Is any one involved with this "Global Vacations Network"? Please provide feedback, positive or negative. I am interested in joining but a little worried about its program. They offer something like a $7500 fee plus $389 yearly and you get 4/6 weeks vacation per year at $159 per week. All over the world. Its a transferalble lifetime membership.

Scam. I "won" a "free" ski trip in SLC from them last winter from a drawing at a ski show. So did my SO. So did my parents. Guess if any of us ever ended up going on a ski trip?

The BBB gives them a C+ and the most common complaints were Advertising/Sales Issues (66%) followed by Problems with Product/Service (22%).

javabytes -

I have two memberships to Global Discovery Vacations which I believe is a part of the Global Vacations Network. The prices you listed sound the same or similar.

You will find naysayers. You may also find people, like myself, who are able to use the membership advantageously.

I have stayed in Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Kauai, Colorado, Banff, Bermuda, and other locations using GDV. For a family, the separate bedroom(s) and kitchen are preferable to a hotel room, for less than a price of a hotel room.

But, you need to be very flexible in location & timeframe and patient with the booking process. Don't expect to travel in peak time periods with this. Be careful with the seasons as well.

I never even got that far.

Red flag #1: When all four of my family members who attended a ski show each got a call from the same person at the local Global Vacations Network office, and each were told they had won a free vacation. As in "won", done deal, already in the bag. And the representative made it sound as though only one ticket was pulled.

Red flag #2: Three of the above people (after giving some basic demographic information), received calls later telling them that they hadn't, in fact, won anything yet, and that they were finalists in a drawing for some other prize. They were to hear back within 2-3 days if they had won anything. And of course, none of them ever heard anything back, and could ever get a hold of anyone at the GVN office again.

Red flag #3: The remaining person, who happened to be the oldest and with the greatest income (not sure if the income was divulged to GVN), continued to be told they had won a prize, but had to come into the office (1.5 hours away) and sign up for all kinds of things, meet the office staff, see a presentation, etc. to claim the prize. When asking why this needed to be done if they had already won, and why the certificate couldn't just be mailed, GVN had no good answer. That conversation ended, and just like in the other cases, GVN was never heard from again nor reachable by phone during business hours.

Needless to say, the communicating family members smelled a rat way back at #1. 4 related people don't each get a "we actually pulled your ticket in the drawing!" without something fishy going on. And sure enough, just like it sounded, it was too good to be true. Fortunately, everybody was aware of what was going on and never had any chance of getting baited, but I can't help but wonder about individuals who might not have had the advantage of seeing what we saw.

A variation on a timeshare.

Look carefully at the economics:

Figure *ALL* the upkeep costs. You're getting close to the price of the rooms. By the time you add in what you could make on the money you have to pay for the membership it's normally a bad deal.

Also:

You're a captive audience. What incentive do they have to keep things up or keep the maintenance fees reasonable?

Also:

Look at the resale value of timeshares. About $0.

Also:

Look at what their promotion is costing them. That has to come out of the sales price.

I can understand where you are coming from with these comments and I think you are smart to be skeptical and careful on this.

If I hadn't initially walked into the experience thru a family member who was able to share the membership benefits with me for several years, I probably would have never touched it.

I can say that I do enjoy renting a 1BR condo on Kauai, for example, for an off-peak weekly price that works out to $226, not counting the up-front membership fee.

Not trying to sell this. Actually, I would discourage anyone from doing this unless they have flexibility in time & location and take the time to learn the ins & outs of using the program. I think they collect a lot of fees from people that don't use all their membership weeks.

For a family like mine that takes a lot of trips and likes the locations where the condos may be available it works! Just saying, it can work well for value-minded vacations.

I also wouldn't pay full retail for the upfront membership. I calculated it would take me two to three years of savings to reach the break even point on the membership fee.

I'm using the free week offer in Destin in the near future. $0.

Sounds like an incredible deal if you're willing to live with the type of quality accomodations they offer..

We usually like our 5 star luxury hotel and similar accomodations.. so sounds like we are out of this market..

Alot of companies phone around and say you've won something.. I would go to the presentation.. get the package that's free.. and go and see how its like before making a comment on it..

I've never bought, but have attended 20+ time share/vacation club presentations including Disney.. I have scored pretty good deals, and generally find that the presentations are informative.. I'm in real estate and like to study their systems.. and genuinely open to doing business..

But never found a package that was just right.. yet..