Eugene Clarke, Kent, UK
The positive side of timeshare
Over the last few years I have seen a number of letters complaining of timeshare touts on this island. However, I want to write a glowing commendation to the several timeshare resorts on this island. Yes there is a fee to join but once a member you get terrific value for your money. Most people don't realise that the timeshare resorts are all full on a consistent basis, these tourists are bringing hard earned cash to the island on a regular basis (sometimes as much as two or three times a year).
Instead of slagging this industry, Malta should be commending the good job these resorts are doing. They offer top quality facilities, top class accommodation and you very rarely hear a timeshare owner complaining at the thought of returning to Malta for another holiday. These resorts offer a superb service and bring prosperity to a country where tourism is declining.
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Adrian Allain
Aug 25th 2009, 23:46
It is quite clear that most of the people commenting here know little or nothing about timeshare.
Isobel Mcgonigle
Aug 25th 2009, 18:06
Thanks for the free publicity Yours,Mr. E. Clarke,Managing Director.Time Share. R. Us
Charles Micallef
Aug 25th 2009, 17:43
Mr Clarke as you can see for yourself and as I told you earlier that 'you were one in a million', the other 999,999 do not agree with you! start thinking of other reasons / excuses as the ones you quoted did not wash and no one believed you!
Adrian Allain
Aug 25th 2009, 16:02
It is only some resorts in Malta that use timeshare touts to lure the unwary into attending a presentation and be subjected to 'the hard sell'. My family owns 7 weeks of timeshare in Malta at one resort, which does not employ touts or even suggest to those staying at the resort that they should buy a timeshare. There are resales available at the resort, but at a fraction of the cost of the figures quoted by Richard Weninger. Corinthia Mistra Village was just the same before it closed. I will be staying in my timeshare for 2 weeks next month at a cost of 300 euros. There are a couple of newer resorts in Malta which have brought their hard sell techniques with them from Tenerife and similar places and others feel obliged to follow their example to be able to compete. I've spoken to many touts. They know nothing about timeshare. Their job is to use every type of persusion, including lying and making false promises, to get the victims into a taxi and into the clutches of a salesman. In buying our weeks I have initiated the purchase and never attended a presentation JUST SAY NO.
E. Azzopardi
Aug 25th 2009, 13:17
There have been so many many complaints about these time share touts that this letter really stands out on its own. I know of a lot of tourists who were disgusted with the attitude of Time Share sellers and did not write to the media. Most of them never came back either.
Honestly, this is the very first positive letter that I have seen . Wow, at least there is one person who has praised these people.
And why is it that only the British seem to "targeted and then buy Time Share?
Having worked in tourism for forty two years I know the answer.
Brad.Reece
Aug 25th 2009, 12:27
Well Mr.Eugene Clark for the UK at least you advertised free in the Times., not tha its is going to be absorbed but nevertheless., i think alot ot tourists and Maltese alike will take your comment with a pinch of salt, until you personnally happens to be the victim of such harrassment, then comeback again and do a U-TURN John!
Josephine MIcallef
Aug 25th 2009, 12:16
YEAH YEAH DREAM ON EUGENE CLARKE, YOU SOUND SUNSHINE AS IF YOU HAD A PROMISE FROM A LIER., well in that case the English Reps. selling time share should start selling in your country if its that good,and not annoy the good people of Malta . Good riddens to the touts.
Bugibba resident.
Peter Prictoe
Aug 25th 2009, 10:48
Mr Clarge praises the time share set up - but he would wouldn't he as he is hooked.
Why do these most persistent timeshare touts have to press their wares so ardently
if the product is so good? Sign up in haste and repent at leisure or do as Mr Clarke
may well do and make the best of a bad job.
Tony Gatt
Aug 25th 2009, 10:37
@Eugene Clark
It's the way they conduct their business that irritates most people. No one wants to be harassed on the sea front.
Also if you think of it, it's a huge ripoff- the same flat is sold over and over again and at the end you end up with nothing.
