DavidLedger
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I see several problems with this kind of comparison. The first is in what the CPI covers. If it is like the UK equivalent it will include food, which Anfi doesn’t buy. If food has gone up more slowly than the things Anfi buys, and is a considerable proportion of the CPI list, then Anfi figures will be higher.
Secondly, Anfi has been keeping increases artificially low for a few years, so all the increases for the last three or four years have happened at once. The latest increase has to be compared with the equivalent CPI figure covering the last few years.
Also, although I don’t know exactly how Anfi’s employment system works, I do know that it’s not only the pay rate that matters, but the number employed. They must have some system where cleaners, for example, can be brought in when required. When occupancy is low, fewer are fully employed. The main effect here is sickness. When full-time cleaners go sick I gather that they are still paid, as well as the replacement staff. During my last year as an Emerald rep. unusually high levels of staff sickness caused a noticeable increase in the wages bill.
The most straightforwards solution would be to advertise the week you do own and use the week that is your friend’s. We are not involved in what happens after that, so if you wanted to stay in *your* apartment you could try to swap. Anfi shouldn’t issue a second Guest Certificate for your friend’s week (in the name of whoever rents from you), but together you might persuade them to do that, especially as they have all your details as an Owner and as a Guest.
Some of the new development at Tauro will almost certainly be hotel rather than timeshare. There’s been a sign on the golf course indicating that there will be a hotel on the hillside that backs onto Amadores for a couple of years now.
Emerald will remain as timeshare, as will all the other resorts, because of they are held in trust by Continental Trustees. Ruby has been partly sold, so although it isn’t built yet, it’s possible it too has to be timeshare. That doesn’t mean they have to put any priority into building it.
David
It’s still the same. I gather there are various golf club/putter sets available online. At least one person has taken a set and left it, and it has been passed around for many months. I think they are now looked after by ABC reception. If you really want to play, the only way to be sure is to take your own. You can’t get into trouble for playing, just as you can’t for kicking a ball around on a bit of spare land. The concession holders, Narval (no-longer Anfi), are just not allowed to run it as a business.
There may also be a set at the Anfi Rep’s area in Puerto Anfi.
According to reports on FaceBook the Fun Fair is open.
It’s all been back to normal for some weeks/months now. Still the odd new post and bracket with no apparent purpose around, but I expect most will be finished sometime.
Whoever they are they are wrong. The Lyng family sold their 50% to IFA. The majority owner of IFA is Snr Loposan, who is from Gran Canaria and has several hotels bearing his name there. IFA and Loposan hotels are upper to very high standard level, much like Anfi was designed to be. The other 50% is owned by Santana Cazorla – the construction company owner. He has the casting vote at board level. There are suggestions that his ‘input’ is the cause of many of the problems that some see at Anfi. There have also been suggestions that Lopasan wants to buy out Cazorla.
As to changing the nature of Anfi, it is not legally possible to change those resorts that are sold as timeshare into anything else. The bricks and mortar are held in trust by Continental Trustees as timeshare apartments. This cannot be changed. It is likely that if the Loposan buyout succeeds then there will be new developments at Tauro that are more hotel based. I believe that some apartment/weeks have already been sold for Ruby (up the valley from Emerald at Tauro). If so, it may be that Ruby is also fixed as a timeshare resort whenever it is built.
David
The grassy area between the Cocktail Bar (old Memsaab) and the marina offices is being converted into a children’s fun park. There are some photos below. There are other things there, but they’re all covered up so I couldn’t tell what they are.
The ‘roadway’ extends onto the old tennis court area, making it quite extensive.
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After initally being Fixed weeks owners at Puerto, we have been points owners at Gran and then Emerald. Apart from the year we requested a low floor because we had a 2 year old with us, we have never been allocated a room below the fifth floor.
Currently on seventh floor at Emerald.
I stayed in Sonnenland, at the Dunas, in 2014. We had previously used several package holiday resorts around the Canaries, and the Dunas was one of the better ones – but in a totally different league to Anfi. Even if Anfi implemented included communal dining and twice the number of sun beds in the same area, the apartments alone would keep it in a different league.
It means that the current controlling (financial) owner, who it would appear is maybe preventing holiday owners from getting more of what they paid for, will be out of the picture. It will be a while before we know more because unnecessary excessive secrecy is a part of Spanish corporate life.
It’s backed by a third party finance company and to my mind is expensive (only if you win of course). Haven’t you thought of renting out your week(s) through this club to cover your fees?
We usually remember to take teabags and instant coffee with us in the hold luggage, but we tend to buy real coffee while there and bring the surplus back to use at home.
We too have taken fresh fruit that would otherwise go off in the fruit bowl in the hand luggage and not had a problem. Usually less gets on the plane than went through security 🙂
Anfi do admit to putting resale owners at the end of the queue for booking, and have said so on the owners’ section of their website.
A few years ago I had a meeting with the then Sales Director. He told me the above, but also said that Anfi realise that they can’t sell all the weeks else Floating and Points wouldn’t work. They can’t ‘oversell’ as in ‘sell more weeks than they have’ because of the way that Continental Trustees hold the weeks. There is some level of week sales where floating/points gets difficult. Back when I met the Sales Director that level was reasonable, in that floating/points did work as long as you didn’t want late November through early February, or sometimes August. I have no idea if they are still using that level, or whether they have increased it. Certainly the resale owners issue makes things worse for such owners, but it should also improve things for those who bought direct – and that doesn’t seem to be the case.
There will always be a need for at least a low level of sales. Anyone who doesn’t pay their maintenance fee for two years looses their week(s), and these need to be re-sold. Also, as contracts are being declared null and void those weeks have to be re-sold.
