Heard of "M" Resorts in Puerto Vallarta? [AKA Castles & Condos]

[mplswjr]

We agreed to a presentation of a "new" resort being market under "M" Resorts in Conchas Chinas on the south side of Puerto Vallarta. It is described as "fractional ownership".

Has anyone taken such a tour, and if so, what should we expect?

Bill

 

[elf.elf.baby]

possibly a distinction without a difference???

Haven't heard of "M" - but I'm in PV and will ask around.

From my other post on Fractional at the Buganvilias, it certainly appears they are just trying to frame a timeshare sale in a new guise. Here at Buganv, at least, there is a new level of lying by salesman who are not sales employees, which goes beyond the pale. (This is after a few more of my crowd attended the presentations and were offered, verbally, such preposterous goodies that they could only laugh. One, however, must have irritated the heck out of someone, because the first words out of the salesman's mouth were, nastily, 'don't waste my time; you're here on vacation but I have to make a living', which inspired the reply, as the owner walked to the door, 'OK, I won't; bye.')

I would be prepared to enter the world of doublespeak, a la 1984. (Right? Haven't read my Orwell for a while.) Believe nothing that is not right in front of your face in writing, maybe not even then, because different companies offer the different parts of a so-called deal, and are not each obligated to the other.

There appears to be no actual difference between various sorts of timeshare plans, and Fractional Ownership plans. Nothing that cannot be negotiated. Nothing that can't be fraud.

Look forward to your report.

 

[pittle]

They are building Castles and Condos - a small elegant place - just up the hill from Ocha Casadas. They provide transportation to a private beach club and town. They call it a fractional luxury residence club, but I call it a timeshare as you can buy just one week and it will be affiliated with II when completed in the summer of 2009. They also provide a yacht club membership for one year and then you can pay about $200 per year to be able to use a yacht for a greatly reduced price in several locations in Mexico. They also have a golf package and membership in a travel club that sounds a lot like HSI.

The views are spectacular, as are the units. We went with no intention of purchaseing, but bought 1 week that comes with an extra week if we pay MF on it. My husband just loved the place.

 

[Deer Path]

WE found out about the "M" resorts in Cabo when we were there in November 2008. We got nabbed on the street to tour the new residence club called "The Enchantment". They have several "houses" built already and are building more plus a number of other amenities....pool, restaurant, exercise room etc. We were very impressed with it. They also give you membership in the Dream Yacht Club. It is outside the city of Cabo and sort of up a hill enough so you get a view of the ocean, lands end etc. It is out past Walmart. They will not be open till April. We toured the 3 BR and they will be building 2BRs. There is a pool/hot tub; grill; patio etc. on the rooftop which is pretty cool. They will have golf carts for the owners to use in getting around the "resort". It is part of the group of "resorts" in PV. Here is a website I found when we returned home. It gives photos and some other information about the group.
http://mamanngroup.com/developments/index.htm
If you click on The Enchantment website and then unique amenities it is interesting what they have available. They are affiliated with II and HSI.

Has anyone else toured any of them?

Judy

 

[kathyj0205]

We toured this in January. We didn't buy, but the price was a lot better thatn the Montecristo at PB Sunset. They call it fractional, but you can still buy only 1 or 2 weeks. Units were beautiful, but still mostly under construction. Said it was going to trade as part of the Regency program.

Kathy

 

[mmirata]

M Dreams, Castles & Condos, Puerto Vallarta

Wanna get burned? This is the place to go ! We went to the seminar in December and it sounded good. PAID a bunch of money, then read all the fine print and said NO.
We have a letter of recission and it states Money will be fully refunded in 7 days. It is now 60 days and thetre is NO ANSWER or way to find these Sales Crooks.

Guess I'll have to pay them and visit with "my boys"

 

[pammex]

Wanna get burned? This is the place to go ! We went to the seminar in December and it sounded good. PAID a bunch of money, then read all the fine print and said NO.
We have a letter of recission and it states Money will be fully refunded in 7 days. It is now 60 days and thetre is NO ANSWER or way to find these Sales Crooks.

Guess I'll have to pay them and visit with "my boys"

What was in the fine print that made you change your mind? What is a bunch of money? Have you tried contacting Profeco in regards to your recission?

You went to their seminar, is that a time share presentation? How much di they give you for this?