Richard Weninger
Aug 25th 2009, 10:13
Mrs.Clarke , there is absolutely nothing to be said against owning and using a timeshare holiday appartment. That is a truly personal decision how someone wants to vacation. Malta is always worth a visit , whether with timeshare or otherwise.
What the increasing number of complaints from all the other visitors are about is the way these timeshares hawkers are using aggressive ways of trying to get tourists into the sales presentations. Being constantly approached by rhetorically highly trained and outspoken timeshare touts whose ultimate goal is to get you to take part in a sales show is a real nuisance and seems aggressive for many tourists who just want a nice peaceful walk along the sea-front . Others just say no or swear or what ever .But most don’t want to be constantly approached and have to say no in the first place. Car hires, restaurants, jewellers, clothes stores and all the other businesses looking for sales don’t send out their salespeople onto the streets to press would-be customers into their premises. That would be fun, wouldn’t it! So timeshare is ok but not the way it is marketed!
Galea. L
Aug 25th 2009, 09:56
Eugene Clarke
What you wrote is not exactly what I hear about time-share and time-share touts Eugene, including from Maltese citizens who had also been conned into buying time-share. You don't happen to be one of the time-share touts do you?
Charles Micallef
Aug 25th 2009, 09:40
Mr Clarke
You are one in a million!
There is no doubt that most of the Timeshare resorts provide an excellent service, although Which Magazine in UK disagrees with your assumptions in respect of value for money and also confirms that over 50% of all sales sold to UK householders are up for re-sale!
However having said that, the reason that Timeshare makes constant headlines is nothing to do with the actual resorts, which as everyone is aware are excellent but the sales methods applied which borders on the ridicule. The street people who promotes these sales have “nothing to loose” mentality which upsets many, many holidaymakers for reasons that have been made so clearly in the many, many letters to the Editor that we read almost daily on this newspaper!
What is even more baffling is that the people who own and promote these resorts are the best minds in business and hospitality that the industry has ever seen, yet to date they have not come up with another method as how to sell this double edged product!
Allan Footitt
Aug 25th 2009, 09:37
That is a big can of worms you have opened Mr Clarke.
If they offer such a "superb service" and "timeshare resorts are all full on a consistent basis" then why resort to 'bully boy' tactics to harass tourists into joining the scheme?? Surely if it was so good there would be a queue of people willing to sign up. Do they not realize that these touts drive more people away than they encourage?? BAN THEM..
Yes, I do visit Malta regularly and have experience these .........touts.
colin edwards
Aug 25th 2009, 09:32
If timeshare is so great why then, do the waterfront touts need to resort to liues, rudeness and deception to sell them?
joe Muscat
Aug 25th 2009, 09:18
Yes Mr. Clarke. Agreed! However no one is complaining about the resorts. As you yourself say in your first line.....' a number of letters complaining of timeshare touts on this island.' I am sorry but out of every 100 or so innocent tourist that they bother, are rude to and sometimes violent towards, they might get one sale. It's just the other 99 that we are worried about because they do complain but most of them don't write to The Times...they just don't bother booking again for Malta, and they make sure their friends know about it. Yes! Tourism is declining.
It's pretty obvious from your letter that you might be close to the Timeshare Industry. Maybe you should have a word with the sales team. And the worst of it is ....The British time share touts are the ones scaring off the English tourist. Go to the St. PAul's Bay area and you'll see british timeshare tout suddenly stop their cars in the middle of the road to jump out of their cars and mentally molest our precious tourists into submission. And they will not take no for an answer...otherwise the swear words and sometimes the punches start flying.
Moira Heath
Aug 25th 2009, 08:59
Dear Eugene
I think you missed the point of the letters. It's not the product that is harassing tourists, it's the people selling the product. If you haven't experienced it first hand, you can't understand what it means to be insulted just because you politely said "No, thank you". If the product is as good as you say, surely a better selling technique should be put into place.