The Manhattan Club Reviews

When we realized that the timeshare we purchased is now worthless, we asked the Manhattan Club to take it back and they will not even do this, unless we pay the year's maintenance fees in advance but not use our timeshare for the privilege of returning it to them for no charge. On top of all this, we consistently receive requests from Manhattan Club to give them names of friends, family to whom they will try to sell a timeshare despite the fact that we have repeatedly asked them not to continue to contact us for this purpose.

3- We would like to sell our share for at least what we paid for it 10 years ago. We can stay in a hotel in NY City for seven nights for less than we pay the Manhattan Club in annual fees. Our investment is presently worth nothing. NY City real estate should be going up. We are owners! Should we not be first to be accommodated? If we stop payment, our credit rating is affected. There are no reasonable answers for owners. This situation cannot continue. Please help!

1) Maintenance Fees - I joined The Manhattan Club in May 2003, purchasing a timeshare in a one-bedroom suite with two full baths (Unit #**) for one week (Gold Flex) for $26,416 from T. Park Central, LLC (Stuart Eichner, owner-developer). At that time, the maintenance fee was $699. The maintenance fee for this unit in 2014 is $2,585, or more than 3 times the maintenance fee when I purchased. This exorbitant fee renders the unit essentially worthless on the secondary market, i.e., I cannot sell the timeshare without losing my original investment. The annual maintenance fee is considered due at the time I wish to make a reservation, without regard to the anniversary date of the purchase. I cannot book a reservation without first paying the entire maintenance fee. At other timeshare resorts, daily maid service is optional for an additional fee. At The Manhattan Club, payment for this service is a required part of the maintenance fee. The management takes 20% of the maintenance fee.

2) Reservations - In order to have use of the unit I own for one week, it is necessary to make a reservation 12 months ahead. To split the week, I must reserve 9 months ahead. If I have reserved a full week 12 months ahead and then decide later (at 9 months) I want to split that week, I am unable to obtain the remainder of the originally booked week without going to the end of the queue. Furthermore, I am not allowed to book a week without first paying the maintenance fee in full for the year in which that week falls.

3) Timeshare Owners - It is said that there are approximately 14,000 Manhattan Club timeshare owners. The owner-developer refuses to make a list of these timeshare owners available to our timeshare owners' group (go to groups.yahoo.com and look at manhattanclubowners).

4) Condominium Board of Directors - The seven-member board consists of the owner-developer and three of his appointees. The other three board members are timeshare owners nominated by the owner. The owner-developer has total control of the actions of the Board of Directors.

Being a Manhattan Club owner and paying around $2,300 plus taxes for a 6 night stay one certainly should not be subjected to such horrible room conditions. I could have booked a room online for $199 a night and had a more reasonable and less costly stay. It is obvious that the management company is unable to care for the property in an acceptable manner to properly ensure that the guest enjoys their stay. I believe that the management company’s fees of 20% be revised downward until they care for the property in an appropriate manner, or better yet, they should be replaced by a capable management company.

As per my knowledge, there are many TMC owners who are distressed with the Manhattan Club and O. Park Central LLC reservation practices and misinformation provided by the licensed personnel in your sales department. In my case, I experienced all aspects of violations of an Owner’s rights by O. Park Central, LLC: fraudulent mortgage assignment without timely satisfaction upon payment of said mortgage, wrongful registration, many errors and discrepancies in documentation, unauthorized credit card charges, unlawful change of the Event that resulted in mistaken charges, failed reservations, poor room conditions, and misinformation provided by all of those associated with TMC (Customer service, the Board, Financial department).

Some of these issues have been previously addresses to TMC, however, O. Park Central, LLC. and TMC continue to breach the Purchase Agreement, Offering Plan, By-Laws, and TMC and Condominium Powers of Attorney. These issues have been addressed to the O. PARK CENTRAL LLC and The Manhattan Club. The response was not received. P.S. Pursuant to the Condominium By-Laws, “Maintenance and repairs to any unit and all portions thereof shall be performed by the owner of such unit at his or her own cost and expense” (Article 5, Section 5.1, (a) (I)).

