TravelSmart VIP
reviews and complaints

Am posting my experience for those who are considering to purchase their membership. I purchased the membership bck in 2019 for a term of 7 years. Initially we had our reservations and hesitations because Travel Smart said we cannot cancel and that they can unilaterally change the terms and conditions anytime. But the sales person ended up agreeing that we can cancel anytime and this was captured in our Verification Document which forms part of the contract.

In 2021, we wanted to cancel the membership and has sent Travel Smart multiple emails, however they have been harassing us since. Claiming that we cannot cancel under our contract despite the fact that we have the right to cancel documented.

Please be careful and think twice.

One of the reason why we wanted to cancel was because Travel Smart changed the point system. We used to pay to buy points to be used towards redeeming a room in the future. And the food n beverage will be settled at the time of reservations. However they have gotten rid of the point system. We now only get discount on room rates with our membership.

bck in 2019 myself and partner were sold the membership and bought our points

During the hard sell by Marcus we made lots of promises that in fact were just lies

30% discount on TUI holidays as they owned 49% of sunwings as this was to keep in line with American members and discounts they got on Sunwing

Automatic room upgrade regardless of time of vacation

$500 flyback refund on flights to destinations

Well the contract was changed and the points we bought and are still ,paying for no longer exist so I don't know what the monthly payment is actually for.

TUI discount was a total lie.

Room upgrades are dependent on luck and if any available so you have to pay for the expensive room and no longer get upgraded as per the hard sell

Any new Royalton destinations may not be included in the FLYBACK refund

No new contract was sent expla8ining the changes and no cooling off period was offered should the new contract not be suitable

My sick husband whom has passed away was seen on their location at the Hideaway in Cancun and prescribedheavy pain meds.

We were to have breakfast the next morning and after lots of champagne a contract was signed to join this “ Club”

I have tried all morning to get a reservation and have not been able to talk to anyone that could help me.

This is clearly a scam and should be reported to the Attorney General and shut down.

We've been members since 2015, having three kids and hoping to have an easy vacation experience each year without the hassle. Has been okay thus far... every trip we have issues with booking restaurant reservations / not being given the room we paid for, but nothing major. We obviously haven't been traveling since COVID, and were just made aware recently that they changed their format from points to throwing out the points that we've accumulated for the past 7 years and changing it to a mere discount on a vacation. I've tried to contact them about this - the phone line is out of service, and it's impossible to reach someone via email. I'm honestly just very disappointed with this change that doesn't take into account the loyalty of long term members and instead throws their points out the window. The lack of responsiveness is concerning and I'm questioning where we've been putting our vacation fund for the past few years. I feel misled, cheated of my money, and stuck in these annual member fees for a deal I didn't initially sign up for. On top of that, the annual fees during COVID where we felt it was legitimately not safe to travel are just insane. No one has made an effort to return our calls... emails... nothing. Incredibly incredibly disappointed. I would RUN from this company.

We had booked a trip through Travel Smart VIP. Our upcoming trip is supposed to be at the end of May. We have requested a refund, even partial. We are unfortunately unable to make this trip due financial and medical reasons. We contacted the travel agent that we used and have not had any resolution what so ever. We are extremely disheartened by this. Especially during a national pandemic where unfortunate times are affecting just about everything and everyone. We booked this trip through a friend's account for Travel Smart VIP, they offered to credit his account for a year. This is unacceptable. We have no signed agreement AT ALL let alone one that is stating that refund was not available, especially with such an extended notice of cancellation. We have been in communications with the representative over at Travel Smart and he has since stopped communication back to us. Would NOT ever book with this company again. Terrible communication.

We booked which should have been a beautiful vacation for Christmas but due to the latest round of the Covid - Omicron Pandemic the Canadian government advised not to travel. My wife who works in a Seniors Building could not take the risk and travel so we unfortunately had to cancel again. We were penalized two nights stay for both rooms as we had to book two rooms with a family of 5. That has cost us over $1500 US that we have now lost. I asked multiple levels of customer service to reconsider and only charge us for one night for both rooms but they turned us down. As a Travel Smart VIP member we have certainly not received VIP treatment. While we have a credit to use the balance in 2022 it is painful to be out so much money especially after the exchange to Canadian. I guess Management at Travel Smart and Royalton really don't care much about their clients and forced me to post on Social media the lack of empathy and support. Note, it was our decision to cancel due to health and safety but we should Not have pay such a large penalty for that.

