Epic travel and interval international are not truthful
⚠️ BUYER BEWARE — Our Experience With Epic Travelers
I am posting this because I wish someone had given us this information before we purchased.
We purchased an Epic Travelers vacation membership following a sales presentation given at The Fives Beach Hotel & Residences in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We paid Epic Travelers for what was presented to us as a flexible vacation program with a large selection of resorts and destinations.
Unfortunately, our experience trying to actually use the membership has been dramatically different from what was represented during the sales presentation.
We were told there was a vast amount of resorts available to choose from. That has simply not been our experience. We have searched availability up to two years in advance, across five different areas, and have found extremely limited inventory. In some cities we have searched, there are no resorts available at all.
We were told the exchange fee would be $250 regardless of where we stayed. That is not what we are seeing. We are finding exchange fees ranging from approximately $250 to more than $1,000, because additional fees can apparently be added. Those additional costs were not clearly explained to us when we purchased the membership.
We were also told that the hotels available through the program were Marriott properties. When we actually search for available accommodations, what we are finding does not match what was represented to us.
We were told we could exchange individual days rather than being restricted to weeks. While that may technically be an option, what we are finding is that booking individual days can cost more than simply booking the same type of hotel directly through the hotel or another conventional booking service.
And then there is Disney.
We specifically asked about staying at Disney World and were told that this was an option, but that we needed to plan approximately one year in advance.
We are now looking two years in advance.
We cannot find resorts available at Disney World — and we cannot find them at Disneyland either.
Another major issue is the disconnect between what we thought we were purchasing and what we are actually dealing with.
We purchased the membership through Epic Travelers, but we are now expected to use Interval International website to search and book much of what we were sold.
The Interval International website is, in our experience, extremely difficult and frustrating to navigate. It is not what I would consider a user-friendly booking platform. Finding information, understanding availability, determining the actual cost, and figuring out what fees apply is far more complicated than it should be.
The bottom line is that the overall picture presented to us at the sales presentation at The Fives Beach Hotel & Residences in Playa del Carmen was substantially more attractive than what we are experiencing when attempting to use the membership.
Had all of these limitations and additional costs been clearly explained during the sales presentation, we would have made a very different purchasing decision.
We are documenting our searches, the availability shown, the fees quoted, and the representations made to us.
I'm not suggesting that anyone take our word for it. Do your own research before purchasing. Ask to see the actual inventory. Search the destinations you realistically intend to visit. Ask for the complete fee schedule, including every possible additional charge. Ask exactly which hotel brands and properties are included. And ask to see the booking system yourself before signing anything.
A sales presentation can make a vacation membership sound fantastic.
The real test is whether you can actually use what you paid for — at a price that makes sense.
In our experience so far, what was presented to us and what we are actually receiving are two very different things.