Timeshare presentation vacation

[ChiefIlliniwek]

Anyone ever do multiple presentations on a vacation? Will a sales office refuse to give you a presentation if you're not staying at the property?

 

[vacationtime1]

Vacation? You call that a vacation?

 

[rickandcindy23]

No, the salespeople always want you on a sales presentation, whether you stay at a particular resort or not, but Marriott resorts might limit you to one, no matter what resort you go to for the presentation. You could hit all of the companies while in Orlando by going to a kiosk where the hawks are booking people. You could go to a Marriott, Wyndham, Westgate, Orange Lake, Summer Bay etc., and get your gifts, but you should be wary of what they tell you.

 

[Passepartout]

Multiple presentations strikes me as someone who would volunteer for a root canal just for fun. That said, I'd think of LOTS of resorts that would be THRILLED to put visitors in shackles and torture them into buying or be held prisoner until they do.

But each to their own.

 

[FunnyFarm]

Long ago while on Kauai you would see kiosks for timeshare all over.
Wife and I had lived there previously so didn't need to tour the entire island.
We went to several presentations that week, sort of fun to get the gifts when we were young.
Bottom line we said no, no, no all along until at Point at Poipu (Embassy then) we caved and bought retail our first timeshare.
We were the last people in the room and late afternoon and so negotiated what we thought was a good deal.
So, as many here say, be careful if you have trouble saying no.

 

[moonstone]

Anyone ever do multiple presentations on a vacation? Will a sales office refuse to give you a presentation if you're not staying at the property?

Quite a few years ago we snagged a Last Call in Kissimmee at a crazy low sale price for the week before I had 3 units booked for us and our oldest DS and family for an extended family vacation. It was just Dh & I for the first 6 days and it was rainy weather. We attended the VV@Pkwy update for $200. Then the next morning got caught by a body snatcher in the Walmart parking lot to do another presentation for $200 or $250., cant remember which, then the next day since it was still raining we did another 'tour' for a cash card and some attraction tickets. By the end of the week we had done 4 and got enough cash cards to cover all our groceries for the 2 weeks, paid for dinner for us as well as DS and family, filled the car's gas tank and still had enough left for another gas fill up when we drove over to St. Augustine for our 3rd week of vacation. We had been to Kissimmee many times prior to that trip and had done everything we wanted to do on our own. Also since it was raining nearly every day that week, we thought we might as well make some money instead of hanging out in the timeshare unit watching TV. We didnt do another 'tour' or 'update' for a few years after that marathon week.

We are very good at saying no and I always set the alarm on my phone for the required amount of presentation time and tell the sales person we are there at their invitation and have no intention of buying. Sometimes I print off recently sold prices and we always tell them we paid $0.00 for our last timeshare and if they can beat that price we will gladly buy! We have been berated and even yelled at for wasting the sales person's time and one woman told us she wouldn't be able to afford groceries to feed her kids that week if we didnt purchase! We are pretty thick skinned and told them they should go get real jobs.


~Diane

 

[dioxide45]

We've done presentation about a week or two apart. Spending several weeks in Palm Desert and Scottsdale Vistana let us do a presentation in Scottsdale just after doing one the week before in Palm Desert. When we told them in Scottsdale we had just done one, they said it didn't matter as we hadn't done one within a month in Arizona, so we could go again. In places like Orlando, Las Vegas and Mexico, finding body snatchers to sign up for tours with is easy and you don't need to be staying on property. This may not work for all resorts though.

 

[jasontugaccount]

The paperwork for the presentation I did a few weeks ago said the promo would be voided if I did one with another company within 30 days. They asked me verbally as well as signing the paperwork for the promo.

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

Quite a few years ago we snagged a Last Call in Kissimmee at a crazy low sale price for the week before I had 3 units booked for us and our oldest DS and family for an extended family vacation. It was just Dh & I for the first 6 days and it was rainy weather. We attended the VV@Pkwy update for $200. Then the next morning got caught by a body snatcher in the Walmart parking lot to do another presentation for $200 or $250., cant remember which, then the next day since it was still raining we did another 'tour' for a cash card and some attraction tickets. By the end of the week we had done 4 and got enough cash cards to cover all our groceries for the 2 weeks, paid for dinner for us as well as DS and family, filled the car's gas tank and still had enough left for another gas fill up when we drove over to St. Augustine for our 3rd week of vacation. We had been to Kissimmee many times prior to that trip and had done everything we wanted to do on our own. Also since it was raining nearly every day that week, we thought we might as well make some money instead of hanging out in the timeshare unit watching TV. We didnt do another 'tour' or 'update' for a few years after that marathon week.

We are very good at saying no and I always set the alarm on my phone for the required amount of presentation time and tell the sales person we are there at their invitation and have no intention of buying. Sometimes I print off recently sold prices and we always tell them we paid $0.00 for our last timeshare and if they can beat that price we will gladly buy! We have been berated and even yelled at for wasting the sales person's time and one woman told us she wouldn't be able to afford groceries to feed her kids that week if we didnt purchase! We are pretty thick skinned and told them they should go get real jobs.


~Diane

Interesting. I've done several Sheraton/Marriott and Hilton presentations so far. Some of the salesmen and women have been very nasty, so I think I'm building up a tolerance level. Are the sales people of companies like Westgate and Wyndham more aggressive than those of Sheraton and Hilton?

 

[altiste1]

On one Myrtle Beach vacation we did three presentations, albeit with three different systems. The first was with Bluegreen, where we got baptism by fire on the big-system timeshare sales press. We actually bought then quickly rescinded (thank goodness!). Then we went to a Marriott presentation because we were staying at OceanWatch (cash reservation) and wanted to see what they had to offer. Finally, we read that Wyndham was the best value on the resale market, so we actively looked for the sales kiosk on the boardwalk and worked our way into a presentation there.

Now that we've bought the timeshares we need for the foreseeable future (yes, all resale) there is nothing anyone could say or do to motivate us to go to another presentation. We are done.

 

[moonstone]

Interesting. I've done several Sheraton/Marriott and Hilton presentations so far. Some of the salesmen and women have been very nasty, so I think I'm building up a tolerance level. Are the sales people of companies like Westgate and Wyndham more aggressive than those of Sheraton and Hilton?

We have only been to 2 Westgate presentations. The last one, about 5 years ago at Town Center Kissimmee, was a very hard sell. I had done my usual phone alarm but the salesman kept trying to keep us. I finally stood up and said in a loud voice that no offer he could present would convince us to buy a Wastegate (not a spelling error) timeshare. I told him that was the name Westgate had on TUG and it was very fitting!
We found the Wyndham ones not too bad at all.


~Diane

 

[ScoopKona]

I'm with @Passepartout -- that sounds about as much fun as a root canal.

 

[Luanne]

Our best presentation was the one my husband scheduled for the day after we'd left the resort.

 

[AwayWeGo]

We strung together 2-3 promotional stays in Las Vegas.

It was a fun trip, but we had to jump through several hoops plus sit through some hard-sell timeshare sales pitches.

Now that we are hard core sr. citz., we decided that any future Las Vegas vacations will be totally on our own dime, although we will still be looking for bargain resort reservations.

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

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

We have only been to 2 Westgate presentations. The last one, about 5 years ago at Town Center Kissimmee, was a very hard sell. I had done my usual phone alarm but the salesman kept trying to keep us. I finally stood up and said in a loud voice that no offer he could present would convince us to buy a Wastegate (not a spelling error) timeshare. I told him that was the name Westgate had on TUG and it was very fitting!
We found the Wyndham ones not too bad at all.


~Diane

Any experience with Bluegreen? I tend to stay at Vistana Villages and the Fountains is on the other side of I Drive.

 

[altiste1]

Any experience with Bluegreen? I tend to stay at Vistana Villages and the Fountains is on the other side of I Drive.

Same as all the others. High-pressure sales, filled with deceptive and misleading claims and overhyped benefits. There’s nothing really to recommend them as compared to other, larger systems.

 

[rickandcindy23]

The paperwork for the presentation I did a few weeks ago said the promo would be voided if I did one with another company within 30 days. They asked me verbally as well as signing the paperwork for the promo.

Oh, so the timeshare salespeople keep a list and share it with one another to catch people going to multiple companies' timeshare presentations? That's funny, and so not true.

