Often we post about discounted stays you can get when you agree to attend a timeshare promotion, one piece of advice I give is to never accept the advertised price/offer and always try to get a better deal. One reader asked what sorts of deals you can expect so I thought I’d use this to share readers experiences with getting better than advertised deals. Also remember that nobody that attends a timeshare presentation plans to buy a timeshare, so if you have a hard time saying no it might be best to avoid these offers not matter how attractive they are.
How To Ask For A Better Than Advertised Deal?
My advice is to call in asking for more information and after they provide some more information say that you’re interested but your significant other is not convinced. Some people just prefer to ask if they can throw in anything else or say that a friend was able to get a better deal. At the end of the day do what you feel comfortable doing.
Additional Deals Readers Have Received
- Original offer: $199 + tax for 3 nights at Hilton Grand Vacations Las Vegas/Orlando. You also got 25,000 Hilton points as part of the promotion.
- Room upgrade, $199 rebate after stay and free night certificate good for Las Vegas properties
- $199 rebate after stay, $200 credit towards future stay, 5,000 Hilton points (reduced from 25,000), 2 show tickets, $200 in grand experience dollars
- $200 cash after presentation, $200 credit towards future stay
- $200 cash after presentation, $200 spend a night on us certificate, $150 theme park credit
“Wasn’t the right offer for you”
Was mailed an offer for a comped 3 day 2 night deal with $250 shopping card, but that was months ago.
Any way to get a last minute one in Cancun by calling? What number do I call? I’ll be in Cancun next month. I’ve never done one of these timeshare things before.
Be besieged with offers right from the airport. Highest I’ve ever heard was $500 to a well-heeled couple to attend one
I’m no missJ in telling DoC what to do but touting Timeshares isn’t the way to go. Billions upon billions have been lOst by the little guy. They aren’t a bargain @ $10,000 neither are they @ $1.00.
I’m not exxagerating.
Welcome to DoC – You must be new here.
DoC highly advocates NOT getting a timeshare, just as they don’t recommend holding a balance and paying interest on a CC. But they do recommend getting CC sign up bonuses and free hotel stays for attending a timeshare presentation.
Edit: thought this was a recent comment
No biggie. Dave Ramsey touts a company that gets U out of timeshares……lol.
And he has lost a lawsuit in court and fined, I believe, for touting the company and misleading his followers.
Is churning Hilton timeshare pitches dead?
I was told at my Jan 2020 Hilton timeshare that they were no longer letting people sign up for a presentation that had already attended a Hilton pitch. It could be this was just a tactic during the pitch to make me feel uncomfortable or discourage me from coming again. The supervisor said that starting in Oct 2019 that people were no longer eligible if they have attended in the past.
Just to clarify, I know the terms and conditions give limits to how often you can attend (6 months/12 months), but I think that the system might flag repeat users, and you wouldn’t be able to sign up. We ‘booked’ our package before Oct 2019, even though we attended in Jan 2020.
My question is, has anyone done Hilton timeshares repeated AND was able to receive a new offer after Oct 2019?
yes. Attended Sept 2019. Signed up for new offer in January with the intention of using it in October 2020. With the downturn, I bet they try to get as many people signup as possible
Related a bit. I just noticed terms of IHG offer. They say 3 time lifetime limit.
For Vegas, on the $199 3 night package, I talked into $199 cash back after visit plus the $200 spend a night certificate.
I think the other “$200 cash back” descriptions were people doing rounding, because they specifically noted that the package costs $199 *plus tax* so you’re charged like $215.91, and then you get $199 *exactly* credited back to the card you paid with. So not bad but not nearly as good as it seems since you lose the tax and you have to refund to the same card, often many months later. I doubt they hand you 2 crisp 100 dollar bills at checkout.
Edit: This is for Hilton.
On a separate note, my old parents were tricked into a timeshare years ago and we like to get them out. the time to cancel has expired. What can we do?
