Holiday Inn Club Vacations South Beach Resort Timeshare

We just arrived at South Beach after driving over 8 hours and discovered that we will not be staying at the resort we have been planning on staying for months!!! We are staying at Staybridge Suites 15 mins away from the resort!! Are you kidding me?? We are owners in IHG Vacation Club and own a timeshare in Orange Lake and this is the way you treat members. First of all, we invited family here to tour the facilities to see what IHG Vacation Clubs has to offer and I can promise you they will not be purchasing anything from a company who treats their owners like this. We are a family of 7 and now we are in cramped accommodations and they will not even give us an extra bed or cot. I can promise you we will NEVER recommend IHG to any of our friends or family!!! My family and extended family has been looking forward to this vacation all summer and now we are stuck 15 mins away from them in a dump!! Ridiculous!! BEWARE DO NOT BUY INTO THIS OWNERSHIP PROGRAM!!!!

LIES!! LIERS!!!! SCAM!!!! My husband called IHG about something and was offered a trip to the south Beach resort for listening to a timeshare presentation. The man on the phone told us that we would stay at the South Beach resort. We were informed yesterday that we would be staying at the Holiday Inn Express in the city, not the resort we were told about on the phone. I called and we were told that a refund is not possible. We emailed and were denied a refund. I called to complain but just got more lies. Just beware of booking with the vacations because it is never what they say. Shame on IHG and Holiday Inn for associating with such scammers!! I am writing this here in order to inform people. In the hopes that others decline the scam or at least know what they are in for.

First, I am an elite member at Holiday Inn hotels and love the Holiday Inn brand, but this experience made me severely doubt their integrity.

I think it was extremely deceptive that when I initially put the money down for this “experience,” the resort was described to me as where I would stay when I got the tour and sales pitch. Then, I find out I am staying at a Holiday Inn Express, which I have stayed in numerous times, so not really what this experience was supposed to be about. When I arrived at Myrtle Beach, the Holiday Inn Express was under construction and the place was in complete disarray, and the room was not up to par. So, not only was I going to stay in a hotel that I wouldn’t have chosen in the first place but now it’s a complete mess and no one had the courtesy to inform me before I arrived. We were then moved to another hotel, the Landmark resort, which is a perfectly fine hotel/resort, but it was still well below the expectations I had for this trip when I booked it, being that I would actually stay at the South Beach Resort that they kept raving about when I initially put my money down. I had to pay a lot of money for Uber rides to get from one hotel to another because of this foul-up, which makes the whole purpose of doing one of these trips a lot less appealing.

Overall, I think this opportunity was spoiled from the beginning. Other companies offer a stay at the resort, where you would be making a purchase so that you know what you are buying. However, this was extremely deceptive and sold the same way, but the offer is to stay in a regular Holiday Inn hotel. And when I called and asked about this, they said the money I deposited was not refundable and that it was in writing that I would be staying at an IHG owned property. That’s a convenient way to hide it. And, the pitch to take this offer was over the phone, so nothing in writing was shown before I handed over my credit card number.

The tour was okay. It was a nice resort. The tour was short. The sales pitch was expected: bombard you with offer after offer trying to get you to buy something after you said no. I may have been interested, but after this experience, I am really rethinking

I would not recommend someone sign up for this opportunity because they will get 30 minutes to experience the resort they are being asked to shell out hundreds of dollars a month for. but, when they are asked if they want to participate, they will be made to believe they will be staying in a great resort until they read the confirmation that their money was received.

I wish we’d read the reviews first!!!

In December, my husband received a phone call inviting us to stay at a Holiday Inn Club Vacations Resort for three nights at a cost of $249 which would be refunded after a two-hour tour. Also included would be a $100 certificate to any Holiday Inn Hotel. After a long discussion, he agreed to do this with the assumption we would be staying at the actual resort. Around February 8th or 9th, we booked the dates of April 17th, 18th, and 19th at the Holiday Inn South Beach Resort in Myrtle Beach (we will already be in the area). We received a confirmation email on February 11th; we were very surprised that we were booked at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Murrells Inlet which is 4 miles from the resort.

I called on February 12th and was told we could not switch this unless we wanted to pay an additional $139.00 a night; I indicated that was not acceptable as we had understood the reservation was at the resort. She then said she could lower the price to $100 a night & I refused that stating that we were led to believe the three nights would be spent at the resort, not a Holiday Inn Express. She said at the time of the phone call, we would have been given an option to stay at the resort or at another property. In our travels, we either stay at the beach or within a block of it; there is no way we would have agreed to stay at a location that far from the beach. I asked her to have a manager call me, she took down my number and as of February 15th, I had not received a call back.

