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TS Sales Presentation - Free Vacation?

S

Ski Bum

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Newbie question...

Do any TS Developers currently offer free lodging for say three nights at a really nice resort just for attending their Sales Presentation? Or do they only offer discounted lodging or a free "gift" for attending. I figure that in my efforts to learn more about TS ownership, why not contact a developer who offers free lodging if I attend a 90 minute presentation. I know enough from this forum to only buy from the resale market, and I can just say no several times and walk away at the end of the sales pitch. And then I can unplug my phone in the room after attending. :D And then change my home phone number! :eek:

Which developers at what locations are currently giving the best freebies for attending their presentations? Do you have to be married or engaged to attend, or can you be single?

Is this idea of going to a sales presentation with no intention of buying unethical :rolleyes:, or is it just the way of the world in the TS industry?

Thanks,
Bill
 
A friend stayed in Vegas at one of the new, dooowwwnnn the strip timeshares for free for 3 days. Only needed to attend the presentation. They did not buy but they did have a nice 3-day stay in Vegas.
 
See comments below in blue . . .

Ski Bum said:
Newbie question...

Do any TS Developers currently offer free lodging for say three nights at a really nice resort just for attending their Sales Presentation? "really nice resort" is probably not going to happen. Typically they put you up at a local hotel nearby. Or do they only offer discounted lodging or a free "gift" for attending. Many do this. I figure that in my efforts to learn more about TS ownership, why not contact a developer who offers free lodging if I attend a 90 minute presentation. I know enough from this forum to only buy from the resale market, and I can just say no several times and walk away at the end of the sales pitch. And then I can unplug my phone in the room after attending. :D And then change my home phone number! :eek:

Which developers at what locations are currently giving the best freebies for attending their presentations? This is really a moving target as they seem to change up what they offer. Do you have to be married or engaged to attend, or can you be single? If you are single, you are allowed so long as you meet the income requirements. If you are married, engaged or living together . . . many will require both parties to be present for the presentation.

Is this idea of going to a sales presentation with no intention of buying unethical :rolleyes:, or is it just the way of the world in the TS industry? Trust me, you attending without any intention of buying is a lot less unethical than what you might be exposed to in the sales presentation by the developer. They know many take the presentations and tours just for the gifts. They have that reality built into their financial models and business plans. I would not give that concern a second thought!

Thanks,
Bill
Click to expand...

Bluegreen and Wyndham both have 3 day/2night getaway type trips for very low pricing. In addition to the accommodations, you typically will also receive another incentive (gift) for attending, which offsets the price you pay for the package. We recently did Branson through Bluegreen and paid $59 for the 3 days/2 nights, with the lodging being at the Radisson Hotel in Branson (not their Wilderness Resort, where we toured). We received $50 in gift cards for Bass Pro Shops, which essentially brought the cost down to just $9. Wyndham frequently advertises their deals in RCI's publication Endless Vacations and on their website. I've never done one with them as we are current owners with Fairfield/Wyndham and are therefore ineligible to partake.

Good luck in your search for additional information!
 
Ethics, Shmethics.

Ski Bum said:
Is this idea of going to a sales presentation with no intention of buying unethical :rolleyes:, or is it just the way of the world in the TS industry?l
Click to expand...
Any timeshare sales presentation I've gone to for freebies -- & by now that's a whole bunch of'm -- has been offered on the basis of no obligation. All we ask, they say, is 90-120 minute of my time plus an open mind.

OK, so I accept the invitation, show up, sign in, pay attention, participate in the discussion, & keep my mind as open as possible (which in my case is questionable), & at the end of the time -- frequently stretched past the 120-minute limit -- the sales professionals give up, sign off on my gift chit, & send me over to the freebies window.

If they ask why I'm there when I have no intention of buying, I can truthfully say, "Hey, your marketing department invited me to come here for a no-obligation tour & receive a valuable gift in exchange for my time & attention. If they hadn't said no obligation, I wouldn't have accepted the invitation. Do you have a problem with that?"

Twice now we've gone on free vacation trips (airfare + accommodations) that were handed out at the timeshare tour freebies window. We parlayed 1 of those free trips into a slightly longer vacation by scheduling it back-to-back with another free-vacation offer, involving another timeshare tour -- Compound Freebies, we call it.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 
doesnt starwood still have very good deals with their explorer packages? (require referral from current SVO owner)
 
Free Vacations

I just booked 3 nights for free with Tahati Village in Vegas. 120 minute presentation is what you have to endure. They also include $200 in slot play credit. Ph 1-877-GoVegas.:hi:
 
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Hey, That's What We Signed Up For Too.

sleder10 said:
I just booked 3 nights for free with Tahati Village in Vegas. 120 minute presentation is what you have to endure. They also include $200 in slot play credit. Ph 1-877-vegas.
Click to expand...
That's the offer we piggybacked onto our airfare & accommodations freebies so that the 2 together added up to a reasonable vacation time in Las Vegas.

The $200 in free slot machine play -- which they upped to $600 to get us to say yes when we were hemming & hawing about signing up -- is pretty much worthless. It's only redeemable on select "promotional" slot machines that pay out only on big jackpots -- i.e., not at all while we were there, although it is claimed that sometimes people do hit those. For lesser wins, all you get is more free pulls. Big deal.

