Let’s face it. Timeshare owners at Royal Oasis got a very bad deal. And unless the new owners (Harcourt Development) step up in a big way, or the courts are able to enforce actions against the previous development company, then nothing will ever make up for what the owners of timeshare weeks at Royal Oasis have lost in dollars and vacation time.

But as I wrote in the Timeshare Owners Blog last November 5, timeshare owners are not the only victims of the problems at Royal Oasis. Somewhere between 800 and 1000 people lost their livelihoods when Royal Oasis timeshare closed in 2004. While several million dollars in severance money has already been paid to some Royal Oasis timeshare company employees, other employees have yet to receive anything. According to the February 25 online edition of The Bahama Journal, the Bahamian government still needs to disperse nearly $600,000 in severance pay to past employees of the timeshare resort.

Minister of State Zhivargo Liang says, “There still are some of the (former) Royal Oasis workers who have complaints about either not having been paid or not being paid sufficiently, etc. Those people are being interviewed with a view to getting what the exact details are of their complaints. Following upon that, determinations are being made as to what ought to happen in respect to payment for them.”

Liang believes that the monies owed involve approximately 100 people who had to choose between agreeing to accept an amount of money they thought was incorrect or gambling that waiting it out would lead to further investigation and ultimately the receipt of the correct amount.

Timeshare Resorts Are More than Vacation Destinations

When you take a timeshare vacation at many of the high demand destinations, it may seem as if timeshare resorts are a dime a dozen. Lose your job at one, and there are plenty of other timeshare resorts where you can apply for work. But the truth is, timeshare resorts are a valuable part of a community’s economic structure. Lose even one, and the stability of that structure is threatened.

A timeshare resort employs anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand employees at most locations. For many of the employees, this income may be the sole source of livelihood for them or their families. When a timeshare resort closes, not only are thousands of employees impacted, but vendors, who supply goods and services to the property are hurt as well.

In the case of the Royal Oasis timeshare resort, located on the edge of the famous Bahamian International Bazaar, traffic at the street shops and restaurants dwindled, causing the permanent closing of many of these businesses. And then there’s the impact on the tax base. Most timeshare resorts mean tourist taxes and real estate or property taxes paid into a community. In the case of Royal Oasis timeshares, damage to the local economy included loss of casino taxes as well—a painfully large chunk of tax revenue that simply disappeared overnight.

You may love timeshare or hate it depending on your experience with in the past. But the bottom line remains: when a community loses a timeshare resort for any reason, everyone from owners to employees to the community itself is seriously hurt by the loss.

As you sit at your desk this Monday morning, here is a video from Grand Bahama Island that is sure to make you long for the warm sunshine and sugar sand beaches of a Bahamas timeshare vacation.

During the 10th Annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook forum last week, Mike Murphy of Harcourt Development announced that Harcourt (the owners of Royal Oasis) has finalized a management deal for the Royal Oasis Timeshares property.

The Freeport News quoted Murphy, the director of Harcourt Development, as saying, “We’ve been working at this for a very long time and we met with Foxwoods almost a year ago now and we’ve been in talks with them ever since.” As Murphy explains, “We’re (Harcourt Developments) the owners and developers of the property, but Foxwoods are going to be the operators.”

Spokespeople for both Harcourt and Foxwoods agree that they are still in an assessment phase, determining which aspects of the hotel and timeshare resort can be refurbished and which will have to be totally rebuilt. Royal Oasis timeshares, as you probably recall, has be closed since Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne caused extensive damages in the fall of 2004. Timeshare owners at Royal Oasis have been in limbo since that time, many still on the hook to make payments on timeshare condos were no longer usable as vacation properties.

Upgrades and Repairs at Royal Oasis Caribbean Timeshare Resort

Currently, proposed plans for the Royal Oasis timeshare resort include quickly bring the Ruby Golf Course to playing conditions, with a long-term overhaul planned for the Emerald Course. A new hotel tower is planned, along with a spa, and multiple food and beverage service locations.

