Elite Island Resorts
Reviews and Complaints

We are a nonprofit and we get these certificates sent to us every single year to use in fundraising. We DO NOT use these certificates for our live or silent auction during our largest Gala for all of the reasons everyone has listed. We find using them in these spaces leads to frustrated donors and we don't want to leave a bad taste in their mouth because there are so many exclusions, additional fees, no airfare, etc. HOWEVER, we do use them for supplemental events where people are not expecting to win something so extravagant. For instance, we do a virtual event every year and give these trips out to the top 5 teams who fundraise. That way, they get rewarded for helping to fundraise, but it's low-pressure on them having to take the trip if the fine print becomes too much. We find this is the best way to use these.

In November of 2018 I paid $1600 for what I thought was a week at an all-inclusive resort at a charity auction for a local charter school I have supported for years. The additional $125 per person per day "accommodation fee" was fine print not disclosed until after I was advised I had won the "prize." I had no problem with that and was prepared to pay the additional fee - even gave Elite Island a $300 deposit to move forward with a reservation for a trip to Panama in February of 2021. Then COVID hit, and I had to cancel that reservation. My attempts to reschedule have been an exercise in futility. After multiple phone calls and emails to the single individual all of my calls were directed to - her name is Chrissy Angulo - I finally got her on the phone in November of 2021 and spent nearly 45 minutes discussing reservations. At the end of the call I thought all was well - I was going to be able to use the $1600 certificate toward three separate trips at three of their facilities - Antigua in February of 2021, St. Lucia in April of 2022 and Panama in February of 2023. I was thrilled - finally I was going to be able to use the certificate! Chrissy advised that I needed to provide a $600 deposit for each reservation, which (again) I was willing to do. Chrissy told me I would receive confirmations for each reservation shortly, but the only thing I received from her was an email link asking me to make another deposit on the trip scheduled for February of 2023. My friend and I went ahead and purchased plane tickets (over $800) for the upcoming Antigua trip, but after six weeks of multiple phone calls, emails and finally today, an internet review of these "certificates" I am finally willing to accept that I have been scammed, and am simply seeking a return of my original $300 deposit, along with as much publicity with BBB that these "certificates" are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Catherine Ramos
[protected]@gmail.com
[protected]
Reservation number: [protected]

My husand and I had a vacation scheduled to Antigua through your agency for March of 2020. Due to the current pandemic we had to cancel our vacation in order to not put anyone at risk due to being from one of the highest infected areas (NJ). I need to speak to a supervisor regarding the outcome with the credit on my account please. We both lost our jobs during this pandemic and could really use the money that is just sitting there. We understand it could be used for future travel but who knows when we'll be financially stable again and able to take a vacation. We don't even know what's going to happen job wise, if I'll be able to keep my house, a vacation is honestly the last on our minds. We're requesting a refund please. We chose to be responsible and make the safest decision of not going since we possibly had covid19 and didnt want to pass it to anyone on the flight nonetheless anyone on the island. We didn't think doing the right thing would hit us with punishment of no reimbursement for trying to do the right thing. I would really appreciate it if someone could get back to me. Thanks for your time.

You are led to believe you are bidding on a vacation so pay thousands of dollars for it. In reality, the supplemental fees they charge you are thousands again. Elite Island resorts pretends they are donating a trip to the charity when in reality they have donated nothing.. You are paying for the trip twice. Usually the resort would donate part of the cost of the trip and the bidder the other part. The bidder is donating the whole cost here. Then you pay the resort. The certificate is worthless. Elite Island resorts is using charities to make money. They should be reported to the IRS for their fraudulent so called donations.

