• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Grand Luxxe NV Presentation report

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
On our 3rd visit to GL NV we decided to go to the presentation to learn more about Vidanta. We told them there was no way we were buying anything on the spot and they gave us a Tower II 9th floor room with drop dead views of the ocean and the nature preserve so we figured this was a good time. We got a really good, seasoned salesman who ended up giving us a lot of information. We spent about an hour at breakfast and we could have probably left about 90 minutes later but did not because even sifting through the sales pitch there is a lot that was interesting about him and the general timeshare information we were talking about.

The problem came when we tried to leave after [voluntarily] spending a lot of time. They DO NOT want you to walk out of there and the rest was an infuriating [unpleasant] show of people (in two separate places no less) taking up time and threatening to not give us the rest of the "gifts" (the 10% off etc) because we had not "completed the presentation". We just refused to sign anything and walked away. After hearing a lot about how philanthropic and wonderful Mr. Chavez the owner of the whole shebang is and how well he treats his employees, I was left wondering why he lets his guests be harassed by his sales team. And why he wants us to see his sales team employees as a bunch of low-lifes who are desperate to sell his properties which would be better seen as such good buys that they would sell themselves. The more pressure we got the more I wondered what they were hiding. (Reminds me of a paraphrase of a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote "the more he talked of his honor the faster we hid the silver...")
 
Last edited by a moderator:

jssquared

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Messages
123
Reaction score
85
Points
138
Resorts Owned
Grand Luxxe
Hi Zen,

Sounds like the experience was unfortunately not very zen-like. I have had this conversation with the senior sales management a million times. They keep insisting they make more sales despite the horrible online reviews and other reports. It is not an appropriate way to operate. As you said, the resorts would sell themselves on their own merit.

Are you able to share any of this information that was gleaned during the presentation?

Thanks.
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Hi Zen,

Sounds like the experience was unfortunately not very zen-like. I have had this conversation with the senior sales management a million times. They keep insisting they make more sales despite the horrible online reviews and other reports. It is not an appropriate way to operate. As you said, the resorts would sell themselves on their own merit.

Are you able to share any of this information that was gleaned during the presentation?

Thanks.

Primarily a lot about the specific Vidanta properties (we have only stayed at Grand Luxxe) and the particular "right to use" system with no maintenance fees. They are one of the elite resorts we like and we also found it helpful to know that they are going to build a lot more here (theme park, many more buildings) which in our minds would make this place far LESS desirable. It was also this particular guy who was had had an interesting career before now and enjoyable to talk to. We only own one week of timeshare (a fractional ownership in the Four Seasons and was bought 20 years ago), which from people's reaction is tantamount to seeing a unicorn (the one week part) so there were things for us to learn.
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Sorry for this double post and moderators please feel free to remove. I posted this in the Exchanging Forum but since the presentation referred to was at the Vidanta it may be relevant here too.

We attended a timeshare presentation this week (more on that in the appropriate forum) and were told that II has a "score" for every timeshare resort and this particular salesman tried to tell us that out of a 60 point scale our Four Seasons fractional ownership gets a rating of 27 out of 60. He also told us that this is available information and that II needs to confirm that or tell us our score because of a law suit. Something about the American Resort Development Association.

The score of 27 seemed like bulls**t to us but wanted to see if anyone knows anything about any of this?
 

T-Dot-Traveller

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
4,644
Reaction score
3,592
Points
348
Location
Canada
Resorts Owned
Mayan Palace Regency
Taranova
On our 3rd visit to GL NV we decided to go to the presentation to learn more about Vidanta. ......We got a really good, seasoned salesman ......
The problem came when we tried to leave after [voluntarily] spending a lot of time. They DO NOT want you to walk out of there and the rest was an infuriating ... (in two separate places no less) taking up time and threatening to not give us.......)

Hi zentraveler,
If you ever do another Vidanta presentation at Nuevo -notice how the stretched golf cart drops people off at various “ portals “. IMO - Vida Sales segments the prospects .

I think your Four Seasons ownership helped get you a more knowledgeable / experienced sales rep for the full contract ownership part of the presentation .

Once you declined & finished at stage one - you were moved on to the exit package teams .

