Festiva Development Group
Reviews and Complaints

We have been members for years and love it, have been to St Maarten, Charleston and Orlando. All the resorts were in great locations and we were always treated well. The product is what you make of it...IN reading the complaints...yes you take a tour and yes they try to sell something...that is why they pay you...at the end of that day I have travelled the world, paid less money and had better quality...

I have not been able to book a vacation through Festiva since they took over from Equivest (equally evasive). However, I have been charged with higher fees each year and when I complain they threaten collections. This year they added a special collections of 1/3 the total cost and then when I did't pay on time, they added an in-house collections fee on each billing. I paid the bill with a refusal to pay for in-house collection as I had already been billed a late fee. The representative agreed upon the fee without the collections fee but when I received my credit card statement - he had charged that fee as well.

Unfortunately we are not getting anywhere with the Festiva group/ They had sold their assets at Stormy Point in Branson Mo., to Summerwinds. Now we are told that unless we pay at least $5, 000.00 to belong to the Festiva adventure Club, we can no longer take advantage of any of their other properties. Upon contacting Summerwinds, located at Stormy Point, we are told that as we were Festiva owners, we also can Not take advantage of any of their benefits either. We are Stormy Point owners, period, . Upon contacting Festiva in Branson we requested that perhaps they could deed the Stormy Point property back to the Cabins of Green Mountain, where we had originally purchased, prior to switching. Brandon the Manager indicated that that could probably be done, without any costs to us. However withing 10 minutes he called back and said this could not be done. He also indicated that every Festiva Stormy Point owner had paid to belong to the ADventure Club. We find this difficult to believe. Why should we have to pay that much more. We have always kept up our end of the bargain, paying as agreed every year. WE cannot put it in a rental pool, now we cannot use any of their other properties, without paying, paying and more paying. This is NOT what we had signed up for. There must be hundreds of other owners out there who feel the same way. They deceived us, and have NOT kept their end of the contract. We want some sort of compensation, let us belong to the adventure club at no charge, we did not ask you to sell.If not allow us to switch the deed back to the Cabins of Green Mountain at NO Charge.

My husband and I bought a timeshare from festiva resorts in branson, missori. We absolutly loved it. We could not go the first year so we let one of our dear friends and family (4 adults over 50) go in our place... They loved it. Then the next year we evacuated to stormy pointe village in branson for a hurricaine... Loved it! While we were there the salesman wanted us to change to a point system which, of course, sounded divine; we did, and the trouble started. First they paid us with 'bonus points' for our equity, which we thought was good because we wanted to go on a cruise and would need extra points. 3 months later we recieved a letter saying we must pay a maintenance fee on those points or we will loose them... So we lost them because we were at christmas time and only had 2 weeks to pay it. Then when I recieved the maintence bill it was for double the amount that we had previously paid; I called to inquire and they said that it was because I had requested more points... They told me I had to have more points to get equal to what we had in the begining. This was my first ever vacation timeshare and will be my last... I am very unhappy! We can't afford to use them, so on our off years we just go on a different vacation and ours is on the market!

We bought into in the late 90's and were very pleased with our timeshare. Each year we were able to use our points and take a vacation. Then received information telling us that we had been sold and sold and sold. I think we are now Equivest/Peppertree. The maintenance fees and special assessments are too high we are unable to make these payments. I believe that the Festiva company wants to suck every dime they can from us until we give up and either pay more money to them or give them our timeshare. We decided to just give up and give them our points but they will not accept it until the maintenance fees and special assessment are paid in full and give them and addition $100 dollars to give it to them. We do not have this kind of money, but we wanted out so we borrowed it and called them back within 24 hours to pay up and WHAM they want to hit us with another $9.57 cents this may seem a small amount to you but when you are handing over $1000.00 PLUS dollars you don't have it is big. This just shows you how money hungry they really are. Listen to me they do not care about you and your family enjoying time off and a good vacation all they care about is money, money, money. Please do not I repeat DO NOT buy into Festiva you will regret it. Also every time I call Festiva I am talked to and treated like a low life. These have to be the rudest people around. Today I had the displeasure of speaking to Ryan Brown in Finance and he talked to me like I was nothing but a piece of dirt. He was hateful rude and really a ***. People you can take a nice vacation anywhere and even rent these units online you do not need to buy into their garbage about how nice they make your vacation experience. Run when you see the word FESTIVA.

I agreed to a 2 night stay for $99. I was told to call 1 week in advance to set my travel dates. I called 2 weeks in advance and was told I could not travel for 3 months! I told them that was not possible because I may have to move soon, and I needed a refund. They absolutely refused. After speaking to 3 different people, I was hung up on 4 times. They won't even let me use their automated phone crap anymore; they just hang up on me as soon as I call. I got screwed out of $99. I'm so glad they didn't have the chance to take more, although I will be watching my credit card statement extremely closely because I wouldn't put it past these people to just steal even more of my money! I will never agree to one of these timeshare pressure scams again!