We were at a very nice charity that had items to bid on...One such item was 7 nites at the Hammock Cove Resort and Spa in Antiqua...the value was listed as $3.800.00. It also stated that this was not for an all inclusive resort... Thinking this was a great deal, I ended up bidding almost $800.00. Sounded great and I knew there would be more cost, however, when we got the actual certificate, we had to pay an additional 500.00 per nite PLUS taxes and service fees. On a conservative end that additional cost was approx $4.200.00. Plus we had our own flight to add.
I would have never bid you n this if I had known the facts...we could have actually gone online and it would have cost us less.
I do not have anything negative about the organization that pat had the event...they actually refunded our money and were very surprised to learn the facts...
Please be aware of giveaways / biddable items by Elite Certicates/ Elite Island Resorts...they are a scam..
If you want to go to the places they claim to be giving away...just go online and book outright

I just got scammed last night on 3 trips at Love for Kids Charity benefit in Dallas. Once I was home, I opened the vouchers to read this BS about the ALL INCLUSIVE 'required supplement'for food of $125 Per Person Per Night on two trips and $250 Per Person Per Night on the 3rd trip! Who eats that much? Especially since the 3rd trip had a kitchenette to SAVE money! -You can book direct to their destinations WITHOUT the black out dates for less these 'required supplements' for food total! I could actually choose my destination from my 'Bucket list' for this amount as stated by the author of another Elite Company complaint on this site. (I appreciated their candidness. It is unfortunate that Elite is still scamming people...) I called my credit card company to dispute along with looking into legal pursuings. I was given the actual brochure of each trip laid out at the auction that clearly shows false advertisement by leaving out these hefty fees. AFTER the auction the vouchers in their envelopes to take home disclose this information. I am disputing the charges on my credit card since I was scammed and my credit card company agrees that the 'required supplement fees' should be on the auction item brochure. Unfortunately, I was a volunteer at the at the event and not a wealthy Dallasite. I thought my 14+ years of volunteering (at other charities) and caregiving for 2 elderly family members had rewarded me, then, only to find myself wiping away tears at 2a.m...

I purchased two certificates for trips to the Club in Barbados and St James Club Morgan Bay in Charity Auctions.
I have called your offices at 866 611 5081 The number you list for reservations. I have called during business hours for three straight days on 6/26, 27, 28. Each time I am told by the recording that someone will answer shortly. After several minutes another recording asks me to leave my contact information and someone will call me back.
No one has. Are you still operating the business?

So...first, I want to say that we just got back fr2om a very nice trip to Antigua. It was a much needed vacation and we truly enjoyed our time there...so much so we are considering a return trip. That said, I have to agree that it's a brilliant marketing scam. When your at an auction, especially in our community, vacations won in an auction are typically someone in my communities private home, or their time share, or a trip someone in our community is donating. This is the first year I think our organization used Elite Island Resorts. So, when a group at our table said "hey, let's go on a vacation together in the three bedroom villa they were offering, we didn't hesitate to bid the $3800 bucks. As it turned out, the other group backed out so we made it a family vacation. When we got around to book it, we were downgraded from the three bedroom suite to a one bedroom double bed for our family of four. They stated, the three bedroom villa required 4 adults paying the all inclusive fee. This was not stated on the certificate. Either way, for the same accommodations today, without the $3800 auction fee we Paid, the trip would cost us $3900 booking direct and about $1000 less through expedia or the like. Look it up?

My biggest problem with this scam, isn't the all inclusive fee we had to pay, even though we likely didn't meet cost in dinning. But I also didn't have to tip, there were different restaurants to eat at, they had entertainment, and several activities we all could participate in. It's the three bedroom villa we were swindled out of. I think upgrading the room to a three bedroom villa would have been worth it as upgrading it in the system actually adds up more closely to the value we Paid. This however, is an Elite Island Resort issue. After a our first or second day in the resort, we met the owner of this resort (he resides on ground). He said our daughter reminded him of his grand daughter so he came over to introduce himself. After speaking with us for a brief period, and discovering we only had one room. He gave us a second room at no charge. But this was his courtesy, not something honored by Elite Island Resort.

Yes...at the end of the day, we supported our local non profit. The money went to a good cause, but we didn't exactly get what we Paid for, so in that respect, we did get scammed out of the 3 bedroom.

My advice to anyone bidding on items at a charity auction. Don't bid on trips unless you know for sure it's a private residence, a donation from someone close the organization, or someone's timeshare they are giving up. I would not use Elite Island Resorts or anything like it. I noticed another travel agency at another charity was auctioning similar trips to Africa.
Dont get scammed.

