Let Mercantile Claims assist you with MacDonald Timeshare Release, Claims & Compensation
Owners of Macdonald Resort timeshares often find themselves trapped in infinite contracts with rapidly increasing maintenance fees which ultimately stems from a mis-sold timeshare contract. Over recent years there have been a number of ground-breaking rulings regarding mis-sold timeshares by many timeshare groups and resorts which have resulted in refunds and compensation. Many owners of Macdonald Resort timeshare contracts are entitled to or have already made claims.
There has been a huge increase in timeshare release enquiries and timeshare compensation claims from customers with Macdonald Resort timeshares. Most of the Macdonald owners cited annual maintenance fees, mis-selling techniques at point of sale and contracts in perpetuity being the main reasons for them wanting to get rid of their timeshare.
Next time we will go to Leila Playa
Not what I expected our holiday in the sun I will try to write as honestly and fairly as I can.
Villacana will suit many people very well ,but unfortunately it didn’t suit my husband and I. Our apartment 222 was for us a nightmare, due to the traffic noise from the motorway and also the road running past our apartment, also I was unable to access the roof terrace due to having M.S. The 2 single beds were like bricks, so I had a sleepless night.
I contacted reception the next morning (Sunday) to ask for a different apartment away from the road noise, bur was told they were full. I asked reception if I could speak with the manager and I was told that he would be in on the Monday ,and I was told that reception would send him an email.I also asked for toppers for the bed which made a great difference.
By Monday afternoon 2pm I went back to reception to be told that the manager was still not in, so I asked for the RCI number in Malaga.
I asked reception to make the phone call for me which he did, but I was told it was probably their lunch break, and after ringing the number I was told, sorry they are at lunch,and it would be 4 pm before I could speak to them.
I then webt back to my apt. and phoned RCI from my mobile and surprise suprise it was answered by a very pleasant man, who after listening to my problem, told me RCI had 4 apts and that he would have to phone reception to find out if they were atill available, if not he could move us to Crown Resorts Marbella.
When he phoned reception he was told that he could not speak to them until 3 pm as they were on their lunch who deals with it. Rci phoned me to tell me this and that they would call me back, which they did and was told there was a 2 bed with balcony away from the road noise and that we could have it. I had now spent 2 days of my 7 day holiday sorting this out, and still no word from the manager.
We then started to unwind and tried to enjoy our holiday, but soon realised this was not the resort for us.
Villacana is a very pretty resort with beautiful gardens and looks like a Spanish village, one that you would like to visit but not stay.
There was no entertainment on at night, which meant we had very quiet evenings apart from the Friday night, when we went down to the beach bar where a saxophanist was playing and we even enjoyed dancing to his music.
I went to reception on the Friday afternoon just to see if the manager was there and he was. I had a very constructive meeting with him where he did pologise to me and said he should of contacted me. As compensation for all the upset he waived the electricty charge and gave us a bottle of wine, which made me feel much better.We will not return to Villacana as I do not like the resort and I would be worriedif we did which apt we would be allocated as some are great and some are not. Apt 142 was a very good one as it had a balcony and was in a quiet position, but I was glad to be going home to my bungalow with my lovely garden and no stairs. .
I love going to Spain normally but not this time, next time we will go to Leila Playa as we love it there
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Our team here at Mercantile Claims are always on hand to help you with any issues, concerns or questions you have regarding your timeshare contract. Below we have listed the most common questions we receive on a regular basis. If you have a more specific question please contact our team of experts and we will respond with an answer as soon as possible.
We wouldn’t ever come back, and we wouldn’t recommend Macdonald Villacana to anyone else.
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We have to admit Villacana timeshare actually looks quite quaint. It’s designed to look a bit like it’s built in some sort of old Spanish village architectural style, with most of the apartments backing onto each other and courtyard walkways between them. The blocks are just 3 stories high with mainly small shuttered windows to keep out the fierce summer heat. This is what we think defines the place – something that would be really nice to look at if you’re out and about, but not a good place to stay on holiday. Macdonald Villacana Resort fills a thin parcel of land between the manic A7 coastal highway, which is just outside reception, and the original Villacana residential community to the south, which fills the space between Macdonalds and the beach. The way Macdonalds is built, just over half the apartments face south west, while the rest are dark gloomy north east facing units that barely get a shaft of light through the tiny shuttered windows, let alone any sunshine. But even the south west facing apartments are darker than you’d expect due to the small windows and the blocking effect of the old-fashioned shutters. One bedroom apartments are all on the same level, whereas the two and three bedroom units are duplex, so you need to be able to climb stairs if you stay in these. There’s a small quiet pool that bisects the apartment blocks and a really good larger main pool and gardens right at the bottom of the plot well away from the road, plus an indoor pool and bar-restaurant in the same location.