Isn't this a pre-construction place? Can you give us more info? Thanks

 

[kscar]

Castels & Condos

We went in late April this year. The building is at least 50% finished (they are to the point of finishing various units). The pool is in. It appears that at least 3 units are completely finished. We ended up buying a 1BR for 1 week + 3 bonus weeks. Have to pay $450MF for the 1 week and $450 for each week we use in addition. We are still waiting for our login information to II and the HSI-like membership. A little nervous because it is taking longer than promised. We have talked to someone in Miami (Adrian Toca). Adrian says all member records have been transferred to Resorts Advantage at the same Miami address as M Hotels (the administrator for reservations for C&C). I will be talking to him on the 6th to get our login information, I hope. The only thing we really want out of this is to be able to use/rent our weeks. Don't really care about II, HSI or Resorts Advantage from what we know about them. I will keep posting when I have new information. Good luck fellow owners.

Kurt & Sue

 

[kscar]

M Hotels / Castles and Condos

I called Adrian Toca back on the 6th and he has asked me to call back. He told me that he has received no word on our memberships and I should call back on the 10th. In the meantime, I have been follwing some threads for the Enchanment on Trip Advisor. The Enchantment is supposed to be a sister property to the C&C. We will be able to trade into them and vice versa. There are a lot of complaints about them. There are also a couple of complaints (mine included) about not getting the promised memberships. Some people have been waiting since December. I will post after talking to Adrian tomorrow.

Kurt

 

[pittle]

Just got an email from C&C and M Hotels is no longer the developer/owner! I sent an email to my 2 C&C contacts, but do not expect to hear back from them.

We were planning to upgrade to the 1-bedroom next month, but are now glad we did not take the money out of our investment account this month!!!

 

[Jammin1]

Castles & Condo's

Just got the same e-mail I don't know what to do bought it back in Sept 2008. Are we completely screwed or do we still have a snowballs chance. Does anyone one know who to contact about this in Puerto Vallarta. I suppose there isn't a real Condo/Tourist association down there to talk with

 

[pittle]

Just got the same e-mail I don't know what to do bought it back in Sept 2008. Are we completely screwed or do we still have a snowballs chance. Does anyone one know who to contact about this in Puerto Vallarta. I suppose there isn't a real Condo/Tourist association down there to talk with

Don't know - I don't think Profeco can help us since it has been so long since we purchased and construction is about 1/2 done. Hopefully, we are OK. The same thing has happened to the Cabo locations, but with a different new developer than the C&C one. I am just hoping that the DNG is owned by the financing partner that we met when we took the tour. He owns some silver or copper mines in Mexico, I think he is American, but am not sure.

It doesn't look like we have the Platinum (Vacancy Rewards) Travel Program, but since I found that it did not cover airfare like they said, it is no loss. - basically free airfaire was a big selling point - we were told that 1/2 our points could be applied to airfare, but it is not true.

My husband said that we will need to plan a trip in 2010 to see for ourselves. We do own other timeshares in PV so we can plan trips to those in addition to C&C, if they do not have a place for us, we can pay extra MF to stay at one of our other resorts.

I have not heard back from either of the 2 C&C folks that I sent an email to on Saturday.

 

[kscar]

Castles and Condos

Hi Everyone. Sorry I didn't email before this. I really had no new information. Today we tried several times to get hold of someone. We had received a letter from M Hotels dated June 19th. It contained a note for the balance owed on our fractional month. This was a surprise, since we had paid in full about 3 weeks prior. We immediately called the number. We spoke to an Adrian Toca, who assured us that all was well. Anyway, after receiving the email from Tracy, we tried calling Adrian all weekend long. Finally got hold of him at 4:45. He stated that the email is not quite clear on the facts. He told me that Castles and Condos has always been owned by M Hotels and DNG Capital Corp. They have "let go of" M Dreams, which was the sales and marketing team. He didn't really give a reason for that, other than too many people were calling them about their contracts and asking other questions. They felt that they could do a better job, so...???

Anyway, I have to call Interval International myself, to see if they have my information. They told me to call back on Thursday to check on the other memberships. Now the only discrepancy I found was this, Adrian is saying they don't know for sure when construction will be finished. But, it will be finished. At one point, he did transfer me to someone else to answer my questions about II. She (Marissa) told me that they were still on track for an October or November completion. Adrian told me that if the building is not finished, they will book people into another resort. Oh, Marissa also told me they will be sending out some paperwork outlining all of the changes, once they know what is going on. We shall see.

