Royal Holiday Club

Not to be confused with the Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel in Singapore, known for a time as Royal Holiday
Royal Holiday Club
Private
Industry Hotels
Founded 1983
Founders Costamex Group
Headquarters Mexico City, Mexico
Areas served
 United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, with services in numerous other countries
Key people
 Pablo González Carbonell
(President)
Rosario Rodríguez Rojo
(Director)
Brands Park Royal hotel chain
Services Full service hospitality and resort management company
Owner Royal Holiday Servicios Administrativos S.A. de C.V.
Website Royal-Holiday.com

Royal Holiday Club (or Royal Holiday) is a vacation club membership operator and resort developer based in Mexico offering points-based vacation ownership. Founded in 1983, the company's points can be exchanged for lodging, amenities, and entertainment at around 180 locations in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.[1] Royal Holiday owns and operates ten of its own hotels, with eight in Mexico, one in Puerto Rico, and one in Argentina.[2] Employing around 3,500 people as of 2010,[1] Royal Holiday currently has approximately 110,000 members[3] from 52 countries.[4] The company continues to implement a policy wherein members can "loan" their memberships and credit points to others, such as friends and family.[5]

History

1980s-1990s

Founded in Mexico in 1983 as a private company centered on hospitality, Royal Holiday Club opened its initial sales offices in Cancun and Cozumel in 1985.[1] Implementing a business model involving timeshares and the use of membership points to pay for amenities and lodging,[6] initially Royal Holiday Club was owned by the large hospitality and real estate company then named Costamex Group.[7] In the late 1980s Royal Holiday Club began expanding, partnering with resorts in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.[1] Royal Holiday Club also started the remodeling or construction of several of its own "Park Royal" hotels, with two in Cancun.[2] Bloomberg Businessweek describes Royal Holiday Club's parent company as owning and operating a chain of hotels "that offer boarding, lodging, recreational and entertainment services."[7]

According to CNN Expansion, by the mid-1980s, Royal Holiday Club had over 60 members in four continents. Gonzalez Carbonnell of the company was quoted stating the company hadn't "yet arrived" at its expansion strategy, but was looking internationally outside of Mexico. Among the acumulative sales of vacation properties in the United States in 1994, Marriott was in the lead with $225 million, followed by West Gate ($120 million) and in third place, Royal Holiday Club, with $110 million. By 1994, Royal Holiday Club had accumulated world sales of $481 million.[8]

2000-2010

The Park Royal Cozumel resort on Cozumel Island has Mayan-themed architecture and design.[3]

Expansion Magazine named Royal Holiday Club "one of the best 500 enterprises in Mexico" in 2006,[3] and the following year the publication La Jornada described Royal Holiday as "an integral company of tourist services [in Mexico] ranging from renting a car to a cruise."[9] At the time Royal Holiday had around 65,000 members.[10] In 2007 the Mayan-themed Park Royal Cozumel hotel won an ARDY award for best Architecture and Interior Design from the American Association of Developments and Resorts (ARDA), and the next year the same resort won the RCI's Gold Crown Award for service standards.[3]

Mexico's consumer protection agency PROFECO reported a significant rise in complaints from Royal Holiday's members in 2007 compared to previous years.[10] With the complaints chiefly citing misrepresentation of the offer during the sales process,[11] PROFECO reported that Royal Holiday maintained a complaint "solve" rate averaging around 90%.[9] The report led to an ABC 20/20 investigation in 2008[12] regarding Royal Holiday's membership sales practices and contract structure.[10] Later that summer, the director of Royal Holiday Club stated that "both the resale program [focused on in the media] and the 'International Leisure Group' name under which it was marketed were fraudulent undertakings by rogue sales individuals and were presented to prospective members without the knowledge, approval or involvement of Royal Holiday." The "rogue" individuals were dismissed and the company initiated criminal proceedings against them.[11]

