Smartly Spotting the Difference Between and Holiday Clubs

Today, there are numerous offers about wonderful holidays in self-catering vacation accommodation in some of the world’s most sought after locations. These offer better value than staying in a hotel and often with better amenities and services. But typically, there are two options with such offers it’s either a timeshare or joining a holiday club. In this article we will spot the difference between the two.

First, with timeshare companies, they invest money in building and developing resorts and the purchasers’ future occupancy rights are protected. When it comes to holiday clubs or discount travel clubs, you have a contract in their holidays.

With reputable timeshare companies also, they offer a mandatory 14-day cooling-off period which under the European Timeshare Directive, buyers are entitled to a cooling-off period of at least 10 days and the right to obtain information in a prospectus or brochure before signing the contract. Holiday clubs are not governed by the European Timeshare Directive.

When it comes to the cost, timeshare consumers pay an amount upfront, to purchase a certain number of years’ worth of holidays. The fees typically range from £4,000 to £25,000 and each year, a separate management fee is payable by every owner. Holiday clubs on the other hand, charge a fee to join the club which can be up to £25,000 and then on top of that, holidays need to be paid for.

There are many big hotel brands these days like Marriott, Four Seasons, Hilton, Disney and so on which got into timeshare and they elevated the industry to a whole new level. However, with timeshares, the owner is expected to pay an annual maintenance fee which typically increases over time while with holiday clubs, although the fee is one-time, membership fees are often of considerable amount.