I went to one to satisfy the same sort of morbid fascination as well. I really have to hand it to the sales people, it was one of the most incredible sales pitches I've ever seen.
They shuttled us to one of their premier properties where they took us to a sales room and served us breakfast. After a few moments they had everybody gather around a large presentation screen and a salesman who spent the next hour not just going over all the "benefits" of buying a timeshare, but tying that to a scripted and intensely acted "deeply personal", tear jerking story that ranged through decades of his life. The delivery was world class small stage acting -- it was that impressive. After that they paired us all off with a secondary sales guy who took us to a model room and start on the normal high pressure sales tactics.
Our only escape was that we simply lied about our income and looked to be too poor to ever afford anything they had on offer and told them we were only interested in vacationing to places they didn't have a presence. It was quite an intense experience. We left, got our free tickets to a show and were shuttled back to where it all started about 3 hours earlier.
It was absolutely bizarre and I kind of can't believe the entire operation is legal.
I did one of these also, and I absolutely don't regret it. I think I learned more about (ruthless) sales tactics in two hours than I ever have from books or classes.
It was a timeshare tied to a big-name hotel chain, and as far as I could tell they were selling some hotel rooms as timeshare units to finance construction and maintenance. So the deal wasn't good, but it was substantially less of a scam than the stereotype because they had a non-scam business to protect. That, or the guy was so sharp that he really did persuade me quite effectively, and I was only saved by having a a prior of "this is the worst deal imaginable". (Well, that and the Odysseus bit - I decided in advance to refuse no matter how good the offer looked.)
The funniest part of the slightly-less-bad scam was that it enabled them to spend a while talking about how it's "not your parent's timeshare" and "not like those shady offers from the 80s". Which was true I guess, you got nice rooms in many places instead of one rundown house - they were just charging rates that were steep even before the multi-thousand-dollar "maintenance fees" kicked it.
Oh well, the free travel and event tickets were actually a great dollars-per-hour value - as long as you said no.
It's always intriguing to see these things, and how some prey on basic math skills.
My girlfriend's mother dragged us to see a presentation associated with one of the "Flipping" TV shows.
They, of course, wanted to invite you into their program. It was "hugely successful". How successful?
"We've funded $100MM of house purchases for our members! We have nearly 8,000 members across the country!"
Well, $100MM in support sounds awesome for most things. Then you think about it more. And let's be generous to them, say the average house they buy costs $100K. That's 1,000 homes they've funded.
But hang on, they have 8,000 members. And they boast that some of those members have flipped 20+ homes each! That means, wait, less than 1 in 10 of the people who "joined their ($4,995) program" ever flipped a house through them...
That's not the kind of math they like you breaking down at those seminars for the other members during the meal break...
Maybe a little hyperbolic, but I noticed a couple of people talking with the staff, and I got a dirty look or two from them, and then, apparently (since I'd left), they "wanted to address concerns", and that those people were only suffering "insufficient motivation".
I don't know, selling 8,000 people $5,000 weekend seminars seems a better way to make $40M than trying to flip $100M of houses...
I went to a similar presentation in Hawaii for educational purposes and was able to convince my wife and daughter to come along.
It was less impressive than we hoped it would be, but we had a good time by replying leading questions with undesired answers. (“How much do you pay per night for a hotel?” “$150 for our excellent Airbnb!”)
I almost felt bad (but not really) for the sales woman who was obviously wasting her time.
When her boss joined in to take it to the next level, I simply asked him: “we’re going to France this summer, 6 months from now, in the Nice area. Show me which offers I could book today through your timeshare plan.” There was nothing reasonable. He gave up soon after that and we received our $300 tour tickets for free.
All in all not a bad deal, but we won’t do it again.
This was a big scam on the Gold Coast in Australia in the 80s and 90s, and my parents milked it.
First thing you need to know is that any major contract in Australia had a "72 hour cooling off period" in which you could cancel it with no redress or regress.
Want a cheap holiday? Bring your kids to the Gold Coast, look up the best time share resort, Friday morning,sit through the spiel, sign on the line that is dotted.
Through the weekend you have access to all the resort amenities, kayaks, jet skis, pools, etc. All comped.
Monday morning, when you were about to head to the airport? Drop off a letter at the front desk with the contract, canceling it.
Ethical? Probably no less so than they were, so hard to find sympathy.
My parents did the mini-version, just taking advantage for the day.
We went to several in southern England. We kids could play in the pool or whatever, while our parents sat through a presentation for a couple of hours. Then we spent the rest of the day together, before heading home.
Though more recently, "The EU has ruled that any new timeshares or long-term holiday products with contracts of more than a year must be sold with a 14-day cooling-off period and written information – in the buyer's first language – detailing their right to cancel within this period must be provided.", so your scheme would work especially well now.
I’m unfamiliar with Australian contract law, but damn that would be risky in the US (assuming you could even find a jurisdiction with a 72 hour cooling off period).
They shuttled us to one of their premier properties where they took us to a sales room and served us breakfast. After a few moments they had everybody gather around a large presentation screen and a salesman who spent the next hour not just going over all the "benefits" of buying a timeshare, but tying that to a scripted and intensely acted "deeply personal", tear jerking story that ranged through decades of his life. The delivery was world class small stage acting -- it was that impressive. After that they paired us all off with a secondary sales guy who took us to a model room and start on the normal high pressure sales tactics.
Our only escape was that we simply lied about our income and looked to be too poor to ever afford anything they had on offer and told them we were only interested in vacationing to places they didn't have a presence. It was quite an intense experience. We left, got our free tickets to a show and were shuttled back to where it all started about 3 hours earlier.
It was absolutely bizarre and I kind of can't believe the entire operation is legal.