Click our Compound Freebies for all the details about that, including the Tahati Village tour & the "promotional" slot machines.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 
Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee, FL always offers various discounts to say on property (very nice gold crown resort) if you attend a presentation. They usually start at around $199 for two nights in a one or two bedroom condo, and will offer you a discounted nightly rate for add ons.
 
We did various presentations.

The presentations we've done were the following:

For free/low cost lodging:

1. Tahiti Village-Las Vegas: 3 days/2 nights are advertised in the media. If one goes online, they may offer 4 days/3 nights for free. Fill out info & have agent contact you. We did the 4d/3n deal. The $600 casino is nearly worthless. I opted for the Southpoint hotel & it is only 2 years old. Decent rooms with plasma TV's. Also, when they call you, tell them you want the $100 Shell gas cards that "friends" have been getting too.They are high pressure but say NO!!! The resale on ebay is about 1/4 of their initial retail of 47K for a 2 bedroom lockoff.

Note: they will want a $129 deposit on the credit card, we got that back within a week or so from the presentation date. My wife calls the timeshare presentations "clown shows!" :D She is getting burned out on the presentations & all the salesman's BS so presentations may taper off. She does like the free stays! :)


2. We are signed up to do Shell vacations presentation at Napa. For SF & Napa, there is no charge. For our Napa, I got them to give us a $100 shopping cert instead of $100 in dining/spa. (we picked Lowes since I have rental property & am buying from Home Depot/Lowes quite a lot). They did take our credit card info but since we do show up, not a worry for us.

Presentations for cash/gifts.

1. While in Vegas, we did the Marriott Grande Vista during the same visit as Tahiti Village. Very nice property, presentation more professional. Got $100 prepaid Visas. Not bad for 2 hrs. Very considerate of our time.

2. Another Marriott. Got $150 in gift cards at local shopping we go to all the time. Very nice property but more we cared to spend.

3. Shell Vacations in early 2006. Hotel in Garden Grove. Offered $100 in Lowes Gift cards. Took too long.

4. Grand Pacific resorts. 2006 & 2007. Got $120 gift cards plus free entertainment book. We go down to San Diego anyway so just took a couple of hours of time. Recently got offer for reduced stay but it is on the studio/hotel side of resort. Approx $169 for 2 nights--excluding Fri/sat checkins. (not sure on exact details since we're not interested). We get hotels for less on priceline for Sun nite stays.

5. Did presentation for Sunterra Sedona in 2005. Got a $100 check & 2 night cert. Didn't use the cert due to many restrictions/deposits, etc. Finance (now wife) liked me giving her the check. :)

There were a few more I did as a single person but details are sketchy. Generally about a $100 in gift cards each time. A long time ago (1990), I did one in Orlando for a free Disney ticket & free breakfast. Told the salesman that I could buy a condo for 60K & he was selling 2 weeks for 20-25K. :( At that time, that was the only way I could afford Disney.

Sorry for lengthy post. Trust this helps.

Bottom line: BUY RESALE!! It has to be a great deal for us to sign up for timeshare presentations. She's getting burned out on timeshare presentations. I get more education with each presentation along with reading TUG & timeshareforums.
 
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We stayed at 3 Hyatt tour presentations, we did finally end up buying - resale of course. But, we did not intend to buy initially when we booked the first tour. We just really liked the Hyatt quality and we had been timesharing for about 10 years, so we could really appreciate the high end resorts that they offered. Depending on where you live, you may be able to contact Hyatt and they will offer you a sales tour. It will not be free, but it more then likely be the nicest $49 to $79 room you will ever stay in. I recently got an offer for Carmel and Sedona, but we live in Florida so it just did not make sense for flights for 3 nights. Good luck!
 
Kagehitokiri said:
doesnt starwood still have very good deals with their explorer packages? (require referral from current SVO owner)
Click to expand...

The Starwood Explorer Pkg. is a different kind of offer. If you go to a Starwood presentation and decline to buy, then they offer you an Explorer Pkg., which basically gives them a second shot at you. I believe the Explorer Pkgs. run about $1,500 or so.

Starwood's preview Pkgs. are around $750 for 5 nights, a rental car, and a $100 hotel gift Cert. You usually stay at a nearby Starwood hotel, not the timeshare, although occasionally, people get the TS on this deal. You do have to be referred by a Starwood owner.
 
The timeshare freebie accommodation deals are often for 2 people max. We haven't managed to get a freebie that allows "family" holidays.

Just something to look out for.
 
Learning the tricks of the trade.

I knew absolutely nothing about these, but some guy in the middle of the aisle cart at the mall said they would give us all these free hotel stays and food certs. So I thought why not. It was with SVC at the Legacy in Arizona. We gave them three hours before my wife had to go work. It was very nice at first, but they took too long and almost made my wife late for work. We walked away due to ignoring our time concerns mainly. The free stuff we came away with were the 4 nights for 4 people in Puerto Vallarta and the same for 2 of the islands in Hawaii. We also go a 2 night stay for two in Southern Cal and 2 adults tickets to a San Diego theme park. The food certs were for $100 at select restaurants in AZ where we live.