According to reports in The Bahama Journal, some 400 hotel units will be refurbished and another 350 hotel units added. While all sources of information about this newest development in the long and controversial issues surrounding Royal Oasis timeshares refer to the expansion as “hotel” units, I am speculating that they actually mean “timeshare units”. Moreover, while any news of forward momentum in this situation is positive, it doesn’t sound like timeshare owners at Royal Oasis can look forward to using their timeshare weeks any time in the immediate future.

The unfairness of this whole nasty mess as far as Royal Oasis timeshare owners are concerned is inexcusable and if you would like a refresher course on the chain of events, I recommend you revisit the following posts in the Timeshare Owners Blog:

• Updates about Royal Oasis Timeshare
• Do You Own Timeshare at Royal Oasis in the Bahamas?
• Royal Oasis Timeshare Resort: A Litany of Problems
• Uncertain News about Royal Oasis Timeshare Resort

If you are a timeshare owner at Royal Oasis, you still have until April 1, 2008, to become part of the class action lawsuit against the original owners of the timeshare resort. To find out more about the terms of this lawsuit, contact:

Phillips & Garcia, P.C.
Carlin Phillips, Esq.
13 Ventura Drive
N. Dartmouth, MA 02747
cphillips@phillipsgarcia.com

On Monday, the Timeshare Owners Blog will update you on the other group, in addition to timeshare owners, who have been so deeply impacted by the debacle at Royal Oasis timeshares.

Do you have Bahamas timeshare weeks you want to sell or rent?

If so, you may benefit from this information. According to an article that appeared in The Freeport News, January 11, this month is bringing record numbers of visitors to the island of Grand Bahama. Logic says, the more the Bahamas develop into a highly desired tourist destination, the easier it could be to sell your Bahamas timeshare resale or use it as a Bahamas timeshare rental. And the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism is doing everything they can to move the Bahamas up the preferred vacation destination charts.

Tourism to Grand Bahama Island recently benefited because high winds in other parts of the Caribbean rerouted some cruise ships to Freeport Harbor. Yet much of the tourism Grand Bahama is enjoying is simply the result of people who have selected the Bahamas as their target destination.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is working hard to improve the island’s desirability factor. According to the Executive Director of the Ministry, Kerry Fountain, (as quoted in The Freeport News) the plan is to, “Create your product, deliver on the experience in terms of service and the attitude, get your guests here affordably, and promote it.” He adds, “It has to happen in that order, but we have to keep our nose to the grindstone in order to get it done.”

The Ministry of Tourism anticipates being able to successfully weather even a tight US economic market because many US vacationers will still be taking trips, they will just be looking to travel closer to home. Additionally, the Ministry is working hard at recruiting and training better hospitality industry workers, unrolling programs in the high schools to promote careers in tourism. Efforts like this will help the long-term tourism market in the Bahamas as well as Bahamas timeshare resales and Bahamas timeshare rentals.

Creating immediate boosts to the tourism market in Grand Bahama are recently discounted airfares to Freeport and Nassau. US Airways and American Airlines are currently both offering special pricing on island airfares or vacation packages.

And now that things seem to be turning around for the Royal Oasis timeshare resort with plans to renovate and reopen, popular Bahamas tourist destinations like the International Bazaar may actually return to their former glory. Harcourt Developments Limited, the purchaser of the Royal Oasis timeshare, is expected to invest some $400 million dollars in their Bahamian resorts over the upcoming years.

To learn more about how to sell timeshare or rent timeshare you own in the Bahamas, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW. If you are interested in becoming a Bahamas timeshare resales owner, Sell My Timeshare NOW also offers an excellent inventory of vacation ownership properties.

The situation at Royal Oasis timeshare has been a complex topic we have tried to address on our blog since problems first began. In fact, some of the first posts on Sell My Timeshare NOW’s Timeshare Owners Blog were about Royal Oasis timeshares.

The Bahamas timeshare resort closed following the tumultuous hurricane season of 2004 and never reopened. Since the closing, there has been much speculation about whether the back-to-back hits the island took from hurricane Frances (considered to be one of the worst to hit the Bahamas in years) and later hurricane Jeanne were solely the cause of the resort’s downfall. Many have said that the timeshare resort was already so financially troubled, that the hurricane damage was simply the proverbial final straw.

