Hi all,
My husband and I supposedly are getting free hotel and airline tickets in exchange for listening to a 90 minute presentation at a “travel expo”. I’ve received these invitations before and always tossed them. But now I’m wondering if they might be worth doing.
Does anyone have any experience going to these?
My aunt & uncle did it. They would never do it again though. They had to provide a credit card up front, listen to the presentation, but couldn’t leave at the end. In order to receive their “freebies” they had to wait in line while 4 sales people hardsold every couple ahead of them a timeshare (that’s the presentation by the way). They patiently waited. They told the young woman they weren’t interested, so she excused herself to get the freebies. Except a more experienced sales person came and tried all over again. Once again they politely said no thank you. It was close to 3 hours. Now comes the BAD part! They charge your credit card, and refund it AFTER you’ve taken the trip! My uncle was so upset. No, they did not follow through.
Read the fine print, and be prepared to withstand a heavy sales pitch (for example, for time-share properties).
I would NEVER provide a CCard. At this point in my life, have better ways to spend my time and money.
Wow @justaMom, that sounds terrible. Giving a credit card is a deal breaker for me. Thanks for writing. You talked me out of it!
No if they are asking for a card. I went to one years ago, a condo sales promotion with the promise of a free night at a condo near where my mom lives for listening to the presentation. When it came time for the hard sell, I kept repeating over and over, “I’m putting my twins through college as a single parent.” That did stop the excess pressure, and I let them practice the sales pitch.
The condo place closed near my mom’s so I couldn’t use it, so ended up using the free night at a water park close to home with a D in winter. Not entirely worthless, though I bet most folks would rather just pay rather than put up with the nonsense for a free night.
Well we’ve received these types of offers for years and ignored them. One time long ago we tried it. The pressure to buy was ridiculous. They asked hypothetical questions about where we would want to vacation and then used our answers against us—“I thought you said you wanted to vacation in…”. We managed to “escape” without buying and got our free gift. Problem is we never got around to using it! So that was a waste.
Now, years later, on a whim we signed up for this type of offer again. As it turns out we will be taking advantage of it later this month. This time, we will be staying at the resort (time-share) when we sit through the presentation so we will already be taking advantage of the perk. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m sure we’ll get a hard pressure sell, but I’m hopeful the rest of the time will be a nice little vacation.
@claremontmom please do let us know how it goes!
It sounds like not every place wants a card in advance. That would be a deal breaker. But if they don’t, I’d love to hear more feedback.
Will do @calla1.
Re the credit card thing…Where we are staying is both a hotel and timeshare. So, we actually prepaid for our hotel room at a “special” rate. Then we effectively get our money back (in the way of gift cards for the hotel chain and restaurants we frequent, so I have no concern about wasting it) for sitting through the presentation. So, yes, they already have our credit card, but then it’s a hotel chain that we use all the time, so they always have our credit card! I’m not particularly worried about that.
We did a couple of those timeshare offers when we were younger. The first time worked out well. I’m in sales myself so when we met the sales guy for his pitch, I told him I was also in sales. 10 minutes into his pitch I told him I had zero interest, was absolutely not going to buy anything, but he could continue to waste 2 hours of his time with me if he really wanted to since I’d agreed to it. He shook my hand, said “from one sales guy to another, thanks for being honest” and let us go.
The second time the sales guy was pretty offended and kept trying and trying to sell us stuff. So that kept us hung up for a while before we could escape. Gave up doing the timeshare thing after that.
We do it frequently and have never had a problem- no airline tickets, though, just a reduced rate room (and not through a travel expo, although we did buy a time share vacation at Bass Pro once). You have to read the fine print very carefully. We’ve stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Maui twice, the Hilton in Vegas, the Marriott in San Diego, and A Blue Green property in Branson, MO. I was wary about the Blue Green time share vacation (because it was a company I’ve never heard of) but the cabin was awesome. And usually, when we tell them we have a daughter at a private college, they cut the presentation short. In fact, when the sales rep in Vegas found that out, he didn’t even make us go on the tour. It helps my husband is a lawyer bc you just can’t win an argument with him about what we can and can’t afford in terms of buying a time share.
That being said, I try to stay away from some of the “no name” companies because I’ve heard horror stories about subpar accommodations and really long sales pitches.
We get these freebie emails and phone calls almost everyday from Marriott rewards, and Hilton rewards. I’ve blocked a ton of phone numbers Hilton uses to hock this crap…they use a robo call system that sends a call to my cell phone from an area code near where I live. Every day…sometimes twice a day.
I view these calls right up there with the scam IRS calls I get telling me I’m going to jail soon.
Garbage.
For a while, we used those “stay 5 nights for really low price” invites at fancy Marriotts and Westins in Hawaii. Mr. B got to practice his MBA skills. I have no problem with saying “no” - the Seattle street bums trained me well. We would schedule the 90 min sales pitch to begin at 1 pm, during the time when it is too hot to be on the beach. It worked well, but we always signed up directly at the hotel to come back for the discount stay/sales pitch, so we knew where we would be staying. Never got a single call from Marriott with a sales pitch. The companies peddling trips with airfare are not affiliated with major hotel brands they are peddling.
@Emsmom1 Bluegreen is owned by the Choice hotel group. They have a timeshare resort at Boyne Mountain in Michigan. We stayed there and rented through Choice Hotels. It was very very nice. Choice Hotels owns Comfort Suites among other brands.
Before online days, we accepted a timeshare invitation to “free” dinner while staying on the beach in a vacation area. It was a hard sell all the way, and I do remember the dude asked up front how much we spent on our vacation, because the idea was to adjust our price to something similar. We didn’t really answer nor did we buy anything. He became very angry and hostile that we wouldn’t buy and we were stuck with him on this boat ride back.
If it is anything like that, run for your life. No way would I ever give a credit card number to anyone prior to buying anything, so that alone would be a deal breaker but all we had to do was listen for our “free” dinner.
I would never do this. No freebie is worth it.
I would never do this. No freebie is worth it.
I know some folks who have tried this—once. Don’t know many who have ever done it more than once, no matter what the incentive was. Considering the attractive lures, that tells me a lot!
Being subjected to high pressure sales pitches by desperate sales people is NOT my idea of a good time.
Some states have very specific rules about timeshare sales. Florida does, Hawaii does and not sure about Nevada but probably. Florida’s is 90 minutes but they only count the presentation. If they take you off site by bus or golf cart, doesn’t count until the sales pitch starts.
I was just offered a 4 night stay in Orlando, but i am going to the beach and didn’t want to drive back and forth an hour every day (I have to go to the school for a game and to do some business for my daughter). It would have been worth about $500 in free nights at a hotel. Another time maybe.
I can usually get out of the full press by telling them I’ve done timeshare licensing and I start asking them questions about the advertisement scripts and whether they conform to the federal and state regulations, how the reservations work, if you get to stay in the unit you buy. When they realize I know more than they do, they back off pretty quickly, give me my prize, and I get to leave.
Hey! I’m reporting back. I am surprised to say it was worth it. We enjoyed a nice weekend at a resort—they even greeted us with a bottle of wine, a discount card for local restaurants and upgraded our room to an ocean view. Everyone was friendly and helpful.
The presentation was individually given (I had assumed it would be some big presentation then broken off). We didn’t feel particularly pressured to buy. Of course, they tried to tempt us with “buy now” incentives but we never felt hassled.
I would imagine it varies by the company presenting—and maybe even by site or individuals. But for us it turned out to be a pleasant experience. In case your wondering (or decide to give it a try) this was through Hilton Grand Vacations.
(And, no we didn’t buy.)