Club La Costa timeshare whistleblower reveals the reality of CLC sales tactics

'Steven' was a high-flying salesman (also known as a 'liner' or 'closer') for the Club La Costa (CLC) timeshare company, earning around €15,000 a month.

In this candid interview, he lifts the lid on what “friendly” timeshare salespeople really think about the product — and, more importantly, how they view the people they’re trying to sell to.

ECC: Do you own timeshare yourself? How many of the CLC sales staff would you say are owners?
Steven: I don’t own timeshare. There was one guy on the 300-strong sales team who owned with CLC — and he was an owner before he joined the team. None of us would buy the product.

ECC: Can you explain why?
Steven: We were selling a one-bedroom apartment worth probably €200,000 (outright) for well over €830,000. The extra money was pure profit to fuel the CLC machine. I was personally earning around €15,000 a month. Even the breakfasts we gave clients during the sales presentation cost another €15,000 a week. All of that was being paid for by the clients who joined CLC.

ECC: As a CLC staff member, would you have been entitled to a discount if you wanted membership yourself?
Steven: I wouldn’t have bought at any price. It doesn’t work.

ECC: Doesn’t work?
Steven: Timeshare is designed not to work. If it worked, people would join and never need to upgrade. The in-house reps’ job was to meet each member when they returned and show them why they “needed” to spend a bit more. Timeshare companies see each member as ultimately yielding around five times their initial purchase cost.

ECC: Did you ever have a crisis of conscience about selling these memberships?
Steven: Like anyone, you question yourself at first sometimes — but you have to earn a living. In the end, you stop seeing them as human beings. Each presentation becomes a chance to either earn money or waste hours of your time, so you learn to be dispassionate. If you can get the people in front of you to part with money, you’ll take it regardless of their circumstances. It isn’t your job to protect them when you have your own family to feed.

ECC: How do you persuade someone to spend tens of thousands of pounds on a timeshare membership in just a few hours?
Steven: There is a very specialist system at CLC. Every aspect of the sale is refined to the smallest detail. You spend the first part of the tour in what looks like friendly conversation, but the goals are deadly serious. You need to make these people like you — otherwise they won’t trust you. They’ll only buy from you if you can make them truly believe you’re their new best friend.

ECC: So you didn’t actually like your clients?
Steven: While I was on tour, it was vital to make them feel like we were becoming best friends — but it was completely artificial on my part. Without anything to gain from them, I would never have created that bond. Like the rest of the sales force, I’d sit around after work having a few beers and bragging about my achievements — basically manipulating strangers with my “skills”. As soon as the clients had gone, it was a huge relief to drop the act.

ECC: You no longer sell timeshare. What made you leave the business?
Steven: Timeshare makes no sense any more. No amount of fancy sales patter can distract from the fact it’s a more expensive way to take exactly the same holidays — and to legally commit themselves to that system for many years. Why do that when there’s no benefit?

ECC: What, if anything, do you feel guilty about from your time at CLC?
Steven: I suppose it’s the people who took out finance to buy memberships. CLC worked together with credit providers like Barclays, Shawbrook and Hitachi to arrange loans. Getting finance approved for a client was a real windfall because CLC got their money straight away, and I got my commission in the same month. But the clients who needed finance really were making a bad financial decision to pay for something like timeshare on credit.
Timeshare is worth absolutely nothing the second you buy it. People soon find out that the annual fees are more expensive than regular holidays. There are so many stories in the media about people who made rash decisions to buy timeshare on finance, ended up owing double what they borrowed, and losing their house, their pension and their savings.

ECC: What’s your advice to people who are still thinking of buying a timeshare membership?
Steven: You’d be very foolish to buy a timeshare membership. Joining commits you to paying an expensive annual fee even if you don’t holiday that year. You can stay in any timeshare complex via normal booking sites as and when you please, without paying a fortune to join.

ECC: And finally, what about people who are stuck with memberships they don’t want?
Steven: Firstly, don’t go back to your resort. People like me would be waiting to talk you into spending more money to upgrade to yet another product that’s unlikely to work.
Once you’ve decided you definitely want out, the best thing is to speak to a reputable claims firm to help you get free from the membership. Be careful, though: there are a lot of scam firms waiting to take even more money from timeshare victims, but there are a couple of good consumer associations that will point you in the right direction.
Also, a lot of people don’t know that a huge number of timeshare contracts, for decades, were sold illegally. If your contract is illegal, you might be able to claim compensation — and claims firms can help with that too.

ECC: Thank you for being so candid, Steven — it’s been a pleasure talking to you.
Steven: My pleasure.

You can contact Timeshare Advice Centre for a free and confidential chat.