Whatever the reason, when the Royal Oasis timeshare resort closed, jobs were lost, family incomes stretched to the brink, and the timeshare owners themselves left high and dry. They couldn’t use their timeshare condos; they couldn’t exchange them and vacation elsewhere, and they were still being required to pay the monthly mortgage payment (if there was still a debt owed), as well as the maintenance fees, on properties that essentially no longer existed.

To gain a better picture of what has happened in the past three and a half years concerning the Royal Oasis timeshares, I recommend you read these previous postings from the Timeshare Owners Blog:

• Important Information for Royal Oasis Timeshare Owners
• Do You Own Timeshare at Royal Oasis in the Bahamas?
• Royal Oasis Timeshare Resort: A Litany of Problems
• Uncertain News about Royal Oasis Timeshare Resort

As noted in the post, “Important Information for Royal Oasis Timeshare Owners,” the law offices of Phillips & Garcia, P.C., based in North Dartmouth, MA, are representing Royal Oasis timeshare owners. The case was certified by the Court on January 2 of this year to proceed as a Class Action lawsuit. Included in the action is anyone who purchased timeshare units at the Royal Oasis Golf Resort and Casino, the Royal Oasis Vacation Club and or The Vacation Club at Bahamia, whose timeshare had not yet expired when the facilities were closed in September 2004, and who do not request to be excluded from the class action suit by April 1, 2008.

The official court document states:
“IF YOU CHOOSE TO REMAIN A CLASS MEMBER, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO ANYTHING AT THIS TIME. IF YOU DO NOTHING, YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE INCLUDED IN THE CLASS.”

To read the court document on this case in its entirety, click on this link: Royal Oasis Timeshares.

You may also wish to contact:

Phillips & Garcia, P.C.
Carlin Phillips, Esq.
13 Ventura Drive
N. Dartmouth, MA 02747
cphillips@phillipsgarcia.com

-OR-

Lee & Amtzis, P.L.
Eric Lee, Esq.
5550 Glades Road, Suite 401
Boca Raton, FL 33431

If you have additional information or insights about the Royal Oasis Timeshares, please share it with this blog by leaving a comment on this post.

Also, be sure you read the Timeshare Owners Blog tomorrow for more information about this year’s resort season in the Bahamas.

In yesterday’s Timeshare Owners Blog, I asked for information from anyone who had real facts about the situation at Royal Oasis timeshare resort in the Bahamas. Sell My Timeshare NOW received the following letter, directed to my attention.

Thank you Mr. Phillips, I hope you will continue to keep us updated on the situation of timeshare owners at Royal Oasis, and I will share your insights with our timeshare blog readers

Mr. Tremblay:

I read with interest your article about the sale of the Royal Oasis resort on your blog, and I also read the linked article in the Dublin newspaper. Please be aware that my law office and a law office in Florida filed a class action in Florida federal district court in June of 2006 on behalf of timeshare owners against the defaulting owner (Driftwood) of the resort and against WHI, the prior purported buyer of the resort. Neither entity bothered to respond to the lawsuit.

We are proceeding in federal court to certify the case as a class action. For some time, we have also been trying to negotiate a settlement with Lehman Brothers and Harcourt on behalf of timeshare owners (neither entity was named in the lawsuit). Harcourt has failed to negotiate despite our repeated requests and, instead, has chosen to contact timeshare owners directly via Rudy Meadows.

We are very concerned that Harcourt’s attempted end-run around the class action, and the fact that some timeshare owners are represented by legal counsel, will benefit Harcourt at the expense of the timeshare owners. A cursory reference in a newspaper article that the timeshare owners’ contracts will be honored has little meaning beyond its public relations value. How are these contracts to be honored? Satisfying the timeshare owners for what they lost is not the same for all. The various categories of owners demonstrates that a simple claim that the contracts will be honored is no panacea. For example, some timeshare owners continued to pay for months and years despite the resort being closed while others stopped paying immediately, some timeshare contracts have terminated with timeshare owners purchasing other timeshares, some timeshare owners may no longer want a timeshare at the resort, etc. Moreover, the form timeshare agreement believed to be widely used at the resort indicates that if a member is unable to use a unit as a result of damage to the unit for an insured peril, then the resort is required to either provide alternate accommodation or a pro-rata refund based on the number of weeks lost. So, the question remains — what does “honoring” the timeshare agreement mean?

