Timeshare Presentation

Exactly a year ago, DH and I went on a "free" trip to Honolulu, HI which was a "gift" from a timeshare presentation. Click here for the related blog posting. Last week, we got a letter inviting us to a presentation... from the same timeshare with the same gift!!! Of course we jumped on it and made an appointment.

This timeshare company is called RCI. Their deals are the best we've seen so far. We were actually tempted to buy last time, but they didn't have resorts at places we care for (San Jose and Hong Kong) and plus, money is always better in my pocket than in theirs. So we went early this afternoon, to see if anything changed. With the real estate market crash, I was curious about how it would affect prices.

We let the presenter know that we attended the presentation before. He asked why we didn't buy last time and I gave him two good reasons: it wasn't within our budget and they didn't have resorts in the cities we cared for. This time, they now have *one* location in Hong Kong. The company keeps on growing and acquiring new locations. Then, he asked how much it was 2 years ago, we answered it was in the $8000 figure and we were here to see if price would have dropped. He answered that big hotels don't care about real estates crisis, they will always keep their prices high. (Despite I don't agree on that one, since airfare and hotel prices have dropped significantly, I didn't want to waste too much of his or our time.) So, this presenter was convinced we wouldn't buy and said that if we didn't buy last time, we wouldn't buy this time because prices has gone up. Their cheapest package is now around $9300 for 21,000 points with $254 in annual maintance fees and $189 of transaction fees for each week you exchange (this fee would be $160 if done online). After saying many things to convince us it is a good deal, we answered that times are hard and it is not within our budget, we like our money close to us in this kind of market. Then he says that "software engineers have the easiest job in the Bay Area and [you] can always find another job [in case of a lay off]". We stayed quiet. Then he pulled out his daughter's picture and tell us why we would want to waste his time because this is how he makes money to raise her. We stayed quiet. If you know me, you probably know I have lots of opinions. I think is it just fair for us to shop around and it is unwise to make impulsive purchases, but we stayed quiet. I tried to keep an open mind and see if they dropped their prices, I wouldn't say we intentionally go there for the free trip, because we didn't look for it, they invited us! The presenter already labelled us. He was frustrated and said he'll make sure we'll be on the do not call list. We walked out with two coupons: one for a free trip to Honolulu, HI (2 nights plus air) and another one is a 2-night stay at one of the 5-6 location choices (we'll probably pick Lake Tahoe or Reno).