Mystery of Missing Rooms

Analysts has been puzzling over and breaking their head, why Mahindra Holidays’ room inventory does not match membership weeks sold.  If we look following numbers, Mahindra Holidays added 2,07,301 member and 2972 rooms (or 154544 room weeks)  between April 2005 and March 2018.  In a timeshare model this room count should be membership sold divided by 52, (207301/52 = 3986), a deficit of 25% compared to number of membership weeks required.

Deepak Shenoy earlier in his article “Mahindra Holidays: Too many members, Too few rooms” tried to work out these number according to management’ explanation, but their explanation did  not seems to fill the gap.

This article tries to work out a different calculation based on information available to us in public domain, it also brings out an important view on business which Mahindra Holidays management has not been saying directly.

Let' examine some important concepts of Mahindra Holidays, along with do some math. 

Concept A)  #Inventory #Season #weeks

Mahindra Holidays membership is available in 4 seasons. Purple, Red White and Blue, mentioned in order from higher to lower season. They sale it in three accommodation types Studio, 1 BR, and 2 BR. Fifty two weeks of a year are divided into these four seasons. A typical resort has 3 Purple, 16 Red, 20 White and 13 Blue weeks. (see week classification chart here: Link)

Let’ calculate what should be their average realisation per room (or membership)  when they sale membership in exact proportion as the different season weeks in their inventory.

* 2017 price

By selling 52 different weeks to 52 new members for one studio unit inventory, it should fetch them 224.72 Lakh Rs. Dividing it by 52 members, average realisation per member should come to 4.32 lakh per member. You should note that I have excluded 1BR and 2BR units, inclusion of those should lead to a higher average.

Now compare it with what  management have been mentioning in different earnings calls, Average Unit Realisation (AUR) stands at 3.3-3.4 Lakh.

Q1 -2019

Q2-2019
Q2 2016Q2 2016










Why there is a difference of 1 Lakh per membership between reported AUR and theoretical calculation?

Concept B) #conversion 

A member can book holidays in his membership season or any other lower season, but he can book in only one season up, that' also only 15 days before vacation days starts (subject to availability). When a member books holidays in different season or different accommodation type than the membership he has bought, a conversion ratio applies. Club Mahindra has a conversion table which it uses to convert days from one season to another or from one accommodation type to another.

Let’ see what happens when a Red season member takes a holiday in Purple or Blue season.

We will use a trimmed down version of conversion chart. (Conversion ratio may vary for members enrolled in different years. I have observed that this deviation is very insignificant to affect our conclusion).


Conversion chart :

Row one: A White-Studio member can avail 9.28 days in lower Blue-Studio in exchange of his 7 days in his season. Or if he avail it in the higher Red season, he can avail only 4.96 days of holidays. He is not entitled to avail holidays in Purple season.

Row two:  A Red-Studio member can avail 13.1 days in lower Blue-Studio in exchange of 7 days in his season. Or if he avail it in the higher Purple season, he can avail only 5.58 days of holidays.

What all these indicate is that they are selling more number of Blue (lower season) membership than the inventory in the season.  Let me give you an example calculation which should represent their sales pattern.

* 2017 price

In the above table, I have converted 3 Purple weeks (to 7 Blue), and  6 Red weeks( to 11 Blue) to Blue weeks as per their conversion table. This makes 31 effective weeks in Blue season, 10 in Red and zero in Purple season. In total 61 weeks per room inventory. 

I can say with confidence that they sell more than 50% of new membership in Blue season vs they have only ~25% weeks in Blue season. 

Another fact to note that they had stopped the sale of their Purple membership for long time in past. Now they have made it disproportionately expensive compared to other seasons.

Does it solve the long standing puzzle?

