ElmhurstNick

"Well, we had a long discussion last night and my wife is probably filing for divorce when we get back home, so I really don't think the timeshare fits our upcoming lifestyle."

"Y'all got waterbeds here??"

rbAA

Since they are basically offering you a different type of point currency, which can be converted to either RCI points or IHG Rewards points, at about 15 to 24 cents per, they mention RCI right away after the initial info about travel pattern-annual spend mainly. Just tell them you would never deal with RCI and you can get all the IHG Rewards points you want for .7 cents per anytime. They will show you the video-about 10 minutes-and then bring in the first manager. Repeat your message about RCI/IHG points. They bring in the hard closer "manager" and you repeat the RCI message. They are fairly busy, even at the Myrtle Beach HIVC, considering the time of year/season. They will escort you to the final deal table for the 8 day/7 night offer, where you just say "no" and you're off to the cashier.

Tizzette

If you took the inducement/discount/freebie in exchange for sitting through the timeshare presentation, that 2 hours is the price you pay. You know that when you take the offer.

YoProWithAGoPro

anyone have experience with the Las Vegas property presentation? Hoping I don't get suckered into buying a timeshare too :P

ross11988

I have to do this in May. Right now I have 300,000 IHG points and on average with my travel add another 8K IHG points every week. I want to ask what the point of doing a timeshare with the amount of points I get with my travel, but I know that will just open up discussion.

happychic

I cannot believe I fell for this.

Today I called in to IHG to change a reservation I made at a HIX for later this month. I had made this reservation in hopes of taking advantage of the 2016 Accelerate promotion, but work commitment will bring me abroad instead. After the IHG rep changed my reservation to later this year, she transferred me to their Holiday Inn Vacation Club dept. Like a sucker, I stayed on the line. 20 minutes later, I found myself unknowingly signing up for a timeshare presentation. They never used the word "timeshare", and n00bie me, I had no idea vacation club is another term for "timeshare". I didn't even know IHG has a timeshare department!

Anyway, I will be going to the Las Vegas property probably sometime this summer to attend the presentation. I wish I hadn't signed up for it. Oh well, I might as well make a trip out of it. I'd read through this thread, but if you have any advice for me, I'm all ears and will be checking this thread religiously.

floridatraveler90

Funny you say that because nearly the same situation happened to me. Called to make a change to a reservation and then after that was completed they told me I was eligible for a free vacation or something like that and were going to connect me to the Holiday Inn Club Vacations line. The man on there was about as persistent as I would think one of the salespeople at one of the presentations was. He kept trying to get me to authorize a charge of $250 for a stay at one of the resorts, which would then be refunded to me after I went to the time share presentation. I kept saying no but he kept trying to sell me on this "deal."

lililolo

Exactly same thing happened to me after I called IHG to make a change to a reservation. I am usually good at turning these offers down but this time the guy was very persistent and kept sweetening the deal. He even said if I committed at the time and paid the $199 with the IHG mastercard, he would even throw in 20,000 point. Being a sucker of collecting points, I agreed.

The 20,000 points never materialized, so I called to inquire. Now they said they never promise the 20,000 points and refused to do anything. They told me I can file a complaints by sending an email to [email protected].

I sent the complaints on 1/28/2016 but never heard from them, not even an acknowledgement of the receipt of my email.

I think I should get my 20,000 points that they promised or they should let me cancel the whole thing.

Anybody has any similar experience or advice? What will be an effective email address to write to that would generate a response? Should I file a complaint with the credit card company? Thanks,

Fly1Away1

I had a similar situation but it was with Hilton. They offered me 2 nights for $300 but I had to do the deal during that phone call. So I bought the package but a few days later when it came to do the booking, another rep told me that there's high season and weekend fees. I told them I wasn't aware of that and they said they tape all conversations. So I told them rewind the conversation or I will dispute the whole charge with my credit card company. They back down after that and gave me what I wanted for $300. I would call them directly and tell them to rewind their tape or else you'll dispute the charge as fraud on their part.

loosehead

Apologies for resurrecting this old thread, but I rarely post in here, so looked for most suitable existing thread rather than start a new one.