I did do a google search for DNG Capital Corp. The only reference I found was for a lawyer, Norma Rodriguez. She is listed a legal advisor for Castles and Condos and DNG Capital Corp. I emailed her on Saturday. She answered today. She stated that she is no longer the legal advisor for either entity.

So, obviously, Castles and Condos, DNG Capital Corp, M Hotels and M Dreams are all connected. I believe they are all owned by Mamann Group, but I cannot prove it. Maybe someone who knows how to find that out can do that. I don't know how.

I paid my credit card today, which had the final payment for our unit. I believe it will still happen, at least for Castles and Condos. My wife and I already have RCI and HSI through 2 other timeshare weeks. What I will be bummed about is not being able to use C&C next year, if it is not finished.

Sorry for the length of this. I will post again after talking to II and after talking to M Hotels on Thursday.

Kurt

 

[PapaBearAB]

info from DNG, RA, not M-hotels, re Castles & Condos

this post long too, contains additional information to that provided by Kurt

I am also looking to find other Castles & Condos Puerto Vallarta residence club purchasers so we can keep up with the recent developments re departure of m-hotels and share information privately and perhaps act collectively if so needed - if not a TUG member yet, join them and this BBS and we can send emails back and forth privately and post some information publicly

below is 13 July 2009 info from DNG Capital Corp (not good news), and from Resorts Advantage, for what it is worth - M-hotels ignoring all contact attempts made since Friday 10 July

I am still hopeful all us residence club members will in the end be able to stay at Castles and Condos, and hopefully not have to throw in extra money, but I am less hopeful that you will have access to any other m-hotel resort, though we can still hopefully trade for other timeshares through Interval International once there is inventory

We purchased in April 2009 at Castles and Condos - got the common email Friday saying DNG Capital Corp is the new developer to finish the project, and that M-hotels was only an agent of the previous developer and no longer connected to the project - I sent an email Friday and today to both DNG and M-hotels asking for clarification on what this means to Castles and Condos members, especially those that have paid in full - what is an M-week now - not really usable perhaps to other M-hotel projects now - maybe not even at Castles and Condos? - lots of questions, no answers - I am supposedly a paid up Castles and Condos Residence Club member and have my paid-in-full certificate but Resorts Advantage can't get confirmation yet that I am paid in full (they sent me a bill for the large balance owing, I sent them a fax of my paid-in-full certificate, they said ignore their invoices then and they will let me know when they confirm my paid-in-full status, no confirmation two weeks later) - but hopeful and waiting to book when inventory is available but cannot book until inventory is available, and that now seems delayed as contruction likely stalled, since may be litigation in progress, though Resorts Advantage does still say "remodelling" is still going on, expect inventory ready for October, but I think they might be in the dark too yet - so many questions, no answers - I read my contract carefully and then called DNG Capital Corp in Mexico, as DNG is not only the developer and land owner, but DNG is also the "PROVIDER" noted in my April 2009 contract - when calling, I was referred to Sylvia Herrera there at DNG when I asked about Castles and Condos - Sylvia would only say that she could not comment on anything as there was litigation in progress - I have not heard anything further from M Hotels since the email that she says removed themselves from any affiliation with Castles and Condos (which means any use of C&C "M-weeks" eventually at other M Hotels properties is for now likely out of the question)- my two m-hotel contacts I know of are not yet answering any questions by email - Sylvia at DNG said m-hotels should not have sent out the email and should not have provided the DNG phone number as they are not the contact point, though she did admit that DNG does own the property - I said I had a contract with DNG with Lynda McEachern as signing agent for DNG (contract says signature is that of verification loan officer officer for DNG Capital Corp S A de C V) and Sylvia at DNG just said Lynda did not work for DNG (of course she did not - she was part of M-Hotels (M Dreams Constructions S A de C V ) who were under contract as sales representative for DNG

Joe

 

[Sharnorm]

We Bought too!