More questions to think over :

1. Why management hide more than they reveal? 

2. Why their AUR declined from 3.5-3.6L in 2016 to 3.3-3.4L in 2018  while they took multiple increase in the membership fee. 
Blue - Studio - April 2015 price - 2.22 Lakh // 
Blue - Studio - April 2018 price- 2.89 Lakh.  
30% increase in three years.

3. Quality of their new members still quite poor, 50% membership in Blue season that also on EMI? In last earnings call, they mentioned that they have increased down payment and have stopped selling 4 year EMI scheme for Blue membership. Let’ see how that works out.

4. When most of the members are in Blue season who are not eligible to book holidays in Red or Purple season, why members still struggle to book holidays in these seasons?

5. As they sell days to non members also, 85% occupancy does not equal to  85% members utilising their full entitlement of holidays.

5a. Also who looses in this 15% under utilisation?

क्लब महिंद्रा खरीदने से पहले अपनी छुट्टी की जरूरतो को पहचाने

यह लेख अधिकतर मेरे इंग्लिश लेख जो की मैने ७ वर्ष पहले लिखा था का अनुवाद है। मै समझता हू की ज्यादा कुछ बदला नहीं है, यह लेख आज भी उतना उपयोगी है जितना की ७ साल पहले था।

अगर आप यह लेख पड़  रहे है तो यह सम्भव है की आप क्लब महिन्द्रा के मार्केटिंग प्रेजेंटेशन को देख  सुनचुके है या फिर वहा जाने बाले है, और काफी हद तक सोचते है की आपको ऐसे  प्रोडक्ट की जरूरत हैं। यहाँ आपको मेरी मुख्य सलाह है की अपनी खरीद के निर्णय करने से पहले निम्न बिंदुओं पर अपने  फैसले का  मूल्यांकन जरूर करें, व कोई जल्द वाजी न करे।

अपनी छुट्टी की जरूरतो को पहचाने :

• क्या आप अपने पैतृक घर या धार्मिक जगह पर जाकर अपनी छुट्टी मानते है ? क्या आप इन छुट्टियों के बाद  क्लब महिंद्रा हॉलिडेज के लिए 7 दिनों की और छुट्टियों ले पाएंगे।
• आप  पर्वतीय स्थल जैसे की शिमला, नैनीताल,  या फिर अन्य ऐतिहासिक स्थलों  पर जाना पसंद करते  है?
• क्या आप लम्बी 7 दिनों की छुट्टीयाँ पसंद करते है या २ दिन , ३ दिन की छोटी छुट्टीयाँ ?  अगर आप छोटी छुट्टीयाँ लेते है तो आप तो आप जल्दी ही सभी पास के  क्लब महिंद्रा रिसॉर्ट्स घूम लेंगे।आप अपनी सदस्यता दिनों का उपयोग करने के  लिए उन स्थानों पर फिर से जाना होगा।
• क्या आप आराम करने के लिए इस तरह की यात्रा करते है  या फिर जितना संभव हो उतना आसपास के स्थानों को देखने (और सोने के लिए केवल शाम को होटल में आना होता है ) के लिए ?
• क्या आप केवल अपने बच्चों की छुट्टी के दिनों में यात्रा कर सकते हैं, तो आपको उच्च मौसम की सदस्यता (लाल या बैंगनी रंग के मौसम) लेनी होगी, सफेद मौसम की सदस्यता से काम नहीं चलेगा।

खर्चा / बजट:

• रिसॉर्ट्स के कमरे के किराये के आलावा बाकी सब सुविधाओ के लिए आपको अतरिक्त पैसे देने होंगे। जैसे की , 2 वयस्क + 2 बच्चे के लिए पूरा दिन का खाना।  बच्चो की  गतिविधियो, डीवीडी किराए पर लेने पर आपको अतरिक्त पैसे  खर्च करने  होंगे।
• क्लब महिंद्रा अपने रिसॉर्ट में रसोई की सुविधा देता था, अब वह यह सुविधा ख़त्म करता जा रहा है।
• अधिकतर रिसॉर्ट्स मुख्य शहर से थोड़ा दूर होते हैं।  मुन्नार - १८ किमी,  गोवा - 8 किमी (मुख्य बस स्टॉप से दूरी), हवाई अड्डे से 40 किमी। आपको स्थानीय परिवहन के लिए अलग से खर्च करना होगा।

