Grandview Las Vegas – Is It Worth It?
If you attend a timeshare presentation at the Grandview at Las Vegas resort, and decide to purchase a timeshare, your price will be different depending on what stage of the sales pitch you ultimately gave in. If you decided to buy while you were still with the initial salesperson, you can expect to pay anywhere between $10-$30,000, depending on the size of the room, years you have the right to use (whether it is every year, every other, every third, etc.), and depending on your negotiation skills. If you held out until you were passed off to another, upper-level salesperson, you can probably get a timeshare for $5-$10,000, again depending on the room size and if you have the right to use the timeshare each year. And finally, if you are able to hold out until the last person, the one who is supposed to give you your show tickets/check and send you on your merry way, you may be able to get out of there with a timeshare for under $7,000. Is it worth it?
- First, let me make the point that timeshare is only good if you plan to take vacations. Vacation ownership does nothing for people that do not plan to take trips.
- Second, if you want to purchase a timeshare, and are convinced it is something you will actually use and get enjoyment out of, buy on the resale market. Buying directly from the developers at a timeshare presentation is not a good way to get a good deal on vacation ownership. The final price the salesperson gives you, before they actually allow you to leave, is still going to be much higher than you would be able to buy that same timeshare for on the resale market.
- Third, it is never a good idea to purchase timeshare and use financing to pay for it; which is another reason why the timeshare resale market is appealing to so many. Making payments on a timeshare means you are going to end up paying high interest rates, and prolonging the amount of time before you are actually “in the black” with your vacations.
Below are some calculations to give you a better idea of how long it will take for you to see some return on your investment depending on how much you initially paid for your timeshare, also taking into consideration maintenance fees and RCI annual dues. This are calculations for RCI weeks members, points are not taken into account. Basically these numbers compare what you would spend on the room outside of RCI vs. owning the timeshare week through RCI, and how long it would take you to “pay off” the timeshare, i.e. point at which all you are spending each year is the maintenance fees and RCI membership costs.
Calculations for the Grandview at Las Vegas timeshare, for a 2 bedroom unit with right to use every year, using the current value for a night at the Grandview $300 for the entire two bedroom suite per night, as posted on TripAdvisor. A stay is defined at 7 days and 6 nights. Estimates do not include interest payments made on principal balance.
Purchased for $25,000 – Maintenance fees $500 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$25,000 = 13.9 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $1800/week
13.9 years of maintenance fees +RCI Membership = $8187.10
In between 15-19 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $20,000 – Maintenance fees $500 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$20,000 = 11.1 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $1800/week
11.1 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $6537.90
In between 14-16 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $15,000 – Maintenance fees $500 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$15,000 = 8.3 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $1800/week
8.3 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $4888.70
In between 10-12 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $10,000 – Maintenance fees $500 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$10,000 = 5.6 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $1800/week
5.6 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $3298.40
In between 6-8 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $5,000 – Maintenance fees $500 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$5,000 = 2.8 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $1800/week
2.8 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $1649.20
In between 2-4 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $1,000 – Maintenance fees $500 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year =
$1000 = 0.5 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $1800/week
0.5 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $294.50
During your first year you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Calculations for the Grandview at Las Vegas timeshare, for a 1 bedroom unit with right to use every year, using the current value for a night at the Grandview $150 for the one bedroom suite per night, as posted on TripAdvisor. A stay is defined at 7 days and 6 nights. Estimates do not include interest payments made on principal balance.
Purchased for $25,000 – Maintenance fees $300 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$25,000 = 27.8 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $900/week
27.8 years of maintenance fees +RCI Membership = $10,814.20
In between 35-40 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $20,000 – Maintenance fees $300 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$20,000 = 22.2 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $900/week
22.2 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $8635.80
In between 28-32 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $15,000 – Maintenance fees $300 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$15,000 = 16.7 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $900/week
16.7 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $6496.30
In between 20-24 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $10,000 – Maintenance fees $300 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$10,000 = 11.1 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $900/week
11.1 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $4317.09
In between 14-16 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $5,000 – Maintenance fees $300 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year -
$5,000 = 5.5 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $900/week
5.5 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $2139.50
In between 6-8 years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
Purchased for $1,000 – Maintenance fees $300 a year – RCI Membership $89 a year =
$1000 = 1.1 years of 1 week vacations at the Grandview Las Vegas @ $900/week
1.1 years of maintenance fees + RCI Membership = $427.90
During your first one to two years you will be “in the black” and only paying for maintenance fees/RCI membership costs for your vacation.
95 Responses to “Grandview Las Vegas – Is It Worth It?”
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We went to this "invitation" to be a "homeowner" and literally were held hostage! It was a nightmare and such a scam! Dont believe that you are getting a great deal even when they tell you that the difference is that you get a "warranty deed" to a "vacation Home". If its such a great deal then why do you have limits on when you can visit? Its a TIMESHARE in every aspect of the word!
We were told that this is a new hotel where property developers want to increase the visitors. At the end of presentation we felt as if they will not allow us to go back if we don’t buy. I even felt that manager was going to punch me when I said final NO. Next time, I will rather pay full prices for tickets than go to a presentation.
What an harrowing experience!!!
We are timeshare owners and have found this way to vacation absolutely wonderful! The timeshares are soooo much nicer than hotels and with the money my family spent at hotels, this way just makes so much more financial sense. People can always "punch holes" in anything they want, especially if they are not using what they bought. If they don't use it then who's fault is it that they bought it? I am a CPA and I believe this was a great purchase and will hedge future inflation for many years to come!
We bought the week plus the points and absolultely love it. We can use our week there or anywhere else and use our points for minivacations. I think if you “haggle” right back at them you can get a fair deal which is what we did. We were done paying for ours withing 5yrs.
Yipes! Well as long as you are happy.
I purchased "The covitted" week 27, 4th of July, for a one bedroom for $13,900. I did not hold out until the end though and I am wondering if it is worth it? I also got the two extra weeks through RCI. I guess I am one of the suckers too? I was buying because of it's trading power. We won't go there very often.
You got a great deal
We held out till the end and got ours for $5000. It is only a once every 3 years and we paid more than resale. However, I still think we did the right thing. As a once every 3 year, we only pay $100 a year in maintenance. Also, because we bought through the resort, we were given "bonus weeks" every year. These are only good for Grandview and can't be reliably exchanged, but we've already used them more than once. So for the reduced Maintenance Fee, we're still going every year. We also just exchanged our regular week for a stay at the Hilton Grand Vacations on the Strip. So the exchange value of Grandview is actually quite good.
We purchased at Grandview in 2005. We have not returned to the Grandview yet. Our reason for purchasing was for the exchanges. A quality resort located in Las Vegas has great trading power. As our children were growing up we traveled in a motorhome using an exchange program with campgrounds. The timeshare was the next step for us. Buying direct from the location made sense in that you do get 2 extra weeks. The chart on this site is OK, but factor in 2 more weeks and the "in the black" timeframe shorten. We use all 3 weeks every year. Some trips with family some without. Mexico, Hawaii, Florida, China and many other places.
You must understand one simple fact. If you do not plan to travel at least 3 weeks a year – DO NOT BUY.
We recently stayed at the Luxor hotel in Vegas and were offered 'free show tickets and vvouchers' to attend at 2 hour presentation. I t was our first time in Vegas and we were very naive so went along. It turned out to be 8 hours out of our vacation!! We were practicaly held hostage but a very pushy salesman who kept telling us the advantages of the property. We were taken out to see the Grandview and yes it was pretty but not worth the inital $40,000 they quoted us! The salesman was just no taking no for an answer I tried to expalin that it was 3am in Ireland and I couldnt get through to the bank and I wasnt siging any legal documents without speaking to someone.
He then called a 'director' who brought the price down to $10,000 for every 2nd year use. I again said I was not interested and at that stage I really just wanted to go – it had taken an entire day from our holiday. And they hold onto your 'free stuff' until the very end so you get nothing if you walk out (and we had piad $50 'non refundable deposit' for them)
I was very upset and shaken by this entire experience. I was bullied and harrassed and taken 20mins out in the Nevada desert to their salesroom. I had travelled al the way from Ireland and have watched too many episodes of CSI and didnt feel at all comfortable with the entire thing, I KNOW that we entered into it voluntarily but the true extent of the presentation, the fact that it would go on all day and the fact that we were driven 20mins away from Vegas Strip was not explained to us. These peoples hould be ashamed of themselves. They are a disgrace
I completely agree! My wife and I had the same horrible experience! Shame on you Grandview for your sales tactics!