IMO - like a meat processing plant - Vida Sales is set up to maximize usage of all parts of the daily delivery of new prospects . It is a successful business model .

Vidanta “hotel side “runs great resorts & works very hard to make sure all guests enjoy their visit . This is also a successful model .

The Vidanta hotel side has a separate management team from the Vida sales side .( both report to upper and/or family management) .

Enjoy the rest of your vacation .
 

Eric B

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2017
Messages
5,862
Reaction score
5,440
Points
499
Resorts Owned
Vacation Village, Wyndham, WorldMark, Vistana, Vidanta, Flora Farms, HGVC Max, and some independents
Zen,

One of the interesting things about Vidanta is how reliant they seem to be on sales for their funding. That might be changing a bit with the resort fees they've added for exchanges. In any case they generally have a lot of availability at the GL studio level in NV through RCI and SFX and decent availability in RM. I believe it's better going through II, but don't exchange there much. It makes some difference in how you're treated if you own or exchange in, more noticeably in RM. If you're happy with the accommodations and the pricing on an exchange, don't let the sales pressure or things like their characterization of your home resort bother you - it was good enough to get you in there.

Another notable item is the poor internal communications in the organization. The 10% discount is fairly standard for attending a sales pitch and every time I've checked out they've asked if we did. My take is that they get a fair number of people that walk out after the 90 minutes they committed to attend (time starts after breakfast and the tour ends and you're in the office) and they can't really decline to provide what they promised, especially when you don't have to physically get it (i.e., the discount). They never seen to need to note that you were at sales for that.

Enjoy the week down here; we're happy with the weather while it's cold back home. Mardi Grad parade tonight starting here at the Sheraton and going down to the Malecon.
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Hi zentraveler,
If you ever do another Vidanta presentation at Nuevo -notice how the stretched golf cart drops people off at various “ portals “. IMO - Vida Sales segments the prospects .

I think your Four Seasons ownership helped get you a more knowledgeable / experienced sales rep for the full contract ownership part of the presentation .

Once you declined & finished at stage one - you were moved on to the exit package teams .

IMO - like a meat processing plant - Vida Sales is set up to maximize usage of all parts of the daily delivery of new prospects . It is a successful business model .

Vidanta “hotel side “runs great resorts & works very hard to make sure all guests enjoy their visit . This is also a successful model .

The Vidanta hotel side has a separate management team from the Vida sales side .( both report to upper and/or family management) .

Enjoy the rest of your vacation .

Thanks T-Dot-Traveller. Safe to say that I won't be doing another presentation of any kind for another decade at least, and maybe never since we were lied to flat out at least twice on this one and undoubtedly many more (assured at check in that 60 min was our obligation and that whole total BS about the "point" system and Vidanta being 60/60 compared to our Four Seasons at 27 etc) And I love your meat processing plant analogy . We should have just refused starting at the exit interview; we already had the only thing that really mattered (the room).

I don't care how successful they are lying, condoning lying to people (there were plenty of lies also in all the benefits we would get, how easily you can book rooms etc. etc.) is never going to be OK with me and will always leave me with a distrust of a company.

That said, we are enjoying our time here and got that part out of the way early!
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Zen,

One of the interesting things about Vidanta is how reliant they seem to be on sales for their funding. That might be changing a bit with the resort fees they've added for exchanges. In any case they generally have a lot of availability at the GL studio level in NV through RCI and SFX and decent availability in RM. I believe it's better going through II, but don't exchange there much. It makes some difference in how you're treated if you own or exchange in, more noticeably in RM. If you're happy with the accommodations and the pricing on an exchange, don't let the sales pressure or things like their characterization of your home resort bother you - it was good enough to get you in there.

Another notable item is the poor internal communications in the organization. The 10% discount is fairly standard for attending a sales pitch and every time I've checked out they've asked if we did. My take is that they get a fair number of people that walk out after the 90 minutes they committed to attend (time starts after breakfast and the tour ends and you're in the office) and they can't really decline to provide what they promised, especially when you don't have to physically get it (i.e., the discount). They never seen to need to note that you were at sales for that.

Enjoy the week down here; we're happy with the weather while it's cold back home. Mardi Grad parade tonight starting here at the Sheraton and going down to the Malecon.

