Timeshare Holidays in India

There always is a gap between how much you said and what finally appears. It was fun interacting with an editor of a leading national newspaper. Given the no of phone calls I receive from strangers based on the articles I had written on my blog, I seem to have become an expert on timeshare holidays smile emoticon . In fact the BS team contacted me after reading my blog.

Business Standard, Mumbai, 24 Aug, 2015

Timeshare Holidays : Sterling vs Club Mahindra

I was always opposed to the idea of timeshare as this does not suit my style of travelling. I am a traveller rather than a tourist. However, a couple of years back, an intelligent Club Mahindra salesman managed to convince me to buy a timeshare. Returning home that night, I did a detailed research on Club Mahindra. I made lot of startling discovery and promptly invoked the free look in clause. Thanks to few fellow netizen’s posts, I managed to get my initial deposit back without any hassles. This bolstered my aversion for timeshare. It may surprise many that despite having researched so much about timeshare in India, writing a blog post here few years back on this topic which attracted a lively discussions and comments including those of Club Mahindra team, I finally took the timeshare bait this year again with Sterling Holidays. The concept still has flaws. But after spending this year’s quota at Corbett and Mussorie, I felt that my decision to invest with Sterling has not been bad.

So what made me took the bait this time. One of my senior colleagues had a Sterling membership which he wanted to sell. Another wanted to buy it. But the seller backed out at the last moment, apparently at the advice of his children. This was a 99 year old membership that is valid upto 2094. The prospective buyer saw the potential benefits of buying a resale unit. So he started exploring the market and found some offer on olx and quickr. He finally managed a resale unit from someone in South. He got a bang deal for 1 BR Premium season for 1 lakh. Another colleague then jumped into it and got a fair deal for his budget – 1 Studio Offseason for 65K. Then another one. I had followed the discussions over lunch. Gradually I started developing interest as well. With my experience of Club Mahindra, I had gone through all pros and cons. I found it to be a win-win situation for both the seller and buyer.

The sellers are generally in the age group of 60-80 and have probably visited all of Sterling’s resorts several times over since 1994 or so. They have also seen the period when Sterling was in red and virtually closed down for couple years. A premium season studio with 99 years membership was sold around 59k in the 90’s when Sterling was launched. Therefore many of these old members see this revival of Sterling as an opportunity to get their investment back which at some point were assumed to have sunken. Any appreciation of investment will be a bonus.  If they can manage to sell it for anything above cost price, then they will recover their investment, well after enjoying their membership to the maximum.

The potential buyers also stand to gain from this deal. These are 99 years validity units as against a new unit with only 25 years validity. I am not sure of the latest prices, but a new Sterling studio unit for premium season will not cost less than 5 lakhs. Similarly an off-season or blue season unit cost you not less than 1.7 lakhs. That too for 25 years. All my colleagues, including me, had managed to find peak season studio unit on resale for around 1 lakh and off season studio for around 75K. This is definitely a win-win situation for both. Transfer of membership was smooth. Only issue was that we all had to shell out the agreed amount in one go.

One will be interested to know as to how Sterling compares with Club Mahindra? Well, Club Mahindra is the major player in this field, have a good brand equity and hence costlier in all respect. CM also has the largest number of resorts, 40 as in 2014, and most of them are reputed to be quality facilities. The total room inventory is about 2500. A purple season studio of CM will cost around 7 lakh and red season studio will cost around 5 lakh. Sterling Holidays, based in Chennai, was more south oriented with most of its better facilities spread across South. It has 21 resorts with a room inventory of about 1500. It owns only two resorts in North at Mussorie and Manali. All other resorts in North are on lease. However, Thomas Cook had taken over Sterling it early this year. This piece of news brought smiles to all members. As expected, the involvement of Thomas Cook has already started showing. As per Sterling’s update, almost all resorts had undergone massive renovation this year. Two new locations have been added recently (Oct, 2014) at Sariska and Nainital. This has expanded the options at North with 6 locations – Mussorie, Corbett, Manali, Dharamsala, Sariska and Nainital. It is also claimed in their website that Sterling will be adding 15 more resorts in coming years. The annual maintenance fee of Sterling is also low. For a studio unit it is around 2600 rupees as against Club Mahindra’s 10K plus. There also is a third player in this field named Magic Holidays. For some unknown reason it has stayed low profile and hence not much is known about it.

