This post was reposted from the WeChat official account of a WeChat group reader, Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun. Original link. ymlulu added a few notes.

About Timeshare Presentations

If you don’t know much about timeshare presentations, or don’t know anything about them at all, please start by reading the article on this site to get the basics. Otherwise, you could easily fall into a big trap and it would not be worth it.

If you want to attend a timeshare presentation, my advice is to meet the following conditions:

  • Have a really good timeshare offer, with cheap lodging, a good location, and lots of points back
  • Be able to hold your ground and not be swayed by the sales pitch
  • Meet the participation requirements for the timeshare presentation, such as income, marital status, etc.

Hilton Timeshare Presentations

Hilton timeshare offers are relatively the easiest to find. You can check directly on the official site:

We’ve also compiled some timeshare offers:

If you see a better offer online or through another channel, it’s best to call customer service, since you may be able to get an even better offer. You can also pretend to book a stay on Hilton’s official site; after the call ends, you’ll be transferred to the timeshare sales department, and simply listening to one offer can earn 500 Hilton points.

If your travel dates aren’t flexible and you can only travel during holidays (including your children’s school breaks), remember that it’s best to buy the package and make the reservation at the same time. If that’s not possible, at least have the sales rep check availability before you buy. Otherwise, you may find out after purchasing that there’s no suitable combination of dates and locations.

Of course, if your travel dates are flexible, you can still find options during the off-season.

My Experience

Last year, Hilton had a timeshare offer for 3 nights for only $150, with 100,000 points included. Although Hilton points are basically hotel Monopoly money, 100,000 points is still about enough for one night at Hilton’s top-tier hotels (a friend booked Conrad Bora Bora this year for 120,000 per night), so I went for the offer.

With a package at this price, of course there weren’t any high-end hotel choices. I picked HOMEWOOD SUITES CARLSBAD near LEGOLAND California. The room itself was just a standard Homewood Suites setup: a one-bedroom suite with a kitchen. The internet speed in the room was pretty fast, and I worked from the room for several days with no problem at all, including meetings. Breakfast was free, but we didn’t go.

The presentation was held at another hotel called HGVClub at MarBrisa, which is also one of Hilton’s timeshares. This timeshare is right next to LEGOLAND and overlooks LEGOLAND.

Let me talk about the presentation experience. The environment was pretty good. The sales rep we met this time was a middle-aged man with a very gentle style. He wasn’t aggressive at all, and he spoke in a calm, easygoing way. But his manager, a Black woman with flashy styling and very long nails, was extremely aggressive. In the middle, we asked a few questions, and she tried to confuse us with arguments full of holes. We listened with polite smiles, while internally thinking she was taking us for fools.

Here’s the key point: unlike Marriott, Hilton timeshare points can be used 16x toward hotel stays. However, when you do the math, redeeming that way is extremely poor value and absolutely does not come close to paying for itself. If you want to calculate it on the spot, you can roughly treat Hilton hotel points as 1:1. Even then, if you redeem for hotels, it may not even cover the timeshare maintenance fee — which, as mentioned in an earlier article, is one of the major traps of timeshares.

In short, just remember the rule: absolutely do not buy. You can still learn about the offer based on your own interests during the presentation, and at the end you can simply use the excuse that you don’t have enough vacation days to decline. If you use other excuses, they’ll keep trying to persuade you. If you really want to buy, check the prices on the timeshare secondary market in advance and compare them with the on-site price.

After the presentation, the gentleman looked a little disappointed, but he still politely escorted us out. At checkout, they offered us another deal, similar to a timeshare member preview, so you can learn more if you’re interested. Compared with booking a hotel directly, this offer was still a good deal, but it wasn’t as good as other timeshare offers. If you take this offer, you’ll need to attend another presentation. Personally, I think if you truly need it, you can take it; otherwise, waiting a year and doing another timeshare deal would be more cost-effective.

The presentation lasts at least 90–120 minutes, and both spouses have to attend. If, like us, you don’t have anyone to help watch the kids, remember to bring headphones, an iPad, and some snacks for them.

Some of My Tips

Besides waiting for offers to arrive by mail or email, how can you actively get timeshare offers? My experience is to register on the websites of major vacation clubs, which makes it easier to be targeted. In particular, Hilton will basically start sending email offers from time to time after you register. Also, if you book hotels on the official site, you can try calling customer service to make the reservation. Hilton Aspire free night redemption requires a phone call, and almost every time I call to book a room, I get transferred to a vacation club offer. Simply listening to the offer can earn points; Hilton should give 500 points. IHG also has cases where calling to change a reservation led to being transferred to a timeshare offer.

Some sales reps are gentle from start to finish and will begin by asking whether we’ve heard of timeshares and what knowledge we have about them. At that point, you can act as if you half-understand. I guess that staying interested is more likely to get you another timeshare offer later. After that, just keep showing interest until the end, and then say that because of some objective reasons you’re not ready to buy yet, but you’re still interested. Of course, these tactics should be adjusted based on the sales rep’s style. If you run into a particularly difficult and aggressive rep, you can also be a bit firmer. Timeshare presentations usually deliberately avoid mentioning the maintenance fee too much, so pay extra attention when listening and don’t get trapped by the pitch.

About the Author

This article was reposted from the WeChat official account of a WeChat group reader, Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun. They’re all original, high-quality articles, so if you’re interested, feel free to follow them.