Do you attend the sales presentation when exchanging?

[sls1003]

I have a question for other TUGGers about going to the sales presentation at other Marriott properties when you are on an exchange. We recently got back from Newport Coast and attended the sales presentation there since we have family in Southern California and were interested in learning more about an every other year. While I know now being a TUG member that if we did ever buy, we'd buy resale, we figured we would see what Marriott was offering as far as pricing and incentives and what the plans were for the resort. When our sales person met with us, she had a printout about us which had our name and home address and each Marriott that we'd exchanged into. She greeted us by saying "Well, I see that you do the sales presentation at each Marriott that you go to, so what can I do for you?" My husband and I were both pretty taken aback by her opening which made us feel like she thought we were just there for the free gift. She also was incorrect. We have only done the presentation at two of the four Marriott properties that we've been to and the most recent was a year and a half ago. She ended up being friendlier and the rest of the presentation was fine, but it made me wonder if we should not attend the presentation at a future Marriott even if we are interested in the resort since we'd probably buy resale anyway. What do you think?

 

[pedro47]

I do not attend any t/s presentation anymore. I am vacation!!!!

 

[dougp26364]

I look at it this way. I'm not the one asking to do the presentation. Marriott is the one asking me to do the presentation. Most of the time I turn it down initially but, if they persist, if I have some down time and if I'm interested in the resort I might take the presentation.

I've had them take the same tact with me and I'll give them a straight answer to a straight question. I'm here to be updated on what's new with Marriott and I have some mild interest in this property so tell me what you've got. Most of the time I'm not really interested in the "freebie" as I don't consider them worth my time.

IMO, attend the presentation if you have interest in the property. Attend it if you want the freebie since it's Marriott who's making the solisitation. The one thing I'd never do is worrry about what a TS salesman thought aobut my intentions for taking the tour.

At this point in our lives, I'm starting to cut back on the amount of timeshares we own. I have a couple I'm just not using. So the chances we'll attend a presentation isn't really very high right now. It is possible that we could use another EOY unit to match up with the one EOY unit we own but, right not I'd rather use the savings in MF from the units we're getting rid of to pay for a cruise each year. We enjoy cruising and owning to many weeks of timeshare makes that difficult to do without juggling timeshare weeks if we own to much.

 

[pcgirl54]

You did nothing wrong nor should it deter you from touring. The agent let you know that it appeared to the records that you were professional lookers not prospective buyers and that way she could cut to the chase which cuts down on the presentation time.

We did a Westin tour on our Hawaii trip to learn about Starwood.It was not high pressure although we met with 2 managers after the agent but they were polite and apologized for taking up our time. Loved the resort but most are on the west coast or rocky mtns /ski areas. We live on the east coast and love the beach so it would not be something that suits us. This is why we have stayed with Marriott.

I rarely do TS presentations as it is 2 hrs of my vacation time. But if it is a place I have not been to and there are resorts I am curious about to trade to or buy resale then we just drive there and ask if we can look around for a few minutes to see the area and beach and no presentation. In Marco Island Eagles Nest and in Ocean Palms in Hilton Head had model units to preview. No appt, no presentation and low key in and out in 15-20 minutes.

 

[Swice]

Ran into the same thing a year ago

Ran into the same thing a year ago... with the "supervisor" not the sales agent at Marco Island. He had the print out in his hand and was right at that point of being rude-- letting us know "I see you've been to presentations at... ." The funny thing was, we were interested in Marco Island had had attended a number of presentations over the past few years hoping to gleam information about Marco and/or other new resorts. I had every intention of buying Marco until I saw the prices!

But yes, they do call our rooms "inviting" us to come. We usually need some down time anyway out of the sun or to rest from our vacation adventures. As a general rule we often pick up a small tip or bit of information that we use to make decisions on where we would like to visit in the future. Also I generally believe it's best to "stay in the loop." ...Ya never know when you'll sniff out info about the new internal trading system :rofl:

 

[IngridN]

We had an interesting experience at the Aruba Surf Club in May. We always go to the presentation for the 15K points as well as to learn what's new at the resort and new resorts on the horizon. This time they assigned us to someone other than our salesperson because we always go to the presentations but don't buy...with 4 timeshares, we're NOT buying another. His pitch was to buy Ocean Club and exchange it for points each year...how could we turn down such a great offer :hysterical: .

It was a very interesting conversation.

Ingrid

 

[Debbyd57]

We go to a sales presentation at almost every resort we exchange into. Marriott or non Marriott. We have never had anyone say that to us. Although it could happen in the future since we have no plans to stop going. I agree with the comment that they asked us, not the other way around. I always say no once and let them ask again, that way if the sales person were to say something about it, I can let them know that we tried to say no to the sale presentation. Debby

 

[thinze3]

"Well, I see that you do the sales presentation at each Marriott that you go to, so what can I do for you?"

Oh, nothing. I just wanted to come in and harrass you while my kids were still sleeping. I figured it was an easy way to get enough rewards points for a free night stay in a Courtyard in the future. What brings you out so early on such a beautiful morning?


Terry

 

[sls1003]

Thanks for all the encouragement! I feel much better. I agree, they are the ones that make the offer, and sometimes they won't even give us pricing information without actually doing the presentation, but her approach definitely didn't win us over. And Swice, same thing with us, at one of the other presentations we did we talked mainly about Newport which she couldn't have known from her printout. I also have to say how glad we are that we joined TUG. I think the reason she started taking us a little more seriously was that she realized that we knew our stuff about Marriott, mostly learned here!