My husband and I attended a home and gardens show recently and entered to win a Carnival cruise. Only Carnival cruise was plastered all over the booth. We received a call yesterday evening we had won. My husband was bounced to 3 different numbers where the company was finally revealed to be Festiva Adventures. They demanded a $25 deposit over the phone on a major credit card. I've had friends and family who won trips in the past - you should never have to pay a deposit or offer up financial info. When my husband declined, he was badgered by the Festiva service rep that they "already had all our information on the entry form and could have already done significant damage to us if they weren't legit." I'm highly offended by this and refuse to ever do business with this company. They have called us 3 times since this call and refuse to leave us alone.

We are owners at stormy point, a festiva resort since 2006. Stormy point has been sold to summerwinds resorts.

We have been told we are no longer a part of festiva resorts, so we are no longer entitled to exchange our week at other festiva resorts. The only place we can use our time share is at stormy point. Our whole point in buying into a time share is to visit other areas of the country.

We would not have bought into festiva if we had known this might happen. So far, summerwinds isn't allowing us to be a full part of their family! Ugh! We are the ugly step-children!

Several years ago we made the mistake of purchasing a timeshare at Stormy Point village in Branson Mo.Evidently this resort is no longer managed by Festiva, and they are now giving us a run around and are of no help in answering our questions, nor do they return our telephone calls.
Also, all the promises that were made those years ago, i.e being able to rent our week in case we cannot use it, can no longer be done, unless we join another club, for a fee of course.Another alternative now is to bank the week, and when we want to use it, there is another $159.00 fee on top of our already high maintenance fee.
If anyone is reading this, DO NOT BUY A TIMESHARE, it will be the worst place for your hard earned money.
Especially do NOT buy from Festiva/

My family and I just finished a weeklong stay in Orlando. I had found our room on vrbo.com and it fit what we needed. (2 bedrooms, heated pool, price was right!). Upon checking in the lady at the counter of the Blue Heron resort told us that she could cut our cost for the room in half if we sat through a timeshare presentation. For $500, 2 hours of our time seemed like a good deal. We have never sat through a timeshare presentation, but we were told it was low pressure. We should have been warned when they asked us to put down a $20 deposit. We did this and showed up on the scheduled morning and spent 2 hours with their rep, Bob Champion. At one point he even had a $500 check with our names sitting on the table in front of us. He was very nice and walked us through the whole plan and costs and everything. We were honest up front with him that our vacations involved visiting family and we didn't tend to take vacations outside of that. After we sat with him for 2 hours we explained that timeshares weren't right for us and vacations were not a priority for us. He asked us why we sat through the presentation for 2 hours and we explained that we wanted the $500. This is when Bob's nice facade changed. He told us that we only got the $500 to use as a downpayment on the time share. If we did not sign up for the timeshare we only got our deposit back and a gift of $75. We argued back and forth where he didn't say we were liars but implied that we misunderstood. It became quickly clear that there we were wasting each others time so we left and went downstairs to get our $75 and leave. Upon leaving Bob rushed out of the elevator and told us that he needed the $500 check back. We explained that we didn't have it and saw him put it in his paperwork. He turned to the woman who was giving us our deposit back and said, "Can you have them wait here until I find the check?" Seriously, he was holding us there because he lost the damn check! A few minutes later the lady walked over to us and told we could go. He didn't even have the decency to apologize for basically accusing us stealing a check . Will not sit through another timeshare presentations again. And I will continue to stay in other's peoples condo's but WILL NOT be staying at any properties owned by Festiva!

We have owned in Banner Elk, NC, what seems like forever, then in Sept 2010, we gave in and paid an additional large sum to go to the points system. We are trying to get a week planned now for Beach area in the spring, and after several attempts, cant seem to get it locked in. They want to refer us to the Interval International, and that has not worked so far. When on vacation in 2010, our unit was HORRIBLE. They have promised to fix so much stuff in our unit, we figured we would go somewhere else for a change. I agree, they will BLEED you dry! I cant understand how maintenance fees go from $200 +/-, to almost $900, in 3 yrs or less, and nothing seems to get done. Its promise after promise. We couldn't even watch TV last trip, and that has gotten alot worse the last few years. I cant believe how many customers are saying all these rotten things, most of them we can relate to, about Festiva Resorts, and I do know you cant just walk away. If everyone sticks together, we will be able to get something done. It could be Egypt all over again.

This past October after being hounded for the past year to change to points we finally did, but the only reason we paid in an additional $5k and addition maintenance fees is that we were promised from the sales person that we could rent our units out for a guaranteed $1200 per week. He told us to call him after January 1st and he could set it up for us and he gave us his cell phone number to use. Well we started calling in January and the sales man never returned our calls so we call the resort and had them transfer us to sales where we had to leave a message and of course no one called us back. We then had them hand carry a message to the sales office to call us and no one did. We then went down to Ellington for the weekend and scheduled a meeting with a sales man. At our meeting we were told that no such rentals existed and that we were told wrong. The gentleman took down our complaint and said he would call us on Monday. Guess what...he didn't call.
Don't believe anything these guys tell you unless you have it in writing exactly what you get.

