If you have purchased a timeshare then it is likely that you either accepted a “free” week taster; known in the industry as fly buy, or whilst heading for the local street market, you got ambushed by a street tout promising you a myriad of potential free gifts if you simply give up a small amount of time to visit his companies nearby offices. Either way the outcome would have been the same. In most cases it begins with an invitation to tour a resort which allegedly only takes 90 minutes, during which you are of course under no obligation to buy anything. After your tour, if you are lucky you will receive your gift, but instead of winning the star prize, you will be lucky enough to receive a cheap bottle of wine or a branded beach towel! The tour that should have taken 90 minutes probably went on for 5 hours or more, in fact in most cases you can basically write off one day of your holiday.
The warm up
After you arrive at the resort you will be introduced to a resort representative, their main intention is to interrogate you. They may take you for a coffee or a snack, they will act very relaxed and generally get to know you, all in a very low key manner in order to put you at ease. During this time the representative will probe you on the type of holidays you enjoy, where you like to travel, the sort of annual budget you allocate for your holidays and other related questions. This information is required so that later they can use it for what is known within the industry as “financial conditioning”. For example, you may tell them that your annual holiday budget is around £2,000, the representative will then suggest that over the next 10 years, without inflation, you will spend £20,000 on vacations. He refers to this expenditure on several occasions during your meeting, thus you have this figure planted in your mind. This number will figure later when the real sales process begins.
The Tour
By the time the‘getting to know you’ period is over, you will be on first name terms, all very friendly, you will know information about their background and more than likely you will have some kind of common bond, maybe they lived in your city, or their daughter is the same age as yours or their spouse is a Gemini, but there will be something about them that you to which you will relate and remember. You will then be shown around the resort, shown some typical apartments, usually at the top end of what the resort has to offer. A trip around the pool area and maybe if the pool area has a bar, another cup of coffee; please note that the consumption of alcohol during these tours is against the law. The representative will continually refer to the quality of the resort versus the holiday that you are currently vacating, unless of course you are on a fly buy, albeit some resorts will deliberately house their prospective clients in substandard accommodation precisely for this reason. The tour is also necessary to explore a different type of holiday experience although the word “timeshare” will never be used; the favourite description is “holiday ownership”. The representative is not there to sell you anything, so he or she will say they are simply showing you all the features and benefits of holidaying at the resort. Also, try as you might, getting an answer to “how much does this cost?” will be impossible, it will be side stepped at every opportunity.
After trudging around the resort, you will be taken back to the main sales office (deck) which is normally full of other representatives with other prospects, colloquially known in the industry as “ups”. Next the representative will get a blank pad out and start to compare the cost of holidays working with the figures that you had discussed with them earlier. You already said that you were likely to spend £20,000 over the next 10 years, so you have been “financially conditioned” around that figure. Slowly but surely all sorts of figures will end up on this pad with all sorts of equations and promises outlined, this is called a “pencil pitch” and is important because all the veiled promises and other fictitious facts are the property of the representative and will be written on this piece of paper, which you will not be given a copy. At this stage you still have no real idea of what exactly is on offer or how much it will cost.
Next you will no doubt be sat in front of a computer screen and introduced to an exchange programme, such as Resorts Condominium International (RCI) or Interval International (II). Here it will be evidenced that you can travel all over the world for free or at a massive discount. So forget the Costa del Sol, your next holiday could be in the Caribbean! Earlier on during coffee meeting, the representative would have asked you to name the places you would really like to holiday, if you could afford it. What a surprise the computer shows that you can go to all your chosen destinations with ease, how convenient! Once this part of the presentation is complete, you will be escorted back to a desk, where you will meet the “TO”.
The Take Over (TO)
The “TO” is a super salesperson, the representative has done their job, all is friendly between you and them, then the “TO” arrives at the desk. This individual will never take no for an answer, he or she will use all the information that you have given to the representative and attempt to put a package together that will blow your socks off. You said you would spend £20,000 over the next 10 years, the “TO” says “how about I give you 20 years holidays for £15,000” you say “we can’t afford that sort of money” to which the response is “no problem, we can arrange finance today to secure the purchase immediately” and so it goes on. For every objection you can think of, the “TO” will have a counter response. Eventually you will be bulldozed into a corner with no escape and ultimately there will be a very good chance that you will agree the timeshare purchase. On the off chance that you have repelled all offers, it’s still not over.
The Packman
So you stood your ground and said ‘no, no, no’ all the way through, you will then be introduced to yet another salesperson who will try to sell you a “holiday pack” or “trial membership”. This is a product that normally runs for three years, allowing you to holiday during that period and costs far less than the timeshare. If you still refuse the purchase; as a last ditch attempt, you may be offered a heavily discounted holiday at the resort for next year. This is purely presented for two reasons, one to get you back at the resort so that they can try to sell to you again and the other, so that they can take at least take some money from you!
Points to watch for……
Most timeshare resorts sing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to sales techniques, most of which are borrowed from the sales methods used in the USA. Here are some points you need to be aware of:
- Don’t expect the tour to last 90 minutes, allow for much more time, probably the whole day.
- Don’t share too much personal information; remember that what you reveal may well be used later, much to the benefit of the salesperson.
- Most tours require husband and wife or partners to be present. Agree a strategy between you and your partner before you go to the meeting and try to stick with it. Timeshare sales people are trained to “break the pact” between you, so be strong.
- No matter how good it all sounds, give yourself plenty of thinking time. This will not be allowed on the tour, so you need to defer any decision till later, regardless of how much they insist.
- If not mentioned, question how much the annual maintenance fee will be each year. Note that these fees are the biggest thorn in the side of every timeshare owner.
- Remember the over friendly approach and relationship building is part of the sales process, they don’t really love you!
- Make sure you fully understand what you could be getting into, timeshare is an extremely complicated long term commitment and is a legal contract; if you don’t understand, don’t sign it. The same applies to the finance agreement, once committed it will not end until fully paid.
- Beware of false verbal promises, if it’s not in writing it probably untrue.
Analysis
Take your own time to really get to grips with what is on offer, reflect on the fact that you will be entering in to a long term very expensive commitment and if it is too good to be true, it probably is! Remember you need to take off your holiday head and make sure your sensible head is screwed firmly upon your shoulders, sun, sea and a slice of paradise are powerful motivators in steering you into a decision you may well later regret.
Even if it all looks fabulous and is affordable, still take the time to really think about it. Even though in Europe you have by law, a “14 day cooling off period”, don’t sign anything on the day. Say you will think about it overnight, sales people call these types of clients “Be Backs” they also know that more often than not they will not be back.
Finally, as we have said on numerous occasions and we make no apologies for reiterating the fact, timeshare is very easy to get into but very difficult and often extremely expensive to get out, just like a very bad marriage.
Your final thought should be “act in haste, repent at leisure”
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