Suckers from Australia here too…got one over by their smooth talking sales reps on the strip, and promised far more than we actually received. Original price was $40k….then $27k…..then $15k….then $10k….at this stage I told them I felt pressured and harrassed and simply wanted to leave. I thought we were leaving, got palmed off to another lady who told us we could have it for $3k. All I could say to them was “I would be a fool to buy property in another country, without knowing much about the market, let alone laws”. Be careful guys, and we actually saw the tickets they offered us for around the same price….and would have saved us half a day. This scheme sucks big time. We are also told that the strip would ‘expand’ this direction in no time. Seriously ?? WTF half the strip is completely dead, and riddled with dirty, decrepid buildings….the sahara closing pretty much nailed shut that end of the strip at the moment. It would take serious investment and money to do what they told us. Further more, the lady spent 3 hours telling us how wonderful it was….couldn’t give me a straight answer as to why SHE hadn’t taken the timeshare herself.
After reading many of these comments, I don’t feel near so foolish. We too were taken in by the offer of “free stuff” and after 6 grueling hours. where they would not even leave my wife and I alone for 5 minutes to discuss the situation, we were tired, hungry and worn down also realizing that we were missing valuable time of our 4 days in Las Vegas. I have to admit these people should work for the CIA as they sure have the technique for breaking you down. We have now been trying desperately to rid ourselves of this burden that seems to take away from our annual vacation budget. We have tried to rent out our week but have been told that RCI blocks the booking and even 8 months in advance….WHAT A COMPLETE SCAM.
I bought timeshare at this hotel for 1 bedroom in Aug 2008. I paid around $15,000 not including maintenance fee. I get 1 week through the timeshare and 2 extra weeks if I dont use my timeshare in Las Vegas. Grandview paid RCI fee for the first year. The salesperson who helped me was very nice. We did get a ride in her car to see the property. However, I wish I had said No and not bought the timeshare. If you let Grandview rent your room for week, you pay 30% of the rent to them. I dont want to keep it for more than a year. Just trying to figure out how to sell it off.
We attended the sales presentation. Was told that it would take 2-3 hrs, but it turned out to be 4 hour ordeal. We kept an open mind and went along with the sales presentation. We knew that they were going to try hard to get you to hook you in. The sales person kept saying that we own this place and renting it for $199 for a week, but never mentioned anything about purchasing it until the end. We stood our ground until the end and was offered $5000. No matter how good the deal sounded, we were not going to commit to anything without doing further researches and consulting with others. These people are trying to get those people to buy in on impulse. If you don't stand your ground, you may be sucked in, unless you have already done some researches and are planning to own a timeshare. Sales people are nice, but couldn't trust a sales guy who wears more gold pieces on the fingers than a professional rap musician. A couple of alarm bells went off for me. How can they sell to public without checking on individual credits? How can they talk $$ when you are not even ready to talk $$?
Overall, If you do go to the presentation, keep an open mind. Stand your ground. Do your homework.
Hey there, I think I am sucked in to their impulsive presentation last week and signed in to buy a two week time share at Grand View at Las Vegas. The sales woman was old enough to trust her and sign in. But I feel I am desceived to buy a timeshare with too much money which is unworthy of the money ~16000 for two bedroom and 4 extra week vacation from RCI.
Can any one tell me how to revoke or cancel and get my money back?, it is 4 days since I signed-in.
Pls Help…
you didn’t get the worst deal, they shot me a $27,200 deal for 2 bedroom and 4 weeks with RCI, and 98,000 points (can trade the one week in vegas and user the 98,000 points at other RCI hotels), but still have the 4 weeks, (can use 4 weeks this year and 4 weeks next year). I cancelled within the midnight by the 5th day after execution which is Nevada law. The 4 weeks with RCI, if you look at the back of the certificate, was “limited as to time and location”,,,not what they perported….but if you could take advantage of those locations, and at your purchase price, you could make it work…..
don, it still would not have been worth it. Everyone with RCI gets what is called Last Call. You can get an extra week anytime not just 4 but all you want. Last Call is “limited as to time and location” that’s what it is. The Grandview deal let’s you buy those for $20 or $30 less than regular RCI but big deal – another of their marketing fibs.
Hello JoJo,
I don't think you were "sucked" into anything…you were there long enough to take into account the benefits and most likely you weighed the pros and cons in your mind before you made your decision.
Bottom line, if you bought a 2 bedroom and received the additional weeks, that tells me that you probably vacation that much…Otherwise you might have bought a smaller package.
Again, here is the key to timeshare and for it to be worthwhile to you….YOU HAVE TO USE IT, we're talking about vacations, not an unpleasant surgery or something.
Remember, you start asking questions or sharing with other people…remember, opinions are like ***holes, everyone has them… Just ask yourself if you'll use it and if you can afford it and if you like nice places…If you answer Yes to those q's then it's for you.
Good luck
Jojo
There is a Nevada law that gives you 5 days to cancel the deal. Contact the Verification person with whom you dealt with and ask for the Cancellation department. We cancelled today and it was a Revocation Form that we faxed in. If you cancel after the 5 days you may not get your deposit back but you will get out of the deal.
My husband and I bought a 1 room timeshare at the Grandview with 2 extra vacation weeks a year for 10,000 in 2004. They had not even started construction on the building yet and we have yet to go back there to see what it is that we've bought. But, we've been to Vail, Colorado; Cancun, Mexico; Myrtle Beach, SC; and Tybee Island in Savannah. I think it's worth it if you use it. We probably paid way too much for it and we're still paying $300 a year, but in the long run we'll get much more use out of it than we put into it. It's only money. You can always make more.
Just remember their trick is to give you a puke price (41,000) and then split it up into puke pieces so that you get the impression that its cheap. well, its not. its just a smaller peec of crap from a big pie of crap.
don't sign.
if you are reading this after the fact, send in your cancellation even if its after the five days. just cancel.
Problem number one with you who thought you were suckered into this is that you didn't really understand it. Two: You went to a presentation for an RCI property. There is a trading company out there called Interval International which is far better than RCI.
Timeshares are the only way to vacation now a days. They save you money, they are deeded for your lifetime, your kids, grandkids etc. So you are ensuring them a lifetime of great vacations.
There are some main rules of thumb when purchasing…
1. Buy high demand (you get the most trading power)
2. Buy close to home (that way you can use it more often and you can always drive and use your week if times get tough and you don't have the money to fly)
3.Buy somewhere you like (if you wouldn't stay there, don't buy there)
I visited the Luxor as well and was presented with the offer
for a cruise , gambling tokens and free shows.
It was a huge nightmare and held hostage for only 2.5 HOURS I feel lucky compared to others. Our lovely sales woman named Edee
was very nicely persistant and very insulting. She said she had never been shut down and not allowed to present her presentation.
I felt honored!!! I loved the Bible in the back seat of the car trick. Wow this woman must be honest she has a Bible. LOL
I am wondering what I am in for If I do take the cruise that they gave us a certificate for?
I can just imagine being held hostage for 3 days on a cruise ship being guilted into buying. They probably won't let us eat any food and tie us down and torture us at sea until we give in.
Anyone ever actually taken the cruise??? Really would like to know, thank you, David.
If I forgot to mention, no we did not buy. This was my first time for a presentation. Wow it was like being trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone!!!!!
For us the female was wearing “I Luv Jesus” badges, as if that is supposed to mean “I don’t lie, I am nice, trust me”.
At end of presentation when we said No, she was on verge of tears, which was a nice tactic to make us feel guilty. Never in the presentation we made any promise to buy. She even sniped at us commenting that she hoped we enjoyed our free breakfast and lunch. Oh yes, we enjoyed them by spending half day out of our 3 days vacation!!
I told her that I am not ready to make decision and I would like to find out more before putting money, but she was not listening and called her manager. They were trying to make us commit on $ 36,0000 by allowing us 10 minutes to say yes.
My wife and I felt horrible but we stood our ground and took a sigh of relief when we came out of their office.
my wife and i went to vegas last oct we went to the grandview
time share presentation we knew what we were in for,
i am a salesman myself (not in time share or real estate)
but i know the game,i went to get free tickets and gaming
tokens for the 40 bucks i paid i got my moneys worth
i expected 3hrs or more to be spent on their behalf to
try and make the sale so i was not surprised.
if i traveled every year i would have bought,but i
dont so if you you go you must stick to these rules
1 do not buy if you are only there for tickets
2 dont be surprised when 4 different people try to
sell you this (this is how the game is played)
3 never spend more than you can afford because
you will never get it back in $$$$$ (the
vacations will be more than worth it if you
take them)
4 last but not least have fun its vegas
everyone is trying to get a hustle is
vegas so why shouldnt you go get
some free tickets or a time share
but make your mind up first
David and others that had to deal with the Grandview…
my dude and I went to walk around the Luxor and we were approached by clerk into putting $99 down (to take advantage of three days two nights weekend on them)and when we decide to come back within 18 mths we will get back $100 as long as we visit the Grandview…I asked if there were hidden agendas or extra fees and such and she said no trick or gimmicks just visit the grandview…so I'm starting to feel like we signed up for something that we might end up wasting a nice day or regretting…
How did you get out of it or say no? I hate pressure and annoying sales peeps…David? anybody? advice?
Is no really enough to them? Will they break our legs? lol
Legally, they cannot sell you anything if you are drunk! A rep told me this himself.
My husband was diagnosed with a recurrance of cancer one day before a short trip to Vegas. We went to the presentation for the tickets, but let ourselves get sucked into the presentation. We were promised it would be easy to exchange our weeks on short notice, so we could travel to California for his treatment, and that there would even be two extra weeks. The sales woman even presented herself as a cancer survivor. All of this turned out to be lies and bull$%^&.
My husband has since passed away, and I am stuck with this Grand obligation. Took me a year to finally book an acceptable vacation, just weeks before I would have lost it.
Bob, the CPA, is right…we are responsible for falling for all this. We should have known there is no longer such thing as business ethics. My only comfort is knowing that there is a special place in hell for these predators.
Thanks Lynn for the info on how to cancel. Although the price we got of 17.9K for a double w/ 4 extra weeks per year seemed fair, all things considered….we still decided not to go through with it seeing how there are more pressing things we need to do with our money right now, than spend it on expensive vacations.
We really don't go for a week at a time when we do because I'm self-employed and receive a double-hit financially whenever I take off from work. So we opt for more frequent, shorter 3-day jaunts and don't set our sights on overseas destinations, which do require more time than we have right now.
Figuring we probably wouldn't really use 6 full weeks a year, and would only end up trying to rent them or end up giving them away or losing them, we decided to cancel 4 days from when we attended the presentation. If you travel alot, this could be the deal for you, but if not, then there are other ways of saving money on airfare and hotels.
For example, Hotwire.com got us a very nice spacious and clean, comfortable full-efficiency room at Candlewood Suites in Vegas for only $61 per night, with regular-sized fridge, dishwasher, fully outfitted with nice cookware and table ware, 2-burner cooktop, microwave, and single bowl kitchen sink complete with disposal. Their laundry facilities were available on every floor and were free to use for hotel guests. The phone was also free for local calls. They even had a selection of DVD movies and an assortment of audio CDs you could check out for free to play on the DVD player in your room. They also have an very nice exercise room complete with various work-out machines which my wife really appreciated. And with plenty of free parking for the rental car we also got at a remarkable price from Avis through Hotwire($25 / day for 3 days), we didn't have to fork out a whole lot for our stay in Vegas and we didn't feel like we were cutting corners either. So the value for the money for me was well orth it. I hear Priceline.com is also a good way to go, but I've never tried them before.
Bottom line is if you have the money, I still think it could be the way to go, just wasn't for us.
Peace,
Chuck
My wife and I recently visited Vegas and was approached by pushy people giving away "A FREE GIFT" I should have stopped right there because I know there is no such thing as free gift. We accepted to go to the sales pitch not really knowing what we got our selves into. When we were hearded on to the shuttle I felt like I had a Big S stamped on my forehead meaning we were suckered. WE were taken to another site and this is where my frustrations began. We went with an open mind but never expected this type of experience. My wife and I were treated rude by the second sales person we spoke with. I too feel that we were being held hostage because if we would have walked out I wasn't sure we would get our 40 dollar deposit returned and if we would even have transportation back to our hotel. We repeatedly told this sales person we are not going to buy today and he kept saying I have you for another 15 minutes. I was upset and angry when this was over. I think if they would have offered us this deal for 0 down and 0 % I would have still declined because Grand View Vegas is nothing more than a HUGE SCAM that we want nothing do do with. Any respectable real estate agency would never treat their potential clients the way we were treated. My wife and I did receive a voucher for free show tickets at the LUXOR .When we got our tickets (THAT WE DIDN'T USE) the only seats available were up at the very top row probably the worst seat in the house.
My recommendation would be to steer clear of this complete thing by saying I ALREADY WENT unless you want to feel like a cow in a heard and the wolves are eyeing you up for their meal.
I too took a chance with my boyfriend primarily to get free tickets and went to the grandview presentation. The woman was nice enough, but after their presentation, we decided that it just was not feasible at this moment. Well, you would have thought we killed someone! When we said we simply couldn't afford it at this time, they kept harping on whether coming to vegas had effected us financially, and if not we definitely could afford this. I was insulted that they assumed anything about our financial status and it was all smiles and fun until we said no. Then of course they brought in the manager who said he was going to give us a "special deal" because his father had worked for the same company my boyfriend works for. I thought this in itself was a little suspicious. I respect their hustle though, they are there to do a job. Just be aware that you will be there for more than 2 hours whatever the case. I believe the starting price was 27,000 and they knocked it down to 11,000 with 2 extra weeks. Again, if you are going to use it it is a great deal, but don't be surprised by the saleperson finding many things in common with you and then trying to make you feel like you need to reevaluate your decision because this is such a great deal that even the employees don't get a chance at!
WOW…everyone is really down on the timeshare. i actually bought my timeshare in my home state AZ. I bought it from shell vacations…since it is stationed here, and mostly for golfing resorts and so forth. We don't purchase weeks, everything is point based, we bought a simple package 14,000 for 2500 points…we love it and if we don't use it it just rolls over tot he next year. we are staying at the Grandview for the week, and I am so excited. I never thought timeshare would be for us, but the places we have gone are beautiful 5 star mostly and for free to us, just get there and spend your money on the other things….we used to spend so much money on hotels we never had money for anything else,Not sure about he weekly thing with RCI, but RCI is a sister company and we can use their properties for free or registration only which is like
$100……so good for us, sorry for those that look at it negatively…enjoy life too short to complain so much!!!!!
As I write this, I am sitting in the Grandview on our last night here.
We had a great week. In fact, we also spent 3 night at the Luxor that were comp'd due to a past business trip there.
We purchased a bi-annual ownership here at the Grandview 2 yrs. ago. Echoing what has already been said here, only buy timeshare IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE IT. For us it has worked out well.
We are empty nesters who are able to take at least two nice trip a year. This has fit very nicely into our lifestyle.
We have friends who are are also timeshare owners in Hilton Head and we take each other along on trips free of charge.
With the point system, we are able to trade our points of our Grandview property 2 for 1 at most places.
This week we spent here, was a last minute deal to fill excess inventory. It cost us $170 for the week.
In two weeks we are going to St. Maarten on points and the RCI Fee.
In the end, timeshare either works or doesn't for the individual. Like any purchase, YOU have a choice.
Time share, and the sales tactics are not new. It has been around since the 70's.
The TV show The Simpsons even parodied timeshare in an episode.
Bitterness for falling prey to sales tactics in our mind is a weak excuse. When first approached about the sales presentation, you have the OPTION of saying NO. If you want the "free stuff", you have to know that there is a catch. If you don't….. then you are just plain stupid and deserve any inconvenience you experience.
Oh, and FYI, @17K, We probably paid too much in the opinion of many, but we paid cash and are satisfied. It is a lot like buying a potato chip that looks like Christ Jesus on Ebay. To the buyer it is worth whatever the buyer is willing to pay.
We arrived to the Excalibur caisno and agreed to the presentation. We had an idea what we were getting into, but we wanted the free Criss Angel tickets. This operation is sismialr to purchasing a car. They tell you it's 2 hours, but by the time you leave your hotel and come back, its more like 4 to 5. They tell you they will feed you, but it's only cofee donuts, and flavorless cold cuts. They start of $41,000 during the presentation. We caught the first presenter in many lies. You will go through 3 to 4 people. If you opt out to the end, they will offer you 1 week, every three years, with an addtional week every year for $5,000. It appears to be a huge marketing scam. If you have the time, and have nothing else to fo in Vegas, go ahead. By the way, the told us show tickets would be in the 14th row, GRandview actually has onlty the last two rows for the show. Enter at your own risk!!!
