This week there have been two particularly poignant reviews on TripAdvisor:
The first about Wyndham Grand Desert in Las Vegas, called “Great rooms with space, brace for a hard timeshare sell at check in”.
As the poster states in their very first line, “The title pretty much says it all.”
The reviewer stayed in a two bedroom unit and says the hotel and facilities were nice, but as we have reported before, the first unsettling feelings come at the point of check-in. Compared to a regular hotel, fuss-free process, on promotional holidays it always seems to be a long, drawn out process where their aim is to fact find about you and pin you down to attending a presentation, as you have agreed! At Wyndham there were “lots of hoops to get thru at check in to get there. Brace for a pleasant first check-in to get your room key, at which point they ferry you over to an “activities desk” to get your parking pass (which is a con to get you to listen to their timeshare sales pitch).”
That isn’t the end of the unsettlement, then comes the main complaints we hear from every consumer; “you will need to refuse no less than 3 times before they finally relinquish with the onslaught. After attempt #2, the woman trying to sell me stepped back and whispered to another rep and under her breath I could hear her commenting about me, it wasn’t necessarily rude just awkward as I could clearly hear them conversing just steps in front of me.” One doesn’t understand how rudeness will ever turn a no into a yes, or for positive word of mouth.
The second review was for Occidental at Xcaret Destination in Mexico.
They questioned why the resort was, “only 3 stars?” But quickly realised, “Well, we were bothered by ‘hosts’ who sole purpose seemed to be to get us to buy into their “Holiday Club”. Despite Mexican law recently introduced to stop holiday (time share in old money) sales, we were asked day after day to attend a short presentation without any pressure. In the end we went along and were promised no more than 90 minutes including breakfast. As we had already eaten, we assumed that it would be considerably less than 90 minutes. How wrong were were!”
The poster continues; “We were bamboozled by stats and figures, marched to a room on the other side of the resort and were shown their top room. Then we were taken back across the resort and offered more amazing facts. In the end there was an offer to buy for $60,000 or if we sign to day we could have it for a bargain of $30,000 plus a commission fee of $412 ish that was non-refundable. You had to bring a passport and credit card with you. this was for a raffle, well, no, actually it was to make sure you had the capability to pay the settlement fee.” The reviewer here is spot-on, many timeshare resorts will “qualify” couples, using this as one of the main points to check they will have money on the day to pay a deposit and that they have a reasonable credit score to ensure that finance is an option, which they can facilitate for the balance of payment.
“No thank you,” boasts the reviewer, but “unfortunately the rep wasn’t taking no for an answer and we couldn’t get away for over 2 hours. We were told of the fantastic family of over 30,000 people who have bought the holiday package, well, congratulations but it isn’t for everyone. The couple in the room next to us had to endure over 3 hours of non-stop pressure.”
What a shame their final line read; “Would we visit Mexico again? YES. Would we use this hotel or any of its sister hotels/resorts again? NO. A beautiful place which is spoilt by greedy sales people picking on the vulnerable.”
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk