Just wanted to share my experience at Vidanta. We are currently on vacation at the Grand Mayan at Nuevello Vallarta. We already own a gold Hilton timeshare 2 BR. We were roped into the timeshare presentation for an upgrade to ocean side view. Well we did it. The breakfast was good then we went on a long tour. Then come the sales pitch.
They try to offer a timeshare of 110k for 2 bedroom suite in the grand collection to us. We said no. Then come the obligatory, let me get the manager. The manager then offered us a deal for 20k for 1BR @ 3weeks which we turned down. then he came back and said, "we will buy your hilton timeshare at a loss and give u 9k for it". Which brings it down to 11k. We then bargained a bit and got it down to 10k. They then throw in the "celebration week" when the circque theme opens and says that the best deal they could give. It all sounded pretty good with the Vida weeks and the VIDA vacation/dollars. Plus they say that you only have to pay the "usage fee" when you book the resort which with us likely not going on vacation soon with 2 infants, sounds pretty good. They then throw in the enbassador program. We then proceeded to sign the contract after wasting the whole day at the sales office
But after reading the contract more in detail, I think I will cancel (I just signed yesterday). here are my reasoning
1. The contract is pretty vague. Unlike a purchasing contract in the US where it clearly states how much you pay and what you own, they simply gave you a bunch of generic paperwork stating that you will own the week stated on the "cover page". Now the cover page doesn't exist. There is a separate sheet of paper stating you you own 1 registered week for the 10 years and 2 registered weeks x 100 years (with 9 renewals) but no where is the 10k written on the same page. So.... my gut tells me they either are sloppy with paperwork or that contract really sucks
2. The contract is for the private owners resort club. So you don't own any deed. so theorectically, if the company goes under, you don't get anything. At least with my hilton, I own a minute 0.00001% of the deed so if they go bankrupt, at least I get 0.00001% of whoever buys the property
3. As a club, the contract states you can gift your membership to families but there is no mentioning of the ability to sell or transfer it to others. (not that you can make much money in the resale market anyways, but at least you get some of the investment back.)
4. During the sales pitch, they keep mentioning that you get one VIDA week on top of the 3 weeks you purchased (basically a SFX week if their explanation is correct) that you get with the registered week free of charge and comes with just the exchange fee. However, I do not see any of that mentioned in the contract. In googling VIDA week, it turns out it is a SFX promo where they would double you week when you deposit it in SFX. However that would mean you pay the booking fee ($899) and then deposit into SFX. Then you have to pay SFX 399 for the exchange fee for using the extra week and another 399 for the other week. That wasn't quite the math the sales rep quoted. The extra VIDA week was one of the reasons we bought but we didn't realize you have to deposit the week first (basically an extra $899) Plus once deposit into SFX, you cant get back into a Mayan property through it so you essentially just get 2 SFX week instead of the 1 Mayan and 1 SFX week they promised.
5. They used a very nebulous term in the contract for the "collections" series of timeshare/hotels. We were under the impression that these series of hotel were part of the property we stayed at. Not so, it only includes mayan palace properties of which there is none in the complex. While we were explained grand mayan was not part of the deal, the way they explained it makes it sound like there is a bliss or mayan palace in the complex we currently stay at. This however is my fault as I should have checked
6. While the sales team really have corrected their language and sale pitch (reading the old posts it looks like they were more aggressive in the past), there is some pitfall in the 10 year vs 100year. Someone had mentioned that the 10 year contract requires you to pay the booking every year, I didn't see that in the contract. It does appear that the 10 year contract is really for the purchase of 1 week total. You are required to pay the booking fee for that mandatory week (899) and you get 10 extra bonus week total over the 10 year period (1 per year). While they mentioned that this one mandatory week was for the "celebration week" at cirque, no where does it specify that that is the resort you will stay at. In fact if I read the contract correctly, they only have to give you the Mayan palace level hotels. While technically the sales teams are correct, the contract doesn't back them up or protect us. Also these are "bonus weeks" in the contract and is subject to availability and they don't have to honor it if they claim there is no availability. For the 100 year contract, They do stipulate that you have to pay one year worth of booking at the time of the 10 year renewal. Someone here mentioned that they will essentially build bigger timeshares and phase out the lower tier ones and essentially force you to upgrade at 10 years. I can see that happening as the language only allows you to book into the tiers of hotel/timeshare that is consider "sister equivalents". As such I worry about it. The sales team keeps saying the 10 year renewal is to remodel the property so they stay "fresh". But the contract states that this is a renewal fee and the money doesn't necessarily go into refurbishing the property
7. After reviewing how much I spent through RCI to get our Grand Mayan two bedroom, I felt like I actually got a down grade in timeshare. We pay about 1000 a year for hilton hoa/fees. That nets us 5000 points on RCI when we did the conversion. I only spent 3400 points on my 2 br grand mayan (which is in the tier higher than what I bought with "the collections" series of timeshare). So I am paying 10k more and giving up my timeshare to have a 1 BR instead? Granted I get 3 weeks for 10 years and 2 weeks for 90years after. However I would have to pay $900 to book each week for 1 BR so I think I am actually getting less. Yes I know there is the 1/3 rule with RCI but at least I am not stuck vacationing in mexico mainly. (If I have to go through SFX, the cost would be similar to my 2 BR timeshare fees)
8. The Vidavacation dollar is pretty worthless as others have mentioned. Can only use a portion of the money on purchases and the purchases are all inflated in price
9. Ambassadors program sounds like a good deal getting money back for referrals. But after much thought, I feel like you are just participating in a ponzi scheme by becoming their ambassadors
10. To be fair, their prices sound reasonable (for developer timeshare) if you want to stay at their lower tiered properties but after much thought, compared to what we already have with the Hilton, I don't think we are getting that much more with additional 10k and giving up our hilton time share. So I am going back to the sales office to rescind the contract. Wish me luck