योजना / Planning : 

• क्या आप 2 से 6 महीने पहले से अपनी छुट्टीयों की योजना बना सकते हैं? यहा  15 दिन की सूचना पर क्लब महिंद्रा में आवास पाने की संभावना लगभग शून्य ही है।  अगर कोई कर्मचारियों आपको इसके विपरीत वादा करता है तो विश्वास मत करो। उससे यह वादा लिखित मे देने को बोलो।

आपके पैसे का मोल :

• अपने पैसे की कीमत क्या है? आप उस पैसे पर कितना कमाते हैं ? याद रखें कि आपके पैसे की  वर्ष से वर्ष में वृद्धि होगी और अपने अवकाश के लिए  उपयोग कर सकते हैं।
• क्या आप समझते है की होटल किराये  में हमेशा वृद्धि होगी ? जरा पिछले ७-८ सालो के किराये पर नज़र डालिये,  मलेशिया अथवा दुबई जैसे स्थानो के किराये से तुलना कीजिए. एयरलाइनों के किरायों  का उदाहरण भी देख सकते है। 
• अगर आप अपने व्यवसाय के लिए बैंक से असुरक्षित ऋण लेने जाते है तो कितना व्याज देते है, 18 से  30%?  (सुरक्षित) ऋण जेसे  की घर ऋण के लिए  (10.5-13%)?
• क्या आप 25 साल के लिए महिंद्रा हॉलिडेज जैसी कंपनियों को असुरक्षित ऋण देंगे? किस ब्याज दर पर ?
• अगर आप 10.5% ब्याज दर पर 25 साल ईएमआई भुगतान विकल्प के लिए 1Lakh रुपये उधार ले, तो क्या आप जानते हैं, आपको  सालाना 11433/-  रुपये देने होंगे। 

क्या यह कीमत वसूल सौदा है ? 

• आप मुख्यतय 25 वर्षों के लिए पैसा उधार दे रहे है।
• महिंद्रा हॉलिडेज विपणन और बिक्री पर अपनी कमाई का  50% से अधिक खर्च करती  हैं।
• गुणवत्ता व मँहगाई के हिसाब से सभी पर्यटन स्थल / रिसॉर्ट्स एक बराबर नहीं है।  आपको सभी जगह की एक औसत मूल्य आकनी  होगी।
• मेम्बरशिप मे एक सीजन 16 से 24 सप्ताह लम्बा होता है, लेकिन अधिकतर जगह पीक सीजन सिर्फ ४-६ सप्ताह का ही होता है।
• रिसॉर्ट्स के लिखे रेट १-२ रात की अवधी बाले ग्राहकों को धयान में रख कर लिखे  जाते है। अगर आप लम्बी बुकिंग करते है तो अधिकतर जगह पर आपको अच्छा डिस्काउंट  मिलता है।
• अगर आप रिसॉर्ट्स को काफी अग्रिम में (2 से 6 महीने पहले) रिजर्वेशन कराते है तो आपको अतरिक्त डिस्काउंट की उम्मीद होती है।
• मेम्बरशिप में इतने सारे कायदे कानून उसी तरह है जैसे की आप कोई  छूट वाली  विमान यात्रा की टिकट खरीद रहे हो।

मार्केटिंग के बड़बोले बचनो के आगे :

• आवास के अलावा किसी भी तरह को कोई और वादा! (मुक्त pickup- ड्रॉप, छुट्टी की योजना बनाना इत्यादि सब मुख्यतह सब हवाबाजी है)
• क्लब महिंद्रा सदस्यो की आम समस्यो के लिए गूगल पर जरूर खोजें।  या इन लिंक्स पर देखिए
• Http://www.mouthshut.com , Http://www.complaintsboard.com , और अन्य साइटों, www.enidhi.net/2007/02/never-go-for-club-mahindra-membership.html