Thanks also Eric B. We were surprised about the internal funding also and have noticed some small cutbacks in amenities (no water on the room service trays, our patio is enormous but has almost no furniture on it, the increase in fees) so they may indeed be financially stressed by the enormous amount of building currently in process.

We use Interval exclusively. They have been very generous with us for our single FS week. In addition to owning a 2 bdrm lock off , which we split into 2 weeks (so far just been the 2 of us traveling) II also gives us 4+ "Bonus" weeks each year and has upgraded us to Platinum membership levels so we pay less for exchanges, free guest certificates etc. We have been to GL NV three time in the past 3 years and for a grand sum of $209/week exchange fee plus the resort fee ($11/pp until this year and $240 this year halved because we did the presentation) we have gotten a large studio in tower IV, a 2 bedroom corner unit with the larger fancy (junior) studio in Tower III and this relatively small studio on the 9th floor of Tower II (my least favorite of all of them but my husband loves the view).

I am happy to be an exchanger given how well it works for us. We can't even use all the bonus weeks we are given. We also like non-resort vacations and in the past fews have spent nearly a month each in India and Antartica, going to Jasper and Banff in August etc. Don't regret going to the presentation; between that and this discussion and all the knowledge you all have generously shared, what we have learned is very valuable. I don't know what I would do without TUG and FlyerTalk!!
 

MoPops

TUG Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Messages
211
Reaction score
161
Points
154
Resorts Owned
Grand Luxxe Nuevo Vallarta
Wyndham CWA, VIP Silver
Great info Zen. Thanks for sharing. We “missed” the update again this year. If I remember right the 10% off was on far fewer items than I thought it would be. It was worth more than Vida dollars though. Ha! We are sort of wanting to go back to NV, but it was Big when we were there a few years ago. I can’t imagine how big it’s going to be once all this construction is complete. We may never see it again...
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Great info Zen. Thanks for sharing. We “missed” the update again this year. If I remember right the 10% off was on far fewer items than I thought it would be. It was worth more than Vida dollars though. Ha! We are sort of wanting to go back to NV, but it was Big when we were there a few years ago. I can’t imagine how big it’s going to be once all this construction is complete. We may never see it again...

Honesty MoPops, the construction in not noticeable at all to us. Aside from passing the grand spectacle theme park construction when we arrived, it might as well be in Canada for all we see or hear about it. And the building 6 and 6b construction doesn't seem to be happening. We never see it or hear it. We are having dinner at Quinto tonight, closer to all that, so will report back. They are, according the presentation, way behind schedule on the theme park (the hint was that Cirque de Soleil is getting impatient) and I suspect all the construction workers are there. So you may still have time! It certainly is lovely; I love the resort.
 

calberry

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
559
Reaction score
25
Points
388
Location
Lake Wildwood, Ca.
Resorts Owned
Marriott Timber Lodge, Lake Tahoe (2 weeks)
Marriott Ko Olina, Oahu, Hi. EOY
UVC, Villa del Arco, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.EOY
Zen, I've enjoyed this thread. Thanks for starting it. We (my DW and I) stayed in a 1BR at NV Grand Mayan (II trade) 2 years ago for a week, and enjoyed the complex so much we are planning to go back for two weeks next year around this time. We will be trading with II using two of our Marriott weeks (a 1BR at Ko Olina and a 1BR from Timberlodge). We are still trying to decide if we want to go back to GM, or if we want to trade into the GL since 1BR rooms are also available there. Our main concern in looking at GL is room assignment. I would not be too pleased if we were stuck away from beach down in Bldg 5 (for example).

My DW practically gets sick to her stomach just thinking about sales presentations, so the only ones we've attended were ones where we thought we might buy before going in. Since we declined to go on our last GM stay this is the view we got:
yMYfDZAGJ6dVaprR7
(follow this link if that didn't work: https://photos.app.goo.gl/owprkRxLC4qhQAv49 ) As you can see there was NO view. We could see NOTHING through the trees. We enjoyed the actual room, and after a while got used to the 'solitude' (complete privacy!), but since we will be there for 2 weeks this time we were thinking it might be worth the sacrifice to go to the presentation so we could get a 'room with a view' (which we were promised last time if we attended the meeting).