My husband and I walked out of the Grandview presentation and felt like we had just been thru a battle. Never again i promised myself just for free stuff not worth it. Went thru 3 salespeople, prices started at 39,999 down to 4,999 kept saying no thanks, last sales person didn’t take it so well said to us well I didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers. The nerve of that women at that point we just wanted to leave. We were almost treated like criminals. The final straw was going to retrieve out coupons and the staff person lock herself out of her computer so we had to wait another 45 minutes before we could leave. Don’t waste your time seems they have 2 sets of deals one for weeks and one based on points, Again do your research may not be worth the headache. How long did all this take 5 hours.
Four of us sat though what was suppose to be a 90 presentation in Las Vegas (Fairfield). It wound up being 4 hours. They were trying to sell me a points or a week in a resort that had no availability, maybe they would be building again, but we could get a week in Williamsburgh. I was interested in Vegas why would I want Williamsaburgh Va. They started with the push for points. I have a fixed week in the Berkshires and didn’t want points. Well, we were admonished for not buying points. Each sales person became more and more rude and arrogant. We finally, got up and left. Our gift was a week in Hawaii……or at least it was suppose to be. That was 4 years ago. I’m still waiting for the voucher for the Hawaiian trip. Good thing I’m not holding my breath.
The problem with RCI is the inconsistency of information given out over the phone; each customer service rep has a different script, and the information that is available of the internet. If you choose to exchange on the RCI website you are charged $169. If you have to call and speak to someone to arrange the exchange, it’s $189. For the most part, I’ve been forced into calling since the system (which they know is having a problem and has yet to be fixed) won’t permit my exchange request, so the charge is $189. I don’t pay. And like most people I can never get the weeks, time of year or location that I want. So much for truth in business. Just a bunch of snake oil sales. I’m looking to sell and be done with all of it.
If you have already signed the paper and paid a deposit, you can revocate within 5 days!
My husband and I with a business associate endured the torture also at the Grandview. We thought we would enjoy the timeshare experience. The maintenance
fee for the first year (we bought the every other year package) we were told were included in our purchase price. Our paperwork did not state any maintenance fee due but now we are billed and they say we misunderstood. I have found one other posting on another site where this was also told to another couple. Anyone else told this also during the sales session?? Thanks
My girlfriend and I purchaced a timeshare at the Grandview last november for approx 18000,
2 weeks with 4 extra weeks thrown in, the starting price for us was around 50000. We bought a timeshare because we will use this for the rest of our lives and will pass them on to our children. We have great trading power with Grandview and have already used up weeks in NZ, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and India. We feel these places are much better than staying in hotels and feel timeshares get too much bad press, if you have a timeshare use it to get value for money, my children can’t wait for Vegas with their friends.
We naively went to the time share presentation. It took over 4.5 hours. When we called them on the 2 to 3 they quoted us, they said that it was 2 or 3 hours was only after we entered the room which was after a one hour sales pitch. You know it is a scam when they cannot give you any literature on their product. I don’t know too many (normal) people who can drop tens of thousands of dollars on impulse without doing research. Most of the hotel chains on the strip give you a discount on the tickets to shows in their hotel. We could have gotten the tickets for 15% off and gotten better seats without the tour.
Just got back from a week at the Grandview Las Vegas at my parent’s timeshare. My father is 80 years old and was talked into buying a twin apartment for 1 week annually. I believe he paid $25,000 and was told that this would be a great investment and something he could inherit to his children and grandchildren. He paid the entire sum in full. At the time I thought that this was a rather rash decision and not typical of him as he is usually very conservative and thoughtful with his expenditures. When we checked in for our vacation we were told that there was a “owners update” presentation that he was required to attend. I asked twice about this to make sure that it was not another sales presentation and was told on both occasions that he was just going to be informed about changes and ownership.
As it turned out my parents were subjected to 3 hrs of sales talk by a very pushy salesman who tried to persude them to convert to a points system. I walked in to pick my dad up as he cannot walk very well and was very upset with what was going on . My father was on the verge of signing for a product that he does not need and which was going to cost him another $5000. I insisted that he think about this deal and sleep it over but the salesman insisted that it would have to be signed right away and got very pushy. He kept on going for what seemed an eternity at which point I asked him when this was going to be over. To this he responded that my mother and I were being disruptive and he did not need me there at all. When it became clear that we were not going to sign he told us that he had wasted his time and had mouths to feed and would rather have spend time with other costumers.
We were then shuttled to a second salesman for yet another sales pitch after which we were finally allowed to leave.
The whole experience left us physically and mentally exhausted . How can anyone make an informed decision after being brainwashed for 3 hrs. At least now I know why my father made such a quick decision to buy in the fist place. I a product is good there is no need to employ such tactics. Something is seriously wrong with this organization and I would encourage people to do their research before buying. You are certainly not getting tickets for free – you pay a price.
To start off with, this response is solely about the presentation at the Grandview – I’m not trying to criticize the “vacation ownerships” that they offer.
My family and I were staying at Exalibur when a Grandview agent approached us with an offer. Over $200 worth of tickets to a show for only $50. The catch of course was to spend time at a timeshare presentation at the Grandview. I have family who have timeshares so I knew what it was all about. I was planning to purchase those tickets anyways so I didn’t mind attending the presentation. You’re supposed to attend the presentation if you’re a couple living together and committed. However, the agent told us that since my brother and I share the same address and last name, that we should pretend that we’re married and attend the presentation. He said, “No one will find out, you’ll still get your ticket vouchers after the presentation is over.” Right off the bat, I knew it wasn’t worth investing in a business if their own employees tell customers to lie. But it didn’t matter, I wasn’t interested in purchasing a timeshare at all…just the gift vouchers.
Anyways, we paid the $50 cash and attended the presentation the next day. This is what the presentation was composed of:
-Prior to getting aboard the shuttle, a short form needed to be filled out ~10 minutes
-Approx. 15-20 minute drive to the Grandview resort
-Wait in a waiting room until your ‘assigned agent’ calls for you, couple by couple
-Attend a powerpoint presentation (that’s hosted by a complete paid actor). This presentation lasts about 1 1/2 hours. Try not to talk/discuss/participate much. If you do, you’ll just end up spending more time in this room. Before attending this, you’re offered food (this just included cookies, sandwiches and various beverages)
-Your agent takes you to another room filled with other couples and their assigned agent. Note: the room is large, noisy and the music is blaring. even if you try to evasdrop, you won’t be successful. You’re offered food again – same menu. The agent talks about what the grandview is offering – “vacation ownerships”
-Your agent takes you on a tour of the grandview
-Your agent takes you back to the same large room with other couples and begins to talk about packages and prices. Initial offer is an extremely large package set roughly around $42,000. Just learn to say no
-No matter how many times you say, ‘no thanks’ the agent will not stop talking. you have to understand that its his job to try and presuade you. he has to fill his entire workbook before he could call his manager.
-Once his work book is complete and you decline his offers, he’ll call a manager. The manager will arrive and negotiate better packages. Learn to say no again. The manager also has to fill out paperwork to make sure she’s doing her job correctly. No matter how many times you say no here, she’ll keep going until she’s done with her part.
-Finally after you say no to these two people, you’re taken to another room with a third person.
-The third person will offer you more packages and better deals. The last package for us was offered at $4,000.
-As long as you decline, the third person will then take you to the last room.
-The last room is where you fill out a short survey and feedback. I thought it was funny how every person that I met, from the initial Grandview agent at Exalibur, to the person who handed me the feedback form was listed on the survey. Once this is done, you’re free to go! The shuttles will take you back to where you were picked up.
All in all, the presentation took us 4 hours and we got our gift vouchers and attended the shows we wanted with no problems : )
I say its definitely worth it to attend the presentation for the gifts. Just keep saying no and don’t purchase any packages. Unless you truly want the “ownership vacations” that they offer. If that’s the case, wait till you speak to the third person – for this person will offer you the best packages at the best rate.
Never again for free stuff and discount,
This was my first and last Las Vegas….I don’t know if the Las Vegas Mayor knows about that , but I don’t know what kind of city they allow people come to visit and spend money yet get trapped and harassed by sales people who are nothing but liars and pushy….here is how started:
Approach by people from the Rewarding Office store in the strip next to the 711 store.