Only the owners trying to book know exactly what is going on in each case. People complain that no weeks are available, but if the Anfi person was thinking of a Saturday start did the owner then ask for a Monday etc.
Anfi’s policy with resale owners is contrary to the original contract, but until someone is prepared to risk a lot of money challenging it in the courts that s how it will stay.
David
Well, I didn’t get re-elected. Anfi were confident that I would be – I was well ahead on the postal votes, but the AnfiGB crowd had gathered a lot of proxy votes for the OGM itself and I was pushed into last place by three votes. That just shows how important it is to vote.
David
Anfi publish occupation figures on their notice boards. Perhaps if members sent these figures to us, with a photo if it’s clear, then we can make these available on the website. Then, those who discover these situations can tackle Anfi over it.
We have no evidence of tour operators dealing in Anfi weeks. Several advertise them but they are never available. We believe it’s just a ruse to get people to their sites.
It is Anfi who is accusing Richard of calling them liars. As I understand it, some member of this club has trawled through Richard’s, and possibly others’, posts and has found something that would be misunderstood if seen by Anfi, and forwarded it to them. It may even have been doctored en-route.
Whoever is trying to discredit Richard is doing us all a great disservice. Richard’s work and connections in and about Anfi can only benefit all of us who love Anfi and want it to get better.
We have had parts of private posts published on FaceBook without consultation before this.
There have been a few discussions about this on the Anfi del Mar Friends FaceBook page. One or two people there have checked these package tour offers and they are never available. but they can offer ‘something else similar’ elsewhere. Tour operators are just using Anfi to bring in customers for other resorts.
If they are cold calls then they are “ambulance-chasers”. I’ve had many calls over the last couple of years. I listen to their spiel and then tell them that I am in this club and have been following the situation for a long time. I tell them where what their ’employer’ is telling them to say is wrong, and that they personally should be careful as they are guilty of cold calling and giving false information.
I blacklist any company that cold-calls me or sends me junk mail, and when I need something I look for it, avoiding those blacklisted.
If you can no-longer visit for health reasons then court action is a way out. Otherwise, if you enjoy Anfi, there are few reasons to take action in my personal opinion. There’s no “need” as far as I can see. My wife and I are not taking action.
Yes, Denis was a member. He was vice-chairman when Bruce had to leave the club after selling his weeks. He became chairman by default. I won’t go into the details, but he ran one committee meeting as chairman after Bruce left and then resigned at the next. It was only my second committee meeting, but no-one else wanted the post, so I became chairman. I’ve never known Denis’s reasons, but he greatly disliked my becoming chairman. He became very disruptive on the forum, making some very unpleasant posts. Members complained, so he was ejected from the club. AnfiGB started at about that time, ‘Gordon’ and ‘Alan’ having styles very like Bruce and Denis. Denis has let slip something that showed that he is ‘Alan’, but now argues again that he isn’t.
This is all something that happened years ago. We have moved on – they haven’t.
So ‘Alan J Hutt’ does only have a keyboard, no tongue. The same applies to ‘Gordon Neepe’ and a few other names on the Anfi-related FaceBook pages.
David
But if you wanted a week in a two bed instead you would only get 10 months. (Assuming your 2 weeks are in a one bed).
They can’t. We have 2 weeks in a two bed at Emerald on an 18 month booking, but we only get that 18 months if we want to book in a 2 bed at Emerald. We’re down to 10 months advance booking even for a one bed at Emerald. It’s 10 months for everything except exactly what and where we own.
I’d have to check back through the minutes of AGMs from before I joined the committee as to which way round it is, but, if I remember correctly, the fees for rental and for resale adverts were introduced to support the website and subsidise the AGM.
The adverts on our site have two great advantages over social media. Firstly they are all there in one place all the time. You can browse the all the adverts whether they were put up last week or months ago. The owner doesn’t have to keep repeating the advert to keep it within a reasonable number of screens from the top, and the customer doesn’t have to keep monitoring screenfuls of posts daily. The second advantage is that we have genuine contact details for everyone that advertises. This means that the customer is sending money to someone who is identifiable as an owner at Anfi and a member of this club. Many FaceBook accounts are fake and backed only by ‘throwaway’ gmail addresses. Would you send money to someone who advertises on FaceBook without doing some research into their real identity? That’s not needed here.
We are working on improving the advert layouts, listing in date order for example; and I am hoping to introduce a system where adverts are ‘gold starred’ if we have seen a scan of the owner’s current year’s maintenance invoice, proving identity, address, and Anfi ownership (at least as at the beginning of the year).
None of the committee member gets paid, but Steve manages Rentals and Resales as a service to our members and to bring revenue into your club.
David
Karen Pearson has posted about the walk in the past.
This below is pinched from the Anfi del Mar Friends FaceBook page – a post by Lynn Williams
v v v v
Alternatively, go through the passage between Gran Anfi and Los Caideros , down the hill then go right at the beach. Make sure you take water as it’s a slight climb and if it’s a hot day it gets to you !!
Right at the top of the hill, you walk between a couple of boulders and hey presto you are on top of Puerto Rico. It’s a lovely stroll downhill then towards the marina & you’ll be surprised to see a green park area with a running stream and shady palms. All the years we’d been going we never knew it was there !!
^ ^ ^ ^
Sunshine started as a part of Hays Travel and became independent in 2013 under MD Chris Clarkson.
sunshine.co.uk was registered on 21-Mar-2005, presumably by Hays. It is now registered by someone at 14 Berrymoor Court, Cramlington, Northumberland, NE23 7RZ which is a private house. It was registered through the same company that hosts our club website. They claim to be a UK Limited Company, (Company number: 5954656).
There are lots of complaints against them on TripAdvisor since 2013.
David
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