I had stayed at Sterling’s Corbett facility in June this year. It is a leased facility. Rooms were upscale, but open space were at a premium. Renovation was going on at the site. The resort was closed down since then for maintenance. Nested on a hill facing the Ramganga river, located 12km further from the Dhanagiri gate on NH172 to Ranikhet, this will be a lovely place once renovations is completed. I was just back from Mussorie enjoying 3N/4D at Pine Hill Resort of Sterling during the long weekend of Dusserah. It is a sprawling campus with more than 70 rooms. This is a Sterling owned facility. Half the resort is under renovation. Already renovated rooms were upscale. We had enjoyed a relaxing holiday away from hustle bustle of crowd. One afternoon, we walked down to the Mall road only to be felt cramped for space. It was too crowded for comfort. We slowly walked back to the comfort of our resort. Timeshare is meant for relaxing holidays as against sightseeing holidays. I have grown enough grey hairs to deserve one week of relaxing break every year. On our return, we both felt that the investment in Sterling was worth. With validity till 2094, may be even after great grandchildren can use them.

Before closing, I must warn you of problems of timeshare in India. These companies are selling membership all though the year. Both Sterling and CM has a member base of over 1.5 lakh and is touted to be growing @15-20%. But their room inventory has not expanded that fast. This means that while members are increasing, room inventories are not. None of them clearly informs the ratio of total no of members to total no of rooms. One might get shocked at this reality. This means you need to book well in advance. I can afford to plan such breaks 3 months in advance, but can you. Further if you have a non-peak season unit, then your options to get rooms during peak holiday season is bleak. Keeping this in mind, you should look to buy premium / peak season units only. Finally it depends on your style of travelling. If you are a sightseeing holidayer, then you will not enjoy timeshare as most of these resorts are off the centre of action. So, are you ready for timeshare!

Club Mahindra Holidays: Free Holiday baits

Heard of Club Mahindra Holidays and Resorts? It is one of the better-known brand and entity in India. It is the best- known (and also the only one known to me in India) resorts chain in India that promises hassle free holidays for its members. Many of us might have seen those front-page ads in leading national dailies offering you a handycam free if you enroll for membership. Ever bothered to find out what it is? And more importantly how costly it is?

It is very common in the malls of Delhi like EDM or pacific to find some soft spoken rep approaching you to fill up a questionnaire and get a chance to win free 2N / 3D holidays. In the last six months we had filled up such forms 4 times and has supposedly won 3 times. On the earlier two occasions we had declined. But after the claimed to be pleasant experience of my colleague Vaskar, who enjoyed a 2N/3D holiday at the Club Mahindra resort at Manali last month, we also thought of giving it a try. The problem is that people often do not share the embarrassing or irritating part of their experience. Had he shared the fact the he had to go through an unforgettable experience to get the voucher, I might not have gone there.

We reached the Club Mahindra office at the Centre Stage Mall in NOIDA on our appointed time. The office looked more like a cafeteria with small round tables all around. Only difference is that each of the table had a PC. Most of the tables were occupied by a couple on one side and a Mahindra rep on the other. We were welcomed by Sashi, one of the rep. He started in his routine by trying to get friendly with us. A questionnaire handed out to us reminded that the process may take upto 90 min. We were also told that irrespective of the outcome of the session we are guaranteed a voucher for 2N/3D holiday in a select resort of limited choice. As I was in no mood to sit for 90 min after sitting out 8 hours in the office, I told Sashi that I know a little about the concept of Club Mahindra as I visited their stall in some fair in Dehradun. But the poor fellow has a job to defend. So continued with his routine and showed us very bad resolution videos of some of the resorts. My objective was to get the free gift voucher, but his objective was to entice me to become a member. As time passed by, this gap of conflicting interests continued to widen and reached a point where Sashi had to tell me that I am probably getting bored. Without being diplomatic, I replied in the affirmative and told him to give the voucher. By that time he had eat up more than 90 min and had spoilt my entire evening or at least some part of it which I could have spent in the mall. I saw an elderly couple left midway telling they do not so much time to waste. But I was of the opinion that I had already wasted so much of time that it would be foolish to leave without the voucher. Finally after another wait of 15 min. or so we were handed over the voucher. Now we can go on a 3D/2N holiday with free stay only to one of the following places – Munnar, Manali, Binsar and Coorg. It is to be availed on selected days upto march, 2007. Not much of choice for me as I have been to Munnar 2 years back and to Kausani (very close to Binsar) last year. Coorg is too far down south. So only option left is Manali. It is almost 6 years since I had visited Manali. So may be I will head for Manali. According to my friend Vaskar, the Ckub mahindra resort at Manali is about 4 km from the Mall though the Mahindra rep will tell you it is only 2 km. He had to pay for food only which was not that costlier. However commuting to the town was a problem as it was bit off the track and autos charge about 50 bucks for each trip.

