Dear Royal Elite Members,
My name is Diana Davila, Customer Service Manager of Royal Elite Sandos Hotels.
There are some members that purchased their memberships before Sandos Hotels took
over Royal Elite in October 2009 that are using this website. I believe they may not be aware of the many improvements that we have done in the company in order to provide a better service. This is the reason why I want to use this opportunity to inform you of all these exciting changes, and also to be sure you got all the contact information.
Please contact me if you have any further questions, or you would like to know more about all the improvements that we would like to share with you.
This is the summary of the most important facts of the last two News Letters we sent to the members' email accounts:
Dear Royal Elite Member,
As most of you know there have been many changes in our Royal Elite Vacation Club over the past few months. Prior to September 28th 2009, Sandos Hotels & Resorts de­pended on an external company to run our Vacation Club, denominated Royal Elite. When the contract with the external company ended, Sandos Hotels & Resorts took over the operation of the Royal Elite Vacation Club.
The aim of this take over was to provide a more complete service to our current and fu­ture members, improve the product within the resort and create a more integrated Vaca­tion Club designed to surpass the existing product. Sandos Hotels & Resorts aims to offer value for money, fun, all-inclusive family vacations; our Royal Elite Vacation Club offers all this, plus the upgrades and benefits of being a Member. At the end of this Newsletter you will find a detailed list of all the NEW improvements for our owners.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
There is a Customer Service Department to service all your requests and inform you of how to make the best use of your membership. If you have ANY doubts please do not hesitate in contacting us at the following numbers or emails where a Customer Service agent will be online to help you with your membership;

If you are calling from the USA & Canada: 1 866 384 7793
If you are calling from Mexico: 01 800 674 4444
If you are calling from outside the USA, Canada & Mexico:

Sandos Playacar Beach Resort & Spa: (+) 52 984 87 7 40 40
Extensions:
# 3200 (Customer service / Reservations)
# 3240 (Finances)

Fax: (+) 52 984 87 7 40 59

Customer Service: [email protected]
Reservations: [email protected]
Finance: [email protected]

Our Vacation Club was designed to offer the most flexibility and best possibilities to travel to our resorts and many others all over the world. Some members have considered renting their weeks to friends and family or through exchange companies instead of travelling.

In the past we included RCI and HSI memberships in the Vacation Club package for your exchanges. We no longer use HSI, however, all Members who were with HSI can be transferred to the new exchange company REE (Royal Elite Exchanges – www.royaleliteexchanges.com). REE offers great deals and their customer ser­vice is excellent, if you have any doubts please get in contact with them through email or phone:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: 1 800 977 9294 ext 130 (USA & Canada)
Tel: 001 800 977 9294 ext 130 (Mexico)

We have recently received several member cases regarding broker companies, therefore we would like to firmly request for you to contact our Customer Service Department to insure you receive the proper advice regarding your membership status and benefits.

As part of our continued effort in seeking the satisfaction of our clients, we are proud to inform you that you will be able to enjoy during your future vacations, the following improvements:

In June 2010 Sandos acquired the Five Star San Blas Hotel and Nature Reserve in Tenerife, which will now be called Sandos San Blas Hotel & Nature Reserve. The acquisition falls into our corporate strategy to become the most sustainable and ecological all inclusive resort company in the market.

This Hotel is situated ten minutes from Tenerife South Airport and is located on a Nature Reserve. Unique on-site facilities include a multi-media center with an interactive museum to discover the mysterious species, a historical tunnel that recreates the history of the San Blas area from prehistoric times to modern day, a sailing lake, a 27 hole Biosphere Golf Course and a Boutique Spa facility with an extensive list of body treatments.

Beside this, Sandos Hotels & Resorts also has secured land in Cabo San Lucas for two hotels, Costa Rica and Brazil. These are medium term projects that will be completed over the next 5 years. Information will be provided as it becomes available.

In July 2010 we started building Sandos Bavaro Beach Resort & Spa in the Dominican Republic. Completion date will be December 2012. To see 3D renders please visit our corporate webpage sandos.com

For all lovers of Sandos Caracol, we are pleased to announce that we have started the refurbishment of the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa, 99 oceanfront rooms to be completed at the end of December 2010. They will all be fully refurbished into luxury units for the Royal Elite Vacation Club comprising of Studios, One Bedroom units and Two Bedroom units. For those of you who know the hotel, to the right of the resort on the beach there will also be a Private Beach Club for members ONLY with lounge areas, pools, chill out music, food and drinks.

A new Steak House in the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa. The Current Steak House called El Gaucho located in the main pool area will be turned into a barbecue chill out café overlooking the ocean with a large wedding gazebo on the beach. The current Disco will be turned into a Large Kids Club.

