I Attended a Timeshare Presentation in Hawaii and I did NOT Intend to Buy

Summary: I did get my $100 in cash, I did not buy anything, and yes, I was pressured, but not so much that it was a totally bad experience.

On my recent trip to Waikiki I stopped at one of those little activity / information booths with the signs that say Jeep Rental $5 or Polynesian Cultural Center $10. I asked the guy how to get to Pearl Harbor and he told me “just go up to Kuhio street and hop on the number (??) bus for $2. I was pleased that he told me “the truth” about the cheapest and easiest way to get there so I listened to his spiel. His spiel was this:

You’ve never been to a timeshare presentation before? I always do it. Any time I take a vacation I do three of them the first day and then I get spending money. You get $100 just for listening to a 90 minute to 2 hour presentation.

I was interested, mostly because I’ve never been to one, I’ve heard about them, but I wanted to know the truth, my truth. So, I signed up and dragged my husband and my three year old to it. I did have to initial something that said I make at least $55,000 a year, I have a major credit card, and I haven’t been to a presentation by this company in the last year.

We were picked up by a shuttle and taken to one of the newer buildings in Waikiki. We entered a little room where we had to show a picture ID and a major credit card. We then waited for our own personal salesguy, Jaime, to come and get us. He led us in to a bigger room where literally 20 or 30 other couples were all already talking to their salespeople. We sat at our own table and Jaime asked us questions about our living and vacationing habits. They gave us coffee and tea and juice and small breakfasts of muffins and fruit. After about 20 minutes of this all the salespeople left the room and all us potential buyers listened to a 20 minute or so presentation from a speaker who told us about the company and gave us general facts about timeshares, a lot of it from interaction with audience members who already owned timeshares.

We then went back with our salesguy for another 20 minutes or so while he gave us the pitch about timeshares and how great they are and all the perks and benefits that come along with them. They were trying to sell flexible timeshares where you buy a certain number of points and you can travel at any time and go to a lot of different resorts. There were some interesting benefits like deeply discounted rates on partner hotels for last minute travel.

As we found out, the way you buy (if you can’t pay cash outright) is you actually get a mortgage which is tax deductible. They offer it at 17% interest (!!) but advice you to refinance through your bank or credit union. You pay a set amount ($17,000 low end - $30,000 high end or so is what they quoted us for two weeks every other year) and then you own it forever and can sell it if you want.

After the facts we went to see an example of the hotel that was available in Hawaii. It was nice, an older hotel with nice rooms and a kitchen and a good view. Very small though. They shuttled us back and that’s when the hard sell began.

Jaime gave us typical sales spiel and just kept harping on benefits and how all this would be memories for our son and we could give away our timeshare as a gift one year if we wanted and points can accrue for 4 years if we can’t vacation and yada yada yada . I kept asking for numbers, because at this point we still had no idea what the numbers were. I never intended to buy, but if I had a lot of extra money and not a lot of vacation experience I think I might have become interested at this point. Everything is designed to make you think this is something that will save you big bucks over your vacationing life and make everything easier.

Finally, after we’d been there for 3 hours (remember they said it would be 2 max) we got the numbers. That’s when I said “We are not interested.” They said “what if we reduced your down payment ($800) or your monthly payment ($130). I said “NO.” They said “but why?” I said “I’m just not compelled. It looks like a great setup for someone who is interested, but I’m not.” My salesguy was practically rendered speechless with fury. It was weird and a little disheartening to me. I don’t know if he was on strict commission or what, but I didn’t want to ruin his day, or anyone’s day, like that.

We were ushered off to the “didn’t buy” lady who started asking us all the same questions we were already asked about our income and what we do for a living, etc. I started getting a little frustrated and I told her so. She was surprisingly ineffective - I’m not even sure what the point of her was because she just made us mad, whereas we had not been mad before. I finally said, “Look, we’ve been here for over 3 hours, and it is time to go.” She said “the gifting office is on the 7th floor” and we left. We went to the 7th floor and had to sign our paper and were given a $100 bill. You can also get free or really cheap hawaii activities instead of just cash.

If I had to do it over again, as soon as we came back from the hotel I would have explained to our sales guy that we were there to see what it was all about and we were interested in the numbers and the process but that we were not intending to buy. I think we were kept there for so long because he thought we were going to buy because I was so interested in the process. I also would have stood up at 2 hours and said “It’s time for me to go, where’s my money.”

Several people did buy. Whenever someone did, they popped a tiny bottle of champagne and announced it to the room and we all clapped. Whenever someone didn’t buy, another couple quickly filled their spot and the salesperson did it all over again. I hope they get paid well.

I never did work the numbers to see if the timeshare was worth it or not, but my husband was adamant that it was not worth it. Plus, I like to stay at a different place every time and I like to stay at the hotels, rather than condos. Condos in Hawaii are good for kitchens, but in my opinion they generally don’t offer the fun stuff like water slides and good restaurants and the best locations. My friend has a timeshare in Waikoloa at a beautiful building .. but it is 1/2 mile away from the ocean! My other friend has a time share in Kona and it is right on the water but with no ocean access at all. What’s the point!?

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19 December 2006 | More like this: Lisa's Vacations, Oahu

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