An Unexpected Phone Call

Around 20 minutes after getting settled in my room during my stay at the Embassy Suites in Myrtle Beach, I received a call to my room phone and the voicemail was inviting me down to the lobby for discounts and Hilton points. Getting bonus points for doing nothing sounded too good to be true, so naturally, I went to check it out.

I was greeted by Dawn, who works for Hilton Grand Vacations. She informed me that I was eligible for 15,000 points for going to a 90-minute timeshare presentation (as a single person; 2 player households can receive double the amounts mentioned).

When compared to some of the better offers available, I wasn’t impressed. We discussed other options available and eventually settled on 50,000 points for the presentation. My understanding is that if you are staying 3 or more nights, you may be able to receive higher offers upfront, but they were not initially offered to me due to my stay only lasting 2 nights.

She was very friendly and helpful throughout the entire process, and I would recommend anyone who is staying at the Embassy Suites Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort stop and ask her about any available offers.

What Am I Getting Out of These Presentations?

As I mentioned here, I booked an HGV vacation when I booked the stay at the Embassy, but I was informed that taking the in-person offer would not affect my eligibility for that trip or future offers, and having done one in the last 6 months did not disqualify me from this offer.

This means that I will have done 3 timeshare presentations in a 12 month period, for a total cost of $371.13 (and ~5 hours of my time) and received the following:

• 6 nights worth of hotel stays with a Hilton resort.
  • I value the stays separately, with the Myrtle Beach stay valued at $220 per night, and the Vegas stay valued at $160 per night, for a total of $1140. This is based on the alternative that I would choose if I were to book the same stay with cash. I also think this is reasonable for me because if I were given the option of going to the beach or being stuck in the middle of the desert, I’d choose the beach.
• 75,000 Hilton Honors Points
  • I’m valuing this at ~$350, based on the ability to purchase Hilton points on sale for 0.5 cpp, rounding down, and confirming that it is close to Frequent Miler’s reasonable redemption value for Hilton.
• A $200 coupon towards a night at Embassy Suites.
  • I’m valuing this at $150 even though it has a higher face value purely due to the fact that it was a colossal PITA to use. It is also a mail-in rebate with no way to submit info online, which is ridiculous.
• An excuse to use the resort credits that come on the American Express Hilton Aspire Card.
  • There’s no cash value assigned to this, but I generally take 2 beach trips per year with the primary goal of using these credits, so the HGV offers give me a reason to use the credits without having to go out of my way, which I appreciate.

Overall, this means that I receive $1,640 in value, or 442% of the out of pocket cost. Alternatively, if I subtract the cost from the value, I am receiving slightly over $250/hr in value for attending the presentations, which is a rate that I am more than happy with. Note: With my first HGV offer, they offered me 15,000 bonus points through an email if I booked by a certain date. This may happen for the Las Vegas offer also, but that is not factored into my valuation since it isn’t guaranteed.

On a side note, I learned that HGV acquired Bluegreen Vacations, which I found interesting since Choice Hotels and Bluegreen both still advertise their partnership, and Choice points can be earned by doing timeshare presentations or used to pay for a Bluegreen trip.

What Are Timeshare Presentations Like?

In my experience, timeshare presentations follow the following format:

• You arrive at the preview center and check in with a representative. You then go to a separate area with snacks and drinks and wait for the sales representative.
• A sales representative comes up to you, introduces themselves, and begins asking questions about your occupation, reason for the trip, etc.
• You and the sales rep go to a room with everyone who is attending at that time, and sit through a sales presentation that lasts approximately 30 minutes. Expect the presenter to own a timeshare, show you lots of family photos, tell an emotion inducing story, and try to make everyone laugh.
• After the presentation, you tour a timeshare and then sit down 1-on-1 with the sales rep to discuss any other questions, how the timeshare works, and then discuss costs.
• Towards the end of the conversation, they will usually leave to get their manager, who will once again try to tell you that you are being offered a great deal.
• You will then move on to someone who will offer a vacation package, such as a 7 day stay in a timeshare property for ~$1,500. This person will also do a survey about your experience and give you your reward for completing the presentation.
  • These actually are often a good deal, so depending on how often you do cash stays, this may be worth considering.

