It looks like Royal Resorts (a major vacation club/timeshare company in Mexico) has been totally incorporated into Holiday Inn Club Vacations and gotten rid of a few more Cancun resorts.
If you remember my prior post, Royal Resorts already reassigned the Royal Sands, Royal Cancun, Royal Haciendas, and Grand Residences properties to Holiday Inn Club Vacations. Now, Royal Resorts has sold off both Royal Uno and the Royal Islander to Tortuga Resorts UK Limited; Royal Uno will now be managed by Hilton Resorts and its name will change to Hilton Cancun Mar Caribe. Royal Uno was supposed to be Royal Resorts’ flagship resort and was just opened in 2022. Royal Islander never included an all-inclusive meal plan, while other Royal Resorts properties offered all-inclusive plans–mandatory for non-members, and optional for members.
Hilton is already accepting reservations for Royal Uno but under the new name of Hilton Cancun Mar Caribe–you can book the resort through Hilton right now for vacation dates starting November 1, 2023 and beyond.
Has anyone already stayed at this resort under its original name of Royal Uno? Will you go now that it will become a Hilton-managed property?
I did stay at this resort – it was really nice. Under the RR control we bought a Discovery Vacation package certificate for another stay for 8 days in a 2 bdrm suite for 6 ppl. Now that RR sold R1 to Tortuga Resorts/Hilton – we are having an issue trying to redeem the certificate for another stay. RR is trying to get us to stay at their resort which is somewhat inferior to what we purchased. I need to know if within the sale process did Hilton acquire all these certificates which were sold? I can’t get a hold of anyone at Hilton. We also purchase points there which RR is telling us we can convert them to their resort at a loss.
I don’t know anything about the rules or legalities of such a transaction, I would suggest you consult with a legal source with expertise in this kind of matter and find out if it is legal or at their discretion for them to do so.
We purchased a Discovery Vacation Certificate which indicated that it was redeemable at Royal Uno, and based on that we bought the certificate. Since the transfer of the resort to Tortuga, the RR team has refused to honor the certificate redemption at Uno, telling us that in order to stay there the certificate had to be redeemed prior to 01-SEP-2023. We never received notification of this requirement, and missed that deadline by 3 days. RR has offered to accept the certificate for a stay at SANDS or Haciendas or Cancun Suites, and extended the certificates redemption date for another 365 days.
I upgraded my certificate to the Grand Residences, i did pay the difference. I just didn’t want to use my certificate in any of those resorts because I already own units there.
We are having a similar issue. Last year we became members of Royal Uno although we thought we were signing a contract with Royal Resorts since they claimed that we could stay at any of their 5 resorts interchangeably. Now, with the sale to Tortuga/Hilton and Holiday Inn, we are trying to understand what our membership status is and we’re not getting adequate answers. We never really had any intention of ever staying at the Royal Uno because we became quite attached to the Royal Haciendas. Now, we are also being told that we can transfer our points to RR but at a loss.
I don understand why no one has contacted the members and explained what their options are. It is very frustrating.
Is anyone else having this stressful experience? We thought we were investing in our vacation home away from home. I have trouble believing that RR didn’t know they were selling the resorts in November 2022 when we signed the contract.
I’m sorry you are having this experience. I can only encourage you to seek legal advice with an attorney who has expertise with this sort of matter.
We are having the same issues. If you are available to discuss your situation we would like to chat with you as we are in the same situation and we are looking for legal advice now. They sent us a new contract to sign and said we cannot book any vacations until we sign a new contract only towards one of the resorts. Be careful before signing anything from them now, and seek legal advice.
I declined their offer at a loss. They came back and said they would give full points no loss. So it’s negotiable.
Than you, this is valuable information since we are in the same situation
It seems like we are all in the same boat on these certificates that Royal Resorts were selling as I bought on in March 2023. I have also found that I cannot now go to the Royal Uno and I have been having problems trying to book at either the Royal Sands or the Royal Haceindas for the week I want.
Somebody must have known about the sale of the Royal Uno prior to me purchasing a certificate, but they kept on selling these promises.
