As I said I don't agree with the idea. But the sales people are heavily dependent on commisions and very lil actual wage. To show up and have your appointment, no show/bail on you is demoralizing and bad for paying your living expenses. So apparently the 20.00 is given to the salesperson to help their income
Regardless of whether the sales people need the 20 or not is an issue between the sales folks and the hotel, and is NOT the concern of the customers who pay good money to go to the resorts. And (Ill go out on a limb and guess here) I suspect the sales people have multiple meetings per day, or do sales pitches to groups so the math says that several people per day x $20 USD is a lot more than the average Mexican wage, especially if the sales person closes a deal and gets a decent commission. Members on here have stated what they have paid for memberships in the tens of thousands of dollars so I find it difficult to believe that the sales people *need* your $20 to buy shoes for their kids. Sales is commission based, sink or swim, and I am sure it can be a shitty job, especially peddling a package to people who neither want or maybe cant afford to spend that kind of money up front. Just ranting here and not arguing with you at all marshe but rather directing this to a management group that would never read nor care about my opinion, and we do appreciate your input into all the threads in this forum. I just find it plain old wrong that businesses would resort (no pun intended) to using sleazy, used car salesman underhanded ransom tactics to force people into something they don't want. Sounds like a lot of resorts revert to these tactics now unfortunately. I have been to Barceló Maya twice and not once were we approached for a sales pitch (maybe they don't have the membership program?), but Barceló is a pretty sweet higher end resort that costs a fair amount more than a lot of others, at least last time we went. Anyway, I'm getting worked up for nothing really and will be giving the sales person a Texas sized hard no Letterkenny style to them!
Just my opinion, but I don't think the sales pitch is too hard to avoid if you know what happening. There seems to be three completely different groups of people on this: 1. Guests that aren't that dialed in on timeshare tactics and what pretty much any/every resort will do and say to get you attend a sales presentation. These guest often return from vacation stating the were duped into the pitch by way of this $20 thing, or just a "special tour", or "special breakfast" and wasted half a day. They may even complain they were called several days and harassed for an appointment that they may have inadvertently setup, and then just ditched. 2. Guests that are "in the know" about timeshare and what resorts do, and know to just firmly and clearly say "No Thank you" at the first instance someone is trying to bait you into something. 3. Guest that know they are being offered a timeshare sales meeting, and may want to attend, but first need to know "what perks can I get out of it". They have often done this dance before and are normally good at setting expectations from the beginning and getting out of the presentation as quickly as they can. The guests that have the biggest problems and complaints are the people that are in #1 above. They often feel mislead, and I totally understand how that is the case. They have problems like: multiple phone calls to the room, repeat knocks on the door, and hounded in the lobby. In these cases it would have been much better to just say NO to begin with. But the problem there is that they didn't really understand what it was they said "yes" to until they made some friends and figured it out, and then just decided not to go. My parents always did #3, so that is what made me be a person aware/informed as described in #2. The first few visits the "ladies in red" would sit us down to go over the map, rules, and restaurants. That's their way in and next thing you know you are just being polite and saying yes to something else the next day. It's at this point you just have to be polite and say NO to whatever they are saying. Sadly sometimes you have to repeat yourself. In my experience, once I made if very clear after check-in I was not interested, and I never setup at meeting, I was never bothered again. This went on for my first few trips before I started going on Referrals (where I knew I was going to attend the pitch) My pitches were also good experiences for me and not all that long, because I didn't humor them with the possibility that I was thinking about it. Except when I finally was and bought-in.
You certainly entitlednto your opinion. And Barcelo's are very nice retreats, but a membership with them would not interest us. Some higher end resorts don't seem to push "timeshares' and you have to actually inquire if intersted. Palace rsorts are like that but yet El Dorado sales staff are pretty prominent Screts Silver Sands we were not even cognicent of any me membership club timeshare....but Secrets Maroma the sales people were very present and persistent. So it is hard to figure
To even call it a "timeshare" is misleading. Its not a timeshare. You arent a joint owner of TTR. Its a slightly discounted payment rate upfront, for future visits. Then on top of that you have to pay the AI (All Inclusive) fee when you stay.
Timeshare , membership , pre paid discount blah blah blah ......its a freakin money grabbing racket period !!!! What happens say if Original Resorts decides to declare bankruptcy and declare all memberships nul and void then restart two months later as Reinvented Resorts .....Who is SOL then ?????
Pretty sure they don''t call it that....but unsavvy guests still call all of those "Timeshares" Just stand at the airport and eavesdrop on gringos conversations The word is used repeatedly as a "safeguard code" to their flock E.g. "Stay away from those timeshare assholes" "Don't talk to anyone....cuz they're just gonna try to get to a timeshare talk"
Pretty sure that hasn't happened, and if we were chicken littles worrying about what could wrong along life's journey we wouldn't prolly ever spend any money and be rich and bored. I have witnessed people pour thousands of dollars into slot machines over a few days in Vegas and have nothing to show for it...but its their money and pleasure. I call that SOL!
Here are some more opinions and maybe a fact thrown in ... The $20 ask for money as a deposit for a presentation is not new. We have done the presentation 4 times. And was asked for upfront money that we would get back if we attend as early as 2010. Don’t give them any money. Sorry that is just ludicrous. No reason to. But if you do then I can also give you my PayPal address and you can send me some money too. In each of the presentation we got to a final deal. Twice I worked hard to get the best deal I could. What can I say, I am a pain in the ass. Twice I didn’t even try and just wanted to get out of there. Plus I have learned the details of 10-15 deals over the last 8 years. NEVER, I repeat never, has the price of the deal including the buy in and the AI rate averaged over nights come even close to what I pay on discount sites. Now if you throw in max reimbursement for Referrals and the deals where they also throw in a couple free weeks then it gets close but in EVERY case I would pay more by becoming a premier member. Not less. And keep in mind time value of money. You are paying a lot up front. Ok so the next variable, it is worth it for the perks, some say. So to us it isn’t. The perks are not something that matter to us. I get how for others it may. And that would be a reason to buy in but you are paying more for it, which makes sense, you are getting more. I have heard others justify it by saying well we love TTR and it locks us in to go every year. Uhm, ok, my counter would be why not go every year and just pay less via a discount site? Last years argument was the new TTR will make it worth it and prices will sky rocket. Well we still paid less, way less, on the discount sites or even via Ttrs own sale from November to January, than the deal we negotiated in November. Another argument is they want in on the ground floor as TTR expands to the Dominican Republic and other spots but my economics works where the greater the supply the lower the price. I digress. I could go on and on but I think my opinion on membership is clear
And we have had this debate repeatedly and you fail to see the benefit's until you suddenly find TTR booked and scramble for a referral
