Hilton Grand Vacations Club sales pitch

[LaRapsodia]

We're headed to WDW on June 8, and we got a discount on our hotel by agreeing to attend a HGVC sales presentation. I'm very excited for our vacation and all the plans are coming together nicely, but the closer it gets the more concerned I am about the presentation. There's several things that are worrying me:

• Time, time, time: The presentation is at 12pm on our first full park day. We'll be at Animal Kingdom at opening, with a plan to catch a shuttle at around 11 back to the DoubleTree (where we're staying), where we can catch another shuttle to Parc Soleil (where the presentation is). I'm worried it'll be a bit tight (I don't know what the penalty is if you're late to the presentation), but I don't want to have to leave the park at 10:30, that seems very early. I'm hoping to make it back to the park by 3pm for our Kilimanjaro Safaris FastPass.
  
• Kids: We'll have our almost 3yo, and our 1 1/2 yo with us. I expect the baby to be napping (I'll probably be carrying him in a wrap to make sure he does), but our toddler will have to go into the babysitting onsite. I would *really* like her to be napping during this break, but don't know if that will be possible in whatever day care they have set up.
• Sales Presentation: I'm concerned about high-pressure sales tactics. I'm not worried that we'll be suckered into buying something because, quite frankly, we don't have any money and couldn't buy anything if we wanted to. I'm just worried it will be uncomfortable and unpleasant. Also, I'm worried it will go over the 90 minutes that it's supposed to last, and they'll be trying to keep us from leaving. I really want to get back to the park on time.

Has anyone else done this, and can tell me what your experience was?

 

[Donna M]

We went to a timeshare pitch in Vegas a while ago. From our experience, the woman was very nice and the tour was fine. At 90 minutes we started insisting that we aren't interested in buying. We had a 10 and 12 yo with us. It took maybe 15 minutes for her to realize we really wanted to go. I was saying the time is up, we have been here long enough, and so on. The hard pitch came when we had to go out and see the 'closer' to get our reward for listening to the pitch. He was horrible, just horrible. He was nasty too, but we listened for a few minutes, seemed like less than 5 minutes, then he let us leave when I guess he realized we had no plans to buy.

 

[akaler2010]

In my experience, these are going to be fairly high pressure. By agreeing to their discount, they basically assure a captive audience. They also set the requirements so that you can only go if they believe you have the money, so they don't typically buy the "we don't have the money" argument. You just have to go in agreeing with your spouse that you are not going to purchase, be friendly but firm. I would not recommend being late because generally in the agreement for the room discount is language about your attendance and that you can owe big $$ if you miss it, etc. Honestly, I would see if you can move your presentation session to be not during nap time.

 

[LaRapsodia]

Thank you both for your replies. I'm glad to know about the "closer" ... forewarned is forearmed, right?

They didn't do any kind of financial screening on us — I was just offered the discount after staying in the Hilton LBV a few months ago (I was there for a conference so work was paying for it.) I already got the hotel discount, so the only thing they have to hold us hostage with is the $100 rebate off a future stay. So if the closer is being nasty and not letting us leave, I have no problem walking out without that.

Thanks again!

 

[kcsqueen]

We did the sales pitch 2 years ago for a cheap vacation to Disney.
We had a pretty good experience. We were up front with the sales guy from the beginning letting him know that we were not interested in buying a timeshare because we already owned a vacation home. My advice is to not ask questions, look at any plans, and stick with no thank you. Once you open the door by any sort of interest even a speck will keep them pushing. About half way through he admitted that he understood that our answer would not change and set his timer so we were there for the remainder of our required 90 minutes. He was honest that he didn't want to waste his time trying to sell to a no go situation. As soon as the 90 minutes were up, we were walking out the door.
Good luck, just stick to your guns and you will be fine.