The Timeshare, Holiday Products, Resale and exchange Contracts Regulations 2010
- Long-Term Holiday Products, also known as Holiday Clubs – contracts of more than one year in duration by which a consumer acquires access to promised discounts on accommodation and other travel services. Sellers will have to provide standardised information about the product as part of the contract. The contract will then be subject to a 14-day “no-strings” cooling-off period during which no payment is permitted. And the seller can only take yearly payment throughout the contract agreement, with the consumer able to terminate the contract as each payment becomes due.
- Timeshare – contracts of more than one year in duration by which the consumer acquires the right to use overnight accommodation for more than one period of occupation. Pre-contractual information provision is extended and substantially standardised and the cooling-off period extended from 10 days to 14 days Europe-wide. The ban on up-front payments is retained.
- Timeshare Resale – contracts by which the trader assists a consumer to sell or buy timeshare or a long-term holiday product. The new regulations require the trader to provide important pre-contractual information, a 14-day cooling-off period, and disbars the trader from accepting any payment until the sale of the timeshare is complete or the contract is otherwise terminated.
- Timeshare Exchange – contracts by which, via membership of an exchange scheme, consumers in exchange for providing temporary access to their timeshare rights acquire the right to access other overnight accommodation or other services. Most memberships are sold at the same time as a timeshare purchase and the consumer will have the 14-day cooling-off period attached to the timeshare sale in which to reconsider. When exchange membership is bought separately from a timeshare purchase the consumer has a separate 14-day cooling-off period.
