Dreams Los Cabos Vacation Club Presentation
This post is about Dreams Los Cabos Vacation Club Presentation that I attended during my stay in Cabo.
Offer
I booked my wife and my trip to Cabo using a special timeshare presentation offer where I paid $300 for two, four-night stays at an all-inclusive resort. For each trip, we were required to attend a timeshare presentation in exchange for the discounted stay.
I previously discussed my experience with the timeshare presentation at Sandos Cancun.
Vacation Travel Club
At Dreams, the hotel offered a vacation travel club rather than a time share.
As part of the booking process, we had to go through screening to be sure we were married, had credit cards and we had to provide out income. We went through a verification process with the hotel directly before the confirmation was made.
Check In
At check in, we were introduced to the concierge who told us about the presentation requirement and she confirmed that we met all the terms including that we were married, had a credit card and were not traveling with other people. Once we established that, she assigned us an appointment at 8:15 AM on Friday morning for the tour.
The Presentation Experience
On Friday morning, we approached the concierge area at the hotel and were greeted by the initial agent that welcomed us. The agent asked us to take a seat at the tables and the receptionist would be around shortly to register us.
After waiting about five minutes the agent arrived and she again confirmed that we met all the terms of the offer and we had to show her our identification cards and credit card. The agent confirmed we lived at the same address, had a valid credit card and that we met the terms. We had to sign an agreement saying we would be attending the presentation and that it would be 90-minutes and that we were not obligated to buy.
Once we completed that, the actual sales person introduced herself to us and she made conversation with us for a few minutes before she invited us to breakfast with her.
Breakfast
Breakfast was served at the buffet.
While we were eating, the sales person asked us questions about our travel plans for the future and on where we worked and other aspects of our lives.
The sales person informed us that she owns membership in the program. She also explained that she wanted it to be comfortable to us and that she didn’t want us to feel pressured at all during the experience.
Sales Room
Once we finished breakfast, the sales person invited us into the Italian restaurant where they setup a makeshift sales office.
The room features several iPads to display images of the properties as well as stand up signs that listed all the brands of the company.
The sales person informed us that the hotel and the vacation club was owned by Apple Vacations who sold travel packages as well as operated their own properties.
How the Program Works
The agent went through how the program worked. The hotel offers a vacation club where you are guaranteed a discount off of your reservations at the hotel. The package also includes membership in one of the timeshare exchange programs were you paid a $99 fee per-year and a $99 per-booking fee, for which you could get a week at any of the locations for $899. It also included membership in a travel discount program where you received $2,000 credit that could be used towards travel or things such as what you can buy on Amazon.
The hotel membership offered booking in up to 60+ current locations and planned 100 locations over the next few years.
The program guaranteed a minimum of 25% discount off of the published price for a vacation including special sales.
The sales person told us that typically you saved more than 25% and she showed examples where members saved up to 50% off.
The sales person also explained that we could monitor fares on various websites and if it went down, we could send a screen shot and they would refund the difference plus 25% off up to the day of check-in.
The plan included a $200 fee but no large maintenance fees.
Pricing
At that point, we were told the price for the membership.
The initial membership was around $47,000, for which they offered a 25% discount for booking that day. That membership included 25 years of vacations.
When we declined that, they offered one for about $25,000, that removed the highest end properties and had some blackout dates for check-ins.
The sales person offered another option for around $15,000 for a shorter period of time.
All of the options required at least 25% down-payment and if we would make a 50% down payment we would get free taxes and other closing costs for booking that day.
We declined the options and she thanked us and she continued to ask if it made sense to us. We said no as the price was too high for both.
The sales person was friendly and we had a good conversation with her and we did not feel pressured at all.
Analysis
The plan sounded great before the price was discussed. Ie: if it was just $200 a year for the saves with no initial cash outlay, it would all make sense, but when you add a large initial cost for which all you get would be a 25% discount off of the retail or sale prices at the properties it didn’t make sense.
Each package also included one or two “free” weeks at any of the resorts were you would not have to pay to book them.
After we declined the offers, the sales person thanked us and she said they would do an exit survey and then we could get on with our vacation.
Conclusion / Additional Offer
The manager greeted us and he took a survey before offering two additional offers. The first was for five years for $5,000 with one free week. The second offer was for $4,000 for four-years with the one-free week.
We declined both and he thanked us and he wished us a good day.
Another staff member escorted us back to the front desk where we were again asked to fill out a survey.
Once we completed that survey, we were free to leave.
The tour started at 8:15 AM and we were finished about 10:18 AM, so it lasted about two-hours in total, 30 minutes more than the promised 90-minutes.
Summary
Overall we felt that the sales person was polite and we did not feel pressured during the visit. We just felt that the offer did not make sense. To us, it made sense until you added any membership buy-in cost. Once you added that, everything fell apart. We were glad it was not high pressure as often timeshare presentations can last hours and hours. Fortunately this one was on the shorter side.
Have you attended a presentation at Dreams? What were your thoughts?