Las Vegas Sales Presentation...

[amisco]

Staying at the HGVC Flamingo and was approached to attend a presentation, my wife wanted the $100 spa discount so we went after telling the person that we were not looking to add any new timeshares to our portfolio. To my surprise they were going to have the meeting at the HGVC Strip location...and provided a stretch limosine for my wife and I to go.

We met our sales rep. a former NFL football player to whom we repeated that we were not a good prospect and have generally always bought through resale vs. developer units. He then made several representations some of which were IMHO an attempt to inflate the value of the Elite program...

He claimed that unless you were a member of the Elite program you would be charged an exchange fee from Hilton unless you used your exact week that you owned....since I had just made a reservation at a different resort and a different sized property for the stay and wasn't charged a fee, I'm thinking that this was not true...unless you are getting a reservation for someone else.

He noted that I would get an elevated level in the HHonors program...which is true, but I am already Gold with the program without upgrading...and if you have the Hilton Surpass Amex and spend $40K then you are Diamond.

He then pointed to Hilton properties that he claimed were only accessible throught he Elite program...most of them looked like Hilton Hotels and Resorts which you could use HHonors points.

He then told me I could get points for the Elite program...and be able to access my properties that I own and cut my MF by 50%....At this point I asked for some detail of how this would work with a property like the Hilton Club NY...he pointed to the HHonors points program...he never explained how this would work out .. I am not sure that this is even a real program.

He then played the "guilt / threat".... He told me that the "girls who make the appointments can lose there jobs if people they send don't buy"... He then told us that "we would "have to sign a form in which we would agree that we would not attend any presentations ever again.". I told him that they had approached us about the presentation, we weren't about to sign anything and that they should change their business model if it wasn't working. I think he was pretty much "winging it" through most of the presentation. I am not sure that anything he was proposing was a part of the HGVC program.

The presentation was not informative...just seemed pretty desperate... I asked him about the Planet Hollywood property...while he said that it was coming....he had no details.

Probably one of the less professional presentations we have ever attended.

 

[Talent312]

Typical.
"How you do know a TS salesman is lying?"
-- Even if a HGVC salesman, you know the answer.

 

[Craigvince]

Typical.
"How you do know a TS salesman is lying?"
-- Even if a HGVC salesman, you know the answer.

"His lips are moving" ?

 

[Remy]

I went through the W 57th presentation two weeks ago while in NY for the ball drop. It was low pressure, but they are all about this new "program" that seems to me to be the HHonors program mixed with exchanging your HGVC points for HH points. So much for "new".

If you want an idea of how the presentations go, below in italics is an email reply I received from a rep last week regarding my "going resale" brush off after they declined my trade-in proposal.

My favorites are that my purchase isn't part of the club or RCI and I'll have an OLD TIME timeshare. I'm guessing it's a copy/paste response to someone going to resale regardless of the system it's in.

To give you an idea of how much nonsense buyers are fed, check out this eBay ad too. Someone drank the Kool-Aid. It's NOT A TIMESHARE: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HILTON-NEW-...Timeshares&hash=item3f124a3a96#ht_1491wt_1191

Reasons you need to be aware of buying from a third party;

1) Back Maintenance fees & taxes (you will be responsible)

2) Divorce situation (tie up for months)

3) Should have an Attorney to make sure title free & clear

4) Not eligible for the Elite program

5) Can't upgrade with 100% equity

6) Not eligible for ongoing promotions

7) Not a member of club, you cannot use any other location, hotel or RCI; you will have OLD TIME; time share

8) Not a member of RCI

9) We are a point base program (do you know if points are available at point of purchase-people borrow points)

10) Financing is not available for time shares (we have courtesy financing)

11) Third Party property title Insurance is not guaranteed

12) There is NO Government regulation, therefore NO legal recourse to protect escrow accounts

 

[rrlongwell]

I do not know if these are reason to buy from Hilton or not. However, if one is to buy re-sale, a number of the points raised should be considered and controlled for by the buyer.

I followed the link that appeared earlier in the thread. I am not sure everything that is said there on the differences between Timeshares and Fractional Ownership is correct, nor am I a Hilton expert. I do not have a clue about how many days this points based Fractional Ownership/Timeshare gets you per year.

This is what one firm that claims to be an authorized re-seller defines Hilton's product:

What makes Hilton Grand Vacations Club better than the rest?
Hilton has been a pioneer in the hospitality/travel industry for over 85 years. Hilton Grand Vacations Club (HGVC) is at the pinnacle of vacation ownership and continues to be at the forefront of evolution in the industry. As the exemplar of excellence in this sector, HGVC combines innovation and ease to create a seamless process for acquiring vacation timeshare property. The HGVC program was established in 1992. Here is another example of the buyer really needs to beware of timeshare/fractional ownerships being sold on E-Bay.