We were supposed to travel Dec 19th to Dec 26th. We even had a surprise waiting for us as it was my sons birthday on the 19th and he missed that.

my email is [protected]@gmail.com

We are still waiting on a response for a refund, we booked November 16-21, 2021. Upgrade to DIAMOND, didn't get the services that we paid for, had to leave hotel on the 18th.
Also, a staff member yield at me, and still waiting for an answer, lots of phone calls, emails, and no resolution yet.
We also stopped payments, but if they don't resolve we want a complete refund of the membership.

My husband and I purchased Ruby level membership while vacationing in Cancun in 2015. We had paid off the entire membership in that year. Annual fee has been paid yearly since then.
Since the COVID began, the world has not been safe to travel. We have not been traveling with our family since March 2020. I am sure a lot of people are in the same shoes. Even though Royalton destinations were not open. Yet TravelSmart VIP club has continued to impose annual fees during the past two years and continued to do so for next year. I have emailed and called the company in the past two months. No one has responded to my inquiries. NO ONE. I am very disappointed with the amount of service the company provided. I would not recommend this company to anyone. It becomes more of a hassle to keep the membership.

My wife and I purchased a time share in Dominican Republic. Since then we have tried to book a vacation we were not permitted because our first year fees were not up to date, which bring up to now. After a fee year we got an email from TRAVELSMART telling us that we can sell our time share for 5000.00 but we would have $1200.00 for fees and arranging the sell. Now we find out that was a scam I have contacted the real TRAVELSMART and they assured me that no one can get into their system it is so well protected I said then it must be employees sell our info to a 3rd party and again they refused to take responsibility of breach of confidentiality because it was certainly not us or other people this has happened to. Stay away from TRAVELSMART and affiliates. I wish our government would get involved since now they have allowed Permission to have an app now here in Canada, why not protect your citizens rather than a corporation of SCAMMERS

Unfortunately, I am done with your service. I also was taken by the slick sales man, who showed up at the beach in Punta Cana, however have tried to be a loyal customer, and honour my debt.

Given, today, November 27, 2021, tried to contact your organization, was on hold for over an hour, tried with my cell phone, got a message, beyond our control, we can't answer.

Goodness, you advertise Black Friday deals, but don't answer?

I am with many others, cannot believe a reputable firm as Sunwing is your owner, unless that also has changed.

I believe I may stop paying, and engage a lawyer, if my credit score is impacted.

Our membership is paid. We can't travel with my husband's health. We, as others I see were lied to at the beginning. We took great lengths to cancel because of it but did get some perks because of it. 15% of the vacation, free seats and free Diamond Club where available. Recently and of course were threatened with collections to pay the back fees. In the contract it says if you don't pay for two years they have the right to cancel our contract. Do it, do it. Not, do they waived the interest owing when we paid one of the periods.
We signed in 2015 in Negril at Breezes but is now a Royalton. We have been approached by many outsiders to sell our Membership but that can be even worse. Check that one out.
Fees? Don't even go there. USD and killer. As stated before, we can't use it anymore and you would think there would be some compassion somewhere with those in the same boat. We also checked in to the hassle it is for a Company in the USA to do collections for a resident in Canada. Another option for us looking forward.

I signed up for this membership 5 years ago, and I used it twice. I paid 10, 000, and at the beginning it really looked like we will save money. They changed their policy since covid started, and all membership benefits are gone.
I kept sending emails to them, with prove that I am getting a better deal trying to book my vacation on Expedia . We are just moving in circles, and they try to hide the dirt under the carpet, but they can't do it with me. By listing a higher price on the website, and deduct 35%, just to show me that I am getting the benefits, it is not proof enough that I am saving.
Compare your membership booking price, with booking on Expedia. I sent proof that it is cheaper to use the Expedia than this membership. And I should pay annual fee too? Forget it. My daughter is corporate lawyer, and I decided that what's enough it's enough. If they think they took advantage of me they are wrong.

We were totally scared by travel smart, we have never used their resorts. They sucked us in 4 years ago We were are the chic we signed up and than we tried to Cancel the next day. They were very pushy and after being surrounded by about 4 of the reps we left. We were scammed out of 12, 000 we were never explained a lot of the contract just a lot of big promises We have found many vacations that were a lot cheaper. Now they say I have to pay a annual fee! That was never explained to us in any way. After contacting travel smart about cheaper vacations they always came back with difference responses. We totally think they are totally a sham taking peoples hard earned money. Anyone else have this experience with them?

My wife and I went to st. Lucias royalton for our honeymoon and after repeatedly saying no to the timeshare scam they insisted on having us sign with them while having us go to lunch with them and alcohol beverages and we got scammed and did signed. This was in 2018 and have not been back since and I have talked to someone through travelsmart and they continue to say that I can't get out of my contract and I asked about just giving it to someone and they said I have to physically be in st lucia to do that I live in usa it's not just a hour drive. I 10000% do not recommend travel smart or any timeshare!