In one of your posts above you said this: "We should have just refused starting at the exit interview; we already had the only thing that really mattered (the room)." Are you saying that you had a room assigned at GL prior to having the option of accepting/declining the sales presentation? At GM we didn't get our room assigned until after our lovely chat with the TS person (How many ways/times can a person say NO???).

Thanks,

Steve
 

jssquared

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Messages
123
Reaction score
85
Points
138
Resorts Owned
Grand Luxxe
Zen - did they tell you Cirque is getting impatient or did you find that out elsewhere? This is a very hot topic of conversation / speculation? It would be fascinating if Vidanta was the one to bring up this info.
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Zen, I've enjoyed this thread. Thanks for starting it. We (my DW and I) stayed in a 1BR at NV Grand Mayan (II trade) 2 years ago for a week, and enjoyed the complex so much we are planning to go back for two weeks next year around this time. We will be trading with II using two of our Marriott weeks (a 1BR at Ko Olina and a 1BR from Timberlodge). We are still trying to decide if we want to go back to GM, or if we want to trade into the GL since 1BR rooms are also available there. Our main concern in looking at GL is room assignment. I would not be too pleased if we were stuck away from beach down in Bldg 5 (for example).

My DW practically gets sick to her stomach just thinking about sales presentations, so the only ones we've attended were ones where we thought we might buy before going in. Since we declined to go on our last GM stay this is the view we got:
yMYfDZAGJ6dVaprR7
(follow this link if that didn't work: https://photos.app.goo.gl/owprkRxLC4qhQAv49 ) As you can see there was NO view. We could see NOTHING through the trees. We enjoyed the actual room, and after a while got used to the 'solitude' (complete privacy!), but since we will be there for 2 weeks this time we were thinking it might be worth the sacrifice to go to the presentation so we could get a 'room with a view' (which we were promised last time if we attended the meeting).

In one of your posts above you said this: "We should have just refused starting at the exit interview; we already had the only thing that really mattered (the room)." Are you saying that you had a room assigned at GL prior to having the option of accepting/declining the sales presentation? At GM we didn't get our room assigned until after our lovely chat with the TS person (How many ways/times can a person say NO???).

Thanks,

Steve
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
I realize that we have actually stayed here 4 weeks in total (all bonus week II trades). We had one Grand Mayan week here as a second week after one at the GL here but I had to go home after one night and my husband stayed most of the rest of the week. We greatly prefer the GL. The GM is too crowded and and busy for us and it didn't help that we were given a room with a flat on view of the cement parking structure. We were just over there and it was packed. Every seat in the shade taken.

The view you had in your photo is what I actually really like. It is peaceful and green and quiet and as exchangers we are not likely to get that close to the beach or a hight floor anyway. We have been in Tower IV - floor 3, Tower III - floor 2 and Tower II -floor 9. All water facing. I miss the greenery and watching people walk by on the path but my husband likes seeing the ocean. The trees are the view for me.

As you know the room assignment, like the presentation, is a multi-stage, multi-person project. The first woman we saw at check in at the desk said we had "nice view" but when we asked her where it was, suddenly she didn't know. She passed us the woman who was in charge of "pitching" the "pitch" which we have turned down twice before - you are right - we just say NO and we got the rooms detailed above. We had no intention of going to the presentation this time and told woman #2 that a few times. She then went and got woman #3 who came with the offer of the top floor in an owners building. I would still have said no, but my husband really wanted the view and figured this was the best offer we would ever get. I also thought the studio, given being in the "owners building" might be nicer. As it turned out, this is one of the first towers built and the studio is the smallest we have stayed in and not nearly as nice to me. As I mentioned the enormous patio is a waste of space and has two chairs and a small table. And neither is the tower "nicer" although it is closer to the beach and many of the pools. Personal taste at that stage.
 
Last edited:

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Zen - did they tell you Cirque is getting impatient or did you find that out elsewhere? This is a very hot topic of conversation / speculation? It would be fascinating if Vidanta was the one to bring up this info.

