On our April Vegas trip, we were spending several days there and knew we
would need to fill our time with something. If you’ve never been to Vegas
before, while walking around The Strip and especially when you enter/exit a
casino, there are people dressed in all black asking if you want to see a free
show or have a free dinner. These people are employed with various timeshare properties and are
there to rope you into to listening to a presentation and hopefully
purchasing a really expensive time share that you can ever get rid of all
so you can go to a free show or have a free dinner.
Now, I was fully aware of what we were getting ourselves
into and we were both sober (Kenyon doesn’t drink but I assure you I was
sober). We had been asking each of the companies who they were affiliated
with and what freebies they were offering and eventually knew we would sit
through one of these presentations. I attend a timeshare many years ago
which earned me a free trip to Vegas. I was single then and eventually
they realized I wouldn’t be purchasing their timeshare/travel program.
This doesn’t mean that they didn’t try hard to sell it to me and that saying no
was easy.
There are two types of timeshares. One is where you buy into
a specific property that you get for one week a year. If you want to go
to another property, you trade weeks and or “sell” your week to somebody
else. I have heard mostly negative stories on timeshares and usually it
is because of all the extra fees associated with the property. You have
to pay an annual “maintenance fee” which tends to increase at some sort of
yearly/otherwise mark. So, what can feel like a good investment at the
time can snowball into thousands of dollars in the future.
The other type of timeshare is what I call more of a travel
program. It was described to us like Costco. You buy into the
“membership” and then you get to book a week stay at several prosperities for a
reduced cost. Your annual fees/due/membership go towards points, which
can be redeemed for “free” stays since you have the points to use in lieu of
reduced costs.
We bought into the travel program timeshare option, which I prefer
to call it a travel program because as soon as you utter the words timeshare,
everybody and their grandpa want to tell you how stupid you were for buying
into it. Like I said, timeshares get a bad rap. We decided
to attend the presentation with a company called Sapphire Resorts, originating
in Las Vegas at The Jockey Club. After learning more about Sapphire, I do
believe there are better travel programs out there and we might not have picked
the best one. However, of the three Vegas properties, The Jockey Club is
the right on The Strip and would cater best to our needs as this is our
frequent travel destination.
But, like with any timeshare presentation, or so I am told, there
is a lot of information that is glossed over. It is all very high
pressure and much like buying a car, they make it hard to walk away. We
were picked up The Mirage and sent in an Uber to The Jockey Club. They
bring you in the back of the hotel and through a bunch of hallways to a room
where you have to show a major credit card with a valid expiration date.
You are sent to another room to wait with several other couples, all there on
the promise of a free show or dinner. The whole time I kept thinking “we
all look like huge suckers”. The guy giving the presentation wasn’t any
better. He had slicked back hair, was wearing a suit, claimed he was
called in on his day off because we were all so eager to be there, and also
glossed over a bunch of stuff. It was the classic phony crap that you
were sure you wanted no part of.
We were open to learning more so we continued with the
negotiations. It all seemed to sound
okay but it also felt like we were missing something. After much debate and a lot of questions
asked, we decided to go for it and became members of Sapphire Resorts and also
a partner to RCI (Resorts Condominiums Incorporated).
This means we have several properties available to us in the USA,
Mexico, and abroad. So, lots of travel
options to us in the future.
The membership is for the next 45 years. Yep, you read that right. There is no getting out of these things but
you know what…it is what it is and we are going to try and make it work to our
advantage. There are still some things
we are learning that make us question this decisions. But, there is also some positives about it
too. I’ve heard some positive
stories of how people really enjoy their traditional timeshares and their travel
programs. We hope to be one of those
positive and happy stories in the future.
I would love to plan to visit a new location twice a year so we can start to
branch out. We can go to destinations we’ve always wanted to and/or somewhere we never
thought of. This could be something
great for us as we do love to travel.
If you have a timeshare story, I’d love to hear it.
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