We have seen the maintenance charge go from $800.00 a year to $1,981.01. Given that my Family has a Jr suite Silver which means we get a week every year but it does not include Saturday or Sunday night. We have had to accept what nights they have or call back and say "we had a cancellation would you like the night." We have paid a real Estate company to advertise and sell our timeshare but nobody wants it because of all the people looking to get out of them.This is deceptive advertising and the people are the only ones suffering. How do we all get together and sue these people. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Everyone knows that there is plenty of availability at the Manhattan Club. The units are rented online and there is no problem making a reservation. I was told by a reservations clerk that the Board of Directors is responsible for restricting the number of units available to members so these renters can subsidize the hefty maintenance fees. What use is this if we cannot use our time?

I immediately phoned the front desk, someone was promptly sent up. He was nice and concerned if anyone was hurt. No incident report that I was asked to be involved in. They cleaned it up, replaced it with yet another very scratched, chipped table and there was no more dialogue about it. Until the next morning when a receipt was slipped under my door...for the $850 broken table charge they put on my credit card.

General Manager, **l, says there is "no budget for breakage" and we should feel lucky our maintenance fees are only $2k/yr and not $10k because NYC is the most sought after location in the world. When he was reminded that my family was placed in an unsafe environment by not having a glass table secured to the base, he maintained people stay in that room all the time without incident. The only thing he was willing to move on was the bill... He stated he "got a bulk deal on table tops" from the distributor and would only charge me $650. He can sue me for it. I don't even think Judge Judy would rule in his favor.

Exorbitant maintenance fees are way above industry standards for similar accommodations. CRAIN'S NEW YORK BUSINESS and more recently, THE NEW YORK POST have written negative accounts about THE MANHATTAN CLUB and its leading principal, IAN BRUCE EICHNER (who has in the past, been accused of real estate fraud... See Amanda Fung's CRAINS NEW YORK BUSINESS article of June 2011 and 2012). It appears that by the sheer numbers of complaints about THE MANHATTAN CLUB, some state or city legal office should sit up and take notice: THE NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, or A LEGAL ENTITY IN THE MAYOR'S OFFICE. In my opinion, the operations and sales pitches at THE MANHATTAN CLUB are fraudulent scams.

Since my father's passing, I have assumed much of the management of the affairs of my mother and it seems that the money that was spent in purchasing the timeshare and the maintenance fees that have been paid over the past 15 or so years was a waste of good money. Complaints to management are dismissed and we are at the point where we are going to seek legal action.

At exactly 9AM, nine months previous to our planned visit on 12/1-4, we began calling the reservation desk only to find that all rooms were reserved. We tried alternate dates around these dates and were unsuccessful because we were told we had to call back at the beginning of the 9 month period for those possible dates. So we asked to be placed on the wait list. The very next week, at exactly 9AM, nine months before the 12/8-11 weekend, we repeated our attempt to reserve a unit again with no success. In fact we discovered there were no nights in December available. We were placed on the wait list for any opening in December, yet never received a call. Over the next nine months, we called several times to inquire about cancellations, only to be advised that all nights were still booked.

In April 2007, my wife called to reserve rooms in June 07 so they could shop for a wedding dress for our daughter. After many calls over several weeks, she was able to reserve 1 weekday night. Then, while there, after securing a 2nd night at the Marriott, The Manhattan Club called to advise that she could have the 2nd night due to a cancellation but it was within the 24 hr guarantee time frame and too late to cancel the Marriott room without losing money.

Again, for 2013, after paying the exorbitant maintenance and tax fees of nearly $2400, we were unable to secure any of the dates we tried. In late August, we were advised that there were no open dates through the rest of the year. So we haven't been able to use any of our 7 nights for 2013!!

