Anyone heard of Choice Holidays? Is it a scam?

[Demented]

I have been contacted this evening by a company called Choice Holidays, I answered a few questions for them when I was stopped by someone in the street (not something I usually do, I must have been in a good mood that day). The carrot they were dangling was the chance to win a holiday.

I have been contacted tonight to say I have won this holiday, however I get the impression that a few people have won. The person on the phone explained that they own self-catering apartments in the likes of Spain/Canaries etc and they only use them during high season and are offering the accommodation to their winners the rest of the year as an advertising thing. They are paying for the flights and apparently the only thing we have to pay is £39.50 for each adult for airport taxes. I am doubtful to say the least. They are having a meeting re this on 4th Oct and I have been invited to attend, at the meeting you get free bottles of wine to take home. I asked if it was timeshare to which he said no and assured me that there were no hidden catches.

I just wondered if anyone has had any experience of Choice Holidays or a similar offer. It just seems too good to be true.

Demented this happened to my mum + dad last year sometime, then a local radio station said it was all a con after someone rang in to tell them about it and they checked it out.
The company that cotacted my parents were called Holidays direct and my mum thought it was Direct Holidays but all the spiel sounds the same as yours.HTH.

Had a similar call a while back and agreed to go to presentation thing but didn't when it came to it (couldn't be arsed). Can't remember if they were the same co, but I looked them up on the internet at the time and yes, they were a timeshare co. The name Choice rings a bell though I can't swear it was them. A friend went to one of these presentations recently and it turned out the holiday "extras" came to about £1k so there was a catch. Be wary!

Wow, I am continually impressed by the power of Mumsnet, only 5 mins later and there is a response already. It would be great if you could ask your friend SueW, thanks!

I have just been to check if they are ABTA registered as they said they were and there is certainly a Choice Holidays listed, they are sending me some info in the post so I will check that the address and ABTA number matches up.

Wow again, that should read three replies, I do feel it probably is a scam, on the otherhand would hate to miss out on a free holiday (why is the expression 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' coming to mind).

Demented, my SIL had a similar thing this year. Not the same company, though, the one she was approached by is called GVC (Grand Vacation Club). She went along to the presentation, and ended up actually buying into their scheme. She also had the "free" holiday. It ended up costing her approx £240 for a holiday for 4 people in Minorca in August, which although not free, is certainly a bargain, and she and her family thoroughly enjoyed it. Dh and I also went along to one of their presentations, but were not in the position to buy into the scheme. We were, however, still given the chance to have exactly the same "free" holiday as her, so it certainly wasn't dependent on buying anything. We didn't take up the holiday, as for the £39.50 deal you had to be prepared to go with 24 hours notice. If you wanted more notice and a bit more choice, that's when the price started increasing. But still, as I said the holiday worked out cheap for my SIL. And we actually quite enjoyed the presentation - although it was fairly hard sell, we weren't put under undue pressure and it was done in one of their properties in Herefordshire, with free tea/coffee/biscuits and a £5 voucher for food at a lovely local pub. You see, that's how sad my life is since kids - even a day at a sales presentation with lunch in a pub is fun when someone else is looking after the kids!

Just a quick update, I have received the details in from the company, turns out they are actually called Your Choice Holidays.

emsiewill, it turns out that it is the Grand Vacation Club that they are promoting. Thanks very much for the information I think DH and I will go as a free holiday would be great but a very cheap one would be fine as well!

I have phoned them for some more info and apparently I will have to give them three preferred dates and we should get our holiday on one of them, we'll just have to wait and see but I have a bit more trust in them now.

Thanks again to everyone!

I've know of a couple who got a free holiday but while they were out there (not sure where they went) the sales people from the company constantly pestered them to buy a timeshare. They pestered them to the point where they were in their apartment for several hours a day and very hard to get rid of.
Did they want to know if you were a house owner/married/working etc? Ie. had good potential (in their eyes) to buy a timeshare?
HTH and your holiday turns out to be genuine and enjoyable.

We once went to a Grand Vacation Club presentation because we had 'won a holiday'. A very long hard sell afternoon. You buy credits which are worth a specific amount of time in a particular resort but you can trade these and swap for different accomodation and dates. I think you still have to pay a service charge on top of the initial purchase price but you never actually own any property.