The Royal Resorts are not the concept or company that I bought units from 24 years ago and I am extremely dissatisfied with this latest shell game they are playing.
We just arrived to the Royal Haciendas to find we no longer have access to the Royal islander and the restaurants it included as part of the all inclusive, the Royal uno, captains cove, the la palapa and the Luna pool bar grill are both unavailable, they cancelled activities/events last minute with no announcement, the service in the haciendas has gone downhill to nonexistent and I could go on. We met other members this week having the same issues. On top of it, they have been very dismissive of it all and gaslighting. Something is not right. There was no mention of any of this prior to our arrival. I’m interested in discussing these issues further with anyone that would like to do the same. Strength in numbers.
Holiday Inn Club Vacations acquired Royal Haciendas, Royal Cancun, Royal Sands, and Grand Residences. You may be experiencing these things because of the transition to Holiday Inn Club Vacations.
My wife and I are experiencing these same issues. We did not want to have another rR week. Wanted the points to be used with the program being touted last year. We have learned that we have two options. Keep R1 and have no points program or get points at RR. However, no one will tell us how that program will work.
This is the classical “bail and switch”. There is a large class of people situated like us. Perhaps time to discuss with legal counsel our rights and and a possible class action.
We are in a similar boat to all of you. We purchased a Royal Uno points membership in October 2021. However, we have not been offered to transfer our points membership to one of the remaining Royal Resorts (Sands, Haciendas or Cancun). We have been told by sales staff at the Royal Cancun and our original sales person at the Royal Haciendas that we don’t have the option to transfer our membership to one of the remaining RR resorts. Those of you who have been able to transfer your points membership – who did you speak with? I just heard today that Hilton is not planning to honor our points membership (that it wasn’t part of the agreement for their management of the former Royal Uno).
So we decided to “transfer” our R1 points to the Royal Haciendas. We were told that it’s what it would be if we had signed up pre R1. It seems a little confusing. We were sent new paperwork from Brenda Bustamante from Royal Resorts to fill out and send back. Since we are going to the Haciendas in 2 weeks I proposed that we fill out any paperwork in the office with someone that can explain what is happening and why there was never an adequate explanation to members. I love the Haciendas and if this is what we would’ve gotten to begin with then I’m OK with that but I still really wish there would be more transparency and sympathy for the confusion spreading amongst the members.
Any class action suits going on for the bait and switch?
Purchased Royal Uno points when they had to know it was bring sold.
We found out of the transfer of the management of the Royal Uno property at the end of August 2023. We were informed that Hilton would contact us. No info to date. We are attempting to find a proper path forward as we have a certificate for 2024 offered to us when we purchased the membership. We are also attempting to figure out how to pay the maintenance fee. Seems like we may be out of luck and are looking into options. We may have to transfer to the Royal Haciendas as was mentioned by Carlos P above. Hopefully Royal will honor the certificate. I am not very optimistic of Hilton honoring anything prior to the purchase and transfer of the management services of the property to Hilton. We are also considering legal options if they become necessary and class action may be the best way.
We are in the same boat with buying points with the RR uno. We are very interested in joining in on a class action as I can’t believe the can change a contract and say it’s not there fault… there’s a contract signed that they changed the goal post. You can’t do that. Say if I go buy a truck and it will take 6 months to get in. It can be a car, or a different make of truck. Man it can’t even be a different colour than you signed on the contract for. I think they owe us all are money back!!
Eric
Like some of the other replies we are also victims of this scam. We bought at Royal Uno and were told last summer we would be contacted by the new owners. As of today no contact. I have called numerous people at RR and they have not been helpful. I feel a lot of us have been subjected to deceptive marketing practices and fraud. I would like to know if any of the people on this thread have had contact with an attorney. If you have any info please contact me.
I also am in the same boat purchased points in April 2022. Also very interested in
joining in on a class action suit. I talked to three different company and no one has any idea about any of this. Waiting to see if they send me a membership fee for next year. Since I paid for the 2023 one but am not able to use it.
