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The Unexpected Perks of Timeshare Presentations
I spoke about surviving our timeshare presentation in Orlando, even with kids, a few weeks ago. We were able to take a vacation for a fraction of the cost because of the timeshare offer. We ended up with close to $1000 worth of value for an out of pocket cost of $149 plus tax when it was all said and done. That is a substantial discount and that has me wanting to come back for more, whenever I can. But there were a few other perks of timeshare presentations that I wanted to share with you. These were somewhat unexpected pluses of the presentation booking, serendipitous occurrences I guess you could say. They made the trip even more profitable or enjoyable than expected.
My Status Was Honored
I had somewhat expected my Hilton Diamond status to be honored for the booking. Mainly because Hilton Vacations Club is an offshoot from Hilton Hotels. Plus I set up the booking when I had called into the Hilton Honors help line for a completely unrelated issue so it seems like it should work out. Those phone calls are now worth 5,000 points by the way. But I still wasn’t 100% sure that my status would be fully honored. They could treat it like an Expedia booking etc. since Hilton Vacations would be paying reduced rates to the hotel.
They did mention my Diamond status at check in and offered me an upgrade to the executive floor. There was no lounge so it was an upgrade in name only I guess. We were able to get free breakfast for two each day as well because of my status. My wife and son headed down there each day and would just bring back some extra food for me and our daughter. I wouldn’t pay for the continental breakfast so that is a good workaround if you are ever at the Hilton Orlando.
I Earned Points On The Cash Rate
Even though I only paid $149 plus tax for the 3 nights I earned points as if I paid for the room. This was in addition to the 50,000 offer they gave me for attending (after I talked them up from 20,000). I noticed the daily rate at the top of my folio upon checkout but didn’t think much of it. The rate shown was around $150 a night. That was a lot lower than the going rate of $250-$300 that I saw online. I figured it was interesting to see what Hilton Vacations paid for the room and that was about it.
A few days later the points posted on my account, and it was a lot of them. I had expected to get some from our dining and beverage purchases, this isn’t Hyatt after all, but I was met with a surprising windfall of points. What made it even better is that I was able to use my Aspire resort credit on $250 of the $317.16. That means I spent $67.16 “out of pocket” and earned 32,048 Hilton Honors points. I value those points at around $140.
Them giving me points for the room rate did work out perfectly since Hilton has an insane amount of promos going on and I was earning 40 points per dollar. I earned over 18,000 points from getting credit on the room booking. That brings my total haul from the trip up to 68,000 Hilton Honors points when you include the 50,000 they gave me for showing up. Pretty amazing!
Final Thoughts
I think the unexpected perks of timeshare presentations have convinced me that I need to do more of these. Don’t get me wrong the value up front is amazing but I like unexpected cherries on top even better! We got free breakfast from my status, an upgrade (which would be better at other locations) and I earned 18,000 points for the room rate. I ended up getting paid to go to Orlando…you simply can not beat that!
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Searching for the Hilton offer for Hawaii for Kona for $649. Saved the link but now I cannot locate the page. I believe it was for 5 nights Wikki or Kona.
We did a Hilton one last summer and got 100K points, but no upgrade on a rotten room. This was during worst of Pandemic and my wife told them part way through she was not comfortable with some of their people not wearing masks and no shield between us and their sales person. Ended the timeshare right there and got the points.
[…] The Unexpected Perks Of Timeshare Presentations by MtM. Relatively small gains, but better than nothing. […]
We one met a lady who bought a Marriott timeshare near Atlantic City NJ and used it to put her family up during family visits! She bought it on eBay and liked to attend the weekly owner cocktail parties! She would attend every Monday, even though they were obviously intended for the transient owners, not locals who were living offsite!
Genius!
Thank you for this article Mark. I’ve been taking advantage of timeshare offers to vacation for less for awhile, but I haven’t been negotiating for “the best” offer I could get & now am inspired to squeeze more out of the next & all offers that come my way! Thank you for sharing your experience.
Glad to have helped some Nicole! Thanks for reading
I have taken advantage of a couple of presentations, one for points and park tickets in Orlando and the other for a 3 night no charge stay for a resort in Vermont. In both cases I went into the presentation with no intent to buy and in both cases I received the points promised plus 2 one day tickets to Disneyworld and 3 nights at a very good resort in Stowe Vermont. I made arrangements for the presentations on the day we arrived in each city so we didn’t take time away from the rest of our vacation. In each case I received exceptional value for the time I spent listening to the sales presentations.
Wanting to expand discussion about timeshares a little further, I have heard horror stories about timeshare ownership from various media sources. I have been a timeshare owner since the late 80’s. I would do it all over again only for the reasons I mention. The timeshare I own is located 25 minutes from where I live. I have perpetual no charge usage of the resort indoor pool(great when it hits 25 below during the winter)and facilities and my maintenance fee is currently $385.00 annually. That’s a lot cheaper than buying a club membership and since I put my 2 children on the title, they use the resort whenever they come to visit. I think the key here is my resort is local and I can take advantage of most things offered on a daily basis.
Getting back to this article, the author proves that the resorts will throw massive amounts of valuable points for sitting through a presentation. I would do what he did in a heartbeat.
Interesting point about getting one near home to use the facilities. I think that is the first I have ever heard of that but that could be a good reason to grab one for sure. Thanks for sharing Bill.