Whether you’re a timeshare owner or simply staying at a timeshare resort property, the chances are close to 100% that you’ll be herded into a timeshare sales presentation. Sometimes they don’t appear to be a sales presentation, but retail timeshare tricksters are sly and will smooth talk you into one, almost every time. It usually happens soon after check in, when the phone in your room rings, and a polite but firmly insistent voice on the other line will attempt to schedule you for one and won’t take no for an answer. Don’t worry if you get roped in to attending a timeshare presentation—it happens to most everyone staying at a timeshare resort property. Here are some tips on how to survive it:
1- Understand the need for researching your options. Timeshare salespeople will offer you a new unit, upgrades on your current ownership, more points to add flexibility to your travel, trade-ins for your timeshare in exchange for a “newer, better, bigger one.” While these may all be things you want to consider, the presentation eliminates your options to do so. The pressure of agreeing to purchase something on the spot deprives you of your right to research that will help you make informed, educated and measured decisions. Hold this thought in your mind throughout the 90 minutes (sometimes more!)
2- Remembering to look beyond the urgency. Timeshare sales presenters are very good at creating a sense of urgency—buy now or forever hold your peace. They can do this by saying the deal they are offering is one-time only; this is false. If you went home politely without buying anything, and 2 months later contacted the resort, the salespeople would jump through the phone lines to offer you the same package. The reason they do presentations at the beginning of the vacation is an attempt to get you to purchase is the contract usually has a cancellation period (Right to Rescission) anywhere from 3-10 days. They don’t want you going home, doing your research and realizing how much you’ve overpaid!
3- When talking to the salesperson, try to call their bluff. Timeshare presenters will often say several half-truths in an attempt to create that urgency. And they’re so self-assured and slippery and persuasive we want to believe them! But anytime you get a sticky feeling that what they’re saying might not be true: ask them to write it into the contract. Asking a salesperson to detail exactly what benefits would be lost by purchasing on the resale market, for example, would force them to itemize the paltry and limited perks that they offer to new owners (such as limo rides to and from the airport—while that sounds great, is it worth the $10,000 inflated price for purchasing a new timeshare vs. the same unit on the resale market?). Especially when you ask them to write it on the contract, they start to backpedal. Try it, it’s almost fun to watch!
Oftentimes, no matter how confident you are in your “no” walking into the presentation, the timeshare salespeople are more confident in getting you to say yes. They do this every day and have come into contact with every kind of response from travelers, likely having a creative rebuttal to each one. But you wouldn’t walk into a real estate agent’s office and purchase a house without doing extensive research, financial comparisons, neighborhood evaluations, etc. before making such a financial commitment, and there is no reason you to buy a timeshare without doing research either. Some final words about when you shouldn’t sign a contract for a new timeshare:
If you are uncomfortable, have questions or concerns at ANY time, don’t sign.
If you are unable to confirm in writing IN THE CONTRACT everything the salesperson has said, don’t sign.
If you are unable to do research in the resale market, don’t sign.
Tell the timeshare presenter any of these reasons, and stick to your guns about it. It IS possible to walk away from a timeshare presentation empty handed. And even if you decide to go back and purchase a timeshare, you deserve to be an informed and educated customer.
