You can easily save several hundred dollars on activities that way. They either give cash (via debit cards, expect/bargain for $100+) or as credit towards booked activities or discounts towards luau/restaurant etc, or sometimes cash (via debit cards) plus an activity discount card. The discount cards can give significant savings. Tips: (a) when signing up for a presentation, bargain hard; those who sign you up get a commision, so they have their own incentive; press them to tell all the options for the gift; (b) sign up for a afternoon presentation; if you go in the morning then if the sales people let you go early they have to hang around waiting for the next appointment; but in the afternoon they want to go home, so you can get out quicker; (c) indicate to the sales person right away that you are not interested to buy; they see people like that all day long, so they expect that and would not want to waste time. Most would ask indirectly right away. You can get out in 30-40 minutes easily. (How in the world anyone gets convinced to buy timeshare is beyond me.)
I know lots of people would get angry and upset reading the above. Whatever. What people choose to do with their personal time, such as attend or not a timeshare presentation, is their own business. Who are we to judge.
As for me, as an active member of the local community, I am actively against timeshare and timeshare development.
Last edited by Coconut Travel Hawaii; Jan 3, 2010 at 11:30 pm