This website has been established as a source of support for members of the Sole Vacation Club. Members have purchased either fractional ownerships or timeshare contracts with the Dreams Hotel in Tulum, Mexico on the Mayan Riviera between 2000 and 2004. The hotel has had several names as management has changed. It was named Grand Sole, Sunscape, and currently managed by AMA (Apple) and is known as the Dreams Resort, Tulum.
We have now learned that the Sole Vacation Club is has been eliminated and replaced by a different firm. The notification was a letter explaining, rather crudely, that you current contracts with Sole were no longer valid, and unless you signed a new agreement and paid an additional $950 administration fee, you would no longer be able to book reservations. Apparently this is all true. Unless you have signed the new agreement, you cannot book through Resorts Advantage any more.
I recently (May 6th, 2010) traveled to Tulum, with Tom Holiday to meet and negotiate with the new timeshare company management. The new company name is TC Servicios and, according to their lawyers, it was formed to correct errors and mismanagement in the old Sole Vacation Club. The new company has been fully registered with Profeco, as has their contract with timeshare owners. Registered contracts cannot be altered, unlike the contracts we all signed with Sole. In those days they would add almost any clause to get you to sign up. That was then, and this is now.
A year or so ago, Profeco performed a survey of Sole, gathering ownership and contract information. That may have precipitated the change to the new administation, TC Servicios. They have taken great care to ensure that the legal requirements have all been met. Supposedly this gives new members a guarantee that the contract will be honored. We will see what happens in the coming months.
The negotiations went for several hours, and in the end changes were made in a couple of areas for the benefit of the members. Rates for all inclusive went down a bit, and a requirement for all reservations to be prepaid was eliminated. Still, many of us, I included, had many special items in our contracts from Sole. Most are not in the new agreement. No free transportation, no refund of maintenance fees, and no skipping maintenance fees if you do not come to the resort one year. Some of these items may change in the future, but I doubt it.
In the end, we signed a new agreement. The duration of our new contract with TC Servicios matches our old Sole agreement, ending in 2032. We paid the $950 after much complaining. It never got on the negotiation table.
So, the website is now here, as before, as a forum on the timeshare club at the Dreams Hotel in Tulum. As time goes on, the site will be updated with new experiences from the members who decide to sign up, and will also continue to publish the results of other members who decide to fight the new company.