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3 Apr 2013

ADR Proposals Approved by the European Parliament

Today the European Parliament approved two new instruments for settling disputes between consumers and traders- the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directive and Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Regulation. They aim to solve disputes concerning cross-border and domestic transactions and e-commerce purchases, without going to court, within 90 days. Unlike court proceedings, which are time-consuming (court proceedings in the EU last on average 500 days), expensive and burdensome, ADR and ODR offer speedier and cheaper solutions that will aid consumers in seeking compensation and take full advantage of the Single Market. Alternative Dispute Resolution is an out-of court instrument where the entities help resolve...

5 Mar 2013

Spring is in the air….

Early February found me in Berlin, meeting with Klaus Juhl, whose PR Firm works with Hapimag in promoting timeshare in Germany and also promotes RDO and its members. The German media appears to have a more difficult reputational relationship with the industry than here in the UK (if possible) and there is to be a hearing in April before the relevant committee of MP’s in the Bundestag to enquire why that is still the situation. RDO is of course providing material and evidence to Klaus for that. It was great to see the RDO Logo up in Berlin and to listen...

31 Jan 2013

January And All That

Is it just me or do others regard January as the worst month of the year? Certainly from a London perspective it is not without its challenges - Christmas and New Year behind us, snow paralysing transport in the capital, not forgetting trains delayed and planes cancelled. Those credit card bills accumulated when buying presents to be paid off and the tax man waiting at the end of the month for his pound of flesh! No wonder Monday 21st January was supposed to be the worst day of the year!   All that said, we have got off to a pretty good...

5 Dec 2012

Timeshare welcome here!

It has been a busy few weeks, apart from RDO’s Autumn Board and Council meetings, we have had Management Meetings and various outside conferences/forums, the latter giving rise to this Blog’s title.     I was at the “Visit England” Economic Forum recently,held at the HQ of RBS/NatWest in the City. I was talking to the representative of the Local Enterprise Partnership for West Devon (which as I understand it is the equivalent of the old Regional Development Board) ie their job is to help grow local businesses in their region with the use of government funding and part of their remit is...

23 Nov 2012

Economic Impact of Timeshare Not Sufficiently Recognised

The timeshare industry, which has developed into the fastest-growing segment of the tourism sector worldwide, is often still viewed with indifference in Germany. In particular, the economic impact of this sustainable accommodation concept receives too little recognition. Timesharing is actually one of the few tourism concepts which unites the interests of both tourists and the locations they visit. This was the opinion expressed by Klaus Brähmig (CDU/CSU), Chairman of the Tourism Committee of the German Parliament, following an expert discussion with members of the committee and industry players.   Kurt Scholl, a board member of the association of the European timeshare industry...

28 Sep 2012

The Impala Or The Three Men In The Toilet?

Those delegates to RDO 3 who were in Nigel Risner's closing session of the Conference will know what I mean - clever and amusing as the "Three Men" sketch was, every time I think of that Impala hitting the tree and the two lions looking at each other in surprise, I can't help but smile, so I believe the Impala has it, but let me know what you think.   This first paragraph will be completely unintelligible to any RDO member or anyone in the industry who was unfortunate enough not to attend RDO 3. They have my sympathy, when it comes...

21 Sep 2012

RDO study reveals strong industry sales in Europe, despite the recession

23 September 2012: At its annual conference in London today, RDO released its latest report on timeshare, revealing that despite the recession, it remains a robust industry, with European sales totaling €750 million in 2011.   The report was compiled on RDO’s behalf by The Market Research Group (MRG) at Bournemouth University and analyses the performance of the industry in 2011, focusing on sales volumes, value of sales and employee numbers and payroll.   The results indicate that there were an estimated 78,118 sales across Europe in 2011, with an average of 121 sales per resort. The average value of sales at each resort...

4 Sep 2012

Consumer Alert – Beware Of Class Actions

Consumers are advised to be extremely cautious when approached by companies claiming to be part of a class action against timeshare clubs and exchange companies. These entities are aggressively marketing their services to timeshare owners, via emails, newspaper advertisements, etc.   Their modus operandi is to get timeshare owners to attend a meeting in order to assess the size of the potential claim and state that the class action is on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, however they then offer the timeshare owner the option of joining their travel club making a once-off payment on the promise that they will sell...

30 Jul 2012

How Wrong Can They Be?

Over the past two weeks, we have had a journalist in the Daily Mail talking about the resurgence of "Timeshare sharks" on the Costa del Sol, another from The Olive Press making reference to “Timeshare Crooks” and on two other occasions we have had Lord Coe head of LOCOG, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, , talking about feeling like a "Costa Blanca timeshare salesman" when he originally showed the Olympic Committee the East London site, (he made this same comment earlier in the year). We have of course responded in all cases. In the first two cases, we...