• सभी रिसॉर्ट्स समान रूप से अच्छे नहीं हैं। बहुत से रिसॉर्ट्स बहुत छोटे है , वहाँ बुकिंग पाने के लिए बहुत मुश्किल होगी।

• अधिकांश लोग RCI का  लाभ नहीं ले पाते।
• किसी तरह के  प्रलोभन में न फसे। यह सब साल भर चलता रहता है।
• आम तौर पर मुफ्त मे  मिली छुट्टियों का लाभ आप सिर्फ डाउन सीज़न मे ही उठा सकते हैं।
• टाइमशैयर उद्योग को नियंत्रित करने के लिए भारत में कोई संस्था नहीं है। कई टाइमशैयर कंपनिया अतीत में दीवालिया भी  हुयी हैं।
• महिंद्रा हॉलिडेज कंपनी पारदर्शी नहीं है।  कंपनी कैसे कर रही है यह पता करना जटिल होता है।

सदस्यता समाप्ति के नियम:

• आप खरीदने के दस दिन के अंदर अपनी सदस्यता को रद्द कर सकते हैं, अन्यथा यह समझिए की आपके पैसे गए।
• क्या आपने हस्ताक्षर करने से पहले सभी सदस्यता के नियमों को पढ़ा है? 
• महिंद्रा हॉलिडेज नियमों को बदलता भी रहता है।  उनके बदलते हुए नियमों के साथ समायोजित होना कठिन हो सकता है।

सेकंड सेल में खरीदें: 

• अगर आप यह सदस्यता अपने लिए उपयोगी पाते हैं तो आप  यह सेकंड सेल में खरीद सकते है। इस तरह से आप ३०-५० % तक की बचत कर पायेंगे. 
• खरीद - बेच की लिस्ट के लिए लिंक

• क्लब महिन्द्रा मेंबरशिप की कीमत की लिस्ट

Club Mahindra Membership Price List

Price List  2018*

Price List effective from April 2015

Old price list effective from April 2013

Source link


*Do verify with Mahindra Holidays for  latest price information, information sourced/shared on best effort basis and in good faith. 

Existing member selling their membership at throw away price , look at these listings 1000+ buyer or sellers of ClubMahindra membership

Do you actually need a timeshare membership, at what price? Look at following post:

Before considering Club Mahindra Membership : My personal advice

Does Club Mahindra' special arrangement resorts have any value?

Club Mahindra' new special arrangement (Mac Boutique Suites) for its timeshaere member is available ~ 3000/- per day with additional benefits like 

1.  No need to pay additional 500 per day/per room what Club Mahindra charges extra in the name of special arrangement.
2.  Breakfast included 
3.  Much attractive cancellation policy (up to 2 days in advance) 

Booking snapshot from booking.com, captured on 12 Nov 2012

If you want to check TripAdvisor rating click

(14th June, 13)
Received a mail  from TripAdvisor to remove above link to their site. Surprised to know it is effecting their Google rating!

Club Mahindra Membership Price List 2011

To view 2013 price list follow this link

Do speak to Mahindra Holidays for  latest price information.

Existing member selling their membership at throw away price , look at these listings ::  1000+ buyer or sellers of ClubMahindra membership

Do you actually need a timeshare membership, at what price? Before considering Club Mahindra Membership : My personal advice

Entries of Y2010 - BUY/SELL Club Mahindra timeshare membership

Entries of Y2009-08 of BUY/SELL Club Mahindra timeshare membership

Mahindra Holidays admits their staff did not follow company’s ethics policy

Source : http://indiaearnings.moneycontrol.com

At the time of Q1 result Mahindra Holidays chairman Mr. Arun Nanda admits their staff did not followed company’s ethics policy.