The traditional design means there aren’t the usual balconies here off everyone’s lounge, which you tend to expect and get in typical holiday apartments. If your apartment has a ground floor entrance then you’re lucky and you get a large terrace space or garden outside of your lounge. This means apartments that are south west facing will get excellent sun on their terraces from lunchtime onwards. If you visit out of season, the north east facing apartments still won’t get any sun whatsoever. Ground floor apartments with terraces also have outside barbeques. One bedroom apartments with entrances on the first or second floor have the use of an allocated terrace space on the roof of their block – plenty of sun perhaps in winter when it shines, but totally exposed to the cold winds that often blow here in autumn, winter and early spring. If you have a duplex with an entrance on the first floor, then you’ll end up with a really poxy terrace upstairs on the second floor. Because of the design, half of these terraces look outwards, but the other half are miserable internal patios that directly face the terrace of the opposite apartment just a few metres away – great view, we don’t think, just what you don’t want for your outside space on holiday. The design also means that half the upstairs terraces are north east facing and out of season, apart from the crappy view, you only get a bit of sunshine on just one corner of the terrace in the mornings. Total rubbish.
And the closer you are to reception, the more road noise you’ll get from the A7, which doesn’t let up at all from 7am to midnight, and being the major east west route for the area continues all night long too, but at a reduced rate. One of the problems here is that Macdonald’s Villacana is built at the brow of a small rise, which means lorries on the A7 are all pulling hard as they climb the slopes from both from the west and from the east – so you get the worst of it here. The second problem is the fact that windows don’t seal well and some let in masses of the road noise. If you can, you want to be in an apartment that is south of the small pool, these will be the quietest. If you’re north of the quiet pool and not used to road noise, you’re going to have terrible nights’ sleep here, even if you’ve got an internally facing bedroom that you can use, because the traffic noise just bounces around between the apartment blocks.
We swapped for a two bedroom unit. Although Macdonalds are trying to force change on the remaining reluctant owners, this is still a traditional timeshare where you own the right to occupy a particular week in a particular apartment. So units won’t be available for others to occupy unless weeks have reverted to Macdonalds, or the owners have banked their weeks. We’d forgotten that, especially since we’ve been going to the Marriott a lot over the past 10 years and they allocate units much like a hotel. When we arrived, we found that we’d swapped to a north east facing duplex with a ground floor entrance, but we now know it was in the good place for less road noise. We didn’t appreciate the road noise bit when we were checking in. We just thought dark, gloomy, miserable and our hearts sank. We asked if there was anything else available and as it happened, there was a south west facing duplex much closer to reception. We thought that would be much better and so we took it. Wrong move by us. First off, it had a first floor entrance up a flight of steps. That meant we weren’t going to get a sunny ground floor terrace like we’d hoped. Then we discovered that south west facing apartments remain pretty dark due to the narrow windows and shutters, as we mentioned previously. After that we discovered our outside space was one of the poxy second floor patios, but worse than that, it was an internal facing patio, directly opposite the block across the courtyard, and also north east facing and therefore got little or no sun – so the worst of all worlds. Add to all this the fact that the apartment smelt really musty. It was so bad in the cupboards that Macdonalds had put air fresheners in them, (but only one had some smell left), and all the clothes we hung up ended up smelling really fusty. It was embarrassing to be out and about in bad smelling clothes and all the unused clean clothes we took home had to go straight into the washer. We really wish we hadn’t used up our exchange week for this.
To be fair, fixtures, fittings and furnishings were pretty decent. For us Brits you get UK terrestrial TV channels and Sky Sports. The bed mattresses were fine. The overbath shower had good pressure and there was always plenty of hot water. There was plenty of cupboard space in the bedrooms, but as we said above, they just smelled so bad the whole place reaked. There’s no charge for the room safe. But two basics are useless here. If you want WiFi you’ll have to pay €20 to have it. In 2017 when WiFi is a standard expectation, Macdonalds should be ashamed that they operate like this – but we don’t think they are. Secondly, it was pretty darned cold at night when we stayed but 2 of the 3 aircon units in the apartment wouldn’t give out any heat – not good, and totally unacceptable to place holidaymakers in accommodation with faulty heaters. We reported them to reception but wonder if the repairs were made? Also, Macdonald’s standard operating practice is to charge for electricity on departure. So if you pay for electricity in your home resort maintenance fees you’ll end up paying twice if you exchange here.