We are Royal Uno members and are encountering the same issues. We became members in November 2021. We used one of our four vouchers at Royal Uno and points at Royal Haciendas in December 2022. We’ve paid our membership in full and have been able to use it only once. We now have no access to our points. We have three vouchers we don’t know will be honored. I’ve been trying to make phone calls and the info number seems dead. No replies to the info@royalresorts.com email they say to use. All in all, the communication has been bad enough that it definitely feels like deception and breach of contract. Has anyone had any luck in talking to legal representation?
We bought an 8 day vacation to Royal Uno from Royal Resorts after touring Royal Uno….for what seemed like the entire day. Been fighting with a “supervisor” about a refund since i cannot now go to Royal Uno…the refund is not happening. Offers to go to other resorts that i dont want to go to. If anyone gets a class action together count me in! Cant believe a company can do this to customers…simply cannot be legal. Never again…
We bought points to Haciendas in Jan 2023. We were told at that time only the Islander was being sold. Them to our surprise everything got sold. During the purchase wet a certificate for a free off week. Called the number and we made the off idea to get booked for Oct 31 at R1 to experience the week of Halloween and Dia De Muertos in Cancun. We have not tried using the points yet but they are for Haciendas. However Haciendas is now owned by Totruga. Not sure how that is going to work or who we end up with but when we sign on its all connect to HI Vacation. We were told when redeeming the certificate is not related to points. During this whole time we have not recieved any letters or notices from Royal or Interval. We are not happy everything sold.
Haciendas is NOT owned by Tortuga. It is now owned by IHG Holiday Inn Vacations Club. They bought Royal Haciendas, Royal Sands, Royal Cancun and Grand Residences. Tortuga bought Royal Uno (which is now a Hilton) and Royal Islander.
We purchased points at the Royal Uno two years ago and spent one week there last year. Had a great time. Now the Royal Uno has been sold and the new managing company is HIlton. We have not heard anything from Hilton about our options. Are our points only good at the Royal Uno. We bought the points to be able to use and trade for other resorts. The Royal Resorts (Sands, Cancun, and Hacienda) under the management of the Holiday Inn Vacation club contacted us around new years and asked if we were interested in transferring our points to them. In doing so we would lose years on our original contract and points. Also the yearly management fee goes up over $1000.
I feel there is fraud and deceptive practices going on here. Has anyone check into legal action?
Our situation is about the same. We are currently staying at the Royal Cancun and signed an agreement yesterday to transfer our points to Royal Resorts because we didn’t feel we had N option. We have until Friday to cancel wonder if we should!
My husband and I have exactly the same experience as you. We purchased points in May, 2022, with RR for the Royal Uno membership for 40 years. At the time we purchased the Membership, RR enrolled us in the RCI exchange & Signature Club and we were told that we would be able to make exchanges and bank our annual points if we chose to , allowing us the vacation flexibility that we wanted. We were never informed of the sale of the Royal Uno & our contract is with RR. Only after contacting the Signature Club were we told that Royal Uno was sold to Hilton . The Hilton contact, who I was referred to said my only option was to transfer my Royal Uno Membership back to RR , which I found would. result in a loss of 10,800 points already paid for and no access to the Royal Uno as part of the RR exchange.
In addition the Mtce fees would be increased by hundreds of dollars. I have contacted an attorney for my legal recourse, in exercising the Cancellation Clause in the RR Royal Uno contract. My attorney has asked me to request a copy of the amended contract (resulting from the sale) showing Hilton as the owner of the Royal Uno and reflecting the new terms which do not comply with the RR contract we entered into (bait & switch) . I have also requested the address for Hilton where to send legal communication to request cancellation of this Membership Contract with Royal Uno. Upon review of the Hilton contract vs RR contract sold to us, my attorney has indicated that we may have a case to cancel, the Membership and be reimbursed for “Cause” . We have not received a response from the Hilton representative. If the Cancellation Clause in the RR contract is not honored, we are interested in pursuing a Class Action lawsuit. Based on messages in this thread…these contracts are unethical and a case of bait & switch transactions!