Myth 2: Holiday now - Pay in EMI

In my gmail account I came across the following AdSense Ad.

   Holiday Now - Pay In EMI - ClubMahindra.com/Fun-Family-Forever - 
   Pay in Easy EMIs & get 25 yrs of membership. Sign up & Get LCD TV!

Catchy but misleading. Normally from a EMI option you get to understand that you take a product / service like TV home and then pay later. But here you would have paid much more than the actual cost of a holiday holiday before you can start enjoying it.

Consider this if you take holiday on Club Mahindra EMI plan for say White-Studio, you would make advance payment of Rs 27500/ upfront with EMIs of Rs 7014/- (approximately.

Then you will be entiltled to take holiday after 15 months, by which time you would have already paid-up : Rs 27500/- upfront  and Rs 105210/- as EMIs for a Grand Total of Rs 132710/- that is Rs 1.32 lacs .

So do not be fooled by the promise - Holiday now - Pay in EMI.


Now Club Mahindra is not wrong in charging this, it is how the Timeshare business model works. One should not entice people with wording which may not mean the same thing as the first party tries to make second party believe by mis-communication cues. That is not ethical marketing; that is mis-representation.

Myth 1: White membership works..

Club Mahindra Sales exec will tell you that one can take a White membership and still enjoy the benefit of holiday in Red season for 5 days in lieu of week's entitlement for White. Sounds good enough if one can take a vacation in peak season.

In my case, when I enquired about the availability for White members in RED season, the Sales Exec assured without battling an eyelid that for Red season the booking will be on first-come-first-serve basis 15 days prior to that. Technically yes, but in reality you just got free entry on Club Mahindra spin ride.

What he would not mention to you is - that for the RED season member the booking window would have opened 6 months in advance and most of the bookings would have gone by 2nd or 3rd month of window opening. I have heard from numerous sources that to get a reasonable assurance on a availability you have to make booking atleast 4 months in advance.

So you are left to fend for at mercy of cancellations. Even response from Club Mahindra say so  -

You can apply for booking in red season 48 hrs to 6 month in advance but your booking would be confirmed before 15 days because there are lots of member booked their holidays in advance in their red season but it happens that some of them does cancel their booking and that time your booking request will be confirmed.

Do consider this fact, if you are making a plan for stress-less vacation, would you leave it till 15 days in advance, which would possibly run down to 10 days or less considering their responsiveness. In all eventuality, you may just get the polite though mocking reply - "We are sorry, but there is no availability".

Consider otherwise also, you do need to book flight tickets as well. To get reasonable fare or confirmed booking there, you need to make the booking one month in advance. Hm ... mmm..- that leaves you in piquant situation - should you make a airline booking 1 month in advance hoping to get confirmation on Club Mahindra vacation 15 days later. 

So where does that leave you - EMPTY PROMISES dangling around your neck reminding how you were taken for a ride.

My Advice:

• Take White membership only if you plan to take vacations in mid-season (WHITE). Anytime you are able to manage a vacation in RED season, take that as bonus.Otherwise you are setting yourself up for disappointment. 5 RED days for 7 WHITE days simply doesn't work as you would hope.
• BLUE Club Mahindra membership would be a strict no-no. I even read on a consumer forum, about the case of a lady who was not able to take vacation for 6 years. I could not find post again, if someone can please post the link in the comments.