Holiday Inn Club Vacations At Desert Club Resort Timeshare

I’m currently staying at the Desert Club Resort in Vegas. I attended the 2pm tour on Friday. Lisa our tour guide was rude, condescending and I felt racially profiled. I will be contacting a lawyer and will never stay at an IHG property again.

Please be careful before you book any trip through Holiday Inn Vacation Getaway, and make sure you have a recording of the original call. Unfortunately I was unable to even book the Holiday Inn package that I bought over the phone due to the mis-information I was given when I first bought the package. I was booking travel for work and was put through to another line and ‘sold’ a 3 day package using Holiday Inn Club Vacations Getaways.

I just went to book the vacation package at Desert Club Resort, only to find I was given false information when I originally booked it, and that I will not be able to use the package. It was not made clear to me that my husband HAD to be with me for the vacation (even though I earn more income than him, and far exceed the ‘minimum’ income requirements).

I would not have bought the package based on that alone – given our schedules it is rare we could get this type of getaway off together in the timeframe I had to use the package. I was also told when I first booked the package through Holiday Inn that the purpose of the offer was to experience the getaway resort. If I sat through the 2 hour ‘resort package’ presentation I would get my $200 refunded. However, when I just phoned to book the package I was informed that sitting through the presentation was mandatory, and if I did not sit through the presentation I would be charged the full resort price. I was planning to sit through the presentation since I thought this type of travel would be great in a few years when we retired, however I was shocked that this was the 2nd piece of mis-information I was given. (please note that the person helping me was pleasant, doing her best but was confined to the script she was given).

I am responsible for booking hundreds of people’s travel each year for the government department I work for, and take careful notes so I know I was not mistaken by the original information given. I used to do the majority of the hotel booking through Holiday Inns, but I will not any more. I have been advised that Holiday Inn will do a ‘review’ of my original call, and will refund me the $200 if they feel I was given mis-information.

However the review will take 5-7 weeks, which is of no use to me since my holiday block time is in May. I am extremely disappointed with Holiday Inns – the trip was to be a grade 12 grad gift for my daughter and her friend. I have been given an address to Orange Lake Resorts in Florida where I can mail an official complaint (I was told there was no where where I can email my inquiry), but in the meantime I would like to mitigate the risk of someone else having the same experience. Chances are the fault is with the Resort Company and not Holiday Inns, but they should be careful who they do their marketing through.

We traded recently via RCI to spend a week in Vegas at the “Holiday Inn Desert Club Resort.” First off, it’s no resort . . . It is simply a very low-end series of cheaply constructed buildings (lots of them — this is a big place) built for someone to make money on. It wasn’t built for the comfort of its guests.

The experience begins when you check in — the front desk staff are no help whatsoever. This begins to sink in when you call them after arriving in your room. We called ahead and spoke to the front desk before we confirmed our trade. We asked them about what the rooms looked like, about the furnishings and the general appearance. They told us about the “modern appearance” and the “high quality, recently renovated rooms.” When we arrived, we found filthy carpets unravelling at all the seams, dirty bedspreads that were literally repulsive, and in general none of the promised appearance and quality. When reading these reviews, we are just completely baffled as to how someone would give this glorified Super 8 anything above one or two stars.

If you are headed here for a week, the ONLY thing you’ll like about the Holiday Inn timeshare is its location. It’s right behind the Venetian, in a huge lot off of Koval, easy to get to and in the center of the action. But, when you stay in Vegas, don’t you want a measure of cleanliness and a nice place to go back to? You won’t find it here. The rooms look like they were designed in the 1960’s; the bedspreads clash with the fabric on the window coverings, the old dumpy chairs and sofa’s are so used they have the shape of the last person who sat in them before you arrived, perhaps even some of that person’s hair.

After a great deal of pressure, the front desk decided to show us some other rooms. Just exactly like the one we had! When we asked about the “modern, recently remodelled rooms” they had told us about before we traded to land their property, they confessed those are only 12 rooms out of hundreds.

At other Vegas timeshares (Grandview, for example) they have maid service once or twice during your stay. Here. there is no maid service at all, and it is crazy difficult to secure fresh towels or sheets. They’ll make you wait hours in your room to deliver them. Can you make two rolls of TP last for your family over the course of the week? Good luck on that. In fact, the room inventory lists each of the items provided and do not expect them to be generous. It is one of the most uncomfortable living areas you will ever find in a hotel or timeshare, and we’ve stayed in dozens of them over 20+ years of timeshare ownership.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this place at all costs.

~~Our family of 4 wrapped up our vacation in Vegas at Summer Bay. We are RCI timeshare owners but did NOT make this reservation through our timeshare company. We only needed a few nights, so we went on-line and used “Book-it”.
~~While all the units have the same floor plan, there are two vastly DIFFERENT levels of accommodation at Summer Bay. If you rent online (ie: Expedia, Orbitz, Book-It, etc.) – expect an older, dated unit. If you are okay with a trip back to the 80’s and a hodgepodge of well-worn furnishings & decorating styles, their rental units will meet your needs. They have @ 150 rental units. (There are over 500 units on this property)
~~Don’t be fooled by the lovely photos the resort posts online! When we asked the front desk, they explained that they have TIME-SHARE units and RENTAL units. They explained that online booking sites do not guarantee what the rooms will look like. The only way to get one of those updated timeshare units is to pay $50 more per night.
~~ One of the biggest drawbacks was the constant hum of the outdoor air conditioning units. Since the property was initially condos/apartments, each unit has a separate air conditioner. From our unit, with all the AC always running, there was never really any sense of quiet. Made me wish I was in a high rise to avoid the noise!
~~ While not far from “the strip” – we were advised by the staff not to walk from the resort to the strip at night. Seems an area they call the “desert” (currently undeveloped land between the resort & the strip) is known for homeless folks sleeping there at night.
~~ The fitness centre was quite small – early in the morning folks lined up for machines.
There were no free weights.
~~AGAIN—– BEWARE of the two different worlds of Summer Bay. If you are a timeshare trade-in, seems you are okay. If you rent using online search engines, lower your expectations. It probably will NOT look like the pictures on the website!