Aucomplaints.com » Traveling & Tourism » Review / complaint: Astar Travel now Suncoast Holidays - Unethical marketing but not a scam | News #2142

Astar Travel now Suncoast Holidays
Unethical marketing but not a scam

We just finished our holiday with Sun Coast holidays, however 18 months ago when we booked this package the company was called Astar Travel. This is not a scam, but also be aware that you have not won anything for free but are being offered an opportunity to take a fantastic holiday for 6 nights at the Silver Lake Resort in Orlando and 2 nights in Fort Lauderdale. We did not use the 2 nights in Fort Lauderdale because the cost to get there without a car and having to attend another timeshare seminar would not be worth getting there. You do have to attend a timeshare seminar at Silver Lakes Resort, this didn't worry us because we were already timeshare members and and have been to lots of them before, you get given 2 adult passes to Universal Studios for attending the seminar.
When we first booked this vacation I phoned Suncoast Holidays (they don't respond to email) to assure that we were getting a room with a separate bedroom and kitchen and not a hotel room for 4 people that 2 people have to sleep on a sofa bed, otherwise I was going to cancel. They assured me that we would have a 1 bedroom apartment with 2 double beds in the bedroom as we have 2 young children that need to sleep before us. We arrived on April 7th at the Silver Lakes Resort for our 6 night holiday and we had been upgraded to a 2 bedroom apartment in unit block 7 in a renovated apartment. I knew about the upgrade before we left Australia because I made a complaint about having to pay room tax additional to the initial fee, because I had been assured their were not further payments to make when I called them back within 24 hours initially. Also take note that the price you have to pay for the Carnival Cruise if you take it is the same price you would pay if you booked it yourself directly through Carnivals website, this was $299 per person 18 months ago.
Silver Lake Resort in Orlando is just beautiful, the pool area is huge and the water quite warm for an outdoor pool, there were 3 separate pools in the pool complex and a spa, also a Cabana playing music that sold food and drinks/cocktails right next to the pool. The resort has a golf simulator, shop with a grocery supply, small theatre with free movies, a games room and computer/business centre as WiFi is not free at the resort but you can get WiFi in your room for $25/week. There is also a tour desk that offer discounted theme park tickets. The apartment itself was huge, the kichen has granite bench tops with all of the kitchen appliances you would need to use, in fact the cooking equipment looked like they had never been used. 2 bathrooms both with a bath and shower, the master bathroom had a big spa too. The master bedroom had a king size bed that was extremely comfortable, the had very high quality mattresses, the 2nd bedroom had 2 double beds which our girls loved. The apartment was air-conditioned including the bedrooms and there was also a balcony that was screened in to avoid insects.
The theme parks are only about 3 to 5 miles away depending on which one you want to go to, and they also offer a free shuttle to the factory outlets.
If you have already paid for this vacation to Florida don't worry about it, as long as you were happy once to pay the price offered to you, it's really only 8 nights, 6 in Orlando and 2 in Fort Lauderdale, the company is genuine that runs the timeshare side even if the marketing company is a bit unethical in the way that they say you have won a vacation. If you are not a timeshare member already I doubt that you would be able to stay at a resort like Silver Lakes Resort for the same price, I enquired about staying 1 additional night in the same 2 bedroom apartment and the cost was going to be $230/night.


Company: Astar Travel now Suncoast Holidays

Country: Australia   State: Victoria

Category: Traveling & Tourism

0 comments

Information
Only registered users can leave comments.
Please Register on our website, it will take a few seconds.




Quick Registration via social networks:
Login with FacebookLogin with Google