Really very interesting jssquared. Everything I know about Vidanta (aside from TUG) came from the presentation; we spent 5 hours with him and this was one of the interesting tidbits.
 

jssquared

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Messages
123
Reaction score
85
Points
138
Resorts Owned
Grand Luxxe
Zen - thank you so much for sharing that. I have heard many rumors about Cirque and seen many renderings over many years. There is some intense speculation on theme park message boards (yes there is such a thing). I am shocked that a Vidanta rep would relay this in a conversation, unless they are beginning to lay the groundwork for Cirque's eventual pull out.
 

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
To be clear, there was no implication they were laying groundwork for that except that, apparently things like that do happen with co-partners in projects like these with no implication that it had ever happened with Vidanta. The "tidbit" for me was the fact that when there is a big name company associated with a project like this they do care about construction schedules. Would have never occurred to me.

They seemed very enthused about the entire project and wanting it to come in close to schedule. (And a theme park message board -- who knew???)
 

T-Dot-Traveller

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
4,644
Reaction score
3,592
Points
348
Location
Canada
Resorts Owned
Mayan Palace Regency
Taranova
In one of your posts above you said this: "We should have just refused starting at the exit interview; we already had the only thing that really mattered (the room)."
Are you saying that you had a room assigned at GL prior to having the option of accepting/declining the sales presentation? At GM we didn't get our room assigned until after our lovely chat with the TS person (How many ways/times can a person say NO???). Thanks,
Steve

Vida Sales has always had a pleasant person /team** that books you for the sales presentation. You meet them at check in . The room assignment function was fully transferred to them 18-24 months ago . <before that the front desk (hotel side staff) did the room assignment & the presentation booker (Vida Sales side staff) would,use the upgrade carrot.>

<** as a comparison -Wyndham often uses the parking pass person to get folks to agree to go >

So Zen & her husband agreed to go -in return for a better view . The presentation is an excellent breakfast , tour , and the 90 minutes starts when you get to the sales room . Zen then spent more than 90 minutes with an experienced & knowledgeable TS rep and learned some things about Vidanta and was generally given factually information .

After declining to buy -a full ownership RTU contract TS with a registered week component ; Zen was then handed off to all the exit package sales teams - that sell various lower priced travel club packages - that will give Vidanta access ##(generally shoulder season ) without a resort fee . Private Reserve Travel Club (by ICE) and Destinos (by ICE) are 2 such exit packages that have prior TUG threads . These exit sales teams , as Zen noted have a reputation . The exit packages DO NOT contain any registered week component .

Since the room assignment was the primary goal - Zen has suggested that -leaving after declining to buy the full ownership contract - would have been a better plan .

Eric B -suggested that is very likely that the 10% off and any other incentives would remain .

********

FYI - as the owner of a older / better Mayan Palace contract -we last went in 2016
- we had a knowledgeable rep as well -and a hard sell in the sales room to upgrade (IMO -in part to get us into a contract that had more use weeks but fewer registered weeks).

As an owner we get to skip all the exit package nonsense .

##- there are at least 2 TUG threads about a purchase of - Private Reserve Travel Club . In one the OP was told , “ holiday weeks COULD be booked using this product “ but discovered that while theoretically possible , it was very unlikely that this WOULD occur since holiday weeks are very popular and are filled by Vidanta owners of full use/ registered week containing contracts who paid much more to add these specific weeks .
Such is the reality of truth , half truth , theoretical and lies in the exit package
product sales world .
 
Last edited:

zentraveler

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
903
Points
473
Location
San Francisco and Hidden Valley Lake, CA
Resorts Owned
Four Seasons Residence Club
Vida Sales has always had a pleasant person /team** that books you for the sales presentation. You meet them at check in . The room assignment function was fully transferred to them 18-24 months ago . <before that the front desk (hotel side staff) did the room assignment & the presentation booker (Vida Sales side staff) would, use the upgrade carrot.>

T-Dot-Traveller thank you for such a complete and informative post. Part of my incentive in posting this was our rep's several comments that he knows they have a terrible reputation on line for these presentations. I wanted to present ours which was mostly very good, although parts of it were indeed terrible.

