Seasons Holidays Reviews 189

I came across this company a couple of years ago when they took over the management of the lodges at Slaley Hall. Since then they have told many untruths to owners and 'encouraged' them to give up their timeshares and indeed pay Seasons for the privilege! in an attempt to acquire the resort for virtually nothing. They are unprofessional, unethical and underhand charlatans - beware do not trust them!

As stated by others on this site,Seasons do not respect their customers or their rights. When they took over in 2019 they asked us to give them time to show what they could do for us. Now we know!!! as they attempt to force us out of our lodges for their benefit. Stay clear of them and their products.

If this company get anywhere near the timeshare that you own, then brace yourself. Slaley Hall owners are now fighting to hold on to what they rightfully own.

The company managing and marketing this resort specialise in ‘luxury’ breaks and holidays such as Seaham Hall and market lodges under the brand luxurylodges .com. In April 2019, this company bought in to Slaley Hall Lodges and Belton Woods Lodges.

Many of the timeshare weeks at these two resorts were pre-owned by people who had made a substantial commitment to purchase a week in the same lodge for 60 years. Dependent on when they bought, the number of bedrooms and the time of year, prices ranged for some into 10s of thousands of pounds and a lot of members had to take finance to secure a lifetime of holidays for them and their families.

Behind every purchase is a personal story and people who love their holiday weeks. Young couples bought to provide their children with a lifetime of holidays, older couples to give their grandchildren holidays, working couples saw the chance to take an annual week away from the grind and so it goes.

Our initial purchase was a single week at Belton Woods on my birthday week. Later we bought a second week there to take the grandchildren on holiday. As more grandchildren came along, we invested in two weeks in Slaley Hall Lodges so that we could take all of the grandchildren each year between the two resorts. We got married on our first week at Slaley Hall Lodges so that we could celebrate every anniversary there.

Since taking over at the resorts, Seasons Holidays have employed a high-pressure sales approach in trying to obtain the weeks held by independent owners. They have consistently offered a flexible Seasons package for sums well in excess of £10,000 lasting just 7-years in exchange for our fixed week/fixed lodge weeks that are valid until 2069. They are so desperate to obtain the weeks that Seasons have reduced the commitment over time until they were offering £1,000 and no commitments to those who would return their weeks in August 2021.

In effect, it has been suggested by timeshare owners they have been picking off the more vulnerable owners since becoming the management company for the resorts in 2019. One couple that we met at the resort in our first year there and spoke to every year on our annual holiday were persuaded to sell their week when one of them developed dementia, thus making their visits very difficult. A friend of ours, having lost his spouse, eventually met someone new and gave timeshare weeks as a wedding present to his new partner. Now suffering ill health, he has been persuaded to surrender his weeks and losing his investment.

Alongside, the high-pressure tactics, Seasons have openly and persistently ignored the constitution of the timeshare owners club and have isolated owners from their elected committee, have refused to hold democratic AGMs and have failed to publish accounts. Not only have the members seen no Club accounts since those to April 2019 but Seasons have failed to submit accounts to Companies House for three of their own limited companies. Members and independent committee members are still awaiting responses to questions about the 2019 accounts.

The remaining independent owners at Slaley Hall Lodges have now been given notice that a dormant company with assets of just £10 has somehow managed to obtain 10% of the weeks (approximately 190) and has proposed the dissolution of the club, thus depriving the remaining timeshare owners of their purchases. Amazingly, this dormant company was incorporated by the current trustees who were installed just this year by Seasons and against the wishes of the independent committee members. This company was incorporated just a month after Seasons bought in to the Slaley Hall Lodges resort and an identical company including Belton Woods in the name was incorporated at the same time. Belton Woods timeshare owners beware.

I have tried to work with this company as have many other timeshare owners at the resort. I have taken 2 breaks at their Whitbarrow resort and one at Clowance, but they appear to have no intention of working with the current independent timeshare owners.

Holidays here may well be luxury but would anyone with a conscience and a sense of decency want to be associated with a company that behaves in this way. I personally would not recommend booking a break with Seasons Holidays unless they start to respect their clients.

We stayed at Clowance and reserved a table over the phone at 9pm. We went early to the restaurant at 7pm to watch the entertainment which had was changed and had started early, without any notification. The receptionist noted our 9pm booking. At 8.55pm a couple arrived and was shown to their table. But we were told at 9pm by a young waitress that the kitchen was closed. We don't drive and had run out of food. Worst still when I expressed my shock, I was accused of lying by the waitress. We gulped our food down and escaped!!! I know 9pm is late but we booked in advance. I was also in tears because if we had been informed at 7pm. We would have ordered a takeaway. We felt inferior timeshare.

We stayed at the beautiful clowance estate and on the drive in, we thought what a great estate.
We arrived at our luxury sleep six apartment to find an early 1950 cell block or similar, slightly exaggerating there but it was old and fusty smelling with stains on the carpets, not only that we have a keys membership sleep 6, we received a sleep 4 if you pulled out the setee .
As per the other reviews, the standard reply must be , you didn't book till late and its all we had available.
I stated to the reception we booked a luxury lodge and its neither luxury or a lodge, there must be something for the trade descriptions there!
The grounds and facilities were nice, it was just depressing walking back to our non - luxury room through the very nice luxury lodges.
I wonder if you would get a lodge if you paid the £35K they where asking , as we where promised the same deal when we took on the keys investment. but as of today, we always semm to get second best.

Seasons breached the Rules of Occupation with me - denied having done so and now refusing to respond to emails

I have visited two Seasons resorts this past 6 months and have now met 4 of their sales agents. What really concerns me about Seasons is that they have no focus on customer service or quality of the customer experience. Seasons is all about financial engineering and hard selling. All they want to talk about is how much money you will pay to join their schemes and when you want to exit it is exactly the same conversation. It feels to me like a trap. I have decided to avoid the Loyalty Nights or LuxuryLodges schemes as they do not appear to be sustainable unless you always want to travel during the off peak periods. The idea that you pay so much money and then basically sit on the phone just hoping that they have some availability each year makes me shudder. The consumer is powerless in this arrangement.

We have just returned from clowance estate Cornwall using our pestana priority membership in association with seasons holidays. We have had an awful experience staying in the golf view apartments which are in a very poor condition.
When we first entered the apartment there was an appalling musty old unclean smell and this was on the towels and bedding and because of the smell I didn't want to unpack the suitcases because the smell would get on our clothes.
There wasn't a golf view as all the trees and bushes had grown covering the view of the golf course not as described in the website description.
There was no lock on the door to the balcony it was broken and just a bolt replaced it, there was an appalling musty old unclean smell, the sofa leather looking seat covers were ripped and in bad repair, the radiator had melted, there was mould and damp on the windows and a continual dripping tap which left horrible stains in the sink.
Because it was so old you could hear every footstep from the rooms at either side and the rooms above due to squeaky flooring and even every time a toilet was flushed.
We complained and was told there wasn't anything else available.
We were offered our points to be refunded and our reservation fee but only to use next time.
Bearing in mind that 3 of their staff admitted that they put us in poor accommodation why would we consider returning to that apartment.
One member of the reservation staff even said these words; " oh yes the golf view apartment is like living in a time warp haha" TOTALLY UNFUNNY, THIS WAS OUR SUMMER HOLIDAY!!!
We paid £614 on top of our membership points and have been refused any refund. Our holiday has been ruined by this accommodation. Why did they put us in such a poor condition apartment knowing it was in such a poor condition taking our money from us for which we assumed would be luxury accommodation as quoted on their website