They got us to believe that , they will give us discount on tickets because a new Casino they are trying to promote and they want to give a tour and presentation about the casino and las Vegas, of course there will be a free lunch or breakfast. They never mentioned anything about selling you timeshare.
Next morning you go to the Grand view and assign you representative, the presentation starts with a black women he pretend that she was in the Army, which I doubt people who go to the army learns good manner not to scam people, and do mean tricks to deceive people who just want to have good time and get away from work and stress…That is not business ….that is a very low way to brain wash and force sell people stuff based on 20-40 years of estimates and calculations for vacations that may never go..bunch of B######
After an hour presentation and 10 min tours and half Deli Sandwich lunch, the selling begin, and the more you say no, the more they get aggressive to the level where they interfere in what decision you made in the past. My wife was so upset and hated the place and hated Las Vegas, and she said I don’t want to go back again….
They said its going to take between 2-3 hours but we ended up spending 4 hours
If these people keep doing that , this the beginning of the end to Las Vegas, because I have never seen such desperation.
Can you cancel after 5 days? We have never used it. We signed in April has it been too long? I just want out.
Any recommendations on where I can sell.. I was young and naive and purchased in 2004 with someone and I am still repsonsible….trying to sell asap!
They should not tell you 2 to 3 hours and keep you longer than 4 hours. I may not even make it in time to the show they promised me. I kept explaining my current financial situation and that I don’t even have the means to put down a few grand right now. They still continued to use high pressure tactics. They promised initialy that they don’t do that. I am also a veteran of Kosovo and two tours in Iraq and am diagnosed with PTSD. So when I noticed that I was being detained in the desert and not being allowed to leave I began to have a mild anxiety attack. I feel like I lost an entire day in Vegas. I will make it my mission to tell as much ppl as possible not to waste their time with any timeshare presentation associated with grandview and the vacation village parent company.
Can anyone pls pass me the number to call them for the deal i bought with them… I have lost the paper and want to go bk to Vegas and stay in Luxor for 3 nights… Vch i guess will be fre…
Pls pass me the customer service number for the same!!
Hey lenor i think i had purchased the same deal as u have…. so cn u pls pass me thr number???
We recently stayed at the Luxor and were approached as soon as we walked into the lobby (before we’d even checked in!) with an offer of free show tickets. The woman on the desk explained that they just wanted us to visit this new hotel down the road, have a look round, see what we think, and tell our friends about it. “We’re just trying to get the word out”, said she. In exchange we would be given free show tickets and vouchers to use in the hotel.
As we’d already planned to buy tickets for one of the events on offer, we didn’t see the harm.
We had to pay a $50 deposit (which I thought was odd), but only after handing over this over were we given a little receipt to sign which stated that we were agreeing to a 2-3 hour timeshare presentation. How strange that the lady who got us to sign up never mentioned ‘timeshare’ up to that point.
Being too polite to ask for a refund, and realising this could at least provide us with an amusing anecdote for the future, we went along the next day. I’d been to a timeshare presentation with my parents many years ago so had seen all the tricks – the selling from every possible advantage point (investment, money-saving, prestige), inducing guilt in saying “no” to your new best friends, and the hard-sell.
The bus picked us (and about 6 other couples) up from the hotel, and zoomed down Route 15 for about 10 minutes to reach the Grandview resort. In our presentation we were told it was 4 miles off the strip and that shuttles to the strip and back ran all day. I think it’s actually about 6 miles.
We went inside and waited to be allocated to our agent for the morning. He was pleasant and took us for a brief tour of the site, before taking us up to the cafe area where we were offered drinks and snacks. He then started to make his way through the paperwork, explaining to us the concept of the timeshare, and working out roughly how much we could expect to spend on hotels over the next few decades. Out came the RCI brochure, showing us all the places that we could trade for (which apparently we’d have no problem doing because Las Vegas is so popular that we could trade our timeshare there for anywhere in the world, anytime). He then took us on a tour of one of the ‘show’ units, which seemed nice enough. He explained all about it being 5-star, and how everything got cleaned and replaced thoroughly in a way that they didn’t in hotels. Then it was back to the cafe area for more paperwork, and a final ‘reveal’ of how much it was going to cost us – $40,000 for a 2-bedroom A+B unit.
We said we were not interested.. and it wasn’t the price, it was the concept. Frankly they could have been offering them free of charge with a $200 annual maintenance fee and we wouldn’t have wanted one. We just don’t use our vacation time that way (usually a few days away many times a years rather than weeks at a time), we don’t drive on vacation (so would have no way of getting to most of the places in the catalogue), we don’t live in the US, and we _like_ the cheese and sleaze of the LV strip and like not being near any families. We like staying in hotels, not self-catering apartments. None of the other resorts seemed very close to big cities or very tempting, and I didn’t fancy having to spend the $200 admin fee every times we wanted to swap a few days in our LV unit for a few days away elsewhere. It just wasn’t for us in any way.
So, after giving our ‘no’, our agent looks saddened and a manager is called over to see what he can do for us. The manager has some 1-bedroom apartments available (although none were available at the start of the day), and these were much cheaper, at $11,000. Sorry, still not interested. He didn’t seem very impressed that we said no. So, this being the end, we were taken down to see the final ‘closing’ guy, which is where things got really odd.
He asked us the name of the manager who had greeted us, but there hadn’t been one. He frowned and said this was highly irregular and that meant we hadn’t had the full tour. At this point I half expected him to pull the rug on the free tickets, but that didn’t happen. He asked if we understood the timeshare concept and we agreed that we did. He said that was rare, because 99% of people that came to the presentation left not understanding. He then put us on the spot and said that if we had truly understood the timeshare, and had a good quality presentation, we would be able to remember the lowest prices we were quoted for the unit, the desposit and the maintenance fee. Unfortunately for him we were able to remember all of these, but he again frowned and told us that the cost of the unit was $5,000 and had nobody shown us that figure? They had not. So, he told us that we had not understood the presentation after all, and wished us a good day.
We finally got our free tickets (which we used with no problems), and were offered additional $ vouchers. We took most of these in food vouchers (which were accepted by the hotel and paid for most of our breakfasts on our stay – thanks Grandview!). We took a few vouchers in gambling freeplay – they loaded them up on a gaming card, but this didn’t work and I couldn’t be bothered to argue about it at the casino.
If the women who signed us up had been more upfront and had said this was a timeshare, we could have saved our time and theirs and not gone, because we would not have been intetrested in a timeshare at any price. Since they were not upfront, I didn’t feel the slightest guilt in saying ‘no’ to something we would never have wanted in the first place.
I got a 1 bedroom timeshare here for annual use on eBay for $155 plus $575 closing costs
for a total of $730. Check eBay, people are giving these away basically & I got spring break
week too, a very desireable week. I got it because I like Vegas, otherwise I lowball on priceline to
get awesome hotel deals everywhere else.
I bought a 1 bedroom timeshare at the Grandview with annual use on eBay for $155 plus $575 in closing costs for a total of $730. My maintainance fees the yr were $338. People are literally giving their timeshare away, I bought mine so cheap. I even have the valuable spring break week, don’t buy your timeshare at the Grandview when your here, go on eBay and buy cheap like I did…
I knew nothing about timeshares when I bought into the Grandview back in 2005. I can however say that the timeshare experience so far has been fantastic, we've exchanged our 1 week x 2 bedroom in Grandview, with RCI, for 2 week holidays in Hawaii, St Maarten and Cayman Islands and we make our 2nd visit to the Grandview 30th April and it is also a beautiful resort.
However knowing what I know now, and becoming a Timeshare forum member, I would pursuede everyone to avoid Timeshare sales pitches at all costs. Due to the current economic problems, people are practically giving timeshares away rather than pay the yearly maintenance fees. You can pick up really cheap resorts on E.Bay and other Timeshare resale sites.
For us we've made the mistake but I'm not going to cry over spilled milk, I'm just going to continue to enjoy some of the most beautiful resorts you could imagine, they make the Holiday Inns and Best Westerns look like Doss houses.
I swore I would never purchase a time share in my life, however, we went on the tour to get our 'free show tickets'. We had a no bull salesman, and after many hours of negotiation, we purchased. We have not yet stayed at Grandview, but have traded it for the Summer Bay Resort that is closer to the strip. We have also used it to travel to Florida, Virginia, and Nashville, and have got the best resorts due to our trading power. We have no regrets whatsoever with our purchase, but it is only beneficial if you travel at least once a year. We also became good friends with our salesman, Jim, and have been down to Vegas twice since our purchase to see him. The only thing that sold me on this time share is that it is deeded, and does not expire. I would reccommend it!