They try to offer a timeshare of 110k for 2 bedroom suite in the grand collection to us. We said no. Then come the obligatory, let me get the manager. The manager then offered us a deal for 20k for 1BR @ 3weeks which we turned down. then he came back and said, "we will buy your hilton timeshare at a loss and give u 9k for it". Which brings it down to 11k. We then bargained a bit and got it down to 10k. They then throw in the "celebration week" when the circque theme opens and says that the best deal they could give. It all sounded pretty good with the Vida weeks and the VIDA vacation/dollars. Plus they say that you only have to pay the "usage fee" when you book the resort which with us likely not going on vacation soon with 2 infants, sounds pretty good. They then throw in the enbassador program. We then proceeded to sign the contract after wasting the whole day at the sales office
But after reading the contract more in detail, I think I will cancel (I just signed yesterday). here are my reasoning
1. The contract is pretty vague. Unlike a purchasing contract in the US where it clearly states how much you pay and what you own, they simply gave you a bunch of generic paperwork stating that you will own the week stated on the "cover page". Now the cover page doesn't exist. There is a separate sheet of paper stating you you own 1 registered week for the 10 years and 2 registered weeks x 100 years (with 9 renewals) but no where is the 10k written on the same page. So.... my gut tells me they either are sloppy with paperwork or that contract really sucks
2. The contract is for the private owners resort club. So you don't own any deed. so theorectically, if the company goes under, you don't get anything. At least with my hilton, I own a minute 0.00001% of the deed so if they go bankrupt, at least I get 0.00001% of whoever buys the property
3. As a club, the contract states you can gift your membership to families but there is no mentioning of the ability to sell or transfer it to others. (not that you can make much money in the resale market anyways, but at least you get some of the investment back.)
4. During the sales pitch, they keep mentioning that you get one VIDA week on top of the 3 weeks you purchased (basically a SFX week if their explanation is correct) that you get with the registered week free of charge and comes with just the exchange fee. However, I do not see any of that mentioned in the contract. In googling VIDA week, it turns out it is a SFX promo where they would double you week when you deposit it in SFX. However that would mean you pay the booking fee ($899) and then deposit into SFX. Then you have to pay SFX 399 for the exchange fee for using the extra week and another 399 for the other week. That wasn't quite the math the sales rep quoted. The extra VIDA week was one of the reasons we bought but we didn't realize you have to deposit the week first (basically an extra $899) Plus once deposit into SFX, you cant get back into a Mayan property through it so you essentially just get 2 SFX week instead of the 1 Mayan and 1 SFX week they promised.
5. They used a very nebulous term in the contract for the "collections" series of timeshare/hotels. We were under the impression that these series of hotel were part of the property we stayed at. Not so, it only includes mayan palace properties of which there is none in the complex. While we were explained grand mayan was not part of the deal, the way they explained it makes it sound like there is a bliss or mayan palace in the complex we currently stay at. This however is my fault as I should have checked
6. While the sales team really have corrected their language and sale pitch (reading the old posts it looks like they were more aggressive in the past), there is some pitfall in the 10 year vs 100year. Someone had mentioned that the 10 year contract requires you to pay the booking every year, I didn't see that in the contract. It does appear that the 10 year contract is really for the purchase of 1 week total. You are required to pay the booking fee for that mandatory week (899) and you get 10 extra bonus week total over the 10 year period (1 per year). While they mentioned that this one mandatory week was for the "celebration week" at cirque, no where does it specify that that is the resort you will stay at. In fact if I read the contract correctly, they only have to give you the Mayan palace level hotels. While technically the sales teams are correct, the contract doesn't back them up or protect us. Also these are "bonus weeks" in the contract and is subject to availability and they don't have to honor it if they claim there is no availability. For the 100 year contract, They do stipulate that you have to pay one year worth of booking at the time of the 10 year renewal. Someone here mentioned that they will essentially build bigger timeshares and phase out the lower tier ones and essentially force you to upgrade at 10 years. I can see that happening as the language only allows you to book into the tiers of hotel/timeshare that is consider "sister equivalents". As such I worry about it. The sales team keeps saying the 10 year renewal is to remodel the property so they stay "fresh". But the contract states that this is a renewal fee and the money doesn't necessarily go into refurbishing the property
7. After reviewing how much I spent through RCI to get our Grand Mayan two bedroom, I felt like I actually got a down grade in timeshare. We pay about 1000 a year for hilton hoa/fees. That nets us 5000 points on RCI when we did the conversion. I only spent 3400 points on my 2 br grand mayan (which is in the tier higher than what I bought with "the collections" series of timeshare). So I am paying 10k more and giving up my timeshare to have a 1 BR instead? Granted I get 3 weeks for 10 years and 2 weeks for 90years after. However I would have to pay $900 to book each week for 1 BR so I think I am actually getting less. Yes I know there is the 1/3 rule with RCI but at least I am not stuck vacationing in mexico mainly. (If I have to go through SFX, the cost would be similar to my 2 BR timeshare fees)
8. The Vidavacation dollar is pretty worthless as others have mentioned. Can only use a portion of the money on purchases and the purchases are all inflated in price
9. Ambassadors program sounds like a good deal getting money back for referrals. But after much thought, I feel like you are just participating in a ponzi scheme by becoming their ambassadors
10. To be fair, their prices sound reasonable (for developer timeshare) if you want to stay at their lower tiered properties but after much thought, compared to what we already have with the Hilton, I don't think we are getting that much more with additional 10k and giving up our hilton time share. So I am going back to the sales office to rescind the contract. Wish me luck
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