After that, I am glad I found this place. We got one scheduled for Bluegreen at the end of October in Vegas. So I will be studying up for that. I guess BG and SVC just announced a partnership to use each others properties. Pretty cool stuff . I am learning a lot. Thanks!
 
manueld64 said:
I knew absolutely nothing about these, but some guy in the middle of the aisle cart at the mall said they would give us all these free hotel stays and food certs. So I thought why not. It was with SVC at the Legacy in Arizona. We gave them three hours before my wife had to go work. It was very nice at first, but they took too long and almost made my wife late for work. We walked away due to ignoring our time concerns mainly. The free stuff we came away with were the 4 nights for 4 people in Puerto Vallarta and the same for 2 of the islands in Hawaii. We also go a 2 night stay for two in Southern Cal and 2 adults tickets to a San Diego theme park. The food certs were for $100 at select restaurants in AZ where we live.

After that, I am glad I found this place. We got one scheduled for Bluegreen at the end of October in Vegas. So I will be studying up for that. I guess BG and SVC just announced a partnership to use each others properties. Pretty cool stuff . I am learning a lot. Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you're interested in Shell, The resale prices of the AZ shell resorts normally sell for about $1/pt vs the $4-$5 that shell is asking.
 
Orlando Based TS

borntotravel said:
Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee, FL always offers various discounts to say on property (very nice gold crown resort) if you attend a presentation. They usually start at around $199 for two nights in a one or two bedroom condo, and will offer you a discounted nightly rate for add ons.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have a link or telephone number I can call to find out more about maybe doing this? Any other Orlando (near Disney) TS that may offer a similar deal would work for us too.

We just last night decided to try to go to Disney over Thanksgiving (3 of us plus MIL)...Wed thru Sunday. We live less than 3 hours away. I figure my chances of getting a TS is pretty slime, but I can try!

Thanks for any help with this!
 
Starwood

We got an offer for 4 nights/5 days at Sheraton Vistana Resort. We paid $149, and after we attend the timeshare presentation we will get $100 back.
I would say $49 for 4 nights is a great deal for 2 hours of our time. This is for a two bedroom
condo at the Sheraton Vistana Resort, not a hotel off property.

Julie:)
 
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My husband and I went to Gatlinburg to Westgate Resort for a 3 day weekend on a timeshare pitch. They put us up at a nearby hotel - not on the resort itself, I believe it was 49. for the weekend - buffet breakfast each morning included. The timeshare itself seemed like a good deal, and we were tempted but our saleman was just too pushy.

Massanutten they gave us free 3 day stay at the hotel ON the resort to attend their presentation, free lunch, and "Massanutten money" that could be used on the resort. We ended up buying(Eagle Trace). Then we upgraded to a Summit unit and havent regretted it yet!! My second week I picked up at EBAY - for a total of $202. for a week at Eagle Trace at Massanutten. That we havent finalized on, so havent had a chance to use it yet.

The tours are a good way to get a feel of the system, and of the place where you are attending the presentation. I would definately caution anyone to NOT buy the first time you attend one of these. Attend, check resales, and do a lot of research. And only purchase if you really want to vacation at that resort. Not as an investment.
 
I am an owner at summer bay in orlando. If anyone is interested in a owner referral discounted pkg in exchange for a tour just send me a note with your name and phone #
 
AwayWeGo said:
That's the offer we piggybacked onto our airfare & accommodations freebies so that the 2 together added up to a reasonable vacation time in Las Vegas.

The $200 in free slot machine play -- which they upped to $600 to get us to say yes when we were hemming & hawing about signing up -- is pretty much worthless. It's only redeemable on select "promotional" slot machines that pay out only on big jackpots -- i.e., not at all while we were there, although it is claimed that sometimes people do hit those. For lesser wins, all you get is more free pulls. Big deal.

Click to expand...


I did a presentation there this past January. They weren't giving out the worthless credits, they gave the wife and I a few coupons for $25 in slot credit at Circus Circus. Circus Circus is not my preferred casino, but I won about $150 in real money there so I can't complain.

I did get the worthless ones from Westgate, and they were truly a waste.
 
Westgate Orlando Offer

Kagehitokiri said:
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56281
Click to expand...

Great link! Thanks!

I just got off the phone with Westgate. For a non-Amex person who knows a current Westgate owner (I do - 2 of my sisters own at Vacation Villas), the offer was $180 for 5 days/4 nights in a 1 bedroom TS unit at Westgate TownCenter. Do have to take the tour the day before check out (not flexible on that point - I asked). Supposedly 1 to 1 1/2 hours for the tour...yeah, right. Oh, this is for over Thanksgiving. I have a few more things to try to get in place, but this is a very good offer to my way of thinking.
 
CarolF said:
The timeshare freebie accommodation deals are often for 2 people max. We haven't managed to get a freebie that allows "family" holidays.

Just something to look out for.
Click to expand...

Check the Endless Vacation that just came out. I do not know which ad I was looking at, but at least one was good for 2 adults + 2 children.
 
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