Ok first of all we all know timeshares are a ripoff.
I have been to several presentations before, but the grandview one was the worst. It started with a bunch of old has been sales people picking up couples from the lobby. All the women had bags very strange.
The initial presentation was done by this sleezy white trash skank from Minnesota, and ended with this hick manager. What a shithole this was. Then again we came for the free $100.00 in gaming vouchers, with no intentions of buying anything.
Who is scamming who? Haha fvck you grandview. (Everyone go for the free shit. Say no no no, rinse repeat, beat them at their own game)
You are the one getting ripped off jackass!! At least 3 hours of your vacation time! What a cheap idiot you are! Hahaha!!!
Just returned from LV – we also signed a contract (1bedroom + 2 extra weeks -> 3 weeks/y) for ~13000USD.
I cancelled yesterday when I saw I could get it cheaper on ebay and other reseller pages.
I was convinced because
1.) I had no clue about the system nor did I read any info on the internet
2.) I thought if I don't need it, it would be easy to resell it (this is what the sales person said "there is a 8month waiting list to get into Las Vegas". So I just wanted to try and resell without loss later if it had turned out that I don't like/need it
3.) I thought it is an investment like buying land or a flat – so use it as advance on securities. I told myself "it's not a loss – the money will be safe"
Back home I did some research and it opened my eyes
… thanks for all the info here.
for those who are saying "they love time share" i dont think you are in the right site, this site are for those who wants to get rid and for those who can no longer afford, and for those who wants to help, and give advise.
Actually, this site is for anyone wishing to state their opinion on timeshares! And by the way, I love my timeshare!
I didn't say I love time share – I said we cancelled allready.
Btw *HELP* – I can not find the fax nr from Berkeley Group and/or Eldorado Development Copr.
I sent a certified mail (from Europe – takes 2 or 3 days to get there) but I want also to be sure to fax them my revocation form just to be sure. I would greatly appreciate if someone could give me the nr. My contact at Grand View does not respond.
Shiva,
The customer service number for your package is 1-800-316-4717 Mon-Fri 9am-6pm EST.
A tip on that package (we got the same one, and used it over Memorial Day weekend): when you get in town, you will check in at the Welcome Center in Excalibur first, then go back to Luxor to check in to your room. At the Welcome Center, they will offer you more free stuff: tickets, casino vouchers, or money back. We opted for the $124 credited back to our Visa. We had already paid $150 for the 3-night stay which is pretty good for the holiday weekend on the Strip. They offered us a few different days/times for our "tour". We knew from doing our homework that the 2-3hr presentation was going to take at least 4 hours, so we scheduled it for early in the day. We also knew that part of what takes so long is waiting for the shuttle to bring you back. So we had taxi numbers at hand in order to get out of there as soon as we got our voucher for the $124 validated. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Be strong and say no as many times as needed till you get your voucher then GET OUT OF THERE. You can walk to the South Point Casino & hotel next door and get a cab from there. The Grandview (or any other timeshare) is not a hustle, scam or con. It IS a high-pressure sales pitch, no doubt about it. As with anything, the price is worth it if it is worth it to YOU. Oh, and the salespeople who offer you the tickets, hotel stay or whatever in the first place are not the same people who pitch you the timeshares. It's a different company altogether who are contracted to bring in "leads". Many of them, if not all, have never even been to the Grandview property. It is their job to get people to the tour/presentation and they get paid based on how many people they bring in to it. So yeah, they're pushy and even misleading but if you feel they outright lied then you should report them.
So… if you use your 3-night stay try to use it on a weekend that's usually at a premium. Get the most bang for your buck. If you feel whatever additional perks they offer you upon checking in are worth 4-5hrs out of your vacation time then go ahead and do the tour. We did, and so our 3-night stay at Luxor wound up only costing us $26 (after the $124 was credited back to my Visa, which went through a few days after returning home) plus the cab fare from South Point back to Luxor. We were drinking by then so I honestly couldn't tell you what that ran us, LOL. However, if we had NOT done the tour then the weekend stay would still have only cost us the initial $150 we paid when we were offered the deal by the first salesperson. The desk clerk at Luxor assured us that once we were checked in to the hotel itself, we were under no obligation to attend the tour to keep that package. The guy who checked us in at the welcome center had told us that too…. we only had to do the tour to get the $124.
My parents are timeshare owners, very happy with what they have, and have attended these high-pressure presentations many times just to get the goodies they offer. Yes, they've boughta few timeshares but they've gone to far many more sales pitches and walked away without spending a dime.
You just have to decide before you even go whether or not you're interested in buying. And, more importantly, if what they are offering you (cash, tix, cruise) is REALLY worth that amount of time lost from your vacation.
If the behavior of this Corporation and of the individuals we were lucky enough to meet had occurred in Australia they would be prosecuted, disqualified from operating and its directors would be jailed. It is nothing short of an absolute fraud. We were deceived with half price show tickets – a saving of a measly $60 – and were promised free tickets to other shows that we were not given. We were told we would get $100 free slot play – not told it was 100 promotion credits, only good in machines that do not pay unless you hit the mega jackpot, and even then do not pay the line price but instead a nominal $100.
We paid our non-refundable deposit (what a joke), and were told we just had to attend a resort opening – 2 hours duration. In fact it was a timeshare presentation and took more than 5 hours out of the day. Although we had paid the money for the tickets, the Grandview team referred to them as a /gift/ – conveniently refusing to acknowledge we paid good money and even better time for them.
You must make it to the end of the presentation, discussion, tour, hard sell, harder sell by a double team, accusations by yet another person that you skipped a step in the process and threats not to get the tickets you paid for, wait again, fill out a survey, then your tickets. We would have gladly paid double price for the show (great show, Crazy Horse) to have not met these fraudsters. It is a scam, pure and simple.
Your best bet is, if you are approached by anyone asking you a question about your time, stay, show etc, ignore them or tell them to f*** off. They are rude ****ers. I ignored one man trying to ask questions and he then gave me attitude – fine then ignore me you rude **** – in a shopping mall!
Nevada needs to get serious and deal with these shysters. They are a blight.
The best way to avoid all this high pressure sales crap is to totally ignore anyone who asked how long your gonna be in town…..My wife always goes her own way at least one day on our Vegas trips. I can walk by these people all day by myself and they won’t even look in your direction.
I just stayed at the Grandview in Las Vegas with a friend that owned a deeded week. If you are looking to purchase a timeshare and do not want to pay the extremely high prices or be in a high pressured sale environment for several hours, I found a timeshare resale broker only two blocks away from the Grandview property. The company’s name is Timeshare Angels, Inc. and the broker (Bill) has be wonderful in finding exactly what I want in a timeshare. The resale prices are also cheap!! I highly recomend speaking to a timeshare resale office if you are intrested in purchasing a timeshare. It will not be a waste of your time!!
Unfortunately I fell into this trap like the rest of us, my five days had passed and I called to cancel and asked what I should do to go about doing this. I was told to fax the cancellation form with signatures and mail the package that was given to my fiance and I back to El Dorado and I would get my deposit back within 14 business days and that would be it. I was quite relieved.
Two days after that I got this email from one of the representatives at El Dorado:
Please be advised that the above referenced Contract is currently in
default. As a result of this status, your file was forwarded to my
department for personal review and evaluation. It has always been the
philosophy of the Developer to take care of its owners and thus, you are
receiving this email.
First and foremost, I want to inform you that in the event you remain in
default of the Contract, legal enforcement proceedings may be commenced
against you. Additionally, please be aware that possessing a record of a
default could negatively impact your ability to obtain credit in the future.
These consequences are extremely serious and ones the Developer would prefer
to avoid.
I have completely reviewed your file. You have many options, short of
default, available to you. It is difficult to properly assess your
situation without your input.
To avoid the negative consequences explained above, I respectfully request
that you contact me at your earliest convenience to discuss your ownership
options. Thank you in advance for your immediate attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
I was quite confused by this email. I was told that once I send in the cancellation form and mail the package back to El Dorado I would no longer have attachments to them. Can someone please advise me on what to do. I would really appreciate it.
people. really. you can buy this junk on ebay for a dollar. the fastest growing part of the timeshare industry is “deed transfer” biz. this is where you pay $3-7,000 for someone to take your worthless timeshare from you. don’t buy timeshare! oh.. there is no way any CPA thinks timeshare is a good investment.