There is no one quick fix that will make the class of timeshare owners whole. A detailed settlement has to be negotiated that protects the timeshare owners. Timeshare owners should be suspect of any blanket proposal by Harcourt which may require the timeshare owners to release their rights when signing any new deal.

Harcourt has repeatedly ignored our requests to negotiate which has us concerned for the timeshare owners.

Carlin J. Phillips
PHILLIPS & GARCIA, P.C.
13 Ventura Drive
N. Dartmouth, MA 02747
508-998-0800 x 112

Consumer Trial Lawyers

Continuing from yesterday’s Timeshare Owners Blog about the situation at Royal Oasis timeshare resort, today’s blog looks at things from the perspective of timeshare owners.

Until yesterday’s post, the last blog I wrote about circumstances at this Caribbean timeshare resort was March 7, 2007. At that time, I was quoting the Freeport News as saying that Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie and former Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe were both hinting at a pending purchase of the resort. So here it is, eight months later, but finally, that sale may be about to happen.

Since the timeshare resort’s closing during the 2004 hurricane season, rumors of the sale of Royal Oasis have taken on the credibility of the boy who cried wolf. However last April, Harcourt Developments, a Dublin, Ireland based property development, management and investment company, surfaced as the front-runner in the rumor mill. But it appears that this time the news is solid, and Harcourt Developments is ready to finalize the deal to purchase the Royal Oasis resort. According to an article that appeared in Dublin’s Sunday Business Post Online, the $40 million deal is nearly completed.

Harcourt has gone so far as to notify people who own Royal Oasis timeshare, telling them that their contracts will be honored. The Nassau Guardian says, “All 3,000 timeshare owners at the Royal Oasis resort appear to have won the war they’ve waged for the last three years.”

The article went on to say it is unclear whether “the government or Lehman Brothers has offered to help cover the cost of restoring timeshare owners to the position they held before 2004.” Obie Wilchcombe, according to the Nassau Guardian, “suggested that a struggling Freeport could ill afford not to satisfy those investors, given the potential for them to mount a negative campaign against a newly renovated Royal Oasis as planned by Harcourt.”

Lehman Brothers’ role in the Royal Oasis debacle is that they stepped in to control the property when former owner Driftwood, failed to meet their mortgage obligations.

Royal Oasis Timeshare Owners, Let Us Hear From You

If you own timeshare at this resort, and have received a letter from Harcourt Developments, the Timeshare Owners Blog would love to hear from you. You can leave a comment on this post, letting us know what’s happening or post comments on our Timeshare Owners Forum. We’d really like to get our news on this subject from the people with the clearest perspective—the timeshare owners at Royal Oasis!

I have been very hesitant in the past few years to write about the ups and downs at Royal Oasis timeshare in the Bahamas. Sorting out truth from rumor and promises from cold hard fact, has been extremely hard and quite honestly, every time I heard something hopeful, it seemed to be quickly followed by more bad news.

If you are a timeshare owner and you have not heard the ugly story of Royal Oasis timeshare resort, then I will summarize it by saying that in 2004, Hurricane Frances and two weeks later, Hurricane Jeanne, hit the resort, after which Royal Oasis never reopened. But as you read the facts about Royal Oasis timeshare, I think it is clear that the hurricanes might not have been the resort’s only problem—in other words, the fact that hurricanes do sometimes hit coastal timeshare resorts should not stop you if you want to buy timeshare at or near the beach.

At Royal Oasis timeshare resort, Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne may have turned out to be merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. The timeshare resort clearly had problems long before a record-setting hurricane season blew through. Many people—many, many people—were hurt by everything that happened at Royal Oasis. The damages were far greater than a leaking roof and wind damaged timeshare units.

Let’s start by looking at the problems created for the timeshare resort’s employees—800 people according to one source, 1300 according to another. My guess is the discrepancy in number probably has to do with whether one is counting all employees of the timeshare resort, or only full time employees. Either way, we are talking about a lot of people whose jobs were gone. To add insult to injury, when Driftwood Freeport Limited closed the Royal Oasis timeshare resort, they not only left millions of dollars in debts, (source: The Freeport News) they also left employees without severance pay—to the tune of $6.12 million in severance pay according to government officials in Freeport.