We really like the main pool area and the contracted out bar-restaurant that overlooks it is decent enough, although at quiet times in the winter, you’ll find it closes at 6pm right after the 2 for 1 Happy Hour. As a result we didn’t eat here, it was too early for us. Coffee in the bar is from pods. It’s acceptable enough, just a bit weak like most pod systems, and you’ll get better elsewhere. If you’re looking to eat out locally around Cancelada, you’ll find some of the restaurants close for lengthy periods over winter but there’s still plenty of choice for a week or so. And you could go further afield if you want to.
As we said, this was a second visit. Now we’re sure, we wouldn’t ever come back, and we wouldn’t recommend Macdonald Villacana to anyone else.
No En-suite Bathroom
Stayed in December went as two couples, stayed in a 2 Bedroom which had only 1 bathroom, most 4 star resorts have an on suite master bedroom. Although it was low season staff were not very informative or helpful, many of the amenities were unavailable. Staff did not advise us of electricity bill and was surprised with this at check out.
Wish we had stayed elsewhere
We did not enjoy our stay at Villacana and really wish we would have stayed somewhere else. First of all, we were provided with incorrectly written directions to the resort.
According to the written directions, once we passed the resort at mile marker 165/166, we were supposed to exit at “Selwo Park.” There is no Selwo Park.
After we passed a couple of exits, we turned off, only to find ourselves on another highway, which necessitated us driving 20 miles or so out of our way in order to turn around.
All said and done, after travelling and being up for far too long, we wasted 2 1/2 hours just trying to get to the resort after we saw it from the highway. In our book, there really is no excuse for providing incorrect directions.
We had GPS in our rental car but the GPS did not recognize any of the streets in the directions that were provided to us. When we called the resort, they told us to use google maps. Well, it was a while after we had been lost before we started to have access to google maps on our phone, and were able to use google maps to get (finally) to the resort.
After we had been at the resort for a few days, we discovered that, once you pass the resort coming from Malaga, you need to exit at the second “cambio de sendido” and turn around to exit at Cancelada to get to the resort.
Well, guess what? At the top of the second cambio de sendido is a tiny street sign, not visible from the highway, labelled Avenue Parque Salvo (not Selwo Park).
When we arrived at the resort, the staff at the front desk had already left (about an hour early according to our estimate).
We were greeted by a security guard. The man was very sweet but only spoke a few words in English. He gave us a map and showed us on the map where our unit was located. Well, the “street” on the map was marked one street in the wrong direction. So, after all of that, we wasted another 20 minutes trying to find our unit.
When we arrived inside the unit, it was cold. So much for being welcomed to Villacana. There was a tray with a few bags of Nescafe, tea, and sugar, and some individual packets of cream. That was it. We were appalled that the resort didn’t even so much as warm up the unit prior to arrival.
When we were presented with an electricity bill at check-out, we figured that’s probably why they didn’t. I don’t know about you but having to pay for electricity is @#$% in my book. While the place is cute the way that the buildings are set up and may be pleasant in the warmer months, it is cold, damp, and uninviting in December. Oh, yeah, and the restaurant was closed the entire time that we were there…”for the holidays” no less…so much for staying at a resort.
The robes that were left on the larger bed at check-in were not freshly laundered, and one of the two robes was dingy. I only slept well two nights, and the reason I slept well those two nights is because I was so completely exhausted (the first night after being up for over 35 hours) that I’m pretty sure I would have fallen asleep on a bed of nails. The bed seemed like a box springs with a mattress pad (a couple inches thick) on top — not comfortable.
The pillows were long and narrow and not the appropriate size for the bed; hence, the ends of the pillows overlapped — not an ideal situation for sleeping with someone.
In the bathroom, the toilet paper holder was mounted on the wall above the toilet so, in order to sit down on the toilet, you either had to sit at an angle or manoeuvre yourself around the toilet paper holder.
The shower in the tub had a swivel glass panel to keep the water from spraying on the floor. The panel really restricted movement in the shower; when taking a shower, you had to be careful not to hit the panel with your elbow or water would end up all over the floor.
There was a sign in the bedroom indicating that towels were “routinely inventoried” and that, if you wanted to know how much a towel cost, you should call. There is a right way and a wrong way to express this message — this is an example of the wrong way. There was an air freshener in one of the closets, which smelled like mildew, so we were reluctant to hang any clothes in that closet.
If you wanted to do laundry, it was 5.50 euros to wash and 2-3 euros (can’t remember exactly) to dry; facilities were limited and in the reception building.
So, all things considered, we really didn’t like this place, and we aren’t inclined to recommend it to anyone. With that said, if you intend to go in high season and spend the vast majority of your time poolside, you might enjoy this place.
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