Chuck…Nobody ever said Timeshares were bought as an investment. Not to confuse anyone, you can, as you said buy a timeshare on ebay for $1, you also pay the closing costs and usually the maintenance fees for that year (unless it has been used that year) so the total could end up around $1,000.
Yes there are sharks out there looking for up front fee’s to sell your Timeshare, that is, in most cases a scam to take your money. I would never pay an up front fee to anyone.
You use the words “junk” and “worthless” in describing timeshares but I can tell you that the vast majority of people love their timeshares and the vacation options and possibilities it has given them over the years.
What has happened with the glut of timeshares on the market is due to the ongoing financial problems that people have and when you’re struggling to pay a mortgage, on a house, a $600 dollar timeshare maitenance fee is a luxury people are looking to offload. Unfortunately the Sharks, as they usually do, have jumped in and heaped more misery on people who are already struggling in the first place.
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My husband and I went to Vegas the first time in 2006….I thought it was a great idea to go see some timeshare and in return get free tickets. The presentation was longer than what we had planned….but we did end up buying a 1 bedroom at the Grandvie, for under 15000US and we took the payment option of finiancing with 0% and getting 2 bonus weeks.In the last 4 years my husband and I and our three young boys have been to Florida 3x, back to Las Vegas 2X, Nashville 1x, and Virginia 1x…..all using our timeshare…we simply deposited out week and exhanged them through RCI. The condos that we have gone to at the above mentioned locations, have been all top of line condos….which would of cost us a fortune but didn’t, just the exchange fee. It doesn’t matter that our timeshare at the Grandview is only 1 bedroom….when we exchange we can still get any amount of bedrooms that we need which is great. Another great experience with the purchase of Grandview was we have been become friends with the actual sales person that sold it to us. Everytime we go to Vegas he picks us up from the airport…I could go on….we have met a long time friend! Reading the above comments about others experiences is strange….my husband and I have never once regretted the purchase at Grandview….we all absolutely 110% so happy we did!!!
proof read before you submit
I purchaed a timeshare at the Grandview through ebay. The timeshare was a for week 46 (not on the point system which would equal 80,000 points). Does anyone know how to turn this week into points?? Also, does anyone know how much it would cost?? Thanks!!
I own a 2 bedroom lockout at Grandview (fixed week 18) 2 years ago they tried to get me to switch to Points, they wanted $8,000. I have since heard that people are being asked for $4,000 to switch but I don’t know whether that is for a 1 or 2 bedroom. If you are saying that you would be worth 80,000 points, then you have a 2 bedroom.
Well, people. Timeshare is a business like any other. We live in a capitalist society so if you don’t like this capitalist mentality you really should hope for socialism.
First let me just tell you, I HAVE NOT bought any timeshare YET… Because I wanted to take time to research the idea and the prices.
Here is how I see it: If you plan to take vacations every year, and you will be spending your own money to stay at any 5 star hotel, you absolutely, positively MUST own a time share. Here is why: Instead paying, say $1500 every year for a week vacation at a 5 star resort, why not buy something that you have somewhat of an option to resell?
People who complain in this post have no business minds. I am sorry if this sound too harsh. The idea is not to commit yourself because of pressure. It is to understand the concept and weigh the pros and cons.
The thing is, that $1500 that you plan to spend on every year will be long gone after you spend it.
My advice:
If you have at least the downpayment and it will not hurt your budget, consider it.
If you can afford to pay extra $500 every month without hurting your budget, consider timeshare.
If you will never travel because you can’t afford to, forget about it….
IT IS THAT SIMPLE.
Timeshares is a legit business operation and it is highly regulated and controlled. But the price you will buy you share at depends on the sales person you encountered and your negotiation skills.
It is a capitalist society here, these people are monster in the business, start thinking like one.
When was the last time you find Bellagio, Wynn or Hotels in Chicago and New York take time sharing? I don’t think you understand what capitalism is. Plesae read Adam Smith and Milton Friedman. You are confused with capitalism and free market. People’s complains here are misrepresentation, ethical issues and business practice, not the value of the timesharing program. In fact, may people don’t know anything about timesharing before going to the presentation. My wife and I went to the presenation two days ago. 90% of what our sales (Eric Eldor) told us were lies, including LV is building a high speed train between Calif and LV. Another Int’l airport is being bulit in LV. LV has more tourists than NYC. (I am from NYC) He even told me Bellagio and Paris uses the RCI points. I called those two hotels right away and those two don’t use RCI. The sales was embarassed and got upset. He didn’t know that I used to sell cars and now a financial planner. I know the selling techniques and maths. I stayed for 3.5 hours in total. Ended up didn’t use the cheap ($40) Lion King tickets from them. But it’s a good opportunity to “learn” their selling techniques. Some of the sales people are weak and don’t know how to close. At least Eric is weak and pitched to use like a textbook. Anyway, if people don’t want to get stuck with a program staying in cheap places and eating pig foods, don’t buy the timesharing. Think about you won’t get a stay in NYC with your ownership and points.
Cheap places and pig foods? Now who does not know what they’re talking about? There are some very beautiful, high-end, timeshares out there. Grandview is very nice, but there are a couple in Vegas that are better appointed. There are some AMAZING timeshare resorts elsewhere in the country.
NONE of them offer food, so if anyone is eating “pig foods” it is what they purchased outside of the resort.
Business mind means what you get v.s. what you pay.
35000 for buying a 1/52 of a two bedroom condo in LV?
that translates the two bedroom condo 1.8 million dollars. in reality i don’t think that two bedroom unit worth 200K.
we bought a 2 bedroom units for around 28,000 two years ago. It was our first time to see and learn about timeshare. The salesperson was talking to our two year old daughter the entire time while we were there. She makes my daughter so happy and we bought the timeshare within one hour. It was a great experience. no hard selling at all. Great and friendly service. our unit comes with 4 bonus weeks every years. The two bedroom units can be deposite as Two ( 1 bedroom unit) and exchange for two vacations with Rci each year.
I think timeshare is a great. Rci is great. We went on about 6 weeks of vacations each year. Total cost is about $1700, (600 maintainence fee, 89 rci fee. 179 exchange fee, and 200 exchange fee for each of the bonus weeks, so that little less than 300 dollars per week). you do the math, where can you get a nice resort vacation for under 300 a week. that is less than 50 a night..
our two grandview exchange weeks have great trading power, the bonus weeks will need to book your vacation within a 45 day time frame.( but you can still get a great selections of nice resort and fun places to go, such as ocean front resort and even houseboat on st,Johns river and many 5 starts resorts near disney world)
if you are new to timeshare, I hope this help. Just go for it! vacation memories and family time are priceless.
I don’t know if there are any different on where you buy your timeshare, the developer or the after market. after market time share might cost less but it may not come with any bouus weeks. if you can find one that works for you, just go for it.. Good luck.
My wife and I just went through the timeshare presentation today (March 10, 2011). We were offered two free show tickets (Lion King) and $50 in gambling credit at the Mandalay Bay. In retrospect, we probably could have asked for more or better freebies.
Our meetup time was 12:30 at the Excalibur. We left there at 12:45, and arrived at the Grandview at 1:00. They let us go at around 3:00. We were back at the Excalibur at 3:40. So it was just about 3 hours, counting travel time. We didn’t ask many questions during the presentation and had a good “excuse” for not buying.
We did not purchase, but had a decent experience. We were consistent in saying “No”. The property was very nice, and I think the timeshare system can work for many people. It just wasn’t for us.
They did start off at the $40-42k price. They price kept going down, eventually hitting $5k at the last person we spoke with. If you want to buy, definitely wait until the third person. They will move you to a separate area where you meet this person.
On the way back to the hotel, we talked with another couple who said they were there for about five hours. I don’t know why they were held hostage for so much longer. They said that it got really weird when they talked to the third person, and they got really upset at that point and asked to leave. I’m guessing this is where the hard-sell starts, so stick to your guns if you don’t want to buy.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad experience. Just decide before you go if you want to buy or not. You’ll probably get a better deal on E.bay or another reseller.
If you are going to deposit your week with rci to exchange for another resort, hold on. They got caught selling weeks members deposited to the general public!
Unless something new has just developed, the lawsuit you are referring to was settled over 1 year ago. I have exchanged my weeks from the Grandview into RCI for the last 2 years with no problems.