On August 21, 2010 I purchased a membership with Festiva Adventure Club. The presentation was held at 190 Riverside Street, Unit B, Portland, Maine.
We enjoy going on cruises for our vacation time and unfortunately Festiva does not provide this with the points without additional money like promised.
I am so disappointed the presentation of the service was not disclosed clearly and was misrepresented.
When we told them no, they told us they had a biannual program that would be cheaper. We kept asking about the cruise and telling them that is the only thing we would use the points for and they kept assuring us that we could use them for cruises and we wouldn't have to pay any extra.
I was also promised a week at Cape Cod for signing on that day, plus 2 free relaxing weeks for having 12000 points. Not to mention the free gifts I was supposed to receive just for listening to the 90 min. presentation.
Months later, after being told repeatedly there was a way to turn the points into a cruise and he (the guy who did the presentation) would help me do it, I find out that is not possible. The following is a letter in part written by him on January 27th, changing everything that was initially promised to us. Including, we would have to upgrade to annual to cruise.
We then contacted corporate. On the phone she told me it could be done through interval but we needed to upgrade (more $$$) to Gold membership. But again when the email arrived in said-- discount. So I called Interval and the guys walked me through what I would have to do and of course it was a discount on an expensive cruise. Costing us way more than if we bought the one we want.
I have had January and February off from work and was looking forward to all the vacations that were promised. Unfortunately I have not had a vacation at all. I can’t tell you how much I regret buying into this SCAM!

This email concerns my complaint against FESTIVA RESORTS for deceptive sales practices in a time share exchange. Please be advised that Festiva has formally offered to make full restoration of my purchase price to join their vacation club and to return the original titles for the Time Share Properties. Because of this agreement, I considered this complaint against Festiva to be resolved to my satisfaction. This email concerns my complaint against FESTIVA RESORTS for deceptive sales practices in a time share exchange. Please be advised that Festiva has formally offered to make full restoration of my purchase price to join their vacation club and to return the original titles for the Time Share Properties. Because of this agreement, I considered this complaint against Festiva to be resolved to my satisfaction. This email concerns my complaint against FESTIVA RESORTS for deceptive sales practices in a time share exchange. Please be advised that Festiva has formally offered to make full restoration of my purchase price to join their vacation club and to return the original titles for the Time Share Properties. Because of this agreement, I considered this complaint against Festiva to be resolved to my satisfaction. [protected]@gmail.com

I am extremely upset. I was told we would be staying in one place, then we were placed in another, supposedly the same resort just a different part. It's January, cold, and my kids were looking forward to swimming in an indoor pool, however Festiva had different plans. Just wish they would have told us.

We refused the hotel and were told we could reschedule, the fee would be waived. We were still charged a fee, supposedly for not showing up, which is why we called.

If they think we are going to purchase and we are already treated like crap. No thanks! Poor customer service. Our confirmation has the hotel name, says nothing else, this is unbelievable. I hope they don't try and call me again. Never use them, NEVER!.

We have had our timeshare with Festiva Resorts now for about 3 years. We've only used it once in South Carolina at the Church Street Inn. It was AWFUL...the room they put us up in was being renovated, smelled terrible. We complained, then they tried to put us in another room as bad if not worse than the first one. We have tried to make several attempts through Adventure Club to get resort reservations for Festiva...never happens. They always have an excuse. Also, the MAINTENANCE FEES are through the roof. Now they have tacted on additional assessment fees...THIS IS definitely taking advantage of the customer for their own self pupose. I WISH WE NEVER had listened to those LOSER of so called sales reps at CHURCH STREET INN. THEY ARE LIARS AND CROOKS! My husband and I are glad to know they're are others that got bit by these deceiving snakes. We will be glad to sign a petition. Its one thing to complain...I say quit complaining and lets as a customer get together and do something about it.

Festiva does an excellent job of high-pressure sales. Unfortunately, their delivery of verbal sales promises made falls far short. Never, I repeat Never, have we been able to trade locations within Festiva. There is never an alternative site available. What we do receive are increased maintenance fees, increased special assessments to 'improve' the Festiva experience; and another sales gimic requiring additional dollars to switch from a calendar system to a point system. If someone has some legal expertise or experience that would help remedy, rectify, or completely separate us from this Festiva mafia; I would be very, very appreciative.

We bought into Festiva this July and I can never seem to get through paying. Every time you turn around I am faced with more fees. Will I ever get through paying? Can't see me receiving vacations totaling all this money. Anybody else feel like this? I was called today and they wanted me to come to another meeting in New Orleans. I told them I didn't want to go and was quoted one of the things that I just read on one of these complaints. So they are reading these comments. It was the one about being charged for someone that didn't pay.

Stop paying the dues/assessments..

Festiva is bleeding owners with unsubstantiated (Non financial data) annual dues/assessment increases: it will not stop until they get you to give up your ownerships. Today.. They even want you to pay for that!

Contact your state attorney general office/state senators/house representatives>.. Check all contracts/title changes with this company.. They can be held accountable. This is plain and simple consumer fraud and we need to stop paying them to shut them down>