My Husband and myself were down in PV and bought a 1 bedroom for 1 week and got another.In November of 08 Same story of 2 suites done and jacuzzis being installed etc. So it sounds like not much has been done since Nov.... we too were told it would be completed the summer of o9. We too were told of the airfare deal etc. But the selling feature for us was that if we wanted to rent it out we would get an automatic deposit in May into our account , that didn't happen!! we have been sending out monthly payment in and have recieved minimal commuinication from them as well.
It is kinda scary and don't know what to do as for sending another check in for Aug.
I''ll have to read the contract again and see who with I signed the contract with M or the other.
Never did recieve an acknowledgments of payments recieved either
Hope everyone keeps in touch.. I think I maybe be sorry for trusting a unfininshed project

 

[soccergirl]

castles and condos

I just googled castles and condos and found this thread. Very informative, thanks for all the information, as I was going crazy thinking we would never get any information.

We bought in Feb and also thought it was a great deal. We got hooked by the rental return on investment and that they would be sending us a check in July and January. Haha on us.

Does anyone have any information on Grand Xcapes? I'm trying to explain that we were to get a deposit in July and Max said we were scammed(his words) and has heard others have been scammed also. What's up with Grand Xcapes? Are they legit?

Again, thanks everyone for your input and research. I guess it's true, misery loves company.

 

[kscar]

Grand Xcapes

While am not sure of the deal you got, I can tell you what we understood regarding our deal with Grand Xcapes. Our weeks start in 2010. We have "given" all of our weeks to Grand Xcapes to rent out. IF they find someone who wants a week, we call C&C for the week requested and register it for the guest. We pay the maintenance fee and call Grand Xcapes with the confirmation number. At that time, they arrange for payment from the guest. Our 1 bedroom will generate $2200, according to Grand Xcapes. We shall see if it actually works that way. Our intent was to do this until 2015, when we will actually have enough vacation time to use our week. Our contact email is "alx@grandxcapes.com" She has been pretty forthright with us and has been in contact with us from the start. Good luck.

Kurt

 

[DDMeyer]

M-Hotel**Castles and Condos

OK, I didn't read my e-mail until today from Tracy advising M-Hotel is no longer affiliated with Castles and Condos. By the sounds of it, we are in the same boat as all of you. We purchased a 1 bdrm in April with 3 M weeks per year starting in 2010. We too have been working with Max and Alx @ Grand Excapes to try to sell our prior timeshares and do a rental of the new one.

When we returned from vaction in April we started seeing things were not what they had told us. I even found Daniel Mamann on facebook and told him about our reservations about buying in. At first he e-mailed me right back advising me he would look into our problem. We just wanted out at that point. We were promised by the sales people they would sell our existing 2 timeshares through Grand Excapes within 9 months.

I just wonder now if there is legal action we can take....

Deb and Dave

 

[soccergirl]

castles and condos and grand xcapes

Here is an email that I recieved today from Grand xcapes.:annoyed:


We do in fact have a situation that none of us here at Grand Xcapes were aware of with regards to promises of specific dates that payments would be made to clients for weeks consigned to the rental program. It appears that in several instances, and this we have learned through conversations with other owners just recently that are also expecting rental checks this month, that the sales staff at the Castles and Condo’s resort were putting their people at sales tables and informing the clients that they worked for Grand Xcapes and not the resort. Then they would present their rental guarantee dates to the prospective owners. After acceptance, they would contact us to prepare the Letter of Intent without divulging the guaranteed dates that had been presented to the new owner. We were somewhat concerned over the rentals to occur in 2009 as the resort purchase contracts that we have been faxed copies of all have a first use date of 2010. However, resorts are known to offer extra use weeks from the current year inventory as sales perks so this did not raise alarms with us. As we never take control of any of our client’s inventory we do not concern ourselves with details about where the weeks come from as the owners are the ones required to make the reservations for us when we have secured a renter. So it ends up being between the owner and the resort as to what week, i.e. 2009 or 2010, Registered or “M”, is being used for a particular rental. So with all of this in mind I am comfortable saying that not only were the new owners misled but so were we here at Grand Xcapes.



As per our contract Terms and Conditions #8 states: “Client(s) realize that no one can guarantee that their property will be sold or rented in any specific amount of time”. Also #9: “Client(s) acknowledge that in the unlikely event that their vacation property is not sold or rented that they will retain normal usage rights”. And #11: “This agreement constitutes the complete and final agreement between Grand Xcapes and supersedes all prior proposals, agreements, communication or other representations”.



We at Grand Xcapes will continue to promote your weeks at Castles and Condo’s for as long as you wish and still feel that rental income will be there for all of our clients as soon as the resort is completed and we will certainly expedite the process to the best of our abilities for you and others that have been placed into this same situation.



Sincerely,

Christine Dubois

 

[PapaBearAB]

still unclear who is who re M Hotels, Mamann Group, Castles & Condos, & Enchantment

I wrote an email to Mamann Group (info@mamanngroup.com) to ask them whether they were still involved in the Castles and Condos and Enchantment projects, since Kurt (another poster in this thread) was hopeful that somehow Mamann Group and M Hotels and the current developers are perhaps still connected somehow. Specifically I asked the following three questions to Mamann Group:

1) Is Mamann Group still connected with the development of the Castles and Condos project in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, and with the Enchantment at Cabos San Lucas also.

2) How is Mamann Group related to M Hotels, if they still are?

3) Will "M Weeks" from one M Hotels project, for example, Castles and Condos, with another M Hotels project, for example, Enchantment at Cabos San Lucas?

The response I got was indeed quick, but it simply was to send as attachments the letters many of us have already received. Nothing more.

I point out that those letters list two totally separate developers for the two projects, and the only link indicated between the two projects is that for reservations and collections and customer service the company to use is Resorts Advantage.

Nothing is said about M Hotels in the letter. An M Week was to be usable at any of the M Hotels developments, all of which used to be developments of Mamann Group. So they are either still involved but just don't want any relationships with the purchasers of memberships in their developments and don't want any questions, or they have disengaged themselves from all projects, in which case perhaps an M Week no longer exists other than at your home resort where you purchased, and by exchanging it through interval international. I note Mamann Group home web page is not available (now "under construction") though the subordinate web pages for Castles and Condos and the Enchantment and other developments are still there. Just leads to more questions.

Nothing is mentioned in any correspondence still about "M Hotels". No information has been forthcoming from "M Hotels" to indicate they are still involved in all projects and that M-weeks will be interchangable among M Hotel properties.

Maybe M Hotels still is involved in the 6 Mexican developments. If so, sure would be nice if they could provide us with some letter that says all is well and that an M week from one resort will still apply to any of the eventual 6 or more resorts, and in the meantime at least at Castles and Condos and the Enchantment when those two projects are ready hopefully later this year.

So I have sent one more email to Mamann Group asking once more who is who and if they are still involved with these projects and if they are still involved with M Hotels. I don't expect an answer, but does not hurt to try.

I have also asked the same questions of Adrian Toco. Of course since they are still the collections agent for any outstanding payments (as well as a reservations agent eventually, we hope), I am not sure I can trust Resorts Advantage to give us the full details, at least at this time, as their paying clients I suspect are not us the residence club members but the resorts or developers or M Hotels, someone paying them to be the liason with the customers (members), so I don't expect any hard truths from them that would be bad news in case those not fully paid up decide to stop paying. Certainly nothing has come forth that is clear other than "construction has started again" at Castles and Condos (but at what pace?).

I continue to say to Resorts Advantage that it would be most beneficial if the developers or m hotels or someone would start to post pictures and information that is up-to-date showing progress is indeed still being made on a regular basis at the resort developments, as it will help them with further sales if the current customer base is happier than they are now.

Finally, I am at least happy to report that Resorts Advantage has been able to confirm that our Castles and Condos membership for our 2-bedroom unit for 4 M-Weeks per year, for what it is worth, is fully paid up (until if and when they ask all members for more money to complete the project, if that could happen), and although I did know from my end that I had paid all that was due, earlier this month Resorts Advantage still had my account status as delinquent and still owing the balance not paid in the original deposit. So now that I am officially paid up it just means I have more to lose than some of you who have not yet finished paying your balance owing if the M Hotel projects completely fail and we all lose what we have spent!

Still looking for answers and any scraps of information we can find. And still somehow hoping to use in October 2009 my one M week granted for 2009, but looking very unlikely at this point in time that that is going to happen, and if not, then we are supposed to be able to carry it forward to 2010. But then if that happens to everyone with M weeks for 2009, then 2010 is potentially going to be very overbooked with weeks from both 2009 and 2010 trying to be booked in 2010.

Joe (PapaBearAB)

 

[plister]

We agreed to a presentation of a "new" resort being market under "M" Resorts in Conchas Chinas on the south side of Puerto Vallarta. It is described as "fractional ownership".

Has anyone taken such a tour, and if so, what should we expect?

Bill

We went to that presentation and it was a disaster. They kept us there for 3 hours and when we finally said no for the 100th time they called us liars and said we had no intention of buying. They refused to give us the 300.00 that was promised us and we left. Skip this one, it was the worst

 

[indigo502]

Lawyer

Just got the same e-mail I don't know what to do bought it back in Sept 2008. Are we completely screwed or do we still have a snowballs chance. Does anyone one know who to contact about this in Puerto Vallarta. I suppose there isn't a real Condo/Tourist association down there to talk with

I'm waiting to hear back from a lawyer. I'm in Toronto, Canada and have also purchased. I've emailed Tracey and Daniel Mamman himself. I'll re-post with any progress made.

 

[Gustavo]

Some inconvenient truths....

I own one of the neighboring houses to Casa & Castillos and have watched this project from the beginning. Having read this thread which was passed on to me by some people in the neighborhood, I felt compelled to inform you of some of the history and the facts surrounding this project.

This project was rejected by the Colonia and accordingly, was never approved. Despite this, the developers obtained building permits (there are two) from City Hall on the last day of the previous local government administration (I leave it to you to imagine how that might have come about - strong work ethic by government officials leaving office but working tirelessly on December 31, 2006?) and they proceeded to build although the construction does not comply with building covenants in the Colonia.

Accordingly, there is no water and sewer connection to the building. The developers cannot access city services without passing through a neighboring property. The neighbor won't allow access until the project is approved by the colonia. The colonia, who as you might surmise by now are not pleased with the developer's behavior, won't approve until the developers comply with the covenants. Therefore, no resolution.

End result, when you flush the toilet, is goes down to a giant plastic tank in the garage. I know because I hear the sewage/septic cleaning trucks pumping it out every night and I see the water trucks delivering water every day. The only solution the developers have is to buy additional land and build a sewage pumping station adding incremental cost to a project already underwater.

In order to comply with local code, the structure would have to be substantially changed at great expense. Therefore, it is hard to imagine how this project might have a happy ending. I haven't been there for about a month, but by judging from the number of cars in the street, it looked like money was short and construction had slowed to a crawl in the April/May time period so I'm not surprised to read this thread. Sorry to present some facts which I'm sure were not disclosed to you during the sales process, but unfortunately this is not the first time I have seen this in PV. And I'm sure that you would rather know this now than later and act accordingly.

 

[PapaBearAB]

further info on Castles and Condos, expect more info soon

First, I am beginning to collect names and phone numbers and email and snail mail addresses of purchasers of Castles and Condos (each other M Hotel resort has a different contract) and # of m-weeks and suite size purchased (latter info optional) so we can if necessary combine efforts in any legal action needed, and thus also keep all of our costs down in paying for any legal action, and also we hopefully have more clout if we work together. So if you care to divulge any such information, reply via tugs messaging, or just email joefaubert at shaw.ca (note extra spaces, remove before emailing, and change at to @ - done to avoid ending up on spam lists). I note the last poster already referred to contacting a lawyer in Toronto. We may need a lawyer in Mexico, and perhaps liaison lawyers also in Canada and USA (assuming most purchasers are from those countries).
Second, some more info.
I have previously posted on this web site that www.macmanngroup.com web site was no longer available, being “under construction”, but that the subordinate web pages regarding m-hotel developments were still available. That is no longer true. All subordinate web pages are now “page not found”. Surprisingly perhaps, enchantment web site is now available again, (www.enchantment.com.mx), but has no mention what-so-ever of M Hotels. This begs the question whether M Weeks will be usable there or anywhere else other than at the home resort where they were purchased. Just out of curiousity I used the contact us page to send an email asking if M Weeks will still be usable at the Enchantment when the resort is ready for occupancy. I don’t expect a reply, but will let you know if I do get one.
Adrian Toca from Resorts Advantage has in an email to me now noted that “We are currently expecting for your inventory to be available by the Summer of 2010.” When asked why, the reply was “For many reasons including the health scare that afflicted Mexico’s Tourism, it has cause many delays which we are vigorously working against attempting to shorten the delay period.” I expressed my concern that there are likely serious financial problems and that there is not sufficient funding for construction completion, otherwise why in April and even May were there statements that Castles and Condos were hoping for Oct 2009 occupancy, and that 2 months later they are moving that target not by 2 months but by 9 months. I asked whether Mamann Group is still involved, since that was one of the assurances given – that the M Hotel developments had the backing of this strong Mamann Group that had lots of assets. I am doubting that Mamann Group is still involved, though at one time they were the owner of M Hotels (and maybe M Dreams sales team that M Hotels has dropped from any association with M Hotels projects).
I have asked Adrian some very specific questions in an email yesterday, after he answered some earlier questions but seemed to avoid answers to others. He does use the word “We” considerably as if he were part of M Hotels, so one of the questions he did answer was to clarify who We was, and that is “We are Resorts Advantage , we represent M Hotels-Castles & Condos Residence Club Customer Care Center.” I note that he did not say M Hotels Residence Club, but M Hotels Castles and Condos Residence Club.

Here are the other questions I await answers to today from Adrian. He usually has replied by now, so maybe he is going to take time and get information from his superiors first before he answers the questions, or maybe he just is going to continue to avoid answers to these questions.

I look forward to posting any answers to the above to the readers of this thread. Here are the questions:

1) the first question very important, and one you did not answer from my last email: Is an "M week" still a valid booking that can be booked at ANY of the M Hotel properties (once inventory available), AND ARE THE SIX PROPERTIES originally on the M-Hotels list, including Enchantment and Castles and Condos, once inventory available, thus still usable by a Castles and Condos residence club members by just using their "M weeks"

2) "second question from previous email that went unanswered: “ who really is M-Hotels now ... Is M-Hotels a division of Resorts Advantage. ... Perhaps Resorts Advantage bought M Hotels from Mamaan Group? OR IS M-HOTELS STILL OWNED BY MAMAAN GROUP? ... But perhaps Mamaan Group is now totally uninvolved in these M-Hotes developments, since the subordinate web pages for Mamaan Group that WERE ON THE INTERNET late last week still showing the different developments including Enchantment and Castles and Condos ARE NOW ALSO ALL GONE, and not just the Mamaan Group home page."

So the question again is ""is M-Hotels still owned by Mamaan Group?" (by the way, at one time Lynda McEachern did state in an email to me that "M Hotels is owned and operated by the Mamaan Group", thus my question as to whether that is still true.

3) Your last email DID NOT ALSO ANSWER THE QUESTION "in the case of Castles and Condos, is M Hotels just the transfer agent for DNG Capital Corp (aka Castles and Condos) who is the owner of the Castles and Condos property, and thus in actual fact we really don't have anything but a contract with DNG?",

or do we (Castles and Condos Residence Club Members) also have a contract with M-Hotels (I doubt it), since our DNG Capital Corp contract notes in item "2) Associated Properties. Member shall have similar lodging rights to associated M Hotels Resorts and future resorts WHICH MAINTAIN AND HOLD MUTUAL HOSPITALITY AGREEMENTS WITH THE PROVIDER. PROPOSED RESORTS INCLUDE ...". This implies that we may not have access to the other M Hotels resorts if there is not maintained mutual hospitality agreements for the proposed resorts.

so the question is asked again, DO WE CURRENTLY STILL HAVE ACCESS TO OTHER M HOTELS RESORTS AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE?, or are those associations to the ohter M hotels resorts now broken (that was where my above "M Weeks" question came from about whether they were still good at other M Hotels resorts)

4) Finally, I asked this question in a separate email:
Do I have a user id and password yet for Castles and Condos Members Club web site, which I believe is operated by Vacancy Club? This web site used to be blocked but no longer is.

Is there any plan to provide as per our Castles and Condos Residence Club Memberships the membership in Platinum Preferred Membership serviced by Vacancy Club?

My Castles and Condos Residence Club membership contract provides for 30 years membership in Platinum Preferred Member by Castles and Condos with 3 platinum weeks per year and 2500 yearly hotel rewards points as well as other benefits. My contract says I have to pay that membership after the first year, but that contract was to be effective on May 20, 2009, and the user id and password were to be available within 30 days of that date.

Vacations Club when I called a week or two ago noting the site was blocked noted that the developer had not paid his bill, so there was no access to the web site. But the web site seems less blocked now, though I have no user id and password.

So what is the situation with the Platinum Preferred Membership by Castles and Condos?

Again, I look forward to posting any answers to the above to the readers of this thread.

Joe (PapaBearAB)

 

[Gustavo]

Some inconvenient truths....

[Duplicate post deleted - DeniseM Moderator]