Remembering our friend Ron Haylock: The Music Room at Christel House
Ron Haylock was not just a legend in the shared ownership industry, he was a special friend to many of us who worked with him at RDO, RCI, ARDA and TATOC. His enthusiasm for life was undeniably contagious – a few of his favourite things included food, wine, nature, music and, last but never least, giving back. Now it is our turn to give back to a man of many passions, whose work with the Christel House charity in South Africa and encouragement to the students at the Cape Town School were so important. Ron’s love of music lives on...
The Long March
In October 1934, it is claimed that Chairman Mao as he was to become, was one of two eventual leaders, who lead what was then the Red Army from the south of China, North and West over some of the most difficult terrain in China to re-group and escape almost certain defeat and destruction at the hands of the nationalists, under General Chiang-khai shek. The journey covered some 9000 kilometres and took 367 days or thereabouts. It became known in Chinese history as “The Long March” and was reputed to be the turning point in the fortunes of the Chinese...
Around The World In 80 Days… An Adventure in Timeshare
As part of an ongoing strategy to make use of creative content as an integral part of their marketing mix, Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket are about to embark on a virtual round-the-world adventure to promote their eXpectations Holidays points product. Echoing Jules Vern’s famous novel “Around The World In Eighty Days” the team are using 80,000 points to circumnavigate the globe, an imaginative idea that is gaining a lot of interest from within the Industry. “We’re hoping the journey will create some very engaging content that will educate and inspire new and existing owners alike. The concept also allows us to demonstrate the...
Three arrested in alleged €600,000 Fuengirola fraud
Spanish based consumer association MindTimeshare is pleased to report that three people who were behind nine companies that had allegedly defrauded hundreds of European timeshare owners were arrested last year. This followed a report lodged with the police in Fuengirola by Mindtimeshare. The companies' alleged modus operandi involved cold calling timeshare owners purporting to be calling from a Spanish law office and informing them that a case had been ruled in the Spanish courts against their resort and that a pot of money had been set aside for ‘victims’. On submission of fake documents to the timeshare owner, a payment of...
You Win Some, You Lose Some and a Few Rotten Apples
I was reflecting on this phrase early January, as we have been in discussion with two fairly long-standing RDO members in different parts of Europe. One was worried about losing membership through difficulties with its bank that had made payment of levies and fees difficult. The other member had changed its ownership recently and the new owners didn’t want to remain in membership, as they couldn’t see the value of being an RDO member from their point of view. I am pleased to say that we managed to sort out the financial issues relating to the first developer and he will...
European Timeshare Leaders Create a New Task Force
The leading businesses and bodies in the European timeshare sector have launched a new initiative to tackle issues that potentially affect hundreds of thousands of timeshare owners and consumers; the initiative also signifies a new era reflecting the great strides forward that the industry has taken in quality and integrity. The Timeshare Task Force brings together RDO’s own enforcement operation, resorts, timeshare owners, consumer organisations and law enforcement agencies to achieve common goals. At the top of the priority list is tackling the rogues that have been defrauding timeshare owners and consumers to the tune of millions of Euros. These fraudulent businesses...
Rogue PPI claim companies targeted by fines and toughened regulations
Claims firms which use information gathered by unsolicited calls and texts or who provide poor quality services will face large fines under law changes announced by the UK Government last week. Tough new rules are being introduced as the part of a package of ongoing work by government to crack down on the rogue firms responsible for targeting the public with misleading advertising and flooding banks with unsubstantiated claims for compensation – at a cost to other customers. To ensure that the claims management industry delivers the best possible results for consumers, the Claims Management Regulation (CMR) Unit at the Ministry of...
The sharing economy: Newcomers and old-timers share learnings
A breakfast event to be held in London on 19 November will be asking many probing questions about the sharing economy. Hosted by Collaborative Consumption Europe, speakers and panellists include Matt Holmes of RCI and The Registry Collection, and up for debate will be how new and old businesses in the shared-ownership sector can work together for growth. Collaborative Consumption Europe (CCE) is a network for people participating and contributing to the sharing economy, from business founders and influencers, to journalists and investors. The Networking Series of events was launched and is chaired by Debbie Wosskow, CEO of Love Home Swap...
Some thoughts from Abroad………
In the last couple of weeks, I have been reviewing the RDO Budget for 2014 along with Nikkie Yeaman, before we present it to our esteemed Treasurer. In the course of this I have been meeting with Klaus Juhl who represents RDO in Germany and of course Maria Rodriguez who looks after our Spanish members and represents RDO in Spain. When I go to Berlin, I am always slightly surprised at how small an airport Berlin Tegel is for the airport of the capital of an economy as important as Germany. There is in fact another airport serving Berlin – Schoenfeld...
What a difference a year makes………..
With apologies to Jamie Cullum who wrote the lyrics for the song “What a difference a day makes”. This song title came into my head after Chris Emmins (Kwikchex) and I had made a presentation to the staff of the UK and Scandinavian European Consumer Centres Network[i] (ECC-Net) on who RDO represented (the best in timeshare in Europe) and what we were doing to combat the fraudsters in Europe (through RDO Enforcement and the Timeshare Task Force). The reason I thought about this is that it is barely a year since RDO embarked on its strategy of meeting consumer issues head-on...