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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Timeshare resorts: Scam or good deal??
Has anyone sat through a timeshare presentation to get an awesome deal on a resort before? I think my mind is spinning and I'm getting delusional and desperate lol. I found an offer at a resort to sit through a 2 hour presentation on why we should buy a timeshare at this particular resort. Not interested. But, we are interested in staying there for $65 each night! So, is it worth it or is it too much trouble? Is it a scam? I am very leary about it. Would it be better to just suck it up and pay a little more somewhere else and not have to deal with the presentation? I apologize if this has been asked before!
Re: Timeshare resorts: Scam or good deal??
If you have the time on your hands, can deal with sales pressure and say "No" repeatedly, it can be fine.
DH and I were invited to a presentation a few years ago and we went - it was supposed to be 90 mins but was almost twice that. They gave us lunch, and a free $10 gas card to get there, we sat around and said no a lot and were passed around to 3 different sales people - I know my travel prices so that helped with their arguements.
We got out of there eventually with a free weekend at a ski resort and 3 free nights in Vegas - mid-week only (which was perfect cause we were getting married there and used our 3 midweek nights before our guests arrived at the hotel our wedding was at). It was worth it for us, but we had the time on our hands.
If it's a presentation while you're at a resort - just make sure you have enough days - you'll probably lose either a whole morning or afternoon to the presentation, and make sure you don't have to pay full price if you don't buy.
i LOVE my timeshare but didn't purchase it in that way (ils have one and other family members so we got one).
if it's worth it to you to spend a few hours saying 'no' then go for it. i agree wiht 2x-great idea to check tripadvisor first.
For the majority of people, timeshares are not a good deal.
DH & I sat through one a few months ago. We were upfront saying we had zero intent on buying. Actually, before it started, we guessed how it would play out & sadly, we were 100% right.
1) Look at our pretty places! OOH! Exciting! Pretty pictures. Where are you from? What do you like? Republican? me too! Oh, wait, you said Democrat.... me too! build fake rapport....
2) Here's the "normal" retail price (um... no, it isn't dingbat. I'm not stupid), but all this can be yours if you pay $17,000 today. Just sign right here...
3) No? Oh, there's my manager. Hang on while I go in the back. Look at more pretty pictures.
4) (5 min break). OMG! We JUST had one place come back on market while I was back there. (yeah.. wow, super duper conincidence, dude). I pulled a few strings since you're such a nice couple. So you can have all that we talked about for only $10,000 right now.
5) Still no? Let me show you more pretty pictures & flawed, er, I mean persuasive statistics. Tell you what, let's take away XYZ perk & it's only $5000 today. Right now. Only good for 30 min.
6) (Two freakin hours later though it was only to be 90 min of crap) Are you sure? I can ONLY offer you this today. If you call tomorrow, it goes back to the retail price. By law, I can only offer this today. (I feel cheeky at this point & question exactly which California real estate law he's referencing as I work in commercial real estate lending. He stumbles around & mumurs something about company policy. I push more clarifying that it is in fact just a company policy but not a law? So why did he saw it was a law? DH elbows me at this point...)
7) Ok, I'm sad you're missing out on this opportunity of a lifetime. Let's take you down to Quality Assurance to wrap things up.
8) Meet with "QA" guy. yeah right. How were things? Was he polite? Oh by the way, here's another 10 min shpeel about more ridiculous, overpriced vacation options. Only $1000 in the next 10 min. Sign here!!!
To give them credit, they're great at preying upon impulsive, non-financially savy people. When some idiot... I mean, new investor signed their 401k away ( yes, they advised us to borrow against our 401k to pay for this crap), they rang bells, threw streamers & opened up a "nice" (read $8) bottle of champagne.
We got a great deal on our timeshare and purchased it during one of those presentations. (It was a foreclosure) We knew what we were looking for and beause it was clear we were interested we didn't have to put up with any of the BS. We trade our week in and use it to travel all over. It works great for us and I couldn't imagine not having it. In addition, we belong to a vacation club associated with the timeshare and get tons of cheap "extra getaway" packages.
We've also sat through other sales pitches to get free stuff. We've never had one go over 30 minutes and have always gotten the free thing we came in for. You just need to be firm and tell them it's not going to work for you, stand up, shake their hand and ask for your coupon. It's really not a big deal.
we are doing our first in june for a TS in NYC. i will report back