"Remember when timeshares had class?"

[odaddy Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close odaddy]

Marriott and Disney have been very fair in the presentations.

[Icc5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Icc5]

Past 20+ years

We have been to several presentations in the past 20 years and I would have to say they were fine more towards 20 years ago and then they suddenly became mostly high pressure. I learned to look at my watch and say times up. Along the way we actually have had 2 or 3 times that they were actually interesting, sometimes even helpful. Usually we know much more than the salesman and educate them as they move their lips.
Owning 4 places and buying 2 resale puts a stop to most of them.
Bart

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

We have been to quite a few presentations over the years and most have been not too bad. We kind of know what we are getting in to and also know what our tollerance levels are and are ok with letting them know when those tollerance levels have been reached. lol
The only thing that gets to me a bit is when they keep passing you to closer after closer in hopes of selling you a smaller package of some sort. At this point I usually tell then that "we are done here!".
The one time that I did loose my cool was at the Grand Myan where the woman started to insult us when it became obvious we would not buy and said that she thought we were their kind of peopke and that she thought that we could afford to be there.I quickly told her that we were not her kind of people at all and that it was time that she turned us loose before I began yelling very loudly about the scaming shrews we were being forced to deal with.
We went to a presentation this year at Massanutten where the salesman was ver y classy and also very low key (no pressure) at all. He showed us around the place, brought us to breakfast, offered us a couple of repo units at actually a reasonable price (w2e didn't buy) then gave my wife some golf tips in the parking lot and signed us out..

[Hostelling Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hostelling]

and then there was Westgate .

Ditto. I refuse to step foot into a Westgate again.

[PHILL12 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PHILL12]

We have been around timesharing since 1983 and never found timesharing to be a class act. There are many nice timeshares and then there are very low tier resorts that should have never been timeshare resorts.
The underhanded way of doing business by the resorts with their hard sales practice and now the scam artist has always made timesharing a classless act.

I could see the timesharing resorts cut way back and only the very good resorts remain and this would be the best thing to happen for timesharing.

I posted many years ago that the down turn in timesharing was when units were being rented out by exchange companies and now owners. This killed the reason for timshares and that was to use or exchange and that was it. We bought to use every year or go other places and see the world for a week each year and nothing more. Now that owners trying to make a buck by renting and slashing their prices the timeshare world is almost dead!

PHILL12

[TomandRobin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close TomandRobin]

Some timeshares do have class. Most do not.

We have taken plenty of TS tours over the past 10 years. Disney, Marriott and Westin have always been good. Most were very casual and never any insults and hard sales pressure.

Now some, like Westgate, could kiss my where the sun don't shine.

[bjones9942 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bjones9942]

I remember all the horror stories on the television and in the newspaper during the late '70s to mid 80's about high-pressure timeshare sales and scams. Put the fear of God into me and I stayed away from timeshares until last year! I bought off eBay and still refuse to go to any presentations. I've never associated timeshares with 'class'.

[rikkis_playpen Diamond Club Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close rikkis_playpen]

Perhaps my initial wording on this was wrong..

I think staying in a timeshare itself is more often than not an elegant vacation which exudes class and luxury!

It's only the infestation of developers that brings it down to a low level..

Resorts that have managed to minimize the developer presence seem to have figured out the answer!