My Timeshare Presentation Experience

Part 1: The Pleasantries

Soon after checking in and settling in the refreshment area, Jill came out and told me that she would be my sales rep for the day. She was nice, although she seemed caught off-guard by my statement that I use points for hotels, so the “money-saving” aspect of timeshares is useless to me.

It also seemed like every objection was immediately forgotten since she would ask questions that I had already answered or act surprised when I mentioned something again. This could just be her having an off-day, which is understandable, but it seemed as if she was basing the conversation around a preset script that she had, rather than responding to what I was saying.

She also made a particular comment that was missing so much context that it seemed to be intentionally misleading:

• She said that Hilton points expire unless you stay at Hilton hotels often or own a timeshare, and she told me that she has had people buy small timeshare packages specifically to keep points from expiring. I mentioned that I have a Hilton credit card, so my points will stay active regardless, which she said is not true.
  • Specifically, points will expire after 24 months of inactivity and earning points on the card counts. She is technically correct that holding the card alone will not extend points, but if you spend enough to earn at least 1 point, the 24 month countdown restarts, which is less than what’s generally recommended to keep the bank from closing the account altogether, so I thought it went without saying that a cardholder uses their card often enough to keep points from expiring.
  • Regardless, I find it hard to believe that even one person would commit to a timeshare for the purpose of extending points when it’s so easy to keep them alive, let alone multiple people.

Part 2: The Hostility

After I explained that I generally don’t pay cash for hotels, she said “if you have everything figured out, why did you come here” which seemed a bit confrontational in my opinion.

I said that I was there because they asked me to go when I checked into my hotel. She then told me I was wasting people’s time by doing a second timeshare presentation even though I knew I wasn’t going to buy. That ended her sales pitch, and she went to get the manager, Heath.

Heath seemed to agree that I was wasting people’s time, and added that there are many people who would be fired if they didn’t sell anything that day. He asked me to reconsider doing the presentation again if I know I’m not going to buy.

After this, Jill walked me to the desk to wait for the gift/ exit survey and said “it’s down the hall, just like last time”, clearly still annoyed that it wasn’t my first time doing an HGV tour.

Part 3: The Gifting Process

After a few minutes, the sales rep who does the exit survey and finalizes the gift came and greeted me. He asked how it went, and I mentioned the statements that were made towards the end of the process. He agreed that they were unreasonable and made a note of them. We discussed thoughts on timeshares, his experience with HGV, and using points to travel.

He then went over the vacation packages that were available and directly stated that he didn’t care whether or not I purchased the offer. I decided not to get it this time, but overall, he was extremely pleasant to talk to, and it was a very efficient process. As I was walking back to my car, I checked and the points had posted for the presentation, which was much faster than I expected.

Final Thoughts

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the most pleasant people in the process were the 2 people who were offering useful things, while the people who sell timeshares were more confrontational and were visibly annoyed that I wasn’t interested.

This experience is very different when compared to the first time I did an offer with HGV in Myrtle Beach. During that interaction, the salesman was very friendly the entire time, and the manager was also less confrontational than he was this time.

My strategy going forward will be to primarily focus on other chains, such as Bluegreen (Choice), Marriott, Wyndham, and Hyatt. I may also do other HGV tours when there are offers that don’t require a waiting period, but I think I will try to avoid the Myrtle Beach HGV office for a while, just to prevent Hilton from blocking me from future offers.

Mainly, I will try to do 1-2 Bluegreen offers if possible, since I don’t know if they will eventually be fully integrated into HGV, and I value Choice points higher than Hilton due to the potential for high-value redemptions through Strawberry (formerly Nordic Choice). The points that I can earn from these offers will also pair nicely with the 55,000 Choice points that I purchased during the Daily Getaways offer, as well as Wells Fargo points/Citi Thank You points, which can be transferred to Choice at a 1:2 ratio if I need to top off my points balance.