Although everyone's mileage will vary I wanted to present our 3 experiences as non-owners as factually as I could. "Pleasant" may be close enough to describe the check in process, but it is multi-staged - we have always had 3 separate people pressing us to agree to the presentation (andz offering incentives, which as you correctly point out, this visit included a room at least one of us found too appealing to pass us. Yes, this is you DH..., and a lovely breakfast.) Our sales rep was very surprised that on our 3rd visit we had not done a presentation yet. His comment was "they are very good it, i.e. getting people to agree to this]. Our first check in experience was a nightmare: 2 of the 3 people they brought were extremely unpleasant and aggressive.

After declining a full ownership RTU contract TS with a registered week component ; Zen was then handed off to all the exit package sales teams - that sell various lower priced travel club packages - that will give Vidanta access ##(generally shoulder season ) without a resort fee . Private Reserve Travel Club (by ICE) and Destinos (by ICE) are 2 such exit packages that have prior TUG threads . These exit sales teams , as Zen noted have a reputation . The exit packages DO NOT contain any registered week component .

Our "exit interview" woman started right in on the offer we had already been given by the rep, not something new/lower priced travel club packages (had no idea those existed and know only what info you graciously provided.) It seemed to be an upgraded offer from the rep's, but to be honest I was done and told her so. She wanted us to sign something, which I refused; she got angry, left to fetch our rep back, who then told us we had one more step to go. The last post-exit interview stage was walking us to different building 5 minutes away and asked by a new young man to sit at yet another table and when we refused he told us many times that we had "not completed" the presentation. He was also getting agitated and we had to walk out while he was talking at us. Our mistake was not walking out before the exit interview, or at least after our truncated one. As a novice about their presentations I had no way of knowing about the 10% but at that point I didn't really care. Eric B's experience will help others in this regard.

So we had a good experience overall although YMMV depending on the individual people you get, and parts of it were very unpleasant and none what they say about time involved is accurate.

Such is the reality of truth, half truth, theoretical and lies in the exit package product sales world.]

And not just the exit package world. The presentation itself was full of this and makes me sad especially for first time buyers. Imagine buying a washing machine, a house or anything else and finding out that what you paid a lot of money for and made a large commitment to is something full of this sort of deception? If we had truly been interested in purchasing we would have asked for the contracts and every bit of paperwork to read thoroughly before we signed anything. Would recommend that to anyone making a decision about buying anything in this world (and yes, I know there is a 5 day recision clause but I would not want to do that with a contract held in a foreign country).

And as an aside, I noticed on my way to the restroom that there is a full bar in one of the rooms in the large sales area that was staffed at 11 in the morning. Can't help wondering what that is all about?? (Seriously does anyone know? Ever been offered a drink? Found myself genuinely curious.)
 

bizaro86

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
3,663
Reaction score
2,488
Points
598
Location
Calgary, AB, Canada
Vida Sales has always had a pleasant person /team** that books you for the sales presentation. You meet them at check in .

My experience is that those folks are materially less than pleasant when you decline to take a presentation. It took me a full 20 minutes to decline at the Grand Mayan RM.
 

calberry

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
559
Reaction score
25
Points
388
Location
Lake Wildwood, Ca.
Resorts Owned
Marriott Timber Lodge, Lake Tahoe (2 weeks)
Marriott Ko Olina, Oahu, Hi. EOY
UVC, Villa del Arco, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.EOY
My experience is that those folks are materially less than pleasant when you decline to take a presentation. It took me a full 20 minutes to decline at the Grand Mayan RM.

That's about what it took us on our stay. She started out being a sweetheart, explaining the layout of the property, showing restaurant locations and pools we could/couldn't go to...very amicable. And then the inevitable invite to the breakfast and presentation. After the 1st NO, and then the WHY NOT it degenerated and her fangs came out. Multiple enticements (including upgrade to owner's room), and more multiple NO's. I can just imagine that she wrote on her 'report' that they should give us the worst room possible...and that is sure what I thought when I opened the door and walked inside our room for the 1st time ;-(
 

MoPops

TUG Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Messages
211
Reaction score
161
Points
154
Resorts Owned
Grand Luxxe Nuevo Vallarta
Wyndham CWA, VIP Silver
That’s sad and disappointing. We got in late when we were there last week. We were told the only rooms available were ground floor. We agreed to spend one night there, and moved to 3rd floor next day. Kind of a hassle, but much better view with breeze, and not listening to trams while outside. This was GL 1BR in RM (owner).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Top