We were also conned into a similar presentation whilst on holiday in Majorca a few years ago. We were given a tour of the resort (after a taxi ride there), allowed to swim in the pool, provided with drinks, food and a bag of nappies for DS because I hadn't expected to need more than one spare. Then the children were taken to a creche and we were really subjected to a hard sell. We honestly thought that we weren't going to get the children back out of there. We were offered a free holiday as our prize but there was an admin fee, flight supplements and insurance to pay plus the 24 hours notice clause. We also suspected that we would be pestered throughout the holiday if we did go so didn't take up their offer.

Grand Vacation Club is actually just an updated way of selling timeshares. They sell you a few thousand pounds worth of membership, and supposedly that entitles you to stay at any of their resorts in your share bracket. If you want you can pay more and upgrade they say, but I think the amount they expect you to invest is about £6,ooo just to start with. So please be very careful. They can get away with saying they are not timeshare because they are not selling you a part share in a property, instead it's almost like a membership fee to join their "club", but the basic principle is the same. You won't be able to go on holiday where you want when you want unless you stump up a considerable amount more than the minimum they ask for. Hope this makes sense!

Hmmm, I am now doubtful if I will go, I don't like the thought of being pestered throughout my "free" holiday. I also asked if it was timeshare and they said no, but it now seems from the new postings that it is just timeshare under a different name. I will speak to DH when he gets home, he is not too keen to go anyway. Yes they did ask the appropriate questions about income etc.

My mum can't babysit either which does not help matters, we are moving house in just over a week and perhaps I should behave myself and stay at home and pack some boxes !

If anyone has any other experiences of this I would be grateful to hear them to help me make up my mind. Thanks to everyone.

demented, it all sounds well-dodgy to me (I have a suspicious nature anyway)- why not when you have time treat yourselves to a cheapie all-inclusive european break (seem to be loads in the back of the papers) and avoid all the hard-sell it sounds like you'd get on this 'break'?

This sounds like just the sort of thing that appears on Watchdog - just think you should remember that you really don't get something for nothing from this type of company.

Demented - there is no such thing as a free holiday!! Watchdog them and sit back and enjoy the show!

Really glad to read this, had the same experience of stopping to answer questions and then being called up. Wondered if I was looking a gift horse in the mouth by not wanting to go to the presentation, even though I understood there would be full-on selling antics. The thing that makes me cross now, is that the person who called to say we'd won a holiday, then gave me an 0870 number to ring for details which I must have been on for several minutes saying 'Just £39.50 each, really? and £28 for the baby, why that's simply fabulous!' whilst they coined 50? 60? pence a minute from me, damn their eyes.

Just a quick update, I didn't go to the meeting, after giving it much thought I decided that if they gave me a "free" holiday, I didn't want to be continually pestered whilst there to buy into their scheme as I have no intention of doing this. I think I was so tempted because we have not been on holiday this year and it does not look like we are going to manage but DH and I have decided just to get saving for next year and see if we can pick up a bargain!

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice and comments, you really helped me make up my mind!

I am reviving this thread as my sister has had a similar offer from an outfit calling themselves something like Millenium international travel.

She got called at home and told she had won a free holiday but had to phone a certain number first.
She thought it was a con but her dh phoned the number...you know the rest...they have to attend a presentation, it is "definitely not timeshare" etc and there is a £39 "booking fee" and they have to pay kids flights.
I think they should run a mile but seems they are going to go to the presentation to see what the company has to say.
Anyone got an update on this kind of thing?

Jasper, someone else may have some more info about this but the company that I was dealing with phoned me back a few weeks later as I hadn't turned up at the presentation and said that I could be booked into the next one and still receive the holiday. I told them I was sceptical and they reassured me once again that the free holiday was genuine. I raised Meid's point about being pestered whilst on the holiday adn they said there would be no way they would do this. I was also told that I could call back (I think any time in the next two years) and still have the same opportunity so I would also be interested to hear if anyone has any good tales to tell as I could be tempted to give them a call.

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