 

[jwalk03]

Interesting. I've done several Sheraton/Marriott and Hilton presentations so far. Some of the salesmen and women have been very nasty, so I think I'm building up a tolerance level. Are the sales people of companies like Westgate and Wyndham more aggressive than those of Sheraton and Hilton?

It’s really more a factor of the salesman themselves and the tactic they want to try.

I did a Wyndham one in Branson once that was the most combative experience I’ve ever had! At one point there were 3 salesmen on one side of the table all trying to berate me after I told them all about buying points on eBay. My wife came back from the bathroom and saw them trying to triple team me and said nope were done with this crap. (Earlier while I was in the bathroom they had also sneakily tried to get my wife to sign a credit authorization form. Till I came back and read what she was filling out and ripped it up much to their displeasure!)

The Wyndham ones I’ve done at Myrtle Beach & Bonnet Creak & Glacier Canyon were all very low key and nothing like that Branson one.

The only Westgate I ever did was at Smokey Mountains and that guy was really nice and actually convinced me to buy! (With lots of lies I didn’t know any better than yet.). Luckily that experience is how I discovered TUG and timeshares in general actually- and I rescinded in time. Completely changed the way we vacation though- prior to that we had never stayed in a timeshare only crappy motel rooms!!

 

[jasontugaccount]

Oh, so the timeshare salespeople keep a list and share it with one another to catch people going to multiple companies' timeshare presentations? That's funny, and so not true.

I'm sure they don't, but also I don't think I would sign my name to a form saying I didn't do something that I did.

 

[dioxide45]

Oh, so the timeshare salespeople keep a list and share it with one another to catch people going to multiple companies' timeshare presentations? That's funny, and so not true.

I think it is more on the honor system. Much like your household income and if you own a home. They don't check it.

 

[SteveinHNL]

We've only been to 3-4 presentations. Of those, all were pleasant and low-key, except for one (at the Westgate in Vegas, which was high pressure, insulting, and wretched). I will say I have kind of enjoyed the rest of the presentations and interestingly, they have never even gotten to the point of offering to sell us a TS. It's usually a chat, a bit of website demonstration, and then they get to the end and offer us a return visit package (which we never buy).

 

[escanoe]

I think it is more on the honor system. Much like your household income and if you own a home. They don't check it.

Right. I can't believe anyone would consider any activity that is not above board and honest when it comes to a presentation. The salesweasles set such a high standard that we should all follow.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

this was funny at the time: We did a couple of these a long time ago, then none til Jan of 2023. Got invited to one at HHV and I was already thinking my new life situation and the escalating "fees" of hotels made a TS a possibility. I went. The lady was nice. Before going, I remembered the main pitch from long ago was "It is an investment and protects against inflation." Obvious to me the MFs would inflate and the price seemed to be a BAD investment, so I always passed without much comment.
This time, she did her thing. I kept thinking "Damn, I could use one of these." But, the #s are maybe worse than ever. So, I said to her
"If I take this $43,000 and earn 6% on it in the stock market, I get $2,580 in annual income. Add the $1,800 in MFs, and I'd be paying $4,400 /yr for 7 to (maybe) 10 nights. That is almost 2x what I am paying at the local Hilton right now!" (I still have the back of napkin where I scratched this calc out for her. I also did a quick inflation calc for her)
She practically screamed "IT IS NOT AN INVESTMENT!"
I almost laughed but held it together as she walked out the door knowing I was useless.

 

[Patri]

Right. I can't believe anyone would consider any activity that is not above board and honest when it comes to a presentation. The salesweasles set such a high standard that we should all follow.

I can’t lie, even to them. I’ve been asked to attend presentations but I tell them immediately my DH is in a nursing home and can no longer travel. They say, “Sorry, we can’t meet with you then.”

 

[Carolinian]

Anyone ever do multiple presentations on a vacation? Will a sales office refuse to give you a presentation if you're not staying at the property?

I have done that several times in Sint Maarten. The gifts I got were boat trips to Saba and St. Barths. It was easy to end the tour when I mentioned the amount of the levy (m/f) on the weeks I owned in South Africa and casually asked what theirs was. They quickly figured out I wasn't going to buy a week from them.