In 2009 the Park Royal Ixtapa hotel was awarded both the Golden Apple Award for service from Apple Vacations and the Quality Assurance Award from MLT Vacations in Ixtapa.[3] Also that year, Expedia ranked Park Royal Cozumel as a "top hotel" on its website.[3] Following a review of Royal Holiday practices in 2009, the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida and the Caribbean[13] raised Royal Holiday's prior "F"[14] rating for reliability and service to a “B.”[15] In 2010, this rating was elevated to an “A- and in 2011 to an A+.”[16]

As of 2010, Royal Holiday employed about 3,500 people and maintained a membership base of approximately 85,000 members.[1] That year five of Royal Holiday's hotels won Gold Crown Awards for service from RCI (Resort Condominiums International),[3] and the following year six Royal Holiday hotels won the award.[3]

2011-present

Exterior photography of the Cancun Caribe Park Royal Grand Hotel & Resort. The hotel is owned and operated by Royal Holiday Club.

In November 2012, a judge in Colombia ruled that Royal Holiday Club would have difficulty copyrighting its own name in the country, citing "similarities" to other hotel chains using the word 'royal.'[17] In an appeal, the Costamex Group argued that their use of royal was unlikely to cause confusion among customers, as the word was used only in tandem with differentiating elements. By July 2013 Costamex was awaiting a decision on the appeal.[17] Pablo González Carbonell continues to serve as the president of Royal Holiday Club as of 2014,[4] and the parent company of Royal Holiday Club, which now goes by the name Royal Holiday Servicios Administrativos S.A. de C.V., is based in Mexico City.[7] In March 2015, RCI gave Park Royal Cozumel their "premier all-inclusive" qualification for ranking well in several areas relating to hospitality and service.[18] As of 2015, Royal Holiday Club had approximately 100,000 members[3] from around 52 countries.[4]

Overview

Business model

"[With certain 'all-inclusive' contracts like Royal Holiday Club's], members buy credits on five successively higher levels offering increasingly attractive benefits. Besides stays at more luxurious properties, the upper levels feature perks such as VIP services, luxury cruises, tour discounts, lower prices for additional credits and longer advance booking periods. Among other major features of the club, the cost of its members’ vacation stays is 'frozen' at set rates for 30 years. What’s more, the credits can be sold, rented or inherited."
— Bob Schulman of La Oferta (May 2015)[6]

Royal Holiday Club's business model is based on granting membership credits to be redeemed by its members.[4] According to the European news agency World Folio[19] in 2014,[4] the points can be exchanged for hotel stays at beach resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean, as well at international destinations "including leading capital cities."[4] The company advertises that its "vacation club" system gives members flexibility to choose how and where their point credits are used, in comparison to the limited options of a conventional timeshare agreement.[20]

Although credits are primarily redeemed for lodging in one of the land-based resorts managed or arranged for by the company, members are able to exchange their Royal Holiday credits for alternate hotel lodging and cruise travel[21] totalling "3,000 routes"[6] via alliances with exchange fulfillment companies including Resort Condominiums International (RCI).[21] The president of Royal Holiday Club, Pablo González Carbonell, has argued that this points system gives flexibility to its members, as "[members'] holiday tastes and needs change over their lifetimes, [and] they continue to find within the club holiday destinations to suit them."[4] Royal Holiday Club offers "all-inclusive" deals, with certain contracts allowing members access to lodging, food, amenities, and entertainment through the redeeming of points instead of paying cash.[6] As of April 2015, Royal Holiday continued to implement a policy wherein members can "loan" their memberships and credit points to others, such as friends and family.[5]

Property locations

Park Royal hotels redirect here. For other uses, see Park Royal (disambiguation)
Royal Holiday Club's hotel on Cozumel Island was undergoing construction to become a five star hotel as of 2015.[6]

