🏝️ If a deal sounds too good ...
Beware resort tours and promoters
More Beware Resort Tours from being a Smart Travel Consumer.
I’ve got a few gray hairs (if there are any left). I hadn’t traveled much when I was younger. But I committed myself to vacationing as I got older.
The challenge was always how to get a high-quality room and food on a budget. I solved that myself when I formed Vacation Steal with WHOLESALE vacations. Our bookings feature the same deep discount savings you see online, but without the surprises. There are NO Blackout dates … NO Tours or Sales Presentations … and NO Hidden Fees.
I tried many things before starting Vacation Steal. It can be hard to ignore incredible vacation offers online. Once you click one such ad, social media algorithms show you more … and more. A feeding frenzy starts where you become a piece of prime red meat in a pool of Great White Resort Marketing Sharks.
Be very careful with the deals that promise 4 and 5 star resorts and low prices or even “free” stays with survey. Once you dig in, you discover a required 60 minute resort tour … aka sales presentation … aka Vacation Kiss of Death.
The tours are a necessity because property developers don’t just build hotel rooms for public bookings via travel sites and agents. They also build buildings with units for purchase or long-term rental. These timeshare, vacation club, or fractional ownership units are sold by resort tour.
Unfortunately the reality of tours is different from the sexy ad of a cheap vacation. Often you end up paying a lot more, getting a lot less, and spending a good part of the day with them.
Today’s resort tours are the direct descendant of timeshare sales from the last century and their calculated hardball sales tactics. It’s spawned a constellation of businesses from social media marketers to distressed inventory bookers to sales room operators that promote these seemingly amazing deals. They are experts in the psychology and business of getting your lead, selling a high-end product, and doing whatever it takes to get the sale and their commission.
The resort tour difficulties start before the actual visit. They don’t just offer cheap rooms to anyone. Often you must be qualified - by income, age, occupation, other resort tours you’ve already been on, etc. If married, your spouse must be on the tour too. You have to sign a long agreement for all of this.
The vacation is hardly the bargain they advertise after you add in registration, booking, and resort fees. You may end up staying in different and less than desirable hotels from the advertised resort.
The resort tour may just be 60 minutes as advertised. But it’s a small part of your visit. The tour may be at a different location than the resort you’re staying at and where the sales presentation happens. Then there is your initial check-in, breakfast or a meal with your rep, sales presentation, and a sales discussion with your rep … his manager … and then a director. Add up all the walking, waiting, and numerous meetings. The full visit often takes 3-4 hours.
Lastly, consider the psychological toll and pressure of a long day and an intensive, multi-layered, and complicated sales presentation. It’s even worse than buying a car. You can’t be sent anything or take it home to think about it. Their special offers are good for that day only.
Perhaps you can handle it and just enjoy a or several Margaritas when you return to the hotel. But do you want to subject your partner and kids to the experience if they have to be with you for the duration? At a minimum it definitely takes the chill out of your vacation headspace for the day.
Some resort tours are ok. But others aren’t. It’s a serious risk.
I’m a marketing and sales professional. So I’m the crazy nut who thinks they’re fun. I’m fascinated by their strategy and tactics. I’ve sat through some 25 timeshare and vacation club tours. I’ll share my bad experiences here like:
The drug cartel fraud.
The resort tour from hell with a side of bacon. It was an amazing 5 star hotel with a bacon tower. It went downhill from there, from booking a lesser room to a 6 hour sales ordeal.
You’re a smart travel consumer. You know - If it looks too good to be true … it almost always is. So be careful out there!