A top hotel chain wants to sell me a cheap weekend with the requirement that spouse and I sit through a timeshare pitch. What are the downsides of doing this?
If it’s like the hotel I used to work at; you get 3 days and 2 nights.. so Friday, Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday. You show up and check into the hotel Friday afternoon. Your “30 minute” timeshare tour would be sometime the next day. They say 30 minutes but usually guests would come back complaining it was more like 90m-hours long. With a very heavy we won’t take no for an answer sales pitch. But the guests did get tickets to a local attraction once they were done (here we had a choice of theme parks or a few historic sites).
In our case we weren’t the ones doing the pitch. We just had a deal worked out with the timeshare where we’d take 10 of these guests a night (guaranteed payment even if the guest didn’t show) and they could have an employee sit in our lobby acting as a concierge, so they could trick other guests into signing up for the tours.
I mean, the people got 2 free nights at our hotel and free tickets to a park. You just gotta figure out if the time-sink of the tour/sales pitch is worth it for the stuff.
Just know that they will do whatever they can to make it seem good for you. Everybody goes into it planning to say no but obviously people end up saying yes or they wouldn't keep offering these trips
My friend who’s trying to get out of timeshare now said the booze was strong and before they knew they signed. Now stuck.
For me, I’d rather pay full price but have every minute of my vacation. I don’t like to be on someone else’s clock. And mind you, they often bus you somewhere so you can’t just walk out and go back to the pool…
If it’s like the hotel I used to work at; you get 3 days and 2 nights.. so Friday, Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday. You show up and check into the hotel Friday afternoon. Your “30 minute” timeshare tour would be sometime the next day. They say 30 minutes but usually guests would come back complaining it was more like 90m-hours long. With a very heavy we won’t take no for an answer sales pitch. But the guests did get tickets to a local attraction once they were done (here we had a choice of theme parks or a few historic sites).
In our case we weren’t the ones doing the pitch. We just had a deal worked out with the timeshare where we’d take 10 of these guests a night (guaranteed payment even if the guest didn’t show) and they could have an employee sit in our lobby acting as a concierge, so they could trick other guests into signing up for the tours.
I mean, the people got 2 free nights at our hotel and free tickets to a park. You just gotta figure out if the time-sink of the tour/sales pitch is worth it for the stuff.
Here is my recent experience
Just know that they will do whatever they can to make it seem good for you. Everybody goes into it planning to say no but obviously people end up saying yes or they wouldn't keep offering these trips
My friend who’s trying to get out of timeshare now said the booze was strong and before they knew they signed. Now stuck. For me, I’d rather pay full price but have every minute of my vacation. I don’t like to be on someone else’s clock. And mind you, they often bus you somewhere so you can’t just walk out and go back to the pool…
My wife and I do these all the time. Easy way to get a cheap vacation.
research this sub along with the various hotel sub for more information.