Marriott’s Marbella under fire over 2024 timeshare maintenance fees rising four times UK inflation

Marriott's Marbella Beach Resort accused of piling extra pressure on British timeshare owners with ‘disproportionate’ maintenance fee increases

Spanish timeshare chaos

For decades, Spain’s Costa del Sol was a notorious hub for high-pressure timeshare activity. This led to new consumer protection legislation in 1999, designed to curb the industry’s worst excesses. In practice, many resorts ignored the new laws, and it took another 17 years before meaningful legal action began to catch up with offenders.

By 2024, most Spanish timeshare profit powerhouses had been forced to close their new-member sales operations under the weight of court-ordered compensation payouts.

Among those still trading is Marriott's Vacation Club Marbella Beach Resort.

Marriott’s Marbella, at least according to our data based on information from ECC clients, broke the law as much as everyone else.

However, Marriott are one of the wealthiest timeshare companies in the world, with a 2023 turnover of $4.72 billion. They have deep pockets—both to fund lawyers who can delay the consequences of lawsuits, and to pay compensation they are unable to avoid.

Maintenance fees as a second revenue stream

The original timeshare model generated income through sales, while charging members annually to maintain and run the resort properties.

With most Spanish timeshare companies forced to close their frontline sales programmes, an insidious practice has emerged: inflating maintenance fees, seemingly as a form of self-compensation. Timeshare contracts often allow resorts to increase annual fees unilaterally, with little or no member input or oversight. Many resorts now charge the same as—if not more than—standard accommodation rates, while still collecting members’ annual maintenance payments.

In many ways, timeshare members in the 21st century can be worse off than regular guests staying at the same resort—partly because they are legally obliged to pay whatever they are invoiced each year, whether they holiday or not.

Many resorts now raise annual charges by considerably more than inflation.

Marriott's Marbella Beach Resort is also one of the few companies still actively running a new-member sales programme. Despite retaining this income stream, MVCI appears to be just as enthusiastic as other resorts when it comes to raising annual maintenance charges.

2024 annual fee increase: around four times UK inflation

A letter to Marriott's Vacation Club Marbella Beach Resort members setting out 2024 maintenance fee increases shows a rise of 8.72%, taking the average annual amount to a staggering €1,554.47.

That equates to around 400% of UK inflation, which currently sits at 2.2%.

Marriott list a range of reasons for this year’s increase, including an extra €20.29 per apartment per week for pool use, and €49.43 per apartment per week for a “reserve fund” in case units need refurbishing. Those figures may not look extreme in isolation, but when multiplied by 51 weeks and then by 288 units, they amount to an additional €298,019 for pool-related charges alone.

In other words, the same swimming pool—with broadly the same number of users—will apparently cost nearly a third of a million euros more to maintain in 2024 than it did the year before.

The refurbishment planning comes to €2,521.95 per unit. This is on top of the average €73,000 per unit (before the increase) already being paid by members for upkeep. A cynical observer could reasonably argue that refurbishment planning could be covered from the substantial sums already collected annually for maintenance.

The increase also includes higher charges for “administration and accounting”, as well as front office, housekeeping and insurance.

Expert comment

"It’s a situation that rarely exists outside of the timeshare business," comments Greg Wilson, CEO of European Consumer Claims (ECC). "The resorts can set their fees at whatever they want. The consumer does not get any say in it; they are contractually bound to pay whatever they are told. So of course it is very tempting for the resorts to increase their demands to these kinds of extremes."

"If I can offer an analogy: imagine if employees could decide their own wage increases every year and their bosses were legally bound to pay whatever rise the worker awarded themselves. How much restraint could we expect? People might tell themselves they were being fair, but a high proportion would be inclined to justify very significant increases."

"Regular holiday booking sites like booking.com or Expedia have to stay competitive on fees, or customers take their business elsewhere. Timeshare customers don’t have that choice."

Not happy with your Marriott Marbella maintenance fee increase?

If you are tied into a Marriott contract and want to take back control of your holiday spending, get in touch with our team to discuss your options. If you meet certain criteria, you may even be entitled to financial compensation.