Had an unsolicited call from a local number yesterday, claiming to be IHG Rewards Club asking me about my most recent stay. I was a little suspicious of it, in current spam-call culture, but he had the date of stay right, and then quoted my points balance. After a couple of vague and inoffensive questions, he then asked me if I wanted to earn 40000 points by doing a 2h tour round a local IHG Holiday Club. I immediately smelled timeshare, and started backing out of the call.

Thoughts after the event are that this could only have been done by someone with access to my IHG Rewards club accounts details, and then using them to cold call for the timeshare campaign. I checked my profile and there's certainly no box ticked for "permission to cold call for sales promotions".

Any one else had these type of calls from within IHG? And would anyone know of an effective and easy way to get IHG to stop using my data for this kind of rather disappointing practice?

Dave Noble

Im think that changing your preferences in your priority club account to unsubscribe to all spam may do it, even though not email contact

darthbimmer

As to the original topic of this thread, how to keep a timeshare pitch short: I gained insight on this recently from a colleague who sold timeshares for several years in a previous career. The main thing to understand is that they're sales people working on commission. As much as they hate not earning a commission, the thing they hate most is wasting their whole day on you and not earning a commission.

If you make it clear right up front that you're simply not going to buy, the sales agent can say goodbye to you quickly and possibly get another opportunity to work on. That is the incentive that makes them accept your "No" answer and let you go early. Don't string them along. Don't say "Well, the reason I won't is..." and then offer objections; they're trained in how to overcome those objections. Don't try to analyze their sales techniques; they make take that as a challenge. Just make it clear that you're simply not a sale and don't embellish. That leads to a best mutually agreeable outcome given the circumstances.

DG206

Sorry to bring up and oldie here but curious on the current climate on these things. I again never usually would do something like this but got talked into a "free" 3 night if we sit through a sales pitch. Only reason I took them up on this because it aligned well with a trip we have planned anyway so booked a long weekend in New Orleans in April and I am a sucker for a good deal.

Any comments on the New Orleans property? I literally have zero interest in anything timeshare related especially HICV's....they portfolio is dismal and literally nowhere I have any intention of wasting any vacation time at routinely outside of an occasional one-off like this.

GlobeTrttr83

I just got the call myself, 3 nights for $249 offered in Orlando or Gatlinburg, TN (we are ATL-based). I almost bit since it sort of aligns with our current travel patterns with the kids - we visited Dollywood and Great Smokey Mtns NP last summer and had a surprisingly good time (Pigeon Forge is a dumpster fire though). I was looking at the HI Club Smokey Mountain Resort and was told that would indeed be the stay would be at the adjacent HI Express. At that point I said No and the offer came down to $199 now, and 20,000 points plus full refund in cash after the sales presentation. Anyway, I passed on this but was wondering if anyone had actually done one from IHG recently and what they were like. How flexible are they to re-booking, etc? Did they actually refund the deposit paid and award points? We'd consider it if the presentation was short and we had other reasons for traveling to the location.

The one and only time I've sat through a pitch was with Hilton in Orlando and got 2 nights at their resort off Palm Pkwy for something like $100 and an hour of my time in December 2015. My wife and I just used it to spend 2 days at Universal and Disney for a weekend and it worked fine for us - presentation was quick, and I was firm and clear that we were a definite NOPE. The salesman was a hard closer-type and was respectful but cold when he said "Okay, we're done" and abandoned us at the elevator lobby without saying thanks, etc. No worries, I got what I wanted out of it and he wasn't going to have any more of his time wasted.

timebomb

I got a call on the same cycle and signed up. I'm nearing Hilton Lifetime Diamond Status. I'm not a huge fan of IHG... but I like cheap/free travel and New Orleans is my favorite city. The cold call wore me down and I signed up.

After confirming my dates, I looked up the hotel and I wasn't impressed. The hotel room I was put in was small and had a window that viewed the wall of the neighboring building. If I'm going to sit through a timeshare, I want to have it worthwhile! I called and upgraded for a small fee to a suite at a different property in New Orleans.

I travel for work and get enough points for 1 or 2 free nights each month. It would never make sense for me to purchase a timeshare. But I'll sit there, hungover, and politely decline. I also plan to start a timer when I enter the room and let them know as soon as their time is up.