Trip Review Jul 30 - Aug 4 2021, Overall Good Trip, But We Won't Be Back

Hubs and I have always paid under 200 per night per trip even after reno , once it was under 150 we went 3 times that year .
Cheap prices have always been around if you know where to look.
People even when they pay a lot can be pricks
One night at bash we reserved a table because we had a huge group ..some person came over and told us hey wanted that table and because they had the penthouse we needed to move . We did not and staff backed us up
sad thing is had hey been nice people we would of shared the table we always like making new friends .

I am very sorry the sales rep was a douche canoe to you , did you grab a manager and have the ass hat reprimanded ?
I can't believe they got away with it with out anyone stepping in .
Not including the sales guys the staff is one of the reasons people we go with go back every year .

 

I'm guessing the timeshare pitch can vary, depending who is doing the tour, how long they've been there (how desperate they are I guess?) I've had mixed experiences with the 2 pitches I've sat through. Not exactly a huge sample size, but two very different pitches. On both occasions we were open to offers, but I'm not someone who will just sign up for something if it doesn't sound right. Our first sales pitch in 2016, the price they offered us was way too high. We were getting into hour 3 of the 'presentation' at the sales office, offering us all sorts to sign up, but no significant drop in the actual cost of signing up. That's what matters. Their price was unreasonable at the time. Anyway, we weren't signing, but the sales guy was not letting us go. Constantly going over the same facts and figures, going back to the 'manager's office' for 10 minutes 'to see what he could do' for like, the 100th time. When he'd gone back to the office again, I flagged down one of the other staff pottering around the office, told them I was leaving because the other guy was not taking no for an answer. They told me I couldn't leave and needed to sign some paperwork to say I'd officially declined the offer, and that I would not discuss pricing outside of the room...but needed our official tourer to get that for us. Nope. I'd had enough at that point.

I pulled over the paperwork the sales guy had been scribbling on with a red marker, wrote my signature across the whole page with the marker, handed it to this other person, said "there you go, there's my signature" and I walked out...leaving my husband just stood there (oops). He was too polite to walk out, and waited for the initial sales person to get back. He asked for the official paper that needed signing to say we'd declined the offer, and again this guy was STILL trying to sell my husband the package. My husband just stopped him mid-sentence, said "I'm not allowed to make decisions like this, my wife is in charge of those things, and she just left" and shrugged his shoulders. So, a bit of an ordeal, but sounds nothing like what you went through.

Our second tour with the Premier people, this was our first trip back after the resort opened again in 2018. We hadn't booked via referral, we just actually wanted to do the talk, since we were interested in the package. Got it out the way early (definitely worth it if you are serious about buying in), doing the tour on the first full day. This time we had a laptop with us, and had a spreadsheet with all the costs worked out, so they couldn't bamboozle us with weird % figures, and helped us work out the conversion between MXN, USD and GBP. Anyway, we started this tour with a friendly female salesperson showing us around, then back at the office, soon as we pulled out the laptop with our costs down on there, she roped in (I assume) a more experienced salesperson to help her there. Basically, what they offered us this time made way more sense than the last 'deal' we'd seen. Some discussion around room options, pricing, benefits, and it all lined up well. We signed up there and then, had our room upgraded to one of the Tower ones for the 2 weeks we were there, and that was at no extra cost than the basic room we'd booked via a travel website, so a real bargain for that initial 'premier member' trip.

I think the real reason this sales pitch was so different to our first, we went in there knowing how it would go down, and we hadn't gone there on a mandatory talk from using a referral. I wonder if they send more agressive people in for those using Referrals, as that sounds like a tougher pitch. We also came to this pitch prepared. Let them know right at the outset that 'extras' like the vacation points thing doesn't work in our country, and we had no interest in doing the referral sales thing either. We were just looking for a reasonable offer, based on what equivalent room booking costs us from UK travel sites. I assumed we'd still be paying something on top of that, and was waiting to see how much more they were asking. They actually matched it. Literally matched the price (at the time) of a room from the UK travel site we were using as a reference, once you broke it down into number of nights the package came with at the current Premier rate, plus factoring in the premier package cost itself. That's essentially a free upgrade for the Premier perks. I know the Premier room rate fluctuates, and I'm sure travel site room rates fluctuate too, but at the time what they were offering fit with what we wanted.

I'm sure not everyone has the same experience. Sounds like you got one of the bad apples. If it was me, I'd be mad, but it would not sour me to the whole resort. Premier is essentially a sales company, not the hotel itself. As for change in people, I think that's more to do with the whole pandemic situation right now. It is incredibly difficult for rest of the world to get to TTR right now, jumping through many hoops to be able to travel. For a lot of people, it's not worth it. That means you're left with US and I assume South American guests, changing the dynamic and atmosphere from lack of us laidback Brits and Canadians! We are the nicest and politest (most of the time) people, and I reckon our good behaviour rubs off on everyone else, uplifting the whole atmosphere to the fun, friendly place we all know TTR can be. Fingers crossed we get to come back soon and help bring back that atmosphere that has us all hooked to begin with.

 

Are we overlapping at Pearl? We are there until 9/4.

 

Whoa, now, some of us like I-Hop! They have decent coffee and it's near the office.

 

I did not summon a manager as the guy who insulted me claimed he was a manager. I just wanted to get out of that lounge and back to our vacation. It was our first full day there and I hated that we wasted so much time getting verbally abused in a place we paid money for.

Upon return home, I did file formal complaints with managers in Original and Premier. As I've said before, I don't expect them to do anything about it (other than a cursory apology) but I do want them to know how loyal guests are treated.

 

This is a fair point, but we've already been there twice this year. And besides, we do like Desire much more. We were only going to Temptation because Desire was sold out for the days we wanted. At this point, we can stand to be away, even if we have enjoyed it in the past.

 

Great report, We have experienced the sales pitch it just didn't make sense I was getting my vacations to TTR cheaper then what they could offer. The sales persons couldn't believe it and called me a liar. Then they pulled my vacation and seen I was right. LOL they had nothing else to say...

 

we did that to told them no thanks we can always beat your price . they looked it up , then they offered us a price match in writing . we knocked everything off that we didn't use came out super cheap . so we signed up .. have used the price match 2 times so far so worth it

 

Can I ask what you paid for your membership? And how many nights will they discount or price-match?

 

Ours neither unless attacked or warranted!