Next on our list of the Timeshare Industry’s Worst Divestment Performers and a member of “The Dirty Dozen,” is the Holiday Inn—Orange Lake—Silverleaf trio of resorts. Once a privately held company out of Texas, Silverleaf grew into its own right as a multi-million multistate resort. At that time, Silverleaf operated a consumer-oriented business selling timeshares.

In 2015, Silverleaf was acquired by Orange Lake Resorts, who also owns the better known Holiday Inn Club Vacations. It was then that Slverleaf timeshare owners began seeing drastic changes to their timeshares.

According to numerous complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau and online complaint forums, shortly after the merger, Silverleaf owners were approached by Orange Lake and pressured into transferring their deeded Silverleaf timeshare properties into Holiday Inn Club Vacations points. Orange Lake used bait and switch and high pressure sales tactics to induce consumers to acquiesce, and provided false and fraudulent statements concerning the market resale value of their newly minted timeshare points. Silverleaf owners soon found that their Holiday Inn Vacation Club points were not useable and were subsequently informed that they must purchase an “upgrade” in order to utilize those points.

In addition, the complaints allege a host of other unilateral changes forced upon Silverleaf owners as the result of the merger. Several consumers complained of a sharp raise in maintenance fees, while others claimed a blanket restriction on the transfer of their timeshares with a mortgage. Even those owners who accumulated sufficient points for use lamented low priority status with attempted bookings as a Silverleaf (low status) owner.

Several victims of the merger equate their experience with Orange Lake to outright theft, as they claim their timeshares have become completely unusable while Orange Lake continues to collect fees and mount profit year after year.