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Short responses regarding presentation experiences

Presentation Trend

  • Total voters
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Swice

Swice

TUG Review Crew
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After reading several threads, I'm wondering what's trending in regard to sales presentations.

Our very first presentation years ago was so classy and so low pressure. We didn't buy that day but walked out and said we said to each other that we would buy a Marriott timeshare one day. ...And obviously we did. Since then we've had some better experiences than others, but generally most were fairly pleasant. We have had two absolutely horrible experiences... one at Marco Island (preconstruction and I actually walked in ready to buy that day until I saw the prices!) and the other was last week at Beachplace Towers.

So I'm just asking for a few quick sentences about your recent experiences. Maybe if there is a trend down, we can get Marriott's attention and a return to the high road.

Here's my example:
Just returned from Beachplace Towers. One of my worst experiences ever at a Marriott presentation. The sales guy (I'm not using his name) was a slick Willy fast talker. He told me how he is one of the top sales guys in all of Marriott and he knows more than all of the others and I should believe him rather than what the other sales agents had previously told us. While not arguing with him, I tried to bring up points to show him I was an educated consumer. I finally lost it when he contradicted himself. I was ready to blow and lost control. I didn't yell but I told him, "I don't like you and and we needed to bring in your boss." I do regret telling a person that I don't like them. After he left, we had a much better experience without the smoke and mirrors and we were actually presented with a "somewhat reasonable" offer.
 
Had a great experience in April in Hilton Head. We had a straight shooter who was obviously a very experienced, savvy rep. He understood what we were looking for (enrollment of a third party resale week) and promised to contact us if and when they offered another post-2010 resale enrollment promo. As promised, we heard from him in late May when the current post-2010 amnesty promo started. We ultimately decided to wait until a future promo to give us time to maybe acquire a second EOY week before making the required points buy.
 
Had a presentation earlier this week at the Manor Club in Williamsburg. Rep was a really nice guy, understood that there was no compelling reason for us to buy anything given we just started our DC membership in April (bought at Grande Vista), but still stretched the truth around the value of going from 3K (where we are...) to 4K (Select). He said that we automatically pay more points for our reservations than Select members, which isn't true unless you're booking over 12 months in advance and are using the premium. He let us off the the hook quickly, though. We also heard another quick presentation around another program they're running where you prepay $995 - 1695 for a week and have to commit to viewing a presentation, but will get that money credited back if you buy. Those details are a little fuzzy so the number might vary. Seemed like a good deal if we were looking to add DC points through direct buy, but not otherwise.

Oh well, we were outta there in about an hour with $150.
 
Had a presentation in May 2018 and it was by far the most honest and no garbage rep we have ever had. We could not catch him in a single lie or even exaggeration. He was very nice, intelligent, and, no high pressure at all. I believe it was 30k MR points. This guy was very good and almost enjoyable even.

We've been to around 40 presentations over the years, and, quite honestly, I never recall a bad experience.
 
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My most recent visit to Timber Lodge, where I am an unenrolled, developer purchased weeks owner, went to an owner's update wondering about impact of recent events with SPG.
salesman honestly replied it was too soon to know anything more than what had been published. He then proceeded to give me a short pitch regarding enrolling my weeks (also own Newport Coast) -- it was the first time it was done in a way that told me there was value to me to do it. Alas, they were not able to offer free enrollment with no purchase. (Which I had been offered previously by another rep at different location.)
Accepted $100 Amex gift card and enjoyed dinner with it. I think I did actually enjoy my time with him.
 
Our last (and final) presentation was medium pressure - about what I expected. The rep seemed fairly new and I definitely knew more than he expected (oh, the look on his face when I told him that we own 7 timeshares, lol). His big selling point was that if we bought DP we could be assured that we could do things like use points to go on a tour with other "Marriott people". It felt very elitist because he kept mentioning "Marriott people". The closer/finance person was downright hostile. She could not get us out of there fast enough. Upon further reflection, I believe that the original guy's lack of experience caused him to fall back on the lame selling point but in the end it cured us of going on another presentation. It is a waste of time for all of us.
 
Our most recent presentation was in June at Hilton Head. Friendly, straight-shooter sales rep. He understood our situation and tried to pitch a package to incorporate our resale weeks in the DP program. We declined his best offer and collected 15K MRPs.
 
We never go anymore. Probably the last one was Orange Lake, I was wearing a boot on my sprained ankle in a wheelchair and they still wanted to show me the Penthouse for $45,000
The selling point was I could bring my WHOLE family on vacation . Salesman had no answer when I said Why would I want to do that? This was at least 8 years ago.
Silentg
 
I just can't fathom the idea of taking valuable time during vacation to look at or listen to a timeshare salesperson. I'd feel differently if we purchased a package of a couple of nights lodging, at a discounted rate, with a requirement that we attend a sales presentation.

Our time is worth a lot more than $100.00, $200.00, or whatever food stamps a timeshare developer may offer us.
 
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We went to a presentation at OceanWatch 2 weeks ago. The salesman started off great. The first hour was just talking about the system and how we use weeks/points and he gave suggestions on how to improve what we have done, just minor stuff that may or may not help. Then, he says, lets go upstairs to my office and get into why you are really here. We had told him we were really only their because of their incentive of $680 off our bill. If he just offered us a points package because he had to, that would have been fine. But, he offered us a package and told us we were stupid if we didn't take it. When we said no, he went to get his boss. He and his boss then offered us 3 other package, each more overall money than the previous. We eventually had to say, "we've been here for 2 hours, we aren't buying anything today, so show us where our kid is (in the sales office kids area)".
 
We avoid them most times. The last presentation was 2 years ago. Mostly trying to sell us up to the next level with all the things we would gain. Not a lot of pressure but not a lot of truth either. W don’t plan on attending another Marriott presentation anytime soon. Current prices a so laughable I can’t keep a straight face when they quote them. We already own more than we really need, there’s no new locations we want to buy into and there’s no new unit style we would consider upgrading into at any price. Essentially Marriott has nothing to offer us that’s worth shelling out more of my hard earned $$
 
Just booked a sales presentation at Aruba surf club for our stay starting this Sunday. We took an early morning time slot for $175 in dining/ shopping certificates. If we took an afternoon slot they would have added two breakfast buffets...we will never do a mid day presentation.
I will report back on our experience after the presentation next Saturday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
At Grand Ocean this week and was going to attend a presentation to try and get an encore package in Hawaii. My plan for next years family vacation (2 adult sons and possible girl friends) was 10 days Hawaii. That plan blew up quickly. One son is thinking of going back for masters and his girl friend starts rotation in Med school. Other son not sure he wants to travel 12 hours each way and enjoys alternating HHI and Aruba. When the need for the encore package went away so did desire/need for presentation. The other draw was $125 dollars and even though it rained a few days in the afternoon, it wasn't worth it. I am not buying points to enroll my post 2010 weeks so unless i can enroll for a "small" fee, the incentive needs to be 175 or more to go.
 
We often don't go to the presentations either, especially in the states (becuase they are not au fait with the European idiosyncrasies) but we did when we were in Hilton head because the offer was way too good to refuse and the weather forecast was rain/thunderstorms for that day. The young guy who did the pitch was amazing ( I wish i could remember his name)- he knew we didn't want to buy so we had a really good chat about holidays, life, the resorts we'd been to etc then walked out on the hour.
That is how it should be becuase I trusted him
 
heatherw said:
The young guy who did the pitch was amazing ( I wish i could remember his name)- he knew we didn't want to buy so we had a really good chat about holidays, life, the resorts we'd been to etc then walked out on the hour.
That is how it should be becuase I trusted him
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I know from an emotional perspective many would prefer these guys to act more like brand ambassadors than salesmen, but you do realize their job is to sell points. I am in total agreement that the ones who become rude/pushy, etc are doing MVC a disservice, but saying "That is how it should be" in your example is not really what they are being paid to do. I think its important to remember what their job is and selling you something is how they put food on their table, pay for their home, put their kids through college, take vacations themselves, etc, etc. as well as it keeps the MVC machine in business. Thinking that the experience should just be a nice chit chat and not one where they actually try to sell you something is a bit unrealistic in my opinion.

And no, I am not an MVC salesperson....or a salesperson at all for that matter.
 
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Fasttr said:
I know from an emotional perspective many would prefer these guys to act more like brand ambassadors than salesmen, but you do realize their job is to sell points. I am in total agreement that the ones who become rude/pushy, etc are doing MVC a disservice, but saying "That is how it should be" in your example is not really what they are being paid to do. I think its important to remember what their job is and selling you something is how they put food on their table, pay for their home, put their kids through college, take vacations themselves, etc, etc. as well as it keeps the MVC machine in business. Thinking that the experience should just be a nice chit chat and not one where they actually try to sell you something is a bit unrealistic in my opinion.

And no, I am not an MVC salesperson....or a salesperson at all for that matter.
Click to expand...


The last time I did one it was called an ‘owner update’- they said they had so much exciting news to share about new developments. They had someone from concierge service call before we arrived.
Nope- it was actually the hardest sales pitch we’ve had and the first time I felt really uncomfortable with Marriott.
Of course I’m not clueless and knew they would try to sell me something, but it really was just hard sales the the whole time.
I think I was angriest with the misrepresentation- just call it a sales pitch and then I would have known I wasn’t interested.
They tried to cheat me out of rewards points after we sat through almost 2 hours of blah blah- luckily I had the confirming email on my phone so I won that one.
I’ll get my owner updates from tugs from now on.
 
Fasttr said:
I know from an emotional perspective many would prefer these guys to act more like brand ambassadors than salesmen, but you do realize their job is to sell points. I am in total agreement that the ones who become rude/pushy, etc are doing MVC a disservice, but saying "That is how it should be" in your example is not really what they are being paid to do. I think its important to remember what their job is and selling you something is how they put food on their table, pay for their home, put their kids through college, take vacations themselves, etc, etc. as well as it keeps the MVC machine in business. Thinking that the experience should just be a nice chit chat is a bit unrealistic in my opinion.

And no, I am not an MVC salesperson....or a salesperson at all for that matter.
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As Heather says, she trusted him because of his approach.
I know the MVC Sales teams are under huge pressure to close sales and hit targets.
With a background in Sales though, I always found that establishing a level of trust first has definitely given the best chance of getting a deals in the longer term.
And as customers, before buying Resale, we bought 6 Developer weeks none were at our first meeting with one of the Sales people and we rejected various offers until we met a Salesperson we did trust and felt we could believe.
So perhaps we are unusual, but this was the right approach to get us to part with our money.
 
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The best and most informative presentation we have been to has been at the Custom House, Boston. Tim puts 90 minutes worth of information into 60 minutes. He says listening to him is like drinking water out of a fire hose. About 15 to 20 people at a time for 5000 points, he talks, you listen. He talks about Marriott travel packages, Marriott credit cards, points, and the history of each. He then offers a personal meeting to assess your portfolio for an extra 10 or 15,000 points.
 
jtp1947 said:
The best and most informative presentation we have been to has been at the Custom House, Boston. Tim puts 90 minutes worth of information into 60 minutes. He says listening to him is like drinking water out of a fire hose. About 15 to 20 people at a time for 5000 points, he talks, you listen. He talks about Marriott travel packages, Marriott credit cards, points, and the history of each. He then offers a personal meeting to assess your portfolio for an extra 10 or 15,000 points.
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Agreed. His sessions are unique and informative with the concept to hook those actually interested in potentially buying for a follow up one on one session during your same visit. I believe CH is unique in this approach.
 
b2bailey said:
$680 off your bill?!
I've never heard of a Marriott offer that generous.
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This was a pretty last minute decision to go to MOW for 4 days. We booked direct through Marriott, and that was the nightly fee. They offered to pay for 1 night as an incentive to go to the presentation. All of their purchase offers included paying our entire bill, minus food/beverage.
 
Fasttr said:
Agreed. His sessions are unique and informative with the concept to hook those actually interested in potentially buying for a follow up one on one session during your same visit. I believe CH is unique in this approach.
Click to expand...

Last time we were at Fairway Villas, which was 3 years ago, this was the approach they used as well. They served a nice buffet breakfast during the 60 minute overview as well.
 
We went at Frenchman's Cove in April. Not only was the salesman rude I had to tell his manager to check his own attitude and actions as we were multiple weeks owners and paying customers. We had recently enrolled our 2005 week and wanted information on the points system. I even asked about a hybrid package and the salesman refused to discuss it. Rude, rude, rude. We don't usually do presentations and I will probably never get my DH to another. The $175 was a nice perk though. Paid for our dinners at Amalfi.
 
I think we've got it down. Experiencing both good (Maui) & bad (Las Vegas comes to mind), this is our MO. 15,000 MRP - nope, never. 30,000 MRP - OK.... if it's Maui. We greet the salesman with a smile, look him in the eye and introduce ourselves. He looks at his paperwork, sees we are Chairman's Club (so no upgrade there), sees we own Maui.......but where else would we like to go? We smile and say nowhere. We've been everywhere we want to go. Well, wouldn't you like to stay longer than two weeks on Maui? Nope. Two weeks is perfect. Wouldn't we like to bring family? Nope. Done that. Then we tell him how much we've enjoyed our Marriott vacations and how happy we are with what we have. He smiles and we chat about all the places we've been, what we liked and didn't, where he would like to go and any suggestions we have for him. At 40 min. he says, "I'll get my boss, so you can be on your way," and thanks us. Boss comes in and before he can speak, we look him in the eye, smile and tell him what a great salesman he has and what a good job he did. Boss smiles, offers us a four day Hawaii pkg. (no thanks, we're good) asks if there's anything else he can do? Nope, it's been great. Hands us our 30,000 MRP slip, says "have a great day" and we're out at 45 min. Pretty much works every time and we enjoy the conversation. :whooopie:
 
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