[Resolved]  Club Mahindra Holidays — deficient/unsatisfactory services

Address:	171001
Website:	www.clubmahindra.com

I am member of club mahindra under red category (Membership id: 1647201), since 2010. I paid a down payment of approx inr 385000 at the time of agreement and an annual maintenance fee of approx. 20, 000 every year.
The company has not complied with the said agreement at various instances and has not provided a valid resolution for the same. At the time of enrollment i was promised that through this membership i will get maximum availability at all the resorts. Despite of being a member of the second highest category “red category”, i am unable to make bookings with them on the desired dates and have to book other hotels on my travel dates.
On january 3rd 2018, i tried to book a room at one of their properties in coorg from january 13th-15th; however, the club mahindra mobile application reflected zero room availability on these dates. On cross checking, i found out that their inventory was open for bookings on the same dates through other booking engines like goibibo and makemytrip. On probing further, i discovered that all of their 18 resorts in southern india were sold out for the said dates as per the club mahindra members app. Contrarily, these resorts reflected availability through other online booking engines selling the rooms at around 8000 to 15000 rs per night.
Club mahindra is a hoax travel business company that loots people by making false promises and offering gifts at the time of registration. The whole idea behind paying such huge amounts as down-payment for red category and paying annual fees is an easy and hassle-free access to their properties when desired; but the company has been manipulating the inventory and denying access to prime members and selling the rooms on online portals.
This way, company is minting twice the money this way. The inventory is blocked for members during weekends and holidays to earn revenue through non-members. I believe that the members have the first right over the bookings and inventory of club mahindra, having paid a lumpsum amount along with annual fees. The company can sell the rooms online on other portals if they have rooms available but it is inappropriate to sell rooms online and denying availability to its own members.
I have faced other problems with them as below:
On november 15th 2017, i made a booking for my cousin at club mahindra’s “pristine peaks resorts” in naldehra, shimla. Upon arrival he was asked to pay inr 1500 as guest charges. Despite of paying the guest charges, in addition, he was charged higher rates on the food menu which the company states as guest price for the same menu. They ended up paying an amount of rs 6000 for a single night, despite my membership. This was utter embarrassment for me in front of my guests and they could have booked any property of their choice at this price.
In october 2016, i made bookings for my guests at the destination resort by club mahindra, kandaghat. Erroneously i made the booking under my name and not the guests’ name. I pre-intimated the club mahindra representatives about the error in booking and asked them to amend the same. A basic facility like amending the booking upon pre-intimation was denied to me.
Having paid rs 385000 for membership of 25 years i get 7 days a year at any of club mahindra resorts. Which come down to 175 days in all and costs me around 2200 per day.in addition to this i pay a sum of approx 20000 a year as recurring charges. That comes to around rs 2860 per day. So basically i am paying rs 5000 per day for the membership. All food costs are extra and the rates at club mahindra properties match those of a 5 star hotel which leads to further expense of around 3600 per day.
By buying the membership, i have not gained rather lost in following aspects:
• choice of property is limited.
• availability is in the hands of club mahindra and they are manipulating it. Thus despite having membership i have booked a hotel several times.
• the properties are located far from the city centers and transportation cost adds up to total expenses.
• i have to change my destination in accordance to availability at club mahindra resorts which leads to further harassment
• without membership i am free to choose any destination of my choice and any hotel in that destination that costs me around[protected] with meals included.
Sir/ma’am, i am very much disappointed with the services and responses of club mahindra officials. They have been justifying their acts of manipulation of inventory and deficient services time and again whenever it is brought to their notice.
Maximum number of members are unhappy with their services and if you conduct a survey among the members, there will be negative remarks only. A company which is fooling its customer base and indulging in fraudulent practices should be banned from operating.
I hereby request you to please get my membership cancelled and costs of harassments so caused be granted. I also seek a stern and strict action against all such companies operating in such manner.