Travel plan idea blog

The problem with the Manhattan Club is that it's sold out or nearly sold out. They probably sold 50 or 51 weeks of the year like all timeshares do so they are at maximum capacity, unlike hotels that work on about 65% occupancy.

You need to find out exactly what the reservation parameters are for booking in weekly increments or less than weekly increments. Typically, you can reserve a week of time more in advance than shorter stays.

You'll also want to find out if certain members have priority, or a longer booking window. This is not an uncommon perk to offer to people that buy bigger packages. There's nothing you can do about it, but it's good to know.

You'll face the same problem with Hilton as they near sell out, and will have to make your reservations further and further in advance.

Timeshare works best if you can plan 9 or more months in advance, unfortunate in your case, but get to know all of the reservation parameters for the Manhattan Club and your Hilton so you can adjust.

Unfortunately I was stupid enough to buy a share in this project (coned into it). I have not been able to use my week for the last 3 yeas. I belive that this project is all about cheating people by renting the rooms to either other RCI owners or to customers walking directley in from the street, and at the same time have some stupid owneres paying more pr. week in maintenance fees, than a hotel room in midtown Manhattan cost.
The selling price for rooms after you bought it is about 20% of the price you payed when you bought the place.

My hope is that a great deal of owners would find together and start a case against them.

I am not paying anything anymore, I rather cast away the money i spend than paying anything anymore

Ben

I went there last month, they have lot of people at the showroom. The salesperson started with $41K for 7 days/year timeshare at the club with about $1900 yearly maintenance fee plus tax. I think that’s too expensive, then they cut it down to $13K for 2 days/year timeshares with $1600 yearly maintenance fee plus tax (which they said they’ll wave the first 3 years fee) . Besides, it’s hard to plan your NY trip 90 days in advance, if not, you may not able to use it. Even if you want the RCI plan, you have to pay a $200 onetime fee, plus $89 yearly fee. I suggest you to take a look at their RCI website to see if their timeshare locations is good for you. For me, I don’t think I can breakeven with buying any timeshare plan they have, but if you have a big family, it’ll be a different story…..

The Manhattan Club seems to have oversold. we bought an annual flex seven years ago. Its been hard to get even a few days, and then not when we want to go. If dissatisfied owners could somehow get together, maybe a class action suit could be filed. This is consumer fraud.

THERE IS NO DOUBT THIS PLACE IS OVERSOLD.... HAVE OWNED SINCE 2001...MAINTENANCE FEE HAS TRIPLED AND UNABLE TO BOOK A ROOM PERIOD... AM WILLING TO BECOME PART OF A CLASS ACTION SUIT ... ITS FRAUD.

The problem is not exclusive to this place in Manhattan...We have had two units for decades and are not on the point system.
We NEVER can book anywhere we want to go, no matter how far in advance...our units are in Lake Tahoe and Hawaii, and sure we can go back to them, BUT that defeats the propose of trading weeks within rci.
We use to have no problems, but it has become increasingly worse year by year!
Anyway, we are more than willing to take part in a class action suit.
The lawyer would/should be in or around their main office at:
RCI North America Office
9998 North Michigan
Road Carmel, IN 46032

Thanks for the comments concerning the Manhattan Club. Found it in the nick of time, and saved me. A great property but obviously mismanaged. Good luck with the lawsuite.

The scam is actually worse. I had the same problem (was laughed at as well, I guess with paying almost 30000$ US you are just part of a party of "riffraffs" who have no rights). In my case we purchased a Gold Flex 52 plan and I was told that I could not book the last two weeks of the year. However the timeshare is not called Flex 50. That is a significant breach of contract. I am suing them for that. If I had a penny for every time the salesperson told me ANY week, I would probably already have made my 30,000 back. I am going to drag these people through the New York court system as long as it is necessary. This will be my personal vendetta for their cheating, fraudulent ways.

This place has caused me agita and dissatisfaction. I would be willing to join anyone in a class action suit. Not only 9 months in advance but maintenance fees that have gone up over 30% each year!!! For one week, silver, I pay $2300 in maintenance fees. WHen we joined, it was 499.

Not only that, they use the studios to offer packages (sales pitch) which is why you cant get a room there. I am so disgusted ......

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns regarding your experiences while visiting The Manhattan Club. Feedback from our owners and guests are an important part of improving our service. Your comments and observations are important to our managers and staff in helping us provide positive experiences.

