CLC World Free Holidays: Hard sell or good deal?

Living under a grey London sky makes you think about holidays a lot. The notion of kicking back in the sunshine or just escaping to clean air in the English countryside for a break is something we would all like to do, but it isn’t always affordable to do that often. Or so we thought until we went to a CLC World Travel Centre presentation.

As part of a pre-selected group, my husband and I went to the company’s central London office with an open mind as well as the nagging doubts one has about high-pressured selling after living through the timeshare era.

My husband is in ‘sales’ and wanted to experience the pitch first-hand as well as learn about the properties owned by Europe’s largest independent resort operator.

I could only think about the holidays as CLC World Resorts & Hotels has a diverse collection of international resorts and hotels in some of the world’s most desirable destinations, i.e. countries we would love to visit.

We were also encouraged by the fact that the company was started by Jewish entrepreneur Roy Peires, who opened their first resort on the Costa del Sol over 30 years ago. Boy, has he seen some changes…..

On arrival at the CLC World Travel Centre we were greeted warmly and sat waiting, with perhaps a dozen others, before being invited by our individually assigned host managers into a luxury cinema filled with super comfortable armchairs to watch a five-minute presentation about CLC’s self-catering apartments at various locations.

After that I was in a holiday haze and could only think about packing to stay in one of their fabulous properties.

Forget those drab old timeshare condos of yesteryear, these are pure luxury at members-only locations where every whim is catered for.

Stunning locations, tailored service levels and opulent standards across the board. We just wanted to learn more.

Post-cinema we were reunited with our genial host and spent 90 minutes going through our holidaying wants and needs, linked with personal preferences, while the Manager popped in and out on occasion to answer questions and address various points.

How often do we holiday? (Not enough);Where do we enjoy travelling to? (Anywhere and everywhere); Where have we been to? (I won’t bore you with that).

Naturally, finances were discussed, but only relating to what we normally spend on travelling, which was then seamlessly linked to what we could afford to spend with CLC World in order to buy into their 50 developments and 3,500 affiliate locations.

I should add that at no point was this ever intrusive or unprofessional at any time.

Amazingly, whilst various highly desirable options were presented relating to how we could experience the CLC lifestyle nobody ever actually tried to sell us anything. The high-pressure selling simply never happened.

And then it was over. I could practically feel the sunshine as we walked out and though he was loathed to admit it, so could my husband.

Instead of being bombarded we had been given a flavour of what a small percentage of our annual spend on holidays could deliver and we felt very upbeat.

More vacation for the same money. Needless to say we are now genuinely contemplating investing as part-owners of a property that we can stay in or swap for a different location for the equivalent time.

Essentially we will be buying a luxurious holidaying lifestyle that we could not ordinarily afford and it is light years from the original preconceived idea of a timeshare.

Beverley and Keith are looking forward to their free week holiday CLC World Resorts & Hotels

About CLC World Resorts & Hotels:

CLC World is a resort developer and operator that has been in existence for over 3 decades.

You can see their resorts and destinations on their website: https://www.clcworld.com/destinations/

To get a feel of how other CLC guests and members feel about their resorts and membership, join the conversations on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/clcworldresorts/