I haven’t blogged for a while. It has been particularly hectic at work with a major deadline looming, so I have been putting in the hours in the evening to get things done(cue hearty pat in the back).
Last weekend myself, Jake and GDK went off to Cornwall for our ‘free’ holiday courtesy of Club la Costa. Initially I was against going because I feel I had been conned a little bit on the first place when we ‘won’ the holiday. Last year we went to a steam fair and there was a man running a draw with the promise of a free holiday. I wrote down my details and in due course was informed that I had won the holiday. Of course, I hadn’t
won anything. I had been selected for my demographic potential. We were then asked to attend a 90 minute meeting in London. I reluctantly attended with Amy and GDK. Luckily we were able to slope off early, clutching our free holiday vouchers. I say early but we had been there over two hours at that point. The vouchers were only valid for a couple of weeks, which we didn’t realise at the time so we left it. A few months later we were reminded that we hadn’t taken our holiday(what happened to the expiry date?). Amy booked up Trenython Manor in Cornwall. It cost £29 per person for the weekend, but we had to attend the ‘presentation’ again.
The lodge was very highly specced and they had pulled out all the stops. On arrival we found fresh milk in the fridge, tea, orange juice, bottle of wine. Each room had a TV and in the lounge a 5.1 surround sound setup and DVD. The kitchen had a dishwasher, cooker and washing machine.
On Saturday we booked our tickets for the Eden Project at reception. They didn’t mention the meeting so maybe they had forgotten?? The weather wasn’t brilliant. It was overcast but not raining so entirely acceptable. The Eden Project was a wonderful day out. Jake was in his element charging around. The rain forest biome was amazing. As soon as you were through the flappy doors you were hit by a blast of hot humid air. As we meandered through it all we saw bananas growing on the tree, cacao, peppers, rice and so much more. We should definitely go back seeing as our ticket lasts a year.
On Sunday we were commanded to attend our ‘presentation’ at the hotel. From the outset we said that we couldn’t afford to but the timeshare because of Jake’s school fees. Even so the rep said she had to go through the motions. The whole spiel relied on getting you on-board to the lifestyle choice you were purchasing. No mention of cost was made until the very end. After that and the inevitable exclamations of ‘but we can’t possibly afford that’ they rolled out their ‘trial period’ with a special lower cost deal. It was very telling that I was not allowed to take away the figures that had been written on the reps pad. Consequently I cannot remember exact costs but it went something like:
Timeshare lease: 65 years
Cost of timeshare: £12,000
Maintenance:£500 per year
Cost of booking with CLC partners £120 one off fee
Cost of allowing friends to use timeshare £75
Not allowed more than 3 weeks in one place
Flights are extra
Weekend breaks cost £40 per week
There were other terms and conditions but I cannot remember them.
For us I don’t think it works out any cheaper, but of course it may suit others. I’m annoyed that they don’t publish the costs up-front so that you can make an informed judgement. I guess they are relying on spur of the moment, emotional decisions. Showing the true costs would scare a lot of people away. It’s not for me I’m afraid. Good weekend though :-).