In December 2009 we opened the brand new Sandos Aqua Park; an area in the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa designed for children to have fun on water slides and fountains.

In May 2010 we launched our Educational Sphere Auditorium in the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa. Technology developed by NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association) allows real time readings of sea levels, CO2 levels, light pollution, ozone layer etc to be projected onto a 3D Sphere. The aim is to raise awareness among visitors of how man is affecting the world and how we can all contribute and try and make the world a better place for future generations. The impact of seeing how we really affect the world is daunting and we will be the only hotel in the world to house such a Sphere. Local schools will be allowed to send their pupils for free.
We hope you have been able to gather some useful information from this newsletter that will help you enjoy your Membership. Sandos Hotels & Resorts is totally committed to creating a transparent and honest Vacation Club for its Members. We see great possibili­ties in this product and will be developing it over time to be one of the best value for money Vacation Clubs on the market.
Please remember we are all here to help you, if you have any doubts please do not hesitate in contacting us!
Best Regards,

Diana Davila
Royal Elite Customer Service Manager
Sandos Hotels & Resorts

Recently on our visit to paradise in Mexico, our first visit anywhere outside of Canada and US, we attended a, what was supposed to be a brief 90 minutes, presentation on a Royal Elite membership, IT TURNED INTO HOURS ...

We were convinced, or more like coerced, into making the purchase.

The following day we requested some additional information that had been presented during the presentation and for some reason that information was no longer available to us. Yet in a later email DEREK says all the paperwork from the presentation is still there. Then why we were told it wasn´t? Afraid that we would cancel before the illegal waiver of the 5 day cancellation period was up? You bet we would have !!

We had requested some "working notes" that were made during the presentation by the sales team, that were discussed as part of the deal and when we had a chance to sit down and go over the contract on our down, there were items that were not exactly as we were told during the presentation.

Those items are mainly (but not limited to) being:

1.-The 5 day contract cancellation issue
2.-The buy back of weeks and how that worked
3.-Liability issue if we privately sell weeks
4.-The use of the yacht club (which is non-existent)
5.-Number of people (adults) that can stay in a 1 bedroom unit
6.-All inclusive rates for children

1.- We were made to sign a waiver of our 5 day contract cancellation rights. Had we know that was illegal and thereby not valid we would have made contact regarding cancelling/voiding the contract within the 5 days, as we realized before the 5 days that there were discrepancies as to what we were told and what was in the actual contract.

2.- We were told and they GUARANTEED that in the beginning of each year all we had to do was call up and they (vaguely referred to RE) would buy back any weeks that we would not be using for $700 usd per week.

3.- Derek told us that we could sell weeks privately rather that through RE, we questioned Derek about our liability if we were to sell privately. He told us that once the reservation was transferred to the contract that is not the case.

All properties will take an imprint of a credit card and attempt to get any funds due to damage from that card but should that not be able to and if the client does not have insurance you will in the end be held responsible. That was NOT what he said at the presentation, we were out and out lied to.

4.-We were told that there was a yacht club component to this package and that it would allow us the rental of any of the Royal Elite Yachts. That component seems to have been left out of the contract and when we mentioned that Derek at the presentation brought us a glossy 1 page poster that he had wrtitten our names on and he had signed. He told us that was all we needed and in an email since then he also says that the yacht club was in our contract.

We met Derek a few days after the presentation and we asked him about the possibility of using that service during the week that we were at Sandos Caracol. he said that being the busiest week of the year it was booked solid, we said we tought we would just go check it out anyway for next time, then his story changed and he told us there wasn´t a yacht club at this location. Later in an email he wrote that we should have known that there was no yacht ckub since we were staying there (you stayed there so that should have been obvious).

5.-We were told that a 1 bedroom could comfortably accomodate 6 adults. Of course Derek earlier had first asked how many children we had and we had told them we had 2 grown sons and their wives. the paperwork that came later with the contract shows: One bedroom deluxe room to accommodate max 4 adults and 2 children.
******Not Suitable******.

6.- On page 3 of our contract it states "free stay fro children under 12 years old" (Children is the plural for child). On page 7 of the contract it states "Children less than 2 years old stay free". For children 2 and older, 1st stay free, any additional pay 50% of the current rate.

Minors from 0-2 years old - do not pay all inclusive rate, sharing a room with one -two adults.
The 1st 2-12 years old child - do not pay all inclusive rate.
The 2nd from 2-12 years old child - 50% discount shall apply when sharing a room with one or two adults.

Rather Confusing !!.

We don´t understand that if this membership is so wonderful, as they assured us, why the deceptions? It should sell itself without many and many lies.

Bad24.