 

[Talent312]

I do not know if these are reason to buy from Hilton or not.

The only true statements in that litany of BS is that...
-- a resale purchase does not qualify for elite; and
-- if you want legal services or title insurance, you're on your own.

But those are minor expenses and no reason to pay outrageous developer prices.
Still, someone needs to spend several extra thousands of $$ for an overpriced TS,
so the rest of us will have more resale opportunities down the road.

 

[ricoba]

We had that same guy a few years back. After we said NO numerous ways, he brought in Vampira, to whom we also said NO. Then we got a guy from " corporate", NO again, but it was very distasteful and it was our very LAST HGVC presentation, ever!

 

[dougp26364]

Sounds a lot like our last (which has been our last) presentation from Hilton. It was even at the same resort, the HGVC on the strip. We had told the girl posted up at the elevators no to the owners update several times. Finally we caved after being pestered by her every time we either came from or went back to our unit. She, of course, promised it would only be an informative 60 minute presentation. It turned out to be 3 hours in hell with the full court press including the temporary membership offer (did I mention we were already owners?).

I literally only wanted information and could care less about the gifts. They had nothing we were interested in. I think it took the manager by surprise when we refused the gifts, telling him we only wanted to spend a little time discussing the present and future of HGVC and our timeshare, JUST LIKE WAS REPRESENTED FOR THE OWNERS UPDATE. He was very surprised when we refused the gifting. At the time, there was absolutely nothing we were going to use. We don't do buffet's, none of ths shows were of interest and whatever else might have been on their list just wouldn't work out.

We haven't attended another presentation nor have we referred friends or family. We don't intend on ever setting foot on a HGVC sales floor again.

 

[dvc_john]

deleted....

 

[Talent312]

It's really rather sad, 'cuz HGVC is a quality program which can nearly sell itself.
The Call Center tries to be helpful and pleasant to deal with.

But I guess the Sales Division is desperate to sell at their absurdly high-prices...
and run by peep who use the same playbook of every other sleazy sales operation.

 

[GregT]

It's really rather sad, 'cuz HGVC is a quality program which can nearly sell itself.

I had the same reaction while reading this -- and contrast it with Marriott who is also using questionable sales tactics, but doesn't have the core quality program that HGVC has.

I'm sorry to see this coming to HGVC soon, and hope its restricted to sales tactics and doesn't creep into how HGVC changes the system itself to be less owner friendly.

Best,

Greg

 

[Remy]

I wouldn't be as afraid of a HGVC presentation as an owner as I would as a non-owner. They tend to be a little less sleazy and high-pressure with a current owner. At first I was bombarded by their nonsense, but they didn't read my sheet before starting in on me. Once it was established that I'm an owner, they went into a totally different pitch and sold more on the merits of the system (and their new/old system of converting HGVC points to HH points). It was refreshing, but letting them know their prices were simply too high for my taste ended it without a hassle. The final shot seems to be the ~$1700 stay package that requires another presentation. It took a little more than the promised 90 minutes (definitely under 2 hours), but was well worth the 60,000 HH points I'm using for a Costa Rica all-inclusive later this Spring. I'd be very judicious about using my vacation time for the presentations and weigh heavily the offer to attend.

 

[Aquaman55]

Once it was established that I'm an owner, they went into a totally different pitch and sold more on the merits of the system (and their new/old system of converting HGVC points to HH points).

Hi Remy, What is the difference between the "old and new system" of converting HGVC to HH points? When did that take affect? Thanks!

 

[Asl18940]

I've been with HGVC for many years and had many great vacations and exchanges. But the fact remains that I paid too much in light of the resale value. Upgrading to the Elite program has a few advantages, but if I had to do it all over again, I'd be more concerned with the number of weeks I could get through resale, than achieving Elite status. Some of the issues the sales rep mentioned are legitimate. So if you buy resale, make sure the escrow and title companies are well reputed. You can also request from the seller a copy of some form of evidence that their maintenance fees are current -- I could print that directly off the HGVC website, so if there's hesitation, it could be a good indicator of a problem.

 

[feed the otter]

Having been to a few sales presentations as an owner and made the gifts (such as free HHV dollars) worth our while, the best bit of advice I've ever gotten is to simply end it once you've met your time requirement (60 min, 3 hrs, etc). We've always been polite enough to hear the last few minutes of whatever they had to tell us, but have been just as ready to walk out WITH our gift if the sales rep(s) were determined to run long on us.

We've been split between good and bad sales reps. The good ones have understood up front we were ABSOLUTELY not going to buy, and instead just showed us a few things and answered our questions about what's up with the program (changes, new properties, etc).

Thanks to the OP, I now know not to get into a limo to a remote location where you're held hostage 'til they're done with you. Sorry that happened, but I appreciate the benefit of knowing that happened.