In 2012, we wrote to the TMC board and talked with Salvatore Reale, GM of Operations, who explained there was no compensatory solution available. He offered to help next time we tried to make a reservation, but how can he help if there are no dates open?? We've discovered that many units within The Manhattan Club are being advertised via Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. Reading through various Owners Reviews on the web and other blog sites indicates a growing discontent for reservation inequities. Additionally, we now receive calls from the Club asking if we'd like to sell our unit and calls from the International Timeshare Agency asking if we have any days available we'd like to give up (even though we never signed up to exchange timeshare units).

We're puzzled and very disappointed with The Manhattan Club's inability to honor its owner's reservation needs throughout the year. We purchased a timeshare unit with the understanding that we had a right to reserve a unit as long as we attempted to make the reservation within the specified time frame (nine months in advance) as explained in the Flexible Ownership Interest Reservation Policy. It's difficult always trying to plan 9 months or more in advance just to be sure we can secure a room. Over the last few years, even as additional timeshare units have been added to the Club, we've found it harder and harder to make a reservation at any point within the year. In fact, it's so much easier just calling another comparable hotel and securing a room.

So obviously, The Manhattan Club has oversold the units, allowed other travel firms to gobble up the units and/or made special arrangements with others, prohibiting owners like ourselves from using the Club when we'd like to use it or maybe it's all three.

Now we understand that several folks have attempted to sue TMC but so far they have not succeeded, partly due to the ownership's capabilities to avert the legal system. We're not at all happy and feel The Manhattan Club should make some sort of restitution. We paid $1954.70 in maintenance fees and $226.02 in taxes in 2011 and nearly $2400 in 2013. If you consider the fact that we were only able to use 2 of the 14 nights in 2011 & 2013, we are certainly being ripped off. We could go anywhere in NYC for that price and not have to mess with the frustration and poor reservation process at the Manhattan Club. We're being held hostage to an oversold timeshare, a poor reservation process, and a company that does not seem to care about its ownership.

We feel strongly that at the very least, the Manhattan Club should offer us some form of compensation, and it should initiate some sort of reservation guarantee process for its owners to ensure we have time to make reservations and receive priority over the resellers, like Travelocity, and other reservation opportunities.

I read all previously filed 16 complaints, they all happened to me. I'm piled up with hundreds of points of RCI exchanges that I had fear applying for, i.e. spend more money & got booked into a third class/no class hotel/resort (I was given an exchange to a place in Germany, the hotel is up in mountain, peach black, do your dishes & clean your own sheets before check out, or severe penalties apply. The room cost US $79.00/night). I referred a friend of mine shortly after my purchase of TMC, the person respectfully followed my pursue and now we no longer speak to each other.The fees had moved up over $1900.00/year/unit, and many of us rarely get the merchandise we paid so very handsomely for... Do Not Tell TMC You Belong To RCI. That's where most likely your weekly will end up in. TMC will automatically throw you in there without your consent as its rooms always run out to accommodate the paid-up members.

When one Goggles NYC, TMC recommendations filled up page after page, the booking agency, the consumer review all thumbs up - for the location, the up scale rooms, and yes, cheap rate in comparison to others in the Central Park areas. I could not book rooms way in advance for my week to entertain friends from out of town, and these friends out of town were easily provided cheaply paid upgraded rooms within two days notice.

Many years ago, I came to live in USA in believing that system works fair and just in this land, any consumer fraud when detected and proved wrongdoing, the law stepped in and created a boundary of justification that enabled the hard working soul's stand a chance in equality where the rich and the powerful leads. Millions of people had lost their fortune in this so-called "dream" Timeshares, yet nothing grows in the process except an endless, continuing enlarging liabilities...