As of 2010 the company maintained agreements with 180 hotel properties, allowing members to redeem points at hotels and resorts in Mexico, the United States, the Caribbean Islands, and in 49 additional countries.[22] While members can also redeem points at other facilities and cruises through Royal Holiday's additional business partnerships,[21] as of 2015 Royal Holiday owns and operates ten of its own hotels, with eight in Mexico, one in Puerto Rico, and one in Argentina.[2] The company's chain of hotels also books guests who aren't Royal Holiday members.[6] As of May 2015, the Grand Park Royal Cancun Caribe hotel and resort was rated five stars. The resort had 344 rooms, suites, and villas, with other features such as four restaurants and several smaller cafes and lounges.[6] Royal Holiday has announced that upgrades to their Park Royal property on Cozumel Island will be finished late in 2015, and that the upgrades are intended to raise the hotel to a five star designation.[6]

Hotels owned and operated exclusively by Royal Holiday[2]
Hotel name Country City
Grand Park Royal Cancún Caribe  Mexico Cancun
Park Royal Acapulco  Mexico Acapulco
Park Royal Buenos Aires  Argentina Buenos Aires
Park Royal Cancún  Mexico Cancun
Park Royal Club Cala  Puerto Rico Palmas del Mar
Park Royal Cozumel  Mexico Cozumel
Park Royal Huatulco  Mexico Huatulco
Park Royal Ixtapa  Mexico Ixtapa
Park Royal Los Cabos  Mexico San Jose del Cabo
Park Royal Los Tules  Mexico Puerto Vallarta

Awards and nominations

Selected awards for Royal Holiday Club and associated hotels
Year Award Nominee Category Result
2007 ARDY Awards Park Royal Cozumel Best Architecture and Interior Design[3] Won
2009 Apple Vacations Awards Park Royal Ixtapa Golden Apple Award[3] Won
MLT Vacations Awards Quality Assurance Award[3] Won
2015 RCI Awards Park Royal Cozumel Premier All-Inclusive Award[18] Won

Gallery

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Statistical information". Royal Holiday Club. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Park Royal Hotels". royal-holiday.com. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "About Us". Royal-Holiday.com/en/us. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The creators of smiles". Word Folio (AFA Press (theworldfolio.com)). 2014. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  5. 1 2 "Share your Membership!". Royal Holiday News. April 27, 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Schulman, Bob (May 2, 2015). "Royal Holiday club raises the vacation bar". La Oferta. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  7. 1 2 3 "Company Overview of Royal Holiday Servicios Administrativos S.A. de C.V.". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  8. ↑ Martes, Eduardo (September 20, 2011). "Costamex. Por la aldea global". CNN Expansion. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  9. 1 2 Garcia, Miriam Posada (July 13, 2007). "Quejas recurrentes contra 27 empresas turísticas: Profeco". La Jornada. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  10. 1 2 3 "Vacations for Life: Too Good to Be True?". ABC News. 11 April 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  11. 1 2 Tremblay, Jason (25 June 2008). "Royal Holiday Club Timeshare Fires Back". The Timeshare Authority. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  12. ↑ "Royal Holiday Club Responds to Article" (PDF). Timesharing Today (#99): 1. May–June 2008. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  13. ↑ "BBB".
  14. ↑ Jones, Jesse (31 August 2009). "Consumer investigator: vacation club membership certificate". King 5 News (Seattle, WA NBC News Affiliate). Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  15. ↑ "Better Business Bureau Raises Royal Holiday’s Rating to ‘B’". Business Wire. 27 May 2009. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  16. ↑ "Royal Holiday's Better Business Bureau Rating raised". CNBC. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  17. 1 2 "La cadena hotelera Royal Holiday no ha podido registrar su marca en Colombia". La Republica. July 18, 2013. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  18. 1 2 "Park Royal Hotels & Resorts ranked among the best in the industry!". Royal Holiday News. March 31, 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  19. ↑ "Tourism Slated to Grow in Mexico". Royal Holiday News. July 8, 2014. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  20. ↑ DeDerian, Babbie (2015). "Vaction Club". LuxuryWeb Magazine. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  21. 1 2 3 "Ongoing Royal Holiday Club (cover)" (PDF). Timesharing Today (#98): 1. March–April 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  22. ↑ Tremblay, Jason. "Royal Holiday Timeshare Making the News- Part I". The Timeshare Authority. Retrieved 29 October 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Royal Holiday Club.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.