The Manhattan Club management team is listening closely to all the experiences being shared. It is unfortunate that the experiences have not all been positive but we want you to know that we are listening and are working to ensure that your stay at The Manhattan Club is everything you expect and all that you deserve.

Please contact me regarding a lawsuit. I have ample proof that we have not been able to reserve a room using our timeshare. Furthermore, I still have not received a reasonabl explaination of why rooms are available to rent, but not available to timeshare owners. I welcome the opportunity to be part of a lawsuit.

I would like to add my name to a lawsuit regarding the lack of reservation availability of rooms, even when planning 9 months in advance. While I have found the owner services staff to offer excellent service, the reservation situation as described in this thread is unacceptable, and has not improved, while the fees rise each year.

Let's do a class action lawsuit. I haven't been able to use mine for a few years. Bought 10 years ago and was told the day we bought that we were in the last teir of buyers. We used to be able to book a month ahead during every season except holiday of Thanksgiving. Now I call and was told to ask for a certain lady and she would hook me up with my room. Also was told that the $900. maint. fee we had at the beginning wouldn't ever be more than $1200. I just got a bill from a collection agency because I told MC I refused to pay another year. Last year I had to bank with RCI. I can have a much cheaper maint. fee with my Wyndym Timeshare and bank if I need to but I never have a proble getting in if I call a few months out. The MC is a scam and our Maint. fees are paying for the developer to finance his "hotel". I can probably get an attorney to take this on if we have enough people that speak up. please contact me.

We purchaced our timeshare in 2003. Our unit is a jr.executive suite for every other year with an initial maintanace fee of $ 535.00. Since then our maintainace fee has jumped to over $1700. Initially we were able to call for a room a month before and there was no problem getting a reserveration. Now over the last few years we are being told that we must call 9 months in advance in order to get a room but when you call 9 months to the day at 9am in the morning they tell you that there are no rooms available! Yet if you go to rci extra vacations,you can purchace a 3-4 day rental for the same days that I have asked for, for a large sum of money! It is amazing that as a time share owner, rooms are not available for us but are available for rci renters. We will gladly join in a class action suit. Please advise us at klollar15@aol.com

I am going to ask our real estate att'y about initiating a class action suit

I would definitely want to join a class action law suit. I lost 2 nights last year because I can't plan 9 months in advance and there was never any availability after that, not even for midweek nights. Plesae let me know what to do and I'm ready to fight.

count me in.

1) when I bought in 2008 it was implied that i could use the unit for either trade points or occupancy .... which i subsequently learned isn't true.

2) called with three months to go in my year and of course nothing available. I'd be willing to contribute significantly to expose this fraud.

paid $30,000 ++ for this worthless property in 2006 and was told it was a great investment because of the quote "only timeshare in NYC"...
I am in on a class action. correct me if i am wrong but isnt it against the law to sell or solicit a time share as an investment...

Federal Trade Commission
§ 310.3 Deceptive telemarketing acts or practices.
(a) Prohibited deceptive telemarketing acts or practices. It is a deceptive telemarketing act or practice and a violation of this Rule for any seller or telemarketer to engage in the following conduct:
(2) Misrepresenting, directly or by implication, in the sale of goods or services any of the following material information:
(iii) Any material aspect of the performance, efficacy, nature, or central characteristics of goods or services that are the subject of a sales offer;
(vi) Any material aspect of an investment opportunity including, but not limited to, risk, liquidity, earnings potential, or profitability;
(4) Making a false or misleading statement to induce any person to pay for goods or services or to induce a charitable contribution

Here is one more vote to institute a class action suit. Our personal experience is similar to those already voiced. Of course despite several attempts to sell our one week gold flex plan, there were no offers. We then offered to give it away and got many people interested. Please know, and this is significant, if you sell it for even one dollar, MC charges a $1,000 transfer fee. If you give it away, the fee drops to $100. And interestingly, MC, themselves, despite having a 'right of first refusal' is not interested in reacquiring the time share. Clearly, this is a product with no value.

I too, have had the same experience many of you have described. I would bet, the best outcomen would be a forced sale of the property of the Manhattan Club. We, as fractional owners, (I do have a deed to the property) may then be entitled to something, and these onerous maintenance fees would finally be over. It's a simple math problem, If my unit is sold for 50 weeks and the maintenance is roughly 1700 for each of the owners, our 1 unit would generate 1700 x 50 or 85,000 dollars alone. Yikes!! That's a lot of linens.