This is the only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth around what was an otherwise very nice experience, especially after meeting the owner and his wife.

I am not complaining, only defending.
I won my vacation for 3 rooms at the St. James Club. I thought $750.00 was a great buy!
Did I have to pay $125.00 per person for the 7 nights, yes?
They made it specific that you had to pay this and it was room only. I asked my sister, her husband, our friends too. We had a blast!
The resort was fine, not a Ritz but fine. (we knew that going in).
So to some this may be a gimmick, to us, it was a welcoming, crafty idea how to raise money for charity, as well as the se resorts having customers to go. I have no regrets and would do it again and again. The $ went to the Gift of Life America.

I just won a 7-9 night Antigua trip at Verandah Resort and Spa at a school function. Was so happy until I got home and realized I had to pay $125 per person per night fee! I am a family of five! I found this resort on Hotels.com and the per night price was much cheaper. I called hotels.com and asked if it was all-inclusive with that price and they confirmed it was! So please tell me what I "won" if I just found this all inclusive trip at hotels.com much cheaper than the prize i won with "just" having to pay $125 a night/per person for food and beverage. So upset right now! What a complete scam.

The question is whether this is fraudulent or unethical. The answer is absolutely. Just because a person feels good about supporting a charity or enjoyed a trip does NOT determine whether it's fraudulent or unethical.

Our organization just received the packet and it states "as requested". Not only did we not request it but our organization does not have a fundraiser. Therefore this company is lying thereby making it unethical.

Further, the price that you have to pay per person can be had online. Given that the packet states you can auction this "deal" off at your fundraiser demonstrates it's unethical. The Organization should not present an item as a "deal" for something to be auctioned off at a fundraiser when the consumer can simply purchase the same or better price online.

You bid on a "prize", knowing its part of a charity event. I understand the extra charge per day per person, I understand needing your own air fare. The was I tried to accept it is that it was more like a discount than anything free. Even understood paying extra for pre notified blocked out days for peak season. Now when I called to book and they didn't call back for three days only to tell me the only time I could take the trip was when they wanted me to take it. Now I know I'm being scammed. The only available travel day they will honor was when the resort discounted things so heavy that I could have booked the whole trip with airfare and per person per day $115 fee for less than they were willing to book, their version had no airfare. Now instead of being charitable and getting a discount for donation I'm being screwed by so unethical company operating in the name of the Christian faith. Very sad that I will not take part in these charities again because of this company!

I do not recommend working with Elite Island Resorts for a charity events unless your target audience has expendable cash. The trip will cost the winning bidder more than if they would book it themselves online through a general website. If you want to provide the bidder with some type of value I suggest paying for the first two days or adding in free air fare.

Other than that this group is a ripe-off for your potential bidders (So beware).

Elite Island resorts "give" trips away to fundraisers. The people attending bid A LOT OF $ on what they believe is a "win."
I wanted to relay something that resulted from a recent event.
Elite Island Resorts was one of the top prizes. Myself and a friend poured in more than $150 to obtain a chance at this “prize.” There WAS a disclaimer provided to alert anyone bidding that they were responsible for addtl charges and cost were involved, airfare was also the responsibility of the “winner.” We understood all that.

What we didn’t understand was, if we went directly online(minus the $150 plus we invested to “WIN”…a complete waste), we could easily get the whole package(including airfare for some dates) MUCH cheaper. In fact, the “winning” prize was more of an advertisement for the company and NO GAIN at all to the “winner”. I can’t say that this is true for ALL dates travelled since I did not check 2014. But from the time of “winning” through Dec 31st, there is not ONE TRAVEL week where the “winning prize” is any benefit.

I urge you NOT to use this company for ANY EVENTS. I know everything was done with good intentions. However, this is incredibly disappointing.

I contacted Elite Island Resort directly. I spoke to and emailed the President, Steve Heydt([protected]@eliteislandresorts.com). He was smug, pompous and actually giggled while I expressed my concern and disgust for the advertising. He noted the disclaimer. I was and am aware. He also noted I could use the certificate at another time when the rates may be higher? Really? When might that be? For a 6 period time---there is NO cheaper advantage or winning.

I see as a “scam.”