Mar 10, 2021 07:43 PM
4818 Views
Courtyard Holidays World has a very profitable business model which thrives on ripping off people of their hard-earned money. They are a sales company and not a holiday company. I will point out their unethical sales practices and lies one by one here.
I got a call from one of their sales executives during the mid of the week inviting me to Le Meridian Hotel in Gurgaon. They said that they have selected my profile for a reward. They said that they will give me 4 coupons - 1 lunch/dinner coupon for up to 4 people in Punjab Grill Restaurant, Gurgaon, a free hotel voucher for 2 days and 3 nights, a 10000 rupees holiday discount voucher, and 2 Gold Class movie tickets!
The sales executive mentioned during the call that I do not need to carry any cash or card with me when I go to collect my gifts. He told me that there are no terms and conditions to get the gift as I have won it. He also explicitly mentioned that there will be no sales pitch or transaction or buying/selling. I requested him to set up a time during the weekend and he asked me to come on Sunday. He asked me to come during the afternoon but I was unable to go. They kept calling me again and again pestering me and requesting me to come down even if it is in the late evening.
I agreed to go there in the evening with my wife. We went to Le Meridian in the evening at around 7 PM. After reaching there we were asked to wait for some time and then fill up a form with my contact details, job, income, etc. A little while later, a young and smart lady Meenu from Uttarakhand came and invited us inside a hall where their salespeople were talking to multiple families at different tables.
We sat down on one of the round tables and Meenu started explaining to us about holiday packages. She said that this presentation may take up to 45 minutes. We were not told about such a long presentation earlier during the call. Anyways, we asked her to go ahead. Meenu was very personable and tried to be as friendly as possible during the presentation. She kept sharing about various holiday packages, destinations, etc., and also explained to us about their so-called "holiday ownership plan".
Every now and then, she used to call one of her seniors to explain to us the financials, exclusions, terms, and conditions, etc. They told us about the 10-year subscription plan which includes many international destinations. This plan costs Rs. 195000 one-time subscription charge and 8000 rupees as so-called "maintenance charges" every time you go for a holiday.
Please mind that the only inclusions are stays in hotels, most of which are not 5 stars, and they're per night tariff would be hardly 2-3K. Now, if you are one of those who are able to take 1 vacation every year, you will end up spending 195000+ 800010=2, 75000. This means 27500 per year for 6 nights. This means even if they give you a room worth Rs. 4000 per night, they will still make a profit of more than 10% and also the interest of your investment remains with them. However, the rooms you will get may not be worth Rs. 4000. As far as I heard they do not provide 5-star properties but most of their properties are 3 stars with an average negotiated per night cost of around 1000 to 2000. They are able to get cheaper rates due to their partnership with allows them to provide bulk bookings to hotel partners. They claim to give you a food discount of 50-60% which again comes with a caveat that it is subject to change and maybe more in some locations. You may never get a discount beyond 10-20% on your meals at inflated prices. Zomato and Swiggy give more than 50% discount in most of their restaurants! The other catch is the annual maintenance charge. This is a charge which is subject to change. They may increase this charge to 12000 or 15000 or even 20000 per year! You would not be able to do anything legally if they increase these charges because you would have signed a document that would have approved them to do the same.
Now comes the catch. As soon as they explain the plan, they say that this offer is valid only for the day. Only if you book the offer on that day, you will be able to purchase it, otherwise, you cannot! They will pressurize you to the extent possible. If you purchase the plan, you will be the ones who will be writing these reviews complaining about their worst customer service.
But, if you do not purchase the plan and are able to somehow come out of the clutches of their extremely persistent salespeople, they will hesitantly give you the coupons/vouchers. But I feel that none of the people are able to redeem even one of these vouchers. The reasons are below:-
The food coupons are for 2 people for a Veg Thali in Punjab Grill - a restaurant known for Non-Veg food. This is just valid for 7 days. They know that a lot of people will not travel to Punjab grill just for 2 thalis if they do not have to go that side due to some other reason. They have shamelessly written in the voucher that the validity cannot be extended under any circumstances.
The Rs. 10000 gift voucher is a discount voucher for international packages which will be high priced for you. They will charge 30000 extra and reduce 10000 from it. Would you use that?
The 2 nights 3 days holiday is for some hotels only and is applicable only during the off-peak season it seems. And the off-peak season is decided by the hotel it seems. What a shame.
The movie vouchers are not a gold class and maybe the cheapest front seat tickets for PVR which is applicable only during weekdays and not weekends, not even Fridays! How shocking and shameful is this!
So, they are basically trying to give away freebies that nobody wants or nobody is able to avail. This is just a trick to befool you to go to listen to them for an hour. And it's working. A huge number of people they call go there to listen to them. And many of them buy the packages and cry later.
My request to everyone is to expose this massive fraud and talk about your experience to everyone. The only reason they are surviving is that most people are not aware of this fraud.