I called again the morning of the 15th and after explaining and being transferred three times, I was told again that we could pay $139 per night and I reiterated this was not what we would want. After further discussion and getting nowhere, I explained that since we were under the premise that we were staying at the resort and are instead at the Holiday Inn Express and we cannot satisfactorily resolve this, I’d like to just cancel the entire thing and receive a refund. She said it was non-refundable and the only possibility of getting our money back would be to send an e-mail to customercare@holidayinnclub.com. This e-mail came back as an invalid address. I called again and this time got reservations who switched me to customer service who tried to switch me to marketing which is where I started that morning.

I then looked at their website and filled out an e-mail form online to which I did not receive a reply.

I called again the morning of the 16th and asked to talk with a manager. I was again switched to multiple departments and finally was transferred to whom was referred as the “Manager of Mini Vacations”; ends up it was back with reservations. I spoke with Chiara who simply read off a sheet of paper that we agreed to stay at a hotel within 1.5 miles of the resort and that we’d be at the resort only for the 2 hour presentation. I tried telling her that is definitely NOT what we were told and that our hotel is 4 miles away, not 1.5 and she just started re-reading her script. She would not discuss this at all and any time I tried to talk, she simply spoke over me to re-read her statement.

Trying to work with the staff is offensive as no one really tries to help; it is simply reading off a paper and transferring customers.

To make this even worse, the offer of $139.00 per night to stay at the resort is ludicrous as their website offers a price of $98.99 per night for those exact same dates.

This situation could have been easily resolved by Holiday Inn moving us to the resort as initially expected and we may have been interested in a vacation club with them. That time has passed. I have sent letters to the CEO and to the General Manager of the South Beach Hotel. If we don’t get our money back, I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau and would advise all the rest of the reviewers in this same situation to do the same.

Stayed at the end of March for a week. Albert at the front desk did not mention, recognize, or thank me for my Spire Elite status with IHG. A clear early 20’s something, he lacked any respect that should be offered to any guest. I offered my credit card, IHG Spire card, and ID when trying to check in and he shoved them back towards me.

He checked the reservation file three times and told me that we did not have a reservation in the system. I finally handed him my IHG credit card again so he could type my name correctly and he found the reservation. Checked in at 2pm and despite calling the resort the previous month to beg for our room to be ready, it was not. Great news after driving 1000 miles with my family including our 3 month old daughter.

The two bedroom villa was very small compared to other IHG Club Vacation properties, and one third the size compared to the Hilton Vacations property in North Myrtle Beach. This property is not close enough to the beach for the beach to be easily accessed. It appears the room was freshly painted (cheap fast paint job), and that was the highlight.

Now for the room problems. Kitchen was tiny with no cabinet space or pantry for food. The appliances were 15 or more years old. Microwave was nearly rusted out, the clock display was unreadable, and the plastic laminate on the touchpad fell into the pots when preparing food on the cooktop. Dishwasher was improperly installed, the bottom stuck out nearly two inches and the top was flush with the surrounding cabinets. The racks to place dishes slid back into the washer because of the extreme angle. Refrigerator was old, dirty, and rusted inside and out. The bathrooms lacked basic cleaning; pubic hairs were all over the floors and on the shower doors when we checked in. The sliding patio screen door fell was falling off when we tried to open it for the first time. The blinds on the single swing open patio door were inoperable and hanging half open. Batteries in the smoke detector, thermostat, and clocks were all dead. Broken glass on the closet door in the guest bedroom made it dangerous for children. The floor were not vacuumed, we found CoCo Puffs all over the bedroom floor, along with bubble gum wrappers, kids toys, used dental floss and other garbage that clearly shows lack of cleaning.

All of the ceiling fans had light bulbs that were burned out, as well as several lamps and multiple ceiling fixtures. The ceilings were recently spray painted, as there was overspray on the lightbulbs, fixtures, and glass. Mirrors and glass doors were totally filthy and smeared. There were no recycling bags, and the recycling program that is advertised is non-existent.

The internet service was not functional most of the week. Front desk said there was a problem because of the large number of guests on the property and suggested I wait until everyone goes to bed to get a good signal.

Many of the rooms have exterior stairways on the common walls next to the bedrooms. The noise from guests on upper floors as well as running up and down the stairs was very disruptive. The property borders the airport, during the day, helicopters depart and land every 3 minutes….hope you like lots of noise.
Despite reporting the problems, NOTHING was fixed during our stay. All of the above was brought to the attention to the front desk when I checked out. A review with the manager via phone call later in the day was promised and it’s been a week and I am still waiting for the call. Really sick of spending my hard earned money for disappointing experiences. Failure of resorts to live up to their end of the bargain when customers hand them $1000’s remains insane.

By the way, your “parking pass” is withheld until you wait in another line to get it. When you tell them you have no interest in their timeshare presentation, the agents issuing the “parking pass” really become friendly!

Would not stay at this location again, even if it was free.