My friend & I recently booked a trip through his time-share, Interval International, to go to the Costa Maya Reef Resort in Belize, Central America scheduled for 8/18-8/25/07. We booked this trip over the phone
& gave the company representative our credit card information for charging the trip. The night before we
were scheduled to leave, we attempted to contact the resort to ensure they were still accepting guests. We had some concerns due to hurricane dean. No one answered the phone. So we spent the next few hours tracking the storm online & at that point it didn't appear that
it would affect Belize at all. So on Saturday morning, we boarded a US Airways flight bound for Belize. We arrived at Belize Int'l Airport at approx. 10am. We then boarded a Tropic Air plane for another 15-minute
flight to San Pedro.
Once we arrived at Fido's dock in San Pedro to board a ferry to take us to the resort, we were told by the ferrymaster that Costa Maya Reef resort was closed in anticipation of the hurricane. He gave us the
resort owner's name & cell phone number.
I spoke to the owner personally & he informed me that he had contacted Interval International 2 days prior (which would have been Thursday) to let them know they would be closing that Friday because of the hurricane.interval had our phone number and e-mail address and no one
EVER attempted to contact us.
We then had to make other last minute arrangements to stay at another resort on the mainland, which ended up costing us thousands more than we had expected to spend.
Because Interval International did not inform us of the situation, both of our lives were put at risk & we are out thousands of dollars because we had to make other arrangements.
When we returned home, we contacted Interval International numerous times in an attempt to get our money back. Each time, we were told they would not refund a dime. The last representative I spoke
with, "Enrique", did admit that the resort contacted them to let them know of the closing in advance, but that it was OUR responsibility to contact THEM to get information in the event of a natural disaster.
My impression of this company, and their specific handling (or lack thereof) of my situation left much to be desired. I find their practices & actions to be unprofessional, irresponsible, criminal & incompetent.
Beware!
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