Have you tried calling the place where they own? We purchased one a long time ago and I heard that some places have a buyback program. I called our place and they took ours back. We had to pay a fee, of course, but our fee was equal to two years of maintenance fees. It was worth it to us. We are also RCI members and that is paid for two more years. We have two deposits to use and those are still available for us even though we don’t own anymore. So, the timing worked out well for us. Honestly, I was shocked that we were able to get out of it, but you never know until you call.
Holiday Inn Vacation Club offered $199 for a 4-day/3-night stay in a number of their cities, with the amount to be repaid in cash after their “presentation”.
The sales rep on the phone claimed that they were celebrating an anniversary and only extending the offer to 200 Platinum members today. They also mentioned that declining would set me back in the queue to receive another offer for up to two years. Surcharges for holidays were disclosed.
Beyond the $199 deposit refund, 500 IHG points were offered. I hadn’t planned on discussing the Vacation Club, didn’t push it and declined.
Has anyone been able to get them into something serious (say the 40k-50k range) for participating in the tour/introduction process?
500 points!! I received the IHG offer as well. Mine was $99 for 3 nights. I want to go to Cocoa Beach, FL, but only if I can be guaranteed to stay on the beach. Don’t know if they have that power when signing me up. I’ll make the call and find out…
@BT The phone rep didn’t catch my drift when I said “Oh, a welcome amenity?” sarcastically. The rep did say the actual name of the property that would provide the accommodations; YMMV as to whether that promise is kept, but it was supposed to be sent in writing after agreeing to the deal. Hopefully Cocoa Beach works out for you!
The real question is how does one get on the list. I did the Hilton Maui about 6 years ago. Never received another offer.
We attended a Hilton Grand Vacation presentation in Jan 2020 in Orlando. Here’s what we were offered:
Three night stay at a Hilton area hotel. PLUS $199 Cashback after the tour and $200 Spend a Night on Us certificate. We paid $223 but received most or all of it back from the $199 cashback (I don’t recall if they gave us our taxes back so got either $199 back or $223).
It took a few backs and forth’s to get this offer. I leveraged a hesitant spouse and Hilton Diamond status (from Aspire card).
I also convinced them to add free changes to hotel/dates and $150 ‘theme park credit’. The theme park credit came later when I received an email to book during the low season to earn the credit. The credit was issued after the timeshare at the hotel’s concierge desk. The ticket we purchased came from ‘Expedia’ and was not eligible for upgrades/changes.
How was the actual presentation? We have ours scheduled for there in May.
The experience was pretty brutal. We’ve done timeshares with both IHG and Hilton in the past, so I knew what we were in for. My strategy was twofold:
1) Explain that we like to travel to exotic places (Iceland, New Zealand, etc.)
2) That we use points to heavily subsidize our travel costs.
The first guy was nice but used the full two hours, which was a first for us. After you say ‘no’ enough, they get their supervisor to come over for a ‘final’ pitch. The manager went with the stick instead of the carrot and told us we were costing them thousands by taking the promotion, but not signing up. We were honest that we had done timeshare pitches with Hilton before, and this seemed to bother him.
He gave us a few new offers. I was polite, but insistent that we were not purchasing a timeshare. After that, he tried to provide us with the best offer available, which was the best package price already offered and an additional two weeks of vacation anywhere in the world (including Bora Bora) if we signed up. I said no.
Lastly, a third rep comes out to sell you another vacation and lock in the best deal offered by the other salesman. We declined, and this part took less than 5 minutes.
My go-to phases were ‘I’m just here to complete the promotion and get information about the program’ & ‘I’m not buying today even if it was 100% free).
I’m guessing everyone’s experience is different based on the salesman and what they think is the best strategy to get you. Best of luck!
Thank you!
Did our Hilton Presentation in September and found it not too bad, about what I expected. Person knew 10 minutes when I told him I paid for vacation via points that it was a no go. Even said this is going to cost you more. Used up about 1:45 till the 2nd person trying to sell us the package came in, who was a total pita. So two hours total.
Our offer was $230 with taxes or so for Hilton Orlando, with 35K points. Not the best offer but was way better then paying for hotel.