It wasn’t a question of the weeks being sold to the general public, it was a case that some of the more sort after resorts that were banked by members were not going into the exchange pool but were being sold off under the “Extra vacation” offers in RCI. There was many other things that were attached to the lawsuit and a direct improvement since the lawsuit has been the TPU system that RCI has introduced. This gives you points for weeks you bank and then you can look for exchanges that fall within your points total. You can get more than 1 exchange under the new program or you can amalgamate point from different years or resorts to get vacations in a more sort after resort.
GRANDVIEW OWNERS……
Do you still find that the Grandview is still a good idea?
We bought April 18th, 2011…1 bedroom 40,000 points wk 7 with 2 extra weeks..
We thought it was a GREAT idea for us…as I work for the airlines and get free domestic airfare a highly discounted international airfare…
-My concerns were using the 2 extra weeks…
-Using our 40,000 points towards trading to other locations, such as Hawaii…
-Gifting the extra weeks to our parents…
Please provide any helpful info on how to best utilize our purchase!
thanks-
Call RCI and talk over your options. If the person you get on the phone isn’t helpful, just keep calling back till you get someone who is. There are some great reps, and others who only seem to know a set script.
We purchased a time share 6 years ago. First it was a specific week and then the next time we went the following year we changed to the point system. You definitely have to bargain and we got 2 bonus weeks a year extra. I sell those bonus weeks to friends when we go up at $500 plus the gifting fee. You definitely have to travel to get the full extent of this and it is great! Every time we go there they try and up our points but we like what we have and tell them no but I enjoy the free lunch and tickets that they give. The place is great and if you like to travel then i recommend to get points and not weeks and make sure your property is deeded or else you can lose everything if they demolish the building or contract is up. Enjoy Vegas it is a wild place.
Hi everyone,
I’ve read your postings – positive and negative.
I purchased what I believed was a week at Grandview – annualyl and my fees would be trianial
It turns out that its for a room every three years plus 16,000 points
Its past the recission time by 4 weeks and I’m not sure that there is value in the deal now.
I admit to being overwhelmed and 7 hours into it we purchased.
We purchased a 5000 deeded week – which was the balance of someone’s default – that had bought a 16,000 option and went into default – it appears now that this is not so true.
Any way –
We were told we could book anywhere within the three years – using our extra week.
It turns out the extra week is mainly in the US and not Australia as promised.
I’m still keen to own timeshare – but I only want what was promised.
Can I rescind now if its been four weeks.
Will they list me with bad credit – if I cancel my cards and refuse to pay?
Can anyone please let me know what I can do?
yikes….I feel for you. We almost got involve and we were from Australia too. Our biggest concern was yours as well, and our reason for declining the offer was if things went sour…how would we resolve it from Australia, with time zone differences, and being told ‘licenced’ real estate, believed it would be difficult and/or expensive to resolve any issues. I do hope you resolve your issues though. Would love to hear how you go.
I dont get you people. I bought my timeshare at the Grandview. I and my wife and four daughters have been to, Hong kong, Ireland, Canada, Figi, Hawaii, all over the United States and have had the best time of our lives. My savings alone have reached over $60,000 on those trips already and i’ve stayed in some of the niceist places ever. I would recommend this to any of my friends or family. However you must travel. If you buy and sit at home and dont go anywhere, well thats your loss. For everyone of your complaints, I have met as many Happy Owners.
Scott, can you please name the hotels you stayed in those countries and how you got the exchanges in details? I really want to book my future vacations in those locations. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks. FYI: please try to counter other people’s opinion with the details how you get those benefits and savings or your comments can’t be creditable.
I think the common element here are the complaints regarding the high pressure marketing tactics to get you to sign the deal. The lady who coaxed us to do it on the strip even said to halve our income on paper, otherwise they would never let us go, and probably want our first born child. I thought she was joking….but the sales guys at Grandview were pretty much like that. I was told they get 300 couples through the door each day for their “presentation”. Work out a rough value on the tickets they ‘give’ you, the wages they must pay their staff to present to 300 people….and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out these people are charging a lot of money for what they were offering. Heck, we were even offerred a free limousine anywhere we wanted to go if we signed up at $40k. We were told the maintenance fee was around $750 pa, plus a fee of $89 for each and every booking made. If we made 4 seperate week long vacations, this would have cost almost $360 in fees alone + $750 maintenance…we’re up to ~$1200. Admitedly still cheaper than 4 weeks accomodation, but you also need to factor in the 40K it cost you, repayments etc. A 40K investment say at 10% would yield almost 4K pa in interest. Admittedly these calculations are simplistic, but my point is…..you can get more for your money !
I’d like to get 10% return, where can I go? Anyway you are right. Timeshare is a good idea, we have 3 weeks. I paid $900 for the first week, $750 for the second and $500 for the last. My annual maintenance fees are $215 a year per unit – so $645. In addition I can use Last Call anytime and get extra weeks “limited as to time and location”. I just look thru last call list a pick something. In Vegas we have stayed at the Grandview, Hilton Vacation Clubs, WorldMark, and more, plus Florida coast, Texas coast, CA, DC, WA OR all over. So buy in cheap to an inexpensive facility and more importantly one with low maintenance fees! Also Grandview says you can use your points for trips, air, cruises, etc. You can only use 1/2 your points for this and one round trip air eats up most of the points!
Beware: the bonus weeks certificate, see the reverse side, limited to months that children are in school, also Canada only includes Ontario. Only place you can book anytime in the year was MEXICO. Just look at the places listed on the reverse that you can book, and the time frames for these……..it will shock you to see this. The salesman won’t point this out. They will most likely tell you to use the 2 or 4 weeks you get per year, trade in your week at Grandview for the points and apply the points toward your travel.. Travel to where. Europe was limited to Spain and Portugal and it was for the winter months………
My wife and I along with my two sisters and brother in law bought a 2 bedroom and they gave us 5 weeks. This was in 2008, since then we have been back to Vegas 3 times and have stayed at other locations that we traded with. It only cost us 192.00 exchange rate. That is for a total of 8 days. We did not stay there in Vegas 8 days but only 3 and we went to California since it was close by and then came back for 2 days.Try staying at a hotel for 8 days and see how much it cost. We live in Texas and love going to Vegas so we bought in between 5 people for a total of 2,600.00 per person and we get 5 weeks. Since we own in Vegas it is easy to trade with any place in the world because people always want to go to Vegas. Try buying in a place that nobody on the other side of the world knows about and then try and trade……wont happen. We also spent 8.5 hrs there at the Grandview when we bought in. We were staying at the Golden Nugget, we complained to the Golden Nugget about how long it took. We told them that a whole day was wasted all because the people at the front door of the Golden Nugget representing the Grandview told us it would only bee 3 hrs. We raised hell and the Nugget had the Grandview Manager give us each 300.00 game play credit table or slot. 2 Show tickets of our choice each, golden nugget Buffet each. That is over 2,000.00 dollars worth of stuff. Not counting our original gifts for attending the Grandview. Thing is people, dont be be scared to be an a$$hole when it comes to people trying to sell you something. You are always in control of everything. Dont worry about hurting their feelings because they dont care about you anyway. You make them work for you and if they try to do you wrong and you are in Vegas…REMEMBER..they want you to come back so they will do what it takes to make you happy if you let them know you are pissed and you will never come back and stay at their place again. But you got to play the game. By the way make sure you complain to the Hotel that had the Grandview people sign you up. Dont be scared to look like an A$$…cause a scene if if you really want a lot of stuff, remember they wasted very valuble vacation time that cant be replaced. Stick to your guns …trust me…lolol works every time.
I stayed at the Excalibur hotel for a vacation in July 2011. Throughout the Excalibur and Luxor, the Grandview Marketing people were setup in multiple locations looking for gullible tourists. They offered me a 3 day free stay in the Excalibur, Luxor, or Golden Nugget within a year if I filled out paperwork, came back within a year, took a tour (2 to 3 hours) of their timeshare deal, and held a credit card on file.
HOWEVER, THEY SAID NOTHING OF CHARGING $124 TO YOUR CREDIT CARD!!!!!!!! So when they put my card on file it automatically swiped $124 from my account. THEN I REALIZED IT WAS A SCAM!!!
I went back to cancel my transaction and it took 1 WEEK to get my money back. THANK GOD I GOT THE MONEY BACK.
I’m not sure how this is LEGAL, and this company has been lucky so far they haven’t scammed people who would take physical action on them.
I feel sorry for the hundreds of other people I saw getting SCAMