Tricked into a Palladium membership: My honeymoon nightmare

Angela Reiffer and her husband thought they were getting a free couples massage after they checked into a Palladium resort in the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon. 

Instead, they ended up spending seven hours in a high-pressure sales pitch, surrounded by multiple salespeople and plied with drinks, they say. By the end of the day, they’d shelled out $6,999 and committed to three additional monthly payments of $2,000 for a Palladium Travel Club membership.

When they got home, they realized the membership wasn’t what they’d been promised. 

“It ended up being just as expensive as booking online — with no flights included,” Reiffer says.

Reiffer tried to cancel the membership, but Palladium offered only a 15 percent refund, citing “closing costs.” Frustrated and out $10,699 they’d already spent, she reached out to our advocacy team for help.  

This case raises several important questions:  

• Can you get out of a high-pressure travel club contract?  

• What should you do if a company misrepresents its product?  

• How can you protect yourself from aggressive sales tactics?  

But before we go there, let’s take a closer look at this honeymoon travel club nightmare.  

“It sounded like a great deal” 

Reiffer and her husband arrived at the Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa, ready to start their honeymoon. Within 30 minutes of checking in, they received a call inviting them to a free couples massage. 

“I thought it was a honeymoon perk,” Reiffer says.  

It wasn’t.

Instead, Palladium took them to an off-site sales presentation. For seven hours, they were surrounded by salespeople, served drinks, and pressured to sign up for a Palladium Travel Club membership. 

Palladium operates a resort chain in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Spain, offering a travel club for frequent guests with benefits such as discounts on vacation packages, potential room upgrades, preferential check-in/out, exclusive events, and a points system redeemable for future perks.

“It sounded like a great deal,” Reiffer recalls.  

But once they sobered up and had returned home, they took a closer look at their club benefits and started to have buyer’s remorse.

“My husband and I talked it over,” she said in an email to Palladium. “We have done the math and decided the savings are minimal if any from this package we were sold under false pretenses.”

Reiffer claims the promises made by the sale representatives didn’t align with the travel club benefits. 

“This package is not what we were promised,” she added. “Please do the right thing and proceed with a full refund and cancel our contract.”

Palladium responded by offering to cancel the Reiffers’ contract and refund 15 percent of their purchase.

Reiffer wants all of her money back. But can she get that?

Can you get out of a high-pressure travel club contract?  

Yes, but it’s not easy. 

Travel clubs often use high-pressure sales tactics to lure customers into signing up, and their contracts are designed to make cancellation difficult. Fortunately, many countries have cooling-off periods that allow consumers to cancel contracts within a certain time period — usually three to five days.  

Unfortunately, the Dominican Republic doesn’t have a law that specifically addresses clubs or timeshares, and there is no provision for a rescission period.

In Reiffer’s case, her contract had a cooling-off period, but it had passed by the time she realized the travel club wasn’t what she thought it was. So legally, Palladium could have kept her money and charged her the balance under the contract she’d signed. 

But she still had options. Consumers can dispute a charge with their credit card company or seek help from a consumer advocate. Reiffer chose the latter, reaching out to Elliott Advocacy for assistance.  

What should you do if a travel club misrepresents its product?  

Travel clubs are notorious for exaggerating the value of their product, as I explain in my ultimate guide to joining and leaving a travel club. (Reader’s Digest version: Don’t join.)

If a travel club misrepresents its product, it is time to find your inner accountant. Document everything. Keep copies of contracts, emails, and any other communication. Take notes, and if possible, record the conversations.  

Reiffer did this, providing detailed records of her interactions with Palladium. 

“I had emails, phone records, and notes from the sales presentation,” she says. “It was clear they’d misrepresented the membership.”  

This documentation strengthened her case, but not enough to nudge Palladium into a full refund.

“Palladium has not failed to fulfill any terms and conditions of the contract,” a representative told her in denying her request for a full refund.

But Reiffer’s story brings up another useful strategy. You can let this case play out on social media. A company like Palladium is particularly sensitive to any online criticism and may agree to a refund if you remove a damaging social media post. This is universally true in the travel club business. No one wants a negative word written.

How can you protect yourself from aggressive sales tactics?  

The best way to protect yourself is to avoid high-pressure sales situations altogether. If you’re offered a “free” perk, be skeptical. Free gifts like dinner, event tickets or a couples massage are often a way to bait you into a sales trap.

If you decide to attend a presentation, set a time limit and stick to it. Don’t sign anything on the spot, and take the contract home to review it carefully. A sales team member may claim that you can’t remove a contract and that this is a “one-time only” offer, but that’s just another high-pressure sales tactic. Just say no.

Bottom line: Take your time and read the fine print.  

Reiffer wishes she’d done that. 

“They took an entire day of our honeymoon,” she says. “I’ll never fall for something like this again.”  

Were they tricked into this travel club membership?

Reiffer says she was tricked into signing up for Palladium’s travel club.

She says the initial offer — made during a seven-hour presentation — was impossible to say “no” to. The club membership, a representative assured them, meant they had 140 days of free hotels at any Palladium property. All they had to do was pay for the airfare.

But when she tried to use her membership, Palladium said it would cost her $2,624 for the week. That’s still a 40 percent discount, according to Palladium, but it turns out the offer wasn’t quite what it was supposed to be. Palladium charged extra for each person, according to Reiffer.

“I just looked at Cheap Caribbean online and the exact same vacation with airfare came to $2,900,” she says.

“We are very frustrated because we feel like we have been scammed,” she added.

If the Reiffers had taken the time to review their contract carefully, they might have avoided all of this. But they were on their honeymoon and they were being plied with cocktails and it probably felt right.

But it was still wrong. 

A company can’t make promises — even verbal promises — that are then contradicted by a dense legal document and not ruffle a few feathers. As I reviewed Reiffer’s case, my feathers were ruffled. The Reiffers thought they were getting a couples massage, and instead ended up with a $10,699 club membership they felt they couldn’t use.

Come on.

I reached out to Palladium on their behalf. I was curious about the company’s perspective. Had they really made these promises? And why only refund 15 percent if the Reiffers had never used their membership?

Palladium acknowledged my request, and despite its prior stance it never disputed the facts claimed by the Reiffers. In the end, there was good news.

“They have canceled the contract and refunded my money,” Reiffer told me. “I appreciate you!”