you are taking the time and trouble to read this; it shows you care as indeed we do.

As an influential and leading force in European timeshare, Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels takes seriously its role in shaping and improving the reputation of our industry and is hurt when people who do not have first-hand knowledge lump us together with the cowboy companies they have read or heard about in the tabloid media. As far back as 1998, Club La Costa was concerned with changing the poor perception of timeshare. We chose to do so by leading from the front and joining and supporting the work of the self-regulatory trade body Organisation for Timeshare in Europe (OTE); subsequently becoming a key member of its successor, the Resort Development Organisation.

It is very possible your household will at some time receive a promotional offer from Club La Costa, or its marketing partners, now or in the future. We hope you will take up that opportunity to find out more about us. We have holiday products to suit most family needs and our sales presentations are without pressure to buy.

Don’t just take our word on these things. Below is just one example from among many, an email thanking us from a couple who recently attended a sales presentation during a promotional holiday. They didn’t purchase on that occasion but would have liked to!

From: Sandra Berry
Posted At: 15 November 2010 22:16

Hi just want to say thank you for the experience of no pressure selling at Club la Costa Spain from the 6/11/2010-13/11/2010. We enjoyed our break (and were) very impressed with the accommodation and beautiful gardens, only wish we were in a better position to purchase the package we were offered - again thank you.

S Parry and D Berry

You can also click here to read what actual members say about us as a company and also what they think of our products and services.

History

Club La Costa is a reputable company, established since 1984, which has grown phenomenally as a result of its mission to take timeshare resort standards to greater heights and develop the product in exciting ways for its members.

This has secured our position today as one of Europe’s largest providers of mixed use holiday resort products.

The company, founded by South-African born entrepreneur Roy Peires, began with just a few timeshare apartments on the Costa del Sol surrounded by undeveloped land. The site has since transformed, having become a ‘village’ of distinctively designed and immaculately maintained resorts, set amid exotic gardens with shops, restaurants, bars, swimming pools, sports and beauty facilities.

Club La Costa’s rapid expansion has seen our portfolio of resorts greatly increase in Europe and beyond - they can be found in the UK, Spain, Tenerife, Austria, Turkey, America and Australia, exhibiting an emphasis on quality standards and extensive facilities.

At the same time our product range has diversified from timeshare weeks, through a widely successful holiday Points programme and a private members’ yacht club to freehold resort properties, always in popular demand from members who value the brand they have grown to trust and know will deliver.

Changing perception

The OTE evolved into the Resort Development Organisation (RDO) which Club La Costa helped found and on whose Board it is represented, with one of its key directors the chairman of its legislative council. The organisation promotes best practice in the industry and represents those companies, voluntarily bound by its Code of Ethics, that provide holiday makers with quality accommodation. RDO has worked successfully with the authorities to identify and bring to justice many scam companies.

Paul Gardner Bougaard, chief executive of RDO says: “Club La Costa is one of the largest and most successful international resort groups and as such we are delighted they have chosen to be a major supporter of RDO, the industry’s self-regulatory body, providing both financial and logistical support. Their support has been long term, going back to the founding of RDO’s forerunner: OTE, and illustrating a strong and abiding commitment to raising ethical standards. Club La Costa is greatly valued by RDO.”

Consumer legislation

Over its life to date, Club La Costa has been quick to introduce and support fair consumer protection legislation, including the ‘cooling off’ period requirement of the European Timeshare Directive, which was adopted in 1994, and all its subsequent modifications.

Eugene Miskelly, Club La Costa’s legal director says, “We are
committed to improving the standards within the industry and we actively support a balanced approach with adequate consumer protections in place, creating an even playing field for developers, with proper and consistent enforcement across Europe.”

Customer care

Enshrined in the company mission statement, is Club La Costa’s aim of exceeding the expectations of its customers, providing more and better holidays to its members. Part of this is enacted through its dedicated Travel services, which provide a one-stop shop for travel requirements and enhancements.

In times of crisis, which have seen spectacular airline company collapses, protracted airline strike action and the headlining ‘volcanic ash’ disaster, guests have been offered complimentary accommodation, wherever possible, and assistance with alternative travel arrangements.

Thousands of members’ travel plans were affected by the 2010 volcanic ash cloud over Europe and in addition to free accommodation, the company organised overland transport for those determined to make their way home.

For all these instances, Club La Costa Travel dealt with flight refund claims for bookings made through them, considerably speeding up the process for those affected by doing so.

Many letters and emails of thanks were sent in response and some of these can be read at (website link here?).

Raising standards

As architect, builder, interior designer and furnisher of its signature resorts, Club La Costa has successfully raised the bar on resort standards with the resulting ‘wow’ factor attracting the attention of press and public.

Making luxury affordable is the mantra informing each of our new developments, most clearly evident in our private members’ yacht club: Club La Costa Yacht Club, which has been responsible for making sailing holidays, once seen as the preserve of the very rich, accessible. Says Chairman Roy Peires: “Our goal is to be upscale, yet appealing to the mass market with products to support a variety of holiday lifestyles.”

Business partners

In addition to Club La Costa’s own portfolio resorts and 100s more with which it has agreements, members can access more than 4,500 resorts worldwide through our international exchange facilitator RCI®, the world’s largest timeshare vacation exchange network which pioneered the concept in 1974.

We stand as one of RCI’s prominent resort developers. Dimitris Manikis, RCI Vice President, Europe and Middle East, says, “Club La Costa is one of the most pro-active and innovative developers in Europe, and we are pleased to be able to support  their operations team in its drive for further enhancements to its membership offering. We have worked with CLC since 1984 and since that time have been privileged to support them in many landmark projects, including the Club La Costa Yacht Club and their recent expansion into new markets. The CLC team share our passion for providing quality experiences and delivering customer service excellence.”

First National Trustee Company is another of Club La Costa’s important business partners. Part of the IFG financial services group, it holds the company’s property assets in trust for its members. “We have had a very successful working partnership with Club La Costa for over 15 years,” says Declan Kenny, CEO of the IFG group. “During our long relationship we have witnessed the company’s phenomenal growth and continuing strength as one of Europe’s leading vacation ownership companies. They are a dynamic company and one we are proud and pleased to do business with.”

The future

At Club La Costa, our international developments team continue to take us onward and forward with plans in the pipeline for further expansion in the near future in the UK and in some of the world’s top tourist destinations, having only recently announced two new resorts in Kusadasi, Turkey, and Orlando, USA. Listening to our members is a major factor in deciding our future direction as a company and the type of holiday products we offer.

Over the years, the company has sought to distance itself from association with those who appropriate the term timeshare for businesses that are patently corrupt. As a legitimate business, we believe our current position and reputation does the speaking for us. We are proud both of our timeshare roots and the way the company has evolved to embrace new products, reflecting the holiday trends and preferences of our market to create better and more diverse holidays.