RDO is a once powerful timeshare pressure group who claim to be ‘committed to high standards and integrity.’ A little investigating reveals a questionable history and unsavory connections
Who are the RDO?
Resort Development Organisation (RDO) are a lobbyist protection group for European timeshare related entities who pool money to further their interests. Their website carries the following (self) description: ‘RDO members represent the best in European vacation ownership and are committed to high service standards and integrity. They are bound by a code of conduct and an independent arbitration scheme, providing levels of protection beyond those required by law.’
However, the team at European Consumer Claims (ECC), along with various consumer organisations we communicate with have struggled to find a single example of RDO speaking up for a timeshare owner who has been mis-sold, who has an illegal contract, or who needs to escape an unfair contract.
The ‘arbitration’ they mention seems to lean exclusively to the defence and protection of wealthy timeshare bosses. Very little of it is in defence of timeshare victims.
Rogues gallery of members
The phrases ‘committed to high service standards and integrity’ and ‘bound by a code of conduct‘ are being asked to do some heavy lifting by the RDO, as is the claim ‘providing levels of protection beyond those required by law.’
The Resort Development Organisation membership list, past and present is made up of some of the worst serial offenders in timeshare consumer-breach history.
Club la Costa World has been ignoring consumer law and writing illegal contracts for decades, and they currently owe hundreds of millions of pounds in damages to their victims. CLC World, under the leadership of Roy Peires, has been resisting paying court ordered compensation to the people they have mis-sold. They do so via tricky legal manoeuvrings, corporate structures designed to hide and protect their wealth, and with endless court delays.
Other major timeshare company RDO members guilty of some or all of these behaviours on a grand scale are Anfi, MVCI Europe, Hilton and Diamond. Although in reality all of the RDO resort members are complicit to a degree. MVCI actually referred to the fact that their contracts “did not meet requirements prescribed by Spanish timeshare laws enacted in 1998.” in their 2022 annual report.
Silverpoint in Tenerife, another long time RDO member resort has been covered by media worldwide for large scale, systematic consumer fraud.
Seasons Holidays deserves a (dis)honorable mention for multiple alleged abuses of their customers. Their history is truly shocking and currently being reported on by ourselves, Which Magazine, KwikChex and the Timeshare Consumer Association.
Tainted leadership
RDO has/had senior management with highly questionable pasts.
Mark Cushway, CEO of aforementioned, disgraced timeshare fraud operation Silverpoint was an long serving RDO board member. Silverpoint perpetrated hundreds of millions of pounds worth of fraud under Cushway’s ownership. Currently Mr Cushway is a safe distance away from European justice. Rumours place him in various far flung locations such as Dubai, the Caribbean or even Thailand.
Another RDO board member, Calvin Lucock, was the head of sales, project director and finally chairman of Anfi Del Mar resort on Gran Canaria. Anfi operated illegally for decades under Lucock’s leadership, ignoring consumer laws and taking an estimated over one billion pounds from prospects either touted from the streets of nearby beach towns or via an illicit agreement with Thomas Cook travel agent who recommended their guests to attend Anfi sales presentations in return for a kickback of profits.
Eugene Miskelly is currently listed as the RDO’s ‘Legislative Council Chairman’ responsible for providing ‘guidance to members on new laws and outlining compliance requirements.’ Yet Miskelly was directly employed as ‘General Counsel’ by CLC World, the perpetrators of arguably the largest legal scandal ever to hit European timeshare. One could argue from these two concurrent appointments that Mr Miskelly can not reasonably be considered an impartial voice in timeshare consumer protection.
Other board members include Lee Dowling, MD of Marriott Asia Pacific, Europe & Middle East. MVCI in Europe have also been deeply embroiled in court actions over illegal contracts.
Suffice to say, the RDO board does appear to comprise solely of men who have made vast amounts of money from selling timeshare memberships in direct contravention of consumer law for a quarter of a century.
Failure to acknowledge 25 years of criminality
The RDO claims to be ‘important to consumers’ because (quoted from the RDO website):
- Our members are committed to high service standards and sign up to a code of conduct
- We investigate fraudulent activity and work with the authorities to have companies closed down
- We offer a free complaint handling service to customers of our members
- We work with governments to bring in legislation that’s fair to both the industry and consumers
And yet, for the last 25 years, every timeshare sales operation who is a member of RDO has been writing illegal contracts. This has been done with the full knowledge of the RDO, whose board members are mainly prominent members of European timeshare companies. How does this measure up to the alleged ‘commitment to high service standards’ and their ‘code of conduct’? The mentioned ‘free complaint service’ is an online form that rarely gets answered (try it for yourself and see).
There seems to have been very little “investigation” of fraudulent timeshare companies, or “working with authorities” to have said bad actors closed down. In fact, there appears to have been no coverage whatsoever of the industrial scale illegal behaviour from European timeshare companies.
Instead, all of the RDO’s energy appears to be directed at protecting resorts who have taken hundreds of millions of pounds illegally from consumers. Rather than helping to bring those criminals to justice, the RDO’s self professed ‘investigations’ seem wholly focussed on attacking the reputation of firms who are fighting for justice on behalf of timeshare victims.
Membership plummeting
A couple of years ago the Resort Development Organisation boasted 47 members. RDO membership list has since dropped to 30 members, and rumours are that many more are looking to pull out. Currently only 12 members are actual resorts/developers.
Due to an avalanche of court judgments against all major timeshare companies in Europe, timeshare sales in Spain have slowed to a grinding halt.
A well placed source informs ECC that as of the time of writing this article there are only three full time staff members at RDO doing the actual day to day work. And that those remaining staff are working reduced hours.
Another symptom of the RDO’s drastically reduced financial situation is their cessation of relations with consumer organisation KwikChex and the sites they manage.
‘Trading Standards Hero‘ KwikChex used to operate two websites funded by the RDO and aimed at ensuring fairness in timeshare related industries.
However those websites have been suspended. Public statements from KwikChex related sources cite both an lack of funding from RDO and perhaps more tellingly: ‘notable disagreements between the RDO and KwikChex over owner safeguarding.’
Expert’s warning
Greg Wilson, CEO of ECC believes that the RDO is a spent force. “The RDO’s raison d’être is to lobby for timeshare companies interests. Those companies’ revenue has died down to practically zero, so there will be very little budget to spare for an entity like the RDO.
“The organisation has been, in our opinion, morally bankrupt for years.
“Now that the timeshare companies are no longer making significant money there will be less funds available for the RDO. They may well be on the way to being financially bankrupt also.”
Wilson predicts progressively desperate tactics from the RDO as they attempt to justify their remaining value to an increasingly challenged timeshare industry.
“The RDO has no place in the modern, post-timeshare landscape,” explains Wilson. “Like a wounded or dying animal, we expect them to lash out in desperation. If they stay true to form it will probably be against the consumer organisations who assist timeshare victims. Or claims firms who are fighting on behalf of those same victims in the courts.
“It’s classic, narcissistic deflection but by proxy. If the RDO are able to convince their timeshare paymasters that they can still defend them, they (the RDO) might get financed for just a bit longer. Unfortunately there is very little timeshare left to defend. And certainly no credible or convincing moral high ground from which to do so.
“It’s self evident that fat-cat timeshare bosses and their lobbyists have never been the good guys here, and that organisations fighting for their victims’ rights are not the villains. Too many people have timeshare horror stories of their own, or know other people that do, to swallow this RDO narrative.”
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