Anyone who has ever spent time in hotels has certainly heard the name Holiday Inn. This is one of the most recognized brands in American travel, and that long-standing brand recognition may serve to help boost the trust that is placed in the Holiday Inn Vacation Club. But is this a brand that is worthy of your trust? Should you think about buying a Holiday Inn Vacation Club timeshare in the near future?
It’s these questions that we are going to attempt to address in the article below. Once you get a clear picture of how past buyers have felt about their experience, and what you can expect to find if you give them a try, there is a good chance you’ll decide to spend your vacationing dollars elsewhere.
For existing timeshare owners who are hoping to find a path toward life after timeshare ownership, our list of the best timeshare exit companies is a great place to start. We have compiled this list to help you get the assistance you deserve in getting out of your contract and moving on without the maintenance fees that have been dragging you down.
Holiday Inn Vacation Club Pros and Cons
To get this article started, we’ll go ahead and take a look at some of the pros and cons that you might experience with Holiday Inn Vacation Club. When making an important purchasing decision like whether or not to commit money to timeshare ownership, reviewing some pros and cons and deciding what those points mean for you personally is a good idea. This way, rather than making a rash, emotional decision, you can lay out some useful arguments and use those to guide your thinking.
Pros
Many prospective timeshare buyers like the idea of a points system. With points-based ownership, you can decide to use your points at a variety of destinations, depending on the size of the timeshare network and how many properties it manages. Holiday Inn Vacation Club uses a points system, so if you are interested in that type of ownership, you may be satisfied with what you find here.
It is worth noting, however, that the range of properties available within the Holiday Inn Vacation Club is not as sizable as some of the other timeshare options on the market. It’s important to check out exactly which properties are in the network that is available to you based on your membership level.
Cons
If a points-based system sounds like a positive selling point to you, it’s important to look at what downsides you might find, as well. Below are a couple of issues that other owners have reported experiencing over the years.
Ongoing Sales Pressure
The initial sales presentation from a timeshare business is often a long affair, with plenty of pressure to make a purchase. Unfortunately, even if you agree to buy into the timeshare, that might not be where the sales tactics end. Some owners report that they are regularly encouraged to purchase even more points, or to open a credit card. Being pressured to make an additional purchase or upgrade might not be exactly the kind of experience you desire while on vacation.
Increasing Maintenance Fees
This is an issue across the timeshare industry. If you do the math on whether you can afford a timeshare based on what those maintenance fees are currently, you’ll be in for a surprise in the future when they start to climb. Also, you won’t know exactly how much they are going to increase, so it can be hard to plan your budget accordingly.
Holiday Inn Vacation Club Complaints
Learning from the experiences of others is always a valuable opportunity to help yourself make better decisions. Reviews are extremely popular across the web because they represent a chance to get feedback from people who have experienced something first hand that you are yet to experience.
When trying to learn about a business, the Better Business Bureau – and the records of complaints they collect and display – is a good place to start. Unfortunately for timeshare businesses, these pages are often not very flattering, and that’s the case with the page for Holiday Inn Vacation Club. With more than 900 complaints lodged in the last three years alone, there is a concerning track record here that is worth a closer look.
The two screenshots below are just a sample of the complaints that have been posted on the BBB website. They represent complaints that are typical within the timeshare industry, including issues with misleading sales tactics, high-pressure situations, increasing maintenance fees, and more.
It should be noted that Holiday Inn Club Vacations replies to virtually all of these complaints with a detailed argument from their perspective. Those replies appear to rarely satisfy the requests made by the owners, but they do provide an insight into how the business sees these issues. If you care to learn more about the complaints and associated replies, you can easily spend hours reading through them on the BBB website.
Is Holiday Inn Vacation Club a Good Investment?
Depending on the specific timeshare that you purchase, becoming an owner can involve spending a lot of money – both on the upfront purchase and for the ongoing maintenance fees year after year. Spending a lot of money is never easy, but it can be a little more tolerable when you can view the expense as an investment that could pay off in the long run.
So, can buying a Holiday Inn Vacation Club timeshare be considered a good investment? Probably not. It is not typical for timeshares to gain value over time, so you shouldn’t plan on using this purchase as an investment vehicle as part of a greater financial planning strategy.
The biggest problem with seeing a timeshare as an investment is the weak resale market that you are sure to encounter if you decide to try and sell. As countless previous timeshare owners can attest, heading out to the open market to look for a buyer is a frustrating experience. There are many other owners trying to do the same thing, and interested buyers are few and far between. The only way to turn this purchase into a worthwhile investment is to be able to sell it for a good price at some point in the future, and that will certainly prove to be difficult, if not impossible.
Is Holiday Inn Vacation Club Worth It?
The concept of “worth it” is something that will vary from one person to another, as people value different things and have varied ideas of how they want to spend their money. However, despite those differences, it’s pretty easy to say that for almost anyone, becoming an owner in the Holiday Inn Vacation Club is not going to be worth it.
As a starting point, we can look at the points made above regarding the investment side of this purchase. You aren’t likely to wind up in a good investment position after holding your ownership for some time, so if your definition of “worth it” involves making back a significant portion of your money when you sell, this process is likely to be a disappointment.
At the same time, you might not get as much enjoyment out of the experience as you hoped in terms of travels and great times with family and friends. Timeshare owners, including some within Holiday Inn Vacation Club, often complain of having difficulty booking trips for their ideal times, or for their preferred properties. So, if you can’t have as much fun as you would like along the way, and it doesn’t turn into a good investment, it’s going to be hard to see how your initial investment and the ongoing maintenance fees would be worth it to you and your family.
Holiday Inn Vacation Club Lawsuits
Timeshares are sued regularly. The reasons for those lawsuits can vary, but you’ll often see active, ongoing litigation involving many – if not all – of the biggest brands in the timeshare industry. Holiday Inn Vacation Club is no stranger to its own legal battles, as a quick Google search will reveal. If you would like to know more about any ongoing lawsuits that the company is dealing with, you can search the web for reputable sources and read various filings and reports. Of course, a business facing legal challenges isn’t reason enough on its own to avoid it, but you might want to learn more about the legal situations so you can draw your own conclusions.
It’s Time for a Change
Have you been making maintenance fee payments on your timeshare for years without getting any value back for that money? Let’s put an end to those expenses once and for all. Give us a call today at 833-416-8796 and we’ll be happy to speak with you about potential options. You can also contact us through our live chat feature or by filling out our form. Don’t wait any longer to seek a resolution that will allow you to finally move on from your unwanted timeshare.