Festiva Hospitality Group Lies upon lies Asheville North Carolina

In 2011 my grandparents deeded their set  and paid for week (worth $15,00) in Banner Elk to my husband and I as a wedding gift. My family has been traveling to the Blue Ridge Village in Banner Elk since I was a girl and so I was very excited about the gift. Upon arriving we knew that there might be paperwork that would need to be signed in order to finalize the transfer and we had wanted to talk to the staff about a bill that we had received for maintenance fees.

We spoke with John Paul “JP” about what would be the best option for us. We were told by him that in order to avoid maintenance fees we would need to switch over to the points system.  He further explained to us that Festiva Resorts as a whole was trying to do away with deeded weeks and trying to move everyone to points. He told us that it would become very difficult for us to get available weeks (even though our week was deeded and designated.)

JP also explained to us about the “pros” of switching from our deeded and PAID FOR week to points and being able to use the travel adventure club. We were told that we not only had to trade in our deed, but also purchase over $5,500 worth of points. We would in exchange receive over 6,000 points that could be used for any travel.

At the time my husband and I were in the process of adopting a special needs child from Russia and the travel cost were incredibly expensive. I specifically asked if our points could be converted to pay for our plane tickets and he said, “yes of course!” I pressed him even further on the issue and asked if there was any catch to that. I asked if there was a cap on how much we could use at a time or any rules and his response was to think of the points like dollar bills. So, I explained even further that our tickets we’re $2,000 each and so therefore I could take the travel points and convert them to pay for our entire flight. He told me that was exactly right. He flat out lied. If he had told us the truth to begin with we would never have signed with your company. It was an absolutely deceitful business practice.

Upon returning home  it took MONTHS just for us to receive our passcodes to the travel site. We only received them after calling for months on end to request them. Once I had them we not only found out that we could not use the points to pay for our trip, but we were also being forced to pay maintenance fees! In the midst of our very expensive adoption we have had to battle with Festiva continually about new “fees” that were somehow and magically overlooked by the company and now we have to pay them. It is deceit of the worst kind.

After speaking with our family attorney I wrote a letter to Festiva’s legal department with my issues listed above. I proposed to Festiva that they could keep the deed to the timeshare, they could keep the points, they could even keep the money we have paid out thus far. In exchange we wished to be released from our mortgage contract and any further monetary obligation we had to their company because of the lies we were told.

I got a blanket letter back from a legal compliance coordinator, Angela Norville, telling me that there was nothing they could do.  Furthermore from several of her incorrect statements in her letter it was clear that she had not done any background work.

We have also been informed that our only option (according to Festiva) is to hock their worthless points onto another unsuspecting person (which we would never do) or we can pay the remainder of our mortgage with them and then turn the points back over. The catch with turning your points back in is then they demand that you pay 2 years’ worth of maintenance fees! That’s $2,500 more!!!

Once again we went back to calling costumer services representatives. The thing with Festiva is, every time you talk with someone they tell you something completely different from the previous agent.  However, after speaking with a lady from their Banner Elk location I have learned an additional piece of information. Shortly after we were tricked into our contract with Festiva the manger that oversaw our contract was fired from Banner Elk for none other than lying to customers in order to make a sale! They were also encouraging and coaching their employs to lie as well. This is no surprise to us or the countless others they lied to. Ironic though, that the company would fire the manger but not do anything for the customers they lied to!!!

In closing, I am saddened by what Festiva has chosen to do. Festiva’s business has been built on deceit and fraud of its customers for far too long. My husband and I will continue to fight this company on this until we come to a resolution.