Here is what you need to know so that next time you get an offer, you remained informed. In the entire 90 min of discussion / presentation, Sashi remained tight lipped about the cost of membership. I kept prodding him, as I knew it is very costly, much beyond reach of average Indians. Finally he told me when the discussion was over and I made it clear that I am not interested. Believe me, it is a whopping Rs.1,87,000/-. Yes that is what the cost of membership. In addition to that you will have to pay almost Rs.7000/- every year as maintenance charges. This means the total cost for the 25 years membership is more than Rs.3.5 lakh. Now you understand why they were doling out handycams for free. This membership promises 7 days holidays every year for the next 25 years in the 13 existing Club Mahindra resorts across India and 2 abroad. Besides Club Mahindra being a member of RCI, you can also go for vacation in other places where Mahindra do not have a resort. But for that you will have to pay almost Rs.4,000/- if that resort is in India and Rs.10,000/- if it is outside India. This is lot of money. How many in India can afford such luxury?

I told Sashi point blank that the concept is not for India. We do not holiday to sit out 7 days at a secluded resort. We visit places to explore what is around. In most cases we come back to the room only at night. So in a 7 day holiday we would be covering at least 2 locations and would involve a maximum of 4 nights of stay. You can get good hotels paying 750 to 1000 rupees. This means you would be spending only 4000, say a maximum of 5000 rupees as staying charges. Compare this to Rs.7000/- per year for Club Mahindra. Add the additional 4000 if you are going to a place where Club Mahindra do not have a resort, say Darjeeling. All these information I provided are here are not available on Club Mahindra’s website. Earlier these were available in their brochure. But fearing the fact that seeing the price scares most people away, they have removed this information from brochure as well. Now they try to talk prospective client into membership.

The concept of Club Mahindra claims that that they gave 5 star class accommodation for this price. I said the concept holds good only for those who can afford 5 star hotels not for average tourist. I told Sashi that Lodging charges comes third in the total expenses for a trip. My experience says the major expenses in holidaying consist of traveling followed by food. I told him of my holiday in Kerala where we traveled during the day and arrive at a town only in the evening for overnight stay. It would be absolute foolishness for someone to sit out 7 days at Munnar alone. Sashi understood that I am an experienced traveler and there is no point arguing with me. He gradually started to agree with me and was happy to see me off as soon as possible. I asked him how many clients he had attended that day. He told me that I am the only one for him that day as they normally invites couples who can come only in the evening. I wish him better luck next time.

So, guys this was an evening to remember. Club Mahindra will call only couples, not singles. If you are a bachelor, you need not worry. But if you get a chance for a free stay, grab it. All you need to do is to decide beforehand whether you can afford to be a member or not. If not you can cut short the pain for both the parties.

A Follow up (Added on 18/02/2007):

I had observed that this post had attracted several observation. So I thought of adding something to it. In fact someone had even posted two yahoo groups to ndicate there are good experiences as well. I had willingly let that comment appear on this post. I had visited the links and found nothing to cheer about. I still held that Club Mahindra is a highly impractical holiday options for 90% Indians. It is meant for those filthy rich with lot of money to spare. This is my personal opinion. May be some other have different views! I had let the Free Holiday Voucher lapsed as (i) it was not possible to avail them on weekends (ii) the places offered were not attractive as I have visited 2 of the four offered under the scheme. Anyway, most of us are mature enough to whether to fell for the bite!