Watch this video from Moneycontrol

Transcript :

Q: This membership addition is still pretty low compared to the same quarter last year. What kind of full year target do you have in terms of membership adds?

A: We do not give guidance but let me tell you certain things. We did few things. We were finding that we need to improve our membership base. For example, we cut 60 month installment plan and brought it down to 48 months. We increased our down payment from 10% to 15%. Ultimately, we are a member centric organization. We have to make sure. We have good quality members at the resorts. We have to make sure that our delinquency rates are very low and these are some of the steps that we took.

There has been on and off stocks of, sometimes are sales people push, we got ride of a lot of people. We did a survey and found out who were the people who were not following the company’s ethics policy. So we did a lot of cleaning up in the organization in the month of April and May and that is what has affected us but the June numbers bounce back.

That is what gives me the confidence that things will bounce back substantially. It is not a market factor it was an internal organisation structuring problem.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have question to Mahindra Holidays' top management

Will you offer an exit route to the members acquired by this staff, you found were not following company’s ethics policy?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Effect of this measure was so much that it brought down membership sale revenue by ~30%.

I am surprised they took so long to realize that their marketing staff is not following company' ethics policy, (70+ consumer Case , Internet forums filled with complaints of marketing staff and direct feedback to management) or they were conveniently ignoring problem until consumer opposition on the internet got stronger and started to bite back.

Related post:

Before considering Club Mahindra Membership : My personal advice
My observation on Club Mahindra Membership
Club Mahindra at its best: from 50 to 70 consumer cases in 10 months
Club Mahindra fined for misleading customer

Mahindra Holidays: Growth in membership Vs. inventory

See difference in growth in both the charts ..

slide taken from presentation @

http://www.clubmahindra.com/IR_files/MHRIL_Investor_presentation_FY10.pdf

club mahindra fined for misleading customer.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Club-Mahindra-fined-for--misleading-customer-/590269

Extracts from different news portals during Mahindra Holidays IPO

Light Green cells have extract from different news articles from different news portals :

In orange cells I have tried to make some sense out of it ..

Ref

Ref : Holiday for a Lifetime Moneycontrol.com July 29th " ... On a global basis, taking all our resorts into account, we have had more than 83% occupancy this quarter and if you take our five top resorts, including Munnar, Coorg, Goa etc, we had 90% occupancy on this."

In traditional Timeshare model, timeshare rooms have 100% utilisation (as vacant rooms can directly be attributed to a member) but business model which ClubMahindra follows, who take hit of this under utilisation? Committed customer ?

Ref : The holiday investment Business Standard Sarath Chelluri & Ram Prasad Sahu / Mumbai June 22, 2009, 0:13 IST "The major chunk of revenues comes from membership fee which so far works out to an average of Rs 2.5 lakh per subscriber. This is divided into admission fee (60 per cent or Rs 1.5 lakh) and entitlement fee which accounts for the rest."

Each room a timeshare company build they can make 52 members .. that means for each rooms ClubMahindra gets (2.5 lakh x 52) = 1.3 Cr Rs from the members + 4.42 Lakh annually as ASF (based on 8500/- average ASF).

Ref : Club Mahindra sets record for room occupancy Moneycontrol.com Published on Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 14:10 , Mahindra Holidays has a unique business model as it leverages the strength of both the time share business and the hotel business. In fact, 25% of the rooms are sold to hotel guests who booked their holidays directly with the resorts even though they are not Club Mahindra members. Most of these being foreign guests .This ‘mixed use’ has ensured that the occupancy across all Club Mahindra resorts continue to be high at various locations. Mahindra Holidays and Resorts' initial public offer launched Business Standard Press Trust of India / Chennai June 23, 2009 "He said they have seen 75 per cent occupancy rate in all their resorts last year. Six per cent were contributed from non-members alone, he added." Recession, inflation not to affect biz: Mahindra Holidays Moneycontrol.com Published on Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 14:16 "... Similarly on my member base, every member pays me approximately Rs 8,500 of annual subscription and that is to be multiplied by my member base, ..." Q: Non Member Booking;s How Much Do You Reserve? A: No, its less than 10%. But we actually had a growth in capacity because we did quite well in the charters in Goa and we have been able to open Munnar and Kombalgadh to the visitors. So I think we have seen a growth in hotel room sales from Rs 11 crore to Rs 17 crore last year.

