Spence - author - RHC Article in Timesharing Today

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Hey Spence...Congrats on a very nice article in Timesharing Today page 40-41 titled "RHC"

Lots of great information (much of it also found right here on the board) for anyone considering a purchase or adding to a purchase.

Go to Timesharing Today and subscribe to read Spence's article.

Timeshare Reviews, Buy Timeshares, Sell Timeshares, Timeshare owners, Timeshare Magazine, Timesharing Today

[billymach4 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close billymach4]

I was pleasantly surprised as well. Today I got my first issue in the mail. Also saw Dave McClintlock's column.

I will definitely pass along Spence's article on RHC. I know someone else outside this board that owns RHC.

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Nice job Spence!

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I get TST but hardly read it, Can not wait to read it now, Congrats Spence

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Looks like maybe the only thing changed was the title went generic. Now the DRI one needs work.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Nice article Spence! Congratulations.

BTW, it looks like you put a link back to TS4MS there. What a guy! Thanks for doing that. We all benefit.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Nice article Spence! Congratulations.

BTW, it looks like you put a link back to TS4MS there. What a guy! Thanks for doing that. We all benefit.

I still have not seen it but Thank You Spence for the mentioning the site.

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Royal Holiday Club – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I still have not seen it but Thank You Spence for the mentioning the site.

This is what was submitted, the article looks about the same except for the title which was usurped by the article on the previous page.

Royal Holiday Club – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Spence Witten

Recent issues have covered The Bad and The Ugly and there is no contention here. RHC has a hard sell and their salesmen stretch the truth as well as any outfit. In the end you have what you have in writing which can be found in their Operating Rules seen at http://www.club.royal-holiday.com/up...lasoping08.pdf

Guaranteed exchanges or availability, guaranteed rental of your new timeshare, guaranteed purchase of your old timeshare are all examples of fraudulent selling of the product. The front page April 2008 article nails RHC for their selling habits.

The supporting views in the June 2008 issue are on the mark but I am surprised if, in fact, RHC actually took possession of the trade-in week. Of note, the age requirement to accelerate points off the back end of a contract is 50 years of age at time of purchase, but experience shows that this rule is loosely interpreted and just about anyone can have success in accelerating points. All you need do is pay the current year maintenance fees for that accelerated use. A great deal for anyone.

Some of the other downsides can be:
RHC, whether intentionally or not, does a terrible job of keeping track of payments, resulting in double billing where the member has to prove that they paid.

RHC has a tenacious collection agency in Arizona, Concord Services, who they immediately turn all their billing discrepancies over to.

RHC offers advance booking at 18 and 24 months out to some of the very high levels of membership, however, most contracts with their affiliated resorts aren’t let that far in advance. There are even times when the normal 12 month advance booking can not be accomplished. You may not even know whether lack of availability is because of a resort being fully booked or because that affiliate’s contract for the next year has yet to be signed.

RHC discourages resales. They charge a $500 transfer fee per contract and are often just uncooperative when it comes to brokers. Transfers can take forever.

Now let’s talk about The Good:

RHC has a combination of locations that can be unbeatable if you can persevere and get the booking. London, New York City, San Francisco, Florence and Rome Italy, Kilkenny Ireland, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, Cairo, Nassau, Rio de Janeiro, Cancun, Cozumel, Mexico City, just to name a few.

RHC maintenance fees can be hefty if you have one of their smaller points contracts, a 5000 point contract lets you go nowhere but costs you $335 per year. These are unhappy RHC customers. A 25,000 point contract gets you a Studio in NYC every year for an annual maintenance fee of $590, quite a deal for the same unit that rents for $2400 every day on the hotel’s website. Step up to a 240,000 point contract and you can book ten weeks in NYC for an annual cost of $335 per week. The more points you have, the less your cost per point.

RHC includes an RCI membership, but who needs it with all their locations? The only time you might want to try a deposit to RCI is if you neglected to book what you need, there’s nothing left that you want for the year at RHC and you’d like a chance at getting something.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to enjoy an occasional all inclusive vacation. RHC has several all inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. Their all inclusive comes in at $60 per person per day and is very nice.

RHC lets you save points. Each and every year you may save up to 20% of your annual allotment of points. 10 times in the life of your contract you may save 100% of your annual points, but this may not be done in succeeding years. There is no deadline to save, you can do it on December 31st if it’s a business day.

RHC lets you accelerate your points off the end of your contracts discussed previously. The operating rules say that you must be 50 years old at the time of purchase, but this is often loosely interpreted as being 50 when you accelerate.

RHC lets you unify contracts. So, if you have a bunch of those nasty 5000 point contracts, they will let you combine them and, as already illustrated, your maintenance fee per point can be reduced. There is a $500 charge per unification, unification of three contracts is two transactions for $1000, and your new contract expiration date is the same as the shortest of the originals meaning that you lose the years of points on the longer contracts.

RHC lets you upgrade your contract(s). Buy more retail points from them and you can combine all your contracts and the new upgraded single contract will be for 30 years. This, in effect, extends all your previous contracts while combining them to attain lower maintenance fees per point.

I am a happy RHC member. RHC has big problems but I’ve stayed in NYC a dozen times, Brigantine BeachNJ in July, Rome and Florence in July, Paris, Nassau, Puerto Rico, San Francisco, Cancun, Rio de Janeiro, and Miami for next to nothing. If you need RHC questions answered, go to Royal Holiday Club - Timeshare Forums.

[Larry Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Larry]

Hi Spence;

I read your article today in TST without knowing it was you who wrote the article. I usually read TST from cover to cover but this issue was not particularly interesting except for your article on RHC and maybe a couple of other articles.

I look forward to TST every other month so I was glad that your article at least provided some very interesting information, since most of this particular issue was really boring.

I have considered purchasing RHC mainly to get some of their European locations but with the lousy exchange rates for the dollar against the euro and the hassles in dealing with RHC I will pass for now on a purchase.

Thanks again for a very nice article.