In 2005, the Bahamian government stepped in and paid approximately $5 million of the resort’s unpaid severance, but many people received only half of the total amount due them, and others, who disputed the amount designated for them, received none of what they were due, rather than sign off to accept an amount they believed was incorrect.

But on Monday, October 29, the Freeport News reported, “The government is going to cause to be paid (to) the workers at the Royal Oasis Hotel the balance of their redundancy payment entitlements,” according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. Ingraham went on to say that, the government was taking steps to make “the reality of the payout as soon as possible.”

The article listed some of the Royal Oasis timeshare’s other debts including more than $13 million owed in casino taxes, another three-quarter million owed to Immigration, as well as debts to Customs, National Insurance, and the Union pension fund. Reportedly, Royal Oasis also was bouncing checks for employee’s deductions for their wages in order to make loan payments.

Do I know this for a fact? NO. I have not seen copies of public records or other documents to verify this information. I am basing my words solely on what has appeared online in the Freeport News.

The Royal Oasis timeshare was one of the largest resorts on the island, second in size to the Westin and Sheraton Grand Bahamas Island. When the timeshare resort closed, several neighboring businesses at the International Bazaar also went under. The culmination of the horrific hurricane season’s impact on their overall business, damages to their own properties, and the absence of foot traffic from the nearby timeshare resort, proved too much for them to withstand.

Throughout the island, grocery stores, clothing stores, neighborhood restaurants, and a host of businesses felt the pinch, when breadwinners in hundreds of families lost their livelihood with the closing of Royal Oasis timeshares. Likewise, there were independent contractors and small businesses that provided food, cleaning supplies, uniforms, and other types of goods and services to the resort itself that lost a meaningful chunk of their business revenues.

Since Royal Oasis shut its doors three years ago, the financial loss to the community has spread in a domino pattern, affecting thousands of people on Grand Bahamas Island. Thank goodness, government officials seem to be ensuring that former employees of the timeshare resort receive severance pay, despite the fact that it is not the Bahamian government’s obligation to cover the responsibilities of the resort’s ownership and management. This was an especially noble act in light of the fact that tax revenues to the Bahamian government and/or the city of Freeport probably took a dip when the resort shut down.

And as bad as this story sounds, it does not end here. In tomorrow’s Timeshare Owners Blog, we will look at what this situation has meant for vacation property owners of Royal Oasis timeshare. If you have been part of the ongoing story at Royal Oasis, or have any thoughts about it, we’d love for you to post your comments.

A bit of hopeful news for owners at Royal Oasis timeshare vacation resort.

I haven’t written about Royal Oasis timeshare resort since May of 2006. Even though some of our regular readers have asked for updates, I haven’t been able to offer any—there just has not been any reliable news.

But according to a recent edition of the Newport News, online edition, Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie and Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe have both “hinted” at a pending purchase. The Newport News quoted Wilchcombe as saying, “We know that the group is the right fit for Freeport and will bring the brand, the experience and the commitment to Freeport and to Grand Bahama.”

In case you are not familiar with Royal Oasis, the timeshare resort was damaged by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, in September of 2004. When the timeshare company closed the resort, over one thousand people were laid off. To exacerbate the impact on the local economy, two thirds of the 38 merchants at the International Bazaar, businesses supported in large part by the timeshare owners and visitors at Royal Oasis, have also had to close.

As for the timeshare owners themselves, they have been left to own or in many cases, make payments on property that is unusable and un-saleable. Royal Oasis is a highly atypical situation in the world of timesharing today. There are thousands and thousands of timeshare vacation resorts around the globe and it is inevitable that every year a few properties will sustain damage from natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, or fire. But you never hear about these situations because repairs are made quickly, business is soon back to normal, and individual owners are not personally impacted when it comes to using and enjoying their interval timeshare or vacation club membership.

Here’s the one thing you can count on. As soon as any of us at Sell My Timeshare NOW know anything definitive about Royal Oasis, we will be passing that information along to you.