La Belle Maison presentation report

[jp10558]

Well, I was convinced by my mother to do the "owner education" presentation at La Belle Maison to get 3 free tickets to the lunch cruise on the Mississippi on the paddle wheeler I think. And perhaps other discounts from the concierge. I'm less sure if they actually can get other discounts booking stuff for you, but the 3 tickets were about $200 so I said OK.

Did it yesterday, took about 90 minutes - good I set a 60 minute alarm to get the person to wrap it all up.

Normal bluster about 2 really poorly rated apps "Vacation Sidekick" (I thought they guy said psychic and really wondered about the branding lol) and travelup - and from what I can tell, neither is anything you need help signing up for, nor are they worthwhile from what I've read on TUG.

Anyway - after that the nice lady was trying to tell me how to "maximize my account" with some blather about how I buy too many RCI Extra Vacations and Last Calls and should have points for that stuff. Cause the costs are going up. Of course they are, so are MFs lol. What she didn't explain is how Wyndham points would replace RCI cash deals given they're often at non Wyndham properties, and RCI exchanges still cost $300 on top of the MFs so that would cost more than continuing to do cash deals. She was also kind of taken aback at what I would have expected is common TUG practice - if you can get a stay for cash in RCI or Bonus Time (she poo pooed the $480 bonus time for a week at Smoky Mountains - which is less than the MF cost!) and it's both == or less than MFs, do that and save points for places you need to get that aren't "leftovers" and harder to book. But anyway, at an estimated RCI cash stays a year of 3 @ $700ish dollars she decided I probably actually did more than that - which is true, but the others are often II now - she figured around $5,000 in cash stays. I haven't run those numbers, I bet it's probably not that much but I could believe it. So her math was $50,000 over 10 years. Fair enough.

She was like, you can qualify your resale for VIP with $44,000 purchase and save money. With VIP you'd stretch the points more and bla bla bla. I cut her off and said - I have never seen the benefits of VIP being worth that money. And it's not like I could take ~600,000pts even with VIP and get all the RCI stays that way, certainly not the II ones. Forget about time value of money, and interest cost or lost interest earned on that purchase.

Oh, and somehow you can PIC an HGVC week for ~260,000 pts ... as thanks? or something? She was claiming you don't have to deposit the week, which I was like "bullshit". Not that I wanted to do that anyway.

It's not even "bad math" - it's spend 10 years worth of optional RCI cash stays for VIP benefits - no way that'll make sense or save me money. Anyway, I got another sprite, my tickets and exited for popcorn (they give it free in the garage here in the afternoon).

Anyway - the upshot was no third closer and she didn't really push much, just said I'd come back within a year to buy - I was like, if you want to believe that lady, be by guest. I did manage to only waste an extra 30 minutes between the check-in and check-out. And the "reservation deposit" was credited back to my card today.

I doubt I'll want to regularly do this, but it wasn't the worst I've done, and was the first Wyndham one. The powerpoint in the beginning was interesting. And I still am left thinking - why would I pay $44,000 for something I got for $1,200 resale and added on to for FREE?

 

[WaikikiFirst]

So her math was $50,000 over 10 years. Fair enough. ... She was like, you can qualify your resale for VIP with $44,000 purchase and save money.

LMAO how these people just ignore the TVo$. The entire "another one born every minute" industry is practically built on TVo$.

Forget about time value of money

Never forget about TVo$. It dwarfs the other stuff you're calculating, and is prob more reliable, though that would be a long discussion.
ps: you want them to end early? Let them know you will NEVER NEVER forget about the TVo$. Repeat that. Their entire pitch becomes trash and they know it. End early

 

[Floridaman76]

I was at one recently too where I discussed having used Wyndham's new bonus time a few times and they went into the "well if you had more points you wouldn't have to do that", then I showed here how my bonus time purchases were under $100 and the equivalent points would have cost me much more than that in maintenance fees, and she seemed shocked that an owner actually knew this, and could do rudimentary math.

The very last update I did at Nashville, the "closer" tried to sell me 64k of Access for $22,000, even after I explained how I already own at a low maintenance fee resort. Just really not paying attention to what the customer is saying

 

[jp10558]

Yea, it was funny - she asked me why I added Bali Hai points and I was like - well it was offered free (Thanks RickandCindy) and low MF/Pt ratio.

 

[zentraveler]

LMAO how these people just ignore the TVo$. The entire "another one born every minute" industry is practically built on TVo$.

Never forget about TVo$. It dwarfs the other stuff you're calculating, and is prob more reliable, though that would be a long discussion.
ps: you want them to end early? Let them know you will NEVER NEVER forget about the TVo$. Repeat that. Their entire pitch becomes trash and they know it. End early

TVo$ ?? (Not in the acronym glossary and even google doesn't seem to know it!)

 

[WaikikiFirst]

even google doesn't seem to know it

that isn't the only thing I have over google time value of money

 

[WaikikiFirst]

I discussed having used Wyndham's new bonus time a few times and they went into the "well if you had more points you wouldn't have to do that"

meanwhile, in another room, someone is selling the whole enchilada because "bonus time is so awesome you'll use it over and over"

 

[jp10558]

meanwhile, in another room, someone is selling the whole enchilada because "bonus time is so awesome you'll use it over and over"

And TBH - if you can get places with a weeks notice, I do think it's pretty awesome. But just like RCI you have to want to go "when it shows up" as opposed to "plan around it".

If only I didn't have so many "to make money from me" doctors appointments that make me have to schedule more than I otherwise would have to - well, that and getting prescriptions delivered to me.