I was contacted about payment and asked how much it would cost to pay the account in full. They gave me an amount, which I paid and was contacted a few days later saying I owed money. I emailed them to notify that the account was paid in full. They responded, saying that it was the annual fees this time.

Ok fine. I contact them back after ignoring them through Covid to pay the annual fee and book a trip. Now they say they made a mistake on the balance and I owe monthly payments again. He told me that it was their mistake. I have written proof via emails and a receipt saying my account is paid, but now they want more money and refuse to book my trip until it's paid.

Don't even get me started on how they lied to us about what they offered to us to make us sign up, or how difficult it is to actually book a trip. I have yet to be able to book through them and have to use Sunwing because it's cheaper than their quotes….

I will join any lawsuit. Count me in.

We've been completely mis-sold out me holiday. Things we were told we included aren't and the staff couldn't care less. Absolutely horrendous place… we paid extra to upgrade to diamond club and as far as we can see there's no benefit. The pool is dirty, full of litter and rubbish, it took 45 minutes to get a towel. The staff don't care and are quite frankly rude and dismissive.

This is the worst experience I have had in my life. Visited Royalton Jamaica and was given the pitch of the travel club. After hours and hours of being sold to my husband and I bought into the club

We have paid off our fees and now it's proving near to impossible to do our booking to spend our week. I have sent 8 separate mails requesting confirmation of availability and have received nothing. It's as if they want to frustrated you into not using the benefit since the funds have been collected. I would not recommend anyone join up to this travel club. Nothing about this feels VIP to me

Hi all,

I have been a travel vip customer since 2015, the worst program ever! And it is a scam.

But I am tired of complaining. Since most of us have been suckered in. How about we take advantage of it? Lets book a flight to mexico within 2 years of today and we make it the best we can and see what management can do for us. Lets exchange info and band together and form our own community.

Contact me at [protected]@gmail.com

We visited Royalton Hideaway in March 2020 prior to covid. Since then we have been told that TravelSmart has since closed but is still continuing to take our monthly payments. They never informed us that they were closing. They are in the process of possibly being bought by Marriott chain. We tried to book a vacation with all these points we have and was informed that they are not doing points. Therefore we had to pay almost full price as they continued to deduct payments every month. This is a breech of contract and we will be canceling

TravelSmartVIP - I truly regret the day we signed up for this.
In the fall of 2014, based on years of excellent vacations and customer service afforded us through Sunwing Vacations we entertained a TravelSmartVIP sales presentation while vacationing at the Grand Lido Hotel in Jamaica, and solely based on their Sales Director's promise that TravelSmart would relieve us of our then current timeshare, purchased our membership. What a mistake! Promoting free this, that and whatever, but when trying to pay annual dues online via credit card we are continually denied access and their response to any online query is "We have been experiencing issues with our website. Please pardon the issues. To better assist you we can have an agent call you to help you and take the payment. Please let me know what is the best time and phone number to reach you." - Really?! They should have had our contact information, and I do not freely give credit card information out over the phone to unknown parties, nor do I give it out without a degree of security and a paper trail, particularly with the overabundance of internet and telephone fraud, and why else would TravelSmartVIP regularly send out security bulletins since 2016 warning of same?

Annual Fees continued to be an issue causing me to contact Sunwing in December 2017 (Request #102703) and again in November 2018 (Request #235935). Our dues were paid in full through 2017. However, we had lost out on all the posted early payment bonuses and to add injury to insult, TravelSmart had charged an additional $146.00 USD for late 2018 payment, which was especially disconcerting when it wasn't our fault! We followed their instructions. Nothing changed! Noting that it had now totally negated our ever considering TravelSmart or Sunwing for future vacations, I specifically asked the Sunwing and TravelSmart representatives concerned in that trail to please advise how to cancel our membership. Unfortunately, that request received atypical service levels to which Sunwing brands have fallen and being neither impressed nor wishing to continue, I requested those individuals to please escalate this matter to their respective management immediately. Although our membership was paid in full, I was saying no more fees, take back your membership. And I heard back nothing! Nothing until today's mail that is! A company noted as Resorts Advantage LTD. INC. with a Miami, Florida, USA address, touting TravelSmart letterhead is stating we have a pending balance of $1, 638.50 in unpaid annual fees, but they are offering to waive up to 50% for us to maintain our membership if paying by January 31/21? I don't recognize the name or address and am quite frankly, skeptical. That being said, they noted that failure to pay could result in membership being cancelled and all monies paid forfeited, but there are also legal implications such as debt being passed over to credit bureau for collection. PLEASE! Take back your membership.