A new company is actively cold calling Timeshare consumers for different promotional offers. This company is called Sponsored Breaks, and apart from the conventional accommodation in Timeshare resorts they also offer City Breaks, Cruise Holidays and flights.
Sponsored Breaks seems to be connected to a company called Sponsored Weeks about which we already posted an article on this blog.
The website for Sponsored Breaks www.sponsoredbreaks.co.uk was created in July 2014
Their address quoted is in the UK Sponsored Breaks, Suite 43, 43 Berkeley Square, Mayfair, Westminster, London W1J 5FT
Telephone 0800 198 1048 / 01304 700 050 / 0800 950 6140 and email info@sponsoredbreaks.co.uk
We have not found a mention on the web about a Company Registration in the UK or Spain for Sponsored Breaks.
Being such a recent company with a booking rule of 8 weeks prior to the date, it seems rather odd they already have numerous testimonials about holidays enjoyed from different consumers.
The supposed flight bookings is a link to the website of Sky Scanner which is indeed a flight search engine, which anybody can access from any computer directly.
Going through the terms and conditions it becomes clear that both City Breaks and Cruises are booked by third party companies. The holiday accommodation in the resorts is booked by Sponsored Breaks and people should be aware that there is the obligation to go through a “holiday presentation” during their stay. In case the consumer does not attend such presentation the resort has the right to charge the full rental price to them.
Consumers are made aware in the terms and conditions as well, that failure to notify the company that they own at a timeshare resort can result in cancellation of the booking. Something that seems rather strange…
Cold callers and offers too good to be true should always be treated with caution.
Make sure that when you are called by a company such as Sponsored Breaks, you receive the terms and conditions PRIOR to paying the actual money for the package.
If you have been contacted by Sponsored Breaks from free phone 08001981048 then please do let us know.
You can email us at customercare@mindtimeshare.com or place a comment on this blog
We also have a CONTACT FORM
Mindtimeshare 
Sponsored breaks cold called me saying i had entered a competition . Offering a week for two at £239. To a destination of my choice, within the next 18months. The lady then wanted my credit card details for the 239.
I hung up.
i paid sponsored breaks £220 about 12 months ago we payed our money and the said to us we are waiting for confirmation back from the place we wanted to go but they did not contact us for a few weeks. when i rang back they said the place was all booked up and would we choose another destination which we did not want to go to and 12 months on we are asking for the same place and now they have come up with an excuse that some one in the office was off until wednesday and Thursday they will give us a ring but they sent a email saying that the person who was off has a back log and we have to wait till its cleared we just. want our money back and are so fed up we just do not know what to do next .Diane
I have had a call last week and my wife asked them to call back which they have just done. Offered a four night break in Warwick, Stratford or Stirling only pay eight pounds for breakfast. Asked what was the catch and advised would have to attend presentation that would last 60-90 minutes! Declined the offer but checked the phone number on my phone. It was 01304700050 tried ringing it twice and received recorded message that this number was not in service!! Am registered with Telephone Preference service so have reported them as they should not have rung me. If more people reported them they might get a big fine.
I had a call from James on Tuesday this week from sponsored break, offering us a, free hotel break,and we would only having to pay for breakfast which is about £7.00 .
I checked them out on the reviews so when they rang back this morning and I told them that it was a **** and that i checked out on the reviews. Thank you mindtimeshare.
Well I said I would keep you posted about the short break I took in Stratford upon Avon in September with Sponsored Breaks. The Falcon hotel was lovely. Cosy and breakfast tasty. What wasn’t nice was the promotional talk. A man came to fetch us in a car to Henley in Arden hotel where a lot of people were being grilled for many hours in a warm room by the EZE company. It was horrendous they wanted thousands off us to join a discount scheme. In the end I was so frazzled and tired I spoke my mind about it all. The boss was like a hardened crafty criminal. Finally the man drove us back in silence cos we hadn’t bought anything I complained to Sponsored Breaks she kindly gave us an extra week and apologised. May risk taking a short break to York for two nights soon. Am told that all talks are not like the one we had!! Always been an optimist. Sky breaks is the same company and I have been asked for more money by them and ETOL to upgrade to better deal with no talk involved. Of course I said no.
Cold Called by Ben and Lucy
Claiming to offer weekend break away in Warwick Stirling or Stratford on Avon.
During the call they wanted to confirm my wife’s name and to give them my date of birth. I told them I may not take my wife! So why do they need her name!
I also said as you are cold calling your not getting my date of birth as it could be used fraudulently!
They confirmed back the details they held on me and to my surprise they confirmed my wife’s email!
We had a sampler holiday from diamond years ago and never took up the timeshare. This is where they must have been sold our details.
When I said I’m not giving you my card details or my date of birth till I’ve checked them out they said they would email me over the details and call back to confirm.
I’m still waiting on the email. In my opinion this is a timeshare front. If diamon have sold on my details I will be seeking legal advice!
Lucy has rung from Sponsored Breaks offering us a free weekend in a 5* hotel in Warwick or Scotland. All we have to pay is £7 per head for breakfast. She said it was to keep hotels occupied. Have heard similar stories before and anyway, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Hi Phil ive just had the same telephone call, told them to send me details on my e mail which by the way they said they had sent to previously!..going to ring me back next week after ive read the mail..watch this space Di 🙂
I have just had the same phone call Phil they will e mail me details as they said they had done previously, they are going to ring me back Tuesday next week (yet the promo ends tonight) his manager may be able to extend..watch this space!! Di
Have received a phone call today from Holly offering a free 3 night UK break in either Stirling, Stratford or Warwick, which had to be taken before December 2015. She did ask if I still had my Sunterra points which were taken over by Diamond resorts in 2004 so alarm bells did start to ring.
No mention of a presentation and she is ringing me back in a few days with confirmation of the dates I have given her. She did say she was ringing from Bonus Week Breaks but the number she gave was 08001981048 which ties in with Sponsered breaks.
Pip
I did go on the free holiday to Stirling, lovely hotel, breafast good. Taken out of Stirling by taxi to a buisness park. The presentaion was by EZE Group, not Bonus Week Breaks or Sponsered Breaks, who I was expecting. I was there for 6.5 hours and it was all about the miss selling of my fractional Diamond points and that they could get a refund and terminate my Diamond membership. They wanted 6007.00. I was presurised by 3 men and 1 female and signed just to get away. I have cancelled , even though they don’t have a cooling off period and have received a conditional refund from my card provider to which EZE have 6 weeks to respond, lets hope they don’t.
I have never had a time share and never would. they keep calling me at all times of day and evening on my mobile. they are now in my ‘reject list’ on my phone so I should be able to get some peace! John, March 4th 2015.
Received a call from Sponsored Breaks last night saying we had overpaid our maintenance fee to RCI by £350. I explained that we were no longer members of the company & Amanda said RCI had passed it over to them. We had to pay a fee to RCI to get out of the membership so why not refund the difference to us? Amanda said the £350 could be used by us to book a holiday with them. Seems rather dodgy, hence checking out on here.
I too have had problems with this company, fortunately not paid them any money. I was going to but decided to do some research first, something just didn’t sound right. Was offered a week anywhere in Europe for £99 per person + VAT – sounds too good to be true, it is. I decided where to go and gave them the dates, heard nothing. Rang them and was told oh Sylvia should have told you you were turned down for these dates, I will get …….. (can’t remember her name) to ring you within the next 15 minutes to discuss your booking. Nothing happened. Rang them again and was told ‘oh dear that isn’t good enough I will get Jackie to ring you straight back and let you know <<<>>>. I didn’t want to be told where I could go that wasn’t the pitch I was given. That was 36 hours ago and I am still waiting for THAT or any phone call.
If I ever get the phone call I will gladly tell them where to put their holiday!!!
I have found an apartment in Gran Canaria with a 5* rating for £6 cheaper than this supposed ‘great deal’. BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY THEY ONLY STARTED UP JULY LAST YEAR SO NOTHING TO BACK THEM UP.
i have just been contacted by Sponsored Breaks. Highly suspicious, asked them to email me – they contacted me at my office – i stupidly picked up the phone. Asking for money up front – i don’t think so – person on phone denied this was a cold call – having read all the other comments i would not hesitate to tell them to go and jump of all short pier……
To those thinking of buying holidays with Sponsored Breaks, do not do this nor even consider giving them any of your money. We have been trying to book holidays with them for the past two weeks and every request has been rejected. They keep coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why we cannot book a hotel of our choice and even lied to us on many occasions! It looks like the money is lost and lesson learnt. Has anyone had similar experience with them? Has anyone been able to get their money back?
Contacted yesterday. The 7 day break is a 3 day break – including a 60 minute presentation – or however long it really takes- and a separate 4 day break. Rang the hotel and they hadn’t heard of Sponsored Breaks – but they didn’t know whether the intermediaries they use are connected or not. As all the up front fee goes on the first break – and I can book it myself for that price – I am not sure i want the hassle of being stitched up, were that to happen. Their E Mail came across as a personal E Mail – no company Logo etc. I’ll only get upset if it goes wrong. So I am playing safe. Best of luck to those taking the risk.
Got a call from them last night. They told me that I had £1200 in credit with them which I could use for 3 weeks holiday for up to 6 people. The reason? – I have never missed a maintenance payment on my own timeshare! Quite why honouring my legal obligations should entitle me to this was a ‘surprise’ to me. Lots of chat from ‘Nicky’ about this fab opportunity and the only thing I’d have to pay is around £76 as an admin fee per week. Alarm bells well and truly ringing by this stage. She put my entitlement on hold for a week. I checked their website and the comprehensive small print and sure enough we’d have to attend a sales presentation, which she’d conveniently failed to mention. Just another bunch of sh******.
After finding this site the other day regarding contact by Gold Crown Tenerife, I had another cold call today this time from “Sponsored Breaks”. I asked the girl calling where she had obtained my number from and she said it was probably from a survey I’d completed on a previous holiday. I told her that I’d been contacted by another cold calling company a couple of days ago, and she assured me that her company were legitimate because they had a BT freefone number on their website. Once again I was accessing this site on my tablet while semi listening to her sales pitch. Apparently I could get a 70% discounted holiday and when I eventually managed to ask for the bottom line she offered me a week for two for £399 – I said that I could get better value from my current membership with RCI. I decided at this stage not to waste anymore of my time and terminated the call.
I have had some really good promotional weeks in the past (e.g. a week in Tenerife with Silverpoint for £49!!) but these last two calls just sounded wrong.
Just had call from them 8.00pm offering any tWO weeks anywhere for £229 I said I would ring them back and then read this I will not be taking them up on their offer
We have received two calls from this company offering £371 off any holiday in UK/Europe. They asked for £172 per person up front against any holiday of one week in Europe or long weekend in UK. We have requested a directory of resorts available. Having recently been “done” on a holidayin the Uk with another company, it is unlikely we shall get involved. The UK scam was saved by my bank’s Disputes Dept acting on my behalf. They got me a full refund of monies paid when the holiday fell through. Beware!
I received a call from this company today, stating that as I had paid over £ 1300 in timeshare maintainence fees to my timeshare company, I was entitled to three weeks accommodation anywhere in the world. All i would have to do is pay a total of £228 plus vat . As I had relinquished my timeshare over 10 years ago, I knew this call was a sham but decided to play along with them. Of course my call was passed unto the manager who could not believe that i was rejecting his offer of accommodation anywhere in the world.
We were contacted by Sponsored Breaks recently and have paid £232 for 2 holidays with them. The documentation received by e-mail contained errors and information provided by them on their e-mail did not agree with what we were told verbally.
We are now unable to contact the company as they hang up when we call.
I have also just been contacted by Sponsored Breaks, they have offered me 2 weeks to be taken in the next 3 years for just £229 for two of us. I am very dubious as it does sound too good to be true. Not sure if when we come to book it will be in a 4/5 * hotel as offered. Have asked for terms and conditions to be sent to me.
I purchased this and now i had a call about a time travel card for anothef€600 with vat. Whats that all about? I m not buying it it sounded dodgy to me the manager then droped the price offered me loads of holiday with flights included for €99 deposit its too good too be true i set up a password for sponser breaks and they even asked me for that!!! If they were from the company i originally booked with why say i didnt have one set up when i had! Not going there
Has anyone actually been on any holidays with this company before? £350 for 2weeks for 7 of us seems to good to b true?
Hi, my parents have been contacted ad we are debating if to book it or not!
I bought the deal for £228 today. For that my husband and I get 3 weeks holiday abroad or 6 short breaks in the uk, some of which include breakfasts! She said it was because we are on record as having paid 1300 pounds on timeshare maintenance. That’s true, we did used to have a timeshare till we gave it back due to high maintenance fees. Felt I`d lost money with our timeshare.(Seasons were very greedy, kept wanting more money)
This seemed a good way to gain back some lovely holidays, for such a small amount of money. Will keep you posted.
I have just paid them £447 for 3 of us, I have to say, my brother has done this a lot, and he has had great holidays, you do have to sit and listen to a 60 minute sales pitch each time you go, but so what they cant make you buy anything, Infact he has just had one in America, said it was fantastic, not with sponsored breaks another company.So its a really hard one on this..I would like to hear from someone who has used them successfully.
Got a cold call. I told the representative Elliot to send the information by e-mail which she did. I decided to check on the company. Thank you for making me aware of this fly buy operator.