Last year we entered into a deal at the hotel we stayed at whereby if we paid for one week in advance we would get a free week (65,000 stayer points) in return for attending a 90 minute timeshare presentation sometime during the week we'd paid for. It was a good deal and we could use the free week at any Sheraton hotel worldwide and as they also own a lot of other brands it seemed like we couldn't lose. However, the major obstacle was of course that we knew we would get the hard sell, after all they're not going to give you a free week or so for nothing.
The hotel (and timeshare) in question is the Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa, in Beaver Creek, Colorado, and it has been voted the best ski hotel in the US for the last couple of years so they know that they are selling something pretty special and very nice.
To be honest I was dreading the timeshare presentation, because I know what they can be like, so I spent the evening before scouring the web for any hints and tips. I decided pretty soon that all I really needed was a strategy because everything I read told me that that's how the salesmen work - they have a strategy.
Their strategy is to disarm you by trying to be your friend and making you feel like they care for you. They will act all happy and address you by your first name, tell you they have family connections in the country you live, or are planning to visit sometime soon etc. They want to try to and make you think that they like the things you like so they will ask lots of leading questions that help them build a picture of what you like. All this means that when they try to sell you the time-share you feel that everything they say is true and you can take it all on face value.
So I decided my strategy would be the exact opposite. The first thing we decided was thatSheila would say nothing - if she was asked any questions directly then I would answer. I would appear to be in an abrasive and argumentative mood. I would reveal nothing about myself other than the bare minimum. And I would be totally honest rather than polite.
And so it began... We had arranged the presentation to be at 4:00pm and they were late, so when the sales guy arrived all beaming smiles and friendly chat, I immediately complained about the lack of punctuality and told him that we had another appointment at 5:30 so he had already lost some of his time. He appeared agitated but tried to laugh it off. He tried to ask me some questions about personal things but I asked him to stick to the business in hand. He then launched into a presentation about all the hotels operated by Sheraton around the world, how wonderful they all were, and the potential for staying wherever we wanted to if we joined the SPG family (bought a timeshare). We both intentionally appeared uninterested, told him that we'd already seen the presentation before, and didn't like staying in big hotels anyway. He tried to regain ground by explaining that the hotels were in some amazing locations, but again we said they either in places we had already been or places we wouldn't want to go anyway.
He persevered, he really did, and every time I would knock him back with negative comments about the location or simply the size of the hotel, reminding him that we don't like staying in hotels. This is actually true. We don't like staying in hotels unless there is no alternative, and we would almost always rent an apartment or house for anything more than a couple of nights. Skiing is the only exception. This went on and on with me being negative to his every word and Sheila saying nothing. So we wound up in his office and he started telling us what all this would cost us. I told him that I didn't care what it cost as I had no intention of buying something I didn't want, so unless he could sell me a timeshare in a house in France nothing was going to change. After approaching the problem from a couple of different angles he said he's need to go and speak with his manager and we were left alone in his office.
We had already anticipated this would happen and had agreed that in this situation we would sit in silence as I can't help thinking that these offices are mic'ed up so they can know what your next move might be. After about 15 minutes he arrived with his manager. A miserable looking man who sat down and tried to make light conversation. Again I gave him the cold shoulder. Eventually he gave up, wrote some numbers on a piece of paper and basically threw it at us across the desk saying that was their best offer. I didn't even look at it and told him that whatever was written on it it was irrelevant because I still wasn't interested. He left. The first salesman said that he was beaten and was giving up, saying that it was clear he wasn't going to be able to sell us anything. He threw our certificate with our 65,000 points across the desk and walked out with the bare minimum of farewells. Job done and were out of there in just over 30 minutes!
We checked the certificate with SPG and it is kosher, in fact depending on the hotel we use it at it could be worth as many as 21 nights. So it looks like we will be spending a few nights in a hotel somewhere after all.
