Marriott Vacation Club
Complaint 334821 Details

Timeshare Industry's Lack of Government Regulations.

This author is generally not a proponent of increasing the size or power of government. However here, we are talking about an industry who's product purchase can be one the of the largest allocation of funds a consumer ever makes. You have your home purchase, number one. Your timeshare or vacation club purchase is often more costly than your automobile purchase, etc. Left unchecked, and free to create their own maze of self-serving rules, Timeshare Industry Organizations can do almost whatever they please, such as Marriott taking a 26 year old system and changing the rules which at times are perceived as being very harsh and shrewd and it's for the primary purpose of increasing their profitability with little or no regard to past company promises or the customer's previous sizable financial investments. And just because they bury a few paragraphs into a very long, detailed contract stating they reserve the right to make program enhancements or in Marriott's case change things dramatically, that does not make it ethically correct in many people's view.

The timeshare industry is in a unique position that inherently offers them many advantages. There are very few other industries that have their customers contractually obligated to perform for the actual lifetimes of those customers. If payments are not made, or if its deemed that a customer is not following the rules, or performing, the accessibility to the customer's product is denied and/or penalties compound. Unlike a home builder, a car manufacturer, or a lending institution, If a timeshare company goes out of business, the customer no longer has access to the product. If a timeshare company becomes so financially successful from perpetual rising rates or crowds of new customers to where the older customers can not seem to access their product purchase (which is really a key complaint from many, about Marriott Vacation Club ) there's really nothing that can be done in an industry that has virtually no regulations beyond initial cancellations. It's their way or the highway. Choose the highway, lose all the money you had invested in your vacation dreams and pipe-dreams; while memories of all those smiling faces back at the resort are replaced with fresh impressions of past due notices and bill collectors. Then when there's storm damage at the resort, an unexpected major expense or even when the desire for for additional enhancements arise (e.g. pv solar installation) at the timeshare company's physical real estate; buildings or grounds, the timeshare companies are able to charge additional assessments to their owners to pay for such expenditures. Its almost as if the timeshare industry can extort money from their customers as time goes on and the years go by, and the customers, who are also called the "owners" have very little recourse except to default. These are some of the long term reasons why possibly government regulations could protect customers.

Now here's an additional short term Government Regulation Suggestion: Its similar to Regulation Z, Truth in Lending, in the consumer lending industry. For this discussion, Timeshare and Vacation Clubs purposes, let's call it Regulation TVC. When the deal is being made, in addition to the 100 pages of contract, and the endless paperwork that the Timeshare Industry's Lawyers produce to protect their interest, not yours, there is a new 1 page summary, required by Regulation TVC, that is designed to protect you. The 1 page summary (which may actually needs to be 2-3 pages ) requires line by line initials to a vast range of brief and simple of statements in simple english that cover all the comprehensive relevant details. From deposits, cancellations, penalties, assessments, customer responsibilities, reservation procedures, financing, annual maintenence fees, non-usage, trading, swapping, selling, advanced planning requirements, other recourse, etc. Every conceivable detail of required customer understanding is further guaranteed by the customer's initials, line by line.