Timeshare Presentation
I encountered our first Timeshare Presentation About 10 years ago which almost lead to buying a timeshare in Daytona Beach Florida during Bike Week in October. Glad we didn’t!
We were living in Atlanta at the time and we attended a bike show at the Cobb Galleria center. We didn’t even try to run! Even sat through the entire timeshare presentation, RCI if I remember correctly. I don’t remember what they were offering to buy-in, but it didn’t matter we figured we would buy just for the trade weeks to travel with-in the RCI inventory. Have you ever sat through a timeshare presentation?
Our deal was 2 weeks (heart of Bike Week) and our color weeks were red I think? Do they still have color coded weeks in RCI? Anyway as a bonus they offered 3 more weeks of travel to use whenever we wanted, oh the most important thing it was a 2 bedroom condo for $10,000. The salesman said that was great for trading. Awesome, we could trade for any RCI resort 2 bedroom unit with 5 weeks of use anytime (for the first year) after that we were only allowed our “purchased” weeks. They should have had me sign the papers right then! I didn’t know anything about the timeshare industry at the time, naive huh! Have you had a similar experience? Ok, what came out of my salesman’s mouth next was a miracle! Are you ready? He said each week of use you have to pay a $400 maintenance fee and pay an annual cost of $500! I thought to myself $2500 and we have to pay every year for life to go on vacation to the same place (if you couldn’t trade), the same 2 weeks, thats not a vacation. Maybe life got in the way and you can’t use those weeks or the fees continued to increase (which I knew they would) you still are obligated to pay no matter what. There comes into play, my miracle! What saved me was the rambling off of all the fees I had to pay and thinking about the non-flexibility of when and where I could go. Did you freeze up just reading this, I did right in front of the salesman.
Nothing against timeshares and the “Timeshare Presentation” , but whew we are glad we didn’t buy or anytime since. We learned that timeshares have significant start-up costs, maintenance fees, annual fees and can be very difficult to exchange. We wanted complete control of our travel and to eliminate the need for any timeshare purchase!
Vacations are to have fun not think of how you make the 42nd and 43rd week of 2012 work in your schedule right? What is the first thing you do to go on vacation? Pick a great destination, right? Is it toes in the sand on your favorite beach of memories, hiking up to Paintbrush Canyon in the Grand Tetons (awesome by the way), Ephesus in Turkey or Skiing in Switzerland? Now don’t sweat the small stuff you have a private membership full of benefits with no annual dues or exchange fees, no restricted weeks and no blackout dates, giving you year-round access to the world’s top resorts. You’ll also enjoy having your own travel professionals who fulfill your specific requests including exact dates, unit sizes, and the number of travelers. This gives you complete freedom and total control to travel when and where you want. This prestigious service will be yours for a lifetime! Re-Read the highlighted section again to let it sink in.
P.S. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff! No Need To Ever Attend Another Timeshare Presentation