Different news in 6 months, puts very different figures on non guest sales figures. Let’ do some math .. 17 Cr earned from hotel room sales .. let’ take average room rental @ 6500 Rs per day .. 170000000/6500 = 26154 room days 26154/365 = 71.65 rooms Let’ take average yearly occupancy of non timeshare resorts @ 70% Effective room needed to support 17 Cr revenue .. 71.65/.7 = 102 Rooms What is left for members, specially in peak season or on weekends ..? Also 90 rooms from Ooty resort are not yet available for the members.

Club Mahindra IPO Valuation

Published Data from Mahindra Holidays' advertisement in a News Paper:

IPO Band	Market Cap	P/E	Price/Net Asset Value	MCap/ Sales	MCap (/) Member	MCap/ASF paying Member
@275'	2316 Cr	26.99	11.00	5.89	2.4Lakh	4.32Lakh
@325'	2737 Cr	31.89	13.01	6.96	2.85Lakh	5.10Lakh

# ASF (Annual subscription Fee) paying Member count = ASF income/average ASF
Average ASF Value source : Moneycontrol.com

Note:
While calculating these numbers equity dilution is not considered, if any!
These calculations are indicative only.
This is not an investment advice so readers should make their own conclusions.


Related post:
Before considering Club Mahindra Membership : My personal advice
What are you paying for your Timeshare Membership?
MahindraHolidays Spend ~30% of their Yearly Income..

True [Inflation Linked] cost of ClubMahindra Vacation

Idea behind this calculation is to compute per day cost for a member, that also move up according to inflation giving you true cost of your accommodation.

Main point in this calculation..

*) Assume if you have put your membership cost in a Holiday Account which earn interest, also you withdraw money at yearly interval from this account for your accommodation expenses.  During 25 years of membership you spend all your money and interest and do not receive any money at the end of 25 years.  [ See yellow cells]

*) Inflation is assumed at 7% and interest rate on your money at [inflation rate + 2% =] 9%. If you create similar table with inflation rate at 6% and interest rate at 8% or as long as rate difference is 2%, per day cost will come almost same (margin of error will be negligible).

*) It is calculated in a way that your withdrawal amount from this account is increasing with same rate as inflation (7%), as your ASF. As result last column  (per day cost) is increasing at rate as inflation or ASF. Also at the end of 25th year all your money is spent.

*) Promotional item cost is reduced from the membership cost. (cost may vary with time/membership type so proportionately adjust per night cost)

*) ASF is assumed to be increasing at rate 7% in line with our assumed inflation for simplicity, it may increase more or less as may be decided by the Mahindra Holidays time to time.

You may like to do your calculation here ::

Related post:

Before considering Club Mahindra Membership : My personal advice
What are you paying for your Timeshare Membership?
Club Mahindra at its best: from 50 to 70 consumer cases in 10 months

Before considering Club Mahindra Membership : My personal advice

Before your purchase decision, evaluate your decision on following points:

Profile your vacation needs:

· Do you spend most of your vacation days visiting your home town or religious place, can you spare 7 days for Club Mahindra Holidays?

· Do you like to go to historical places or places like Munnar, Poovar, Coorg, etc?

· Do you go for 7 days in a stretch? If you go two places 3days + 4days, you will soon exhaust all nearby Club Mahindra resorts. You will have to revisit those places in order to utilize your membership days.

· You take such trip to relax or like to see places around as much as possible and come to hotel only in evening for sleep?

· If you can only travel in your children' vacation days, You will have to take higher season membership (Red or Purple season), white season membership will not do.

Budget:

· At Resorts everything comes at cost, full day buffet for 2 adult + 2 Children will cost you Rs2000+ , DVD rental ~Rs40 , children' activities ~Rs100- Rs300 per activity.

· Membership gives only accommodation + dry kitchen facility in some resorts. Anything else comes at a cost.

· Resorts are usually little far away from the main town, Munnar - 18km, Coorg - 5 km, Poovar - 45 km , Goa - 8km (distance from main Bus Stop), 40km from airport.

Planning:

· Can you plan 2 to 6 months in advance? It is very unlikely to get accommodation in Club Mahindra on 15 days’ notice. Do not believe sales staff if they promise so. Ask for a written commitment on it.

Cost:

· What is the cost of your money? How much you can earn on that money and utilize same for your vacation. Remember you will be paying ASF also which will increase year by year.

· Will hotel rental always increase in India? (look example of airlines: business class fares are mostly same but economy class fare has come down drastically)

· How much bank charge when you take unsecured loan? 18- 30%! What is the current floating and fixed rate for (secured) home loan? (10.5 - 13%)! 
· What will be the interest rate on unsecured loan to companies like Mahindra Holidays for 25 years?

· Do you know if you borrow 1Lakh Rs for 25 year EMI repayment option at 10.5% interest rate, your monthly outgo will be ~Rs.11433/- for 25 years.

Value:

· You are committing 25 years of business to CM.
· Mahindra Holidays spend >50% of memberships sales revenue on marketing and sales.

· Not all resorts are equally good or have commercial value, Average out resort quality.

· A season is wide spread to 16 - 24 weeks, not all weeks in a season are equally valued.

· You will be taking long holidays of 3 to 7 days, not one night stay.

· You may have to plan 2 to 6 months in advance to get your desired dates, location.

· In many respects it is comparable to low cost airlines vs. full service airlines so discount that.

Strip down marketing glare:

· Any promise apart from accommodation! (like free pickup- drop, vacation planning, etc.)

· Search on net for common problem with the Club Mahindra membership. Look

·  http://www.mouthshut.com

· http://www.complaintsboard.com

· and other sites, www.enidhi.net/2007/02/never-go-for-club-mahindra-membership.html

· Not all resorts are same.

· Some resorts has minuscule room capacity (10 - 20 rooms, for more than 1Lakh+ members), very difficult to get booking there. (see a table at end of this blog)

· Most of the people will not be able to realize RCI benefits even up to 10% of what they say.

· They run promotions year around, so if they say this offer is for just today/ this week, do not believe them.

· Usually you can avail free/complimentary holidays in low season only.

· Negotiate on complementary offers/validity days.

· There is no regulatory body in India to govern timeshare industry. Many timeshare companies have gone burst in past.

· Timeshare model Mahindra Holidays follows is not very transparent and complex too, you will not be able to know how company is performing.

Membership termination rules:
If you cancel your membership after ten days (not ten working days) of enrollment you will loose your 60% money straight (in case of full payment), in EMI scheme you will have to cancel your credit card :). Look another post:

Club Mahindra Cancellation rules

Have you read all membership rules before signing it? you will get your membership kit only after a month. Mahindra Holidays has been changing membership/booking rules on their own wishes, can you you adjust with ever changing rules. 

Buy it in seconds sales:

· If you find membership useful to you, buy it in second sale as you can get 30-50% discount after adjusting for promotional gifts items. Link to Buy/Sell entries

Do not forget to Read following post:
My observation on Club Mahindra Membership
What are you paying for your Timeshare Membership?
Club Mahindra at its best: from 50 to 70 consumer cases in 10 months