I totally believe these folks are scammers and should be brought to justice. How is it that I, as an owner, cannot get availability but folks can walk in off the street and get a room - albeit at a premium price? It's because TMC already has my money for a timeshare that I can't use (and I'm on the hook for annual maintenance fees), while they collect additional monies from non-members. This is criminal. I have to share this story because it is too good not to share. I called TMC around mid-February 2013 to book two nights for a conference in NYC scheduled for April 25-26, 2013. Of course, there was no availability for those dates, but they offered to place me on a wait list. They could not give any indication as to how long the wait would be or how many folks were ahead of me on the wait list. They said that owners have until the day of their reservations to cancel and I'd have to wait and see if any owners cancelled.

So in the meantime, as my conference date gets closer, I'm just stuck in limbo waiting for news from TMC. I don't expect a callback; however, I am an owner of another timeshare that has a small network of properties in addition to those offered through RCI. This company (which I'll call TLG) recently purchased TMC. Well I thought since I'm a member of TLG, perhaps I can go through their network and book with TMC. Bingo! I'm now booked at TMC for the dates of my conference. On an end note, I will file a complaint with the NY AG's office and seek restitution for not only myself, but all of the other owners that TMC has bilked, scammed, cheated and lied to. This is more of the same Wall Street/Main Street **.

A possible remedy for owners of this allegedly scam-filled operation: Write the NY state Attorney General with your specific complaints. Go to www.ag.ny.gov. Click on resources and find complaint form for timeshares/condos. Download, print, complete and snail mail it to the AG's Manhattan branch. In the past, owners had filed a class action lawsuit in regard to various actions of the Manhattan Club management, which took a very long time to get to the courts. The owners ultimately lost the suit because of legal technicalities. It appears that the evidence for the plaintiffs was not properly or entirely presented.

I submitted my Manhattan Club complaints to the AG and his response was positive on my behalf in that his representative met with Manhattan Club management, which the AG directed to contact me and him. To date, I have not heard from the Manhattan Club. This lack of action appears to show a lack of concern of Manhattan Club owners. I recently contacted the AG again to inform him of the developments (or lack thereof).

You merely have a once a year chance to book, and if you need to change, you simply lose it! Yet,The Manhattan Club shows availabilities year round on various online booking sites, offered at a reduced rates to the public. This has translated into a steady degradation of the rooms and bigger and bigger maintenance fees, as owners take better care of the environment and rooms they own rather than the general public who is merely passing through. The TMC of course requires that we pay the exorbitant maintenance fees even if they were unable to provide us with the week(s) we are entitled to. These practices hardly seem fair and equitable.

I called Jose ** and he told me he could nothing and would take it to management. I have heard nothing and there were no response to repeated calls. They had my $1800 for two years and act like as an owner I have no recourse. Yesterday, I received a Living Social offer for the Manhattan Club! I can now get a room for $297 a night on the weekend, but have no ability to use my timeshare that I purchased in 1998. I will likely default and no longer pay for my maintenance. And they will likely resell my timeshare.

So much for the policy. Salvatore is a board member. I assume that timeshare board members are concerned with the best interests of the owners as well as the timeshare itself. Mayor Bloomberg, per various Irene weather advisers, urged people not to travel during such hazardous weather conditions, even shutting down some major New York City transit facilities. With that, I thought it best to cancel my 8/28/11 reservation (72 hours in advance, per club policy) for safety and weather condition reasons, with roads being blocked by floods and downed trees. I thought I might be able to keep the 8/29/11 reservation if some improvement in roads and weather improved. However, I found it would have been too dangerous and almost impossible to drive into Manhattan on that day. So, I cancelled. I was offered the "consolation" that I could pay the $175 penalty and have the day reinstated by Salvatore **, by policies of course. Unrealistic adherence to policy without circumstantial consideration is not in keeping with upholding the Manhattan Club owners' interests, which is the function of the board of directors.

Investigating info about other owners reveals that TMC posted their 200 W 56 as the address of record for all owners. This makes it impossible to interface with other owners. Investigating getting some results through the board of directors reveals the members are 4 people assigned by the developer himself and 3 that the developer has to approve, so the deck is stacked against anyone wanting some answers from the board.

Maintenance fees continue to rise and there is very high pressure from TMC to collect them more than a year in advance. Yet, you cannot get a room. Many owners have to forgo spending any time there because they cannot get rooms. Yet, TMC continues to sell under the false pretense that you can actually get a room. In addition, if you use an online travel site, you can get rooms at the Manhattan Club for the exact dates they said they were all booked for and for less money than you pay in maintenance fees. In addition, the management collects 20% fee and provides no service. Most other timeshare management takes 10%.

This is shady and feels like bait & switch. TMC should list real owners' addresses, have a board that works for the owners, and have to post actual stats of how hard it is to get a reservation. Knowing what you want to do in NYC 9 months in advance is crazy. So is having owners denied rooms while anyone else using Hotels. com or the like get rooms for less and with a few weeks advance notice.

We exchanged against our MC unit for the first several years, so we did not need to reserve a unit there. In 2008, we were suddenly charged $1,695 on our credit card in advance of the calendar year we were to use our week. When we called to inquire about this, we were told that monthly financing was no longer possible and that our fees had more than doubled from $744/year to $1,695 a year. I said this sure seemed like a bait and switch scam to me but this made no difference, of course.

Like most people, we do not have credit limits that allow for this kind of charge every year and we are now unable to pay these exorbitant fees, while keeping current on our monthly mortgage payments to an outside finance company (Equiant). When we first tried to get a reservation at TMC, when our fees were still kept current, we were told that advance notice of nine months to a year was needed to get a reservation. I stated that rooms are readily avaialble through TMC website but we, as owners, have to book that far ahead? They explained that the developer holds a large block of rooms for his own use and can rent them out, however he wants to. Obviously, the developer has majority rule and, therefore, the rest of us have no leverage.

As it stands now, we are among hundreds of owners who are woefully behind on their maintenance fees (some of whom tell me their fees have tripled) and owners at a timeshare, we cannot get a reservation in unless we can book well into the future. We also are seeing TMC owners in desperation selling their units, once priced well over $25,000 for $1.00 on eBay in order to get out from under their maintenance fees and just plain "get out" even though they are taking a huge loss.

We are in debt collection and added our maintenance fee bill to our account, so it would be paid off on a consistent, monthly basis. This was after we were told by TMC that this was not possible (it was, we found out). Even though we are in repayment, we still cannot bank one of our weeks or have any usage of our Manhattan Club membership which makes it worthless to use, though they sold this unit to us five years ago for $27,500 and we now see these units on Redweek.com going for pennies on the dollar.

Our maintenance fees started out at $744 in 2005 when we bought in, and we were told we could finance them each year over twelve months on our credit card which made this affordable. Over the next three years, our fees went up to $1,700 and The Manhattan Club demanded they be paid in full up front, no financing no longer available. Even when this was done, reservations at the timeshare we are owners at was next to impossible if not booked at least nine months ahead of time. This meant we were paying in advance for a product, we could not be assured was available without much advance notice.

However, rooms at the club were readily available at any/all travel sites to outsiders with only a day or two notice. Doubling and even tripling maintenance fees after signing an agreement that they be in the area of $750 only five years ago and then seeing the value of our ownership sink to next to nothing, coupled within being unable to secure a reservation for the very product you are in debt over is just wrong and we have the numbers within our "disgrunteled TMC listserv" to show it.

I was assured repeatedly, that calling two or three months ahead was plenty of time for a reservation excepting certain holiday periods. Since my purchase, the maintenance fees have risen steadily to more than double, but more problematically is that no matter when I call for reservations, the only time available for more that sporadic days or so is always 9 months from my call. That makes it nearly impossible for me to use my time if anything unexpected happens since I am not allowed to change my reservation in any way without forfeiting the whole thing and starting over, by which time there is nothing left in the time period remaining. And of course, I am never able to take advantage of the purported half-price offer.

in spite of the near impossibility.