Has anyone had dealing with ARC American Resort Collection?

I listened to the pitch on Freedom 365 which to me is no freedom at all.....$5,000 to get out of Americano which I have paid for since '93 and rarely used. I am interested in how to relinquish the week permanently with minimal expense.

Interested in what others are doing to get out (not taking the very expensive options offered by ARC). The news letter received today indicates that only 20% of owners have paid the special assessment. I am part of the 80% not!

Please share any news you receive during inquires to BBB and FL authorities.

Thanks, L

Well you are smart not to pay anyone a large, upfront fee to supposedly "cancel" your timeshare. Do you own deeded property? Right-to-use? Or is it part of a membership club? If it's one of the last two, then you can usually terminate it by simply stop paying annual fees. You might get harassing collection calls and letters but you can ignore those.

If it's deeded property, you can ask the resort's Homeowners' Association if it will take your unit back. It might ask you to pay closing costs and maybe even the next maintenance fee. If that is the case, it will still be cheaper than paying ARC.

You got them down to 3k?? Send me name and number, I want out of my Americano resort

How do I give it back, I tried of maintenance fee but don't want bad credit

We supposedly bought into ARC in May of 2017. They were to take over our timeshare. We have received our maintenance fee for our timeshare the last 2 years. It was paid last year by ARC, after receiving several reminders from our timeshare. We received the fee again this year, I've contacted ARC many times, and still as far as I know they have not paid this year. When we signed up for ARC (and paid) we were told that we would have many resorts all over the world, including any resorts in RCI and another one similar to RCI. At this time the only resorts we can go to is 3 in Florida. I have called and talked to several people we talked to at the time we bought, and someone else is always going to take of it. We would not recommend buying into this company. We were so excited to be able to pay a small yearly fee, and then another fee (not even beginning to pay what we did yearly for our timeshare) when we booked. Friends and family could also use this, paying the same. I'm not sure where we stand right now, I have contacted them just before leaving before Christmas, then shortly after returning, with no contact. I have been trying to find the address and number of the CEO, with no success. It's somewhere in California. Don't buy!!!

I too, would love to hear what you find out from the state.

I have 2 timeshares there and never had a problem until ARC came along. Apparently they didn't have enough insurance coverage to cover damages from Irma. Now they want the timeshare owners to foot the bill that the insurance won't cover. There are also rumours that they inflicted additional damage and fraud to try and get the place fixed up by the insurance. By the way the brunt of Irma was felt on the west coast of FL not the east coast. I believe there is litigation going on between ARC and Insurance company. I am retired and only live on Social Security and can no longer afford there inflated fees. I kept everything current until they closed the place down in 2017. I was diagnosed with cancer and informed them of my predicament and they said to file a hardship letter and they would consider letting me turn over my units. I did so and never heard from them but still get harassing phone calls and threatening letters. They told me they are going to sue me I said go ahead I'll probably be dead before we ever get to court.

Ida, We have been owners since 92 or 93 and have paid maintenance fees. We were able to use our resort every year until 2017. We currently have decided to pay their assessments and keep all current and see what happens. Just a couple days ago I got another call from ARC saying I see you are current with all fees. I said yes and he asked why did I want to keep my unit when it’s not open and who knows when. I said we love it there and was told by front desk it would be open 6months after they start the interior work. The bottom line is my gut feeling is not good about ARC, they were pushy, have given different amounts to many people on getting into their program and again are making promises that I wonder if they can keep. Sue W

just got an email from the americano. for the cost of $929.93 I was able to give back my ownership to the americano. title search will be done in the next two days and then I will get paperwork that will free me from the hotel. I tried giving it away for nothing but found no takers. if anybody has a similar experience please respond

Wish we coulda got $900 for our 2 units. We are paying thousands for their program n we have no timeshare now. We paid thousands for them n I think they cheated us out of them. If anyone has any idea for a way to get our money back. We even lost RCI n that's how we did our vacations. We still.have points with them.

Let me know how you make out on your 929.93. they offered me similar offer but I'm leery of sending them money without paper work then them coming back and saying oh wait you owe all this other money before we can release you. If that happens you say good by to your $1000 and are still left holding the bag for the unit.

danield417 wrote:

just got an email from the americano. for the cost of $929.93 I was able to give back my ownership to the americano. title search will be done in the next two days and then I will get paperwork that will free me from the hotel. I tried giving it away for nothing but found no takers. if anybody has a similar experience please respond

monahu wrote:

I too, would love to hear what you find out from the state.

I contacted the state they told me when you own a timeshare it's just like owning a house if its damaged and you don't have enough insurance then you are responsible for the difference. Their suggestion is to contact ARC and see if you can come up with some kind of a deal to buy yourself out of the timeshare. They did say if you just ignore it they can foreclose on you and if they do that will really screw up your credit score. It will leave a black mark and basically say you defaulted and you were foreclosed on.

How is it working for you now?

My husband and his 2 brothers all had a timeshare at Americano. A couple of years ago when we went for our annual summer vacation we got sucked into the pitch by Freedom and we signed over the deeds to our timeshares in order to become part of this club. Well that was our last visit to the Americano because it ended up getting closed for new renovations and damage from the hurricane. We also had made several contacts with Freedom only to get a different answer each time about what where we could or couldn’t stay. Ultimately we all stopped paying because we felt like it was a huge scam. They of course have placed us all into a collection status and it has impacted our credit. Keep in mind they now own our timeshares and we have nothing, not even one stay under this company. I tried to dispute the collection and that was denied. I really don’t want to be stuck paying for nothing nor do I want this on my credit report for 7 years. Does anyone have any idea of the next steps that I can take without spending money on an attorney? Thanks, #feelingfedup

Call the resort directly not collection company and offer them $500 to sell back the unit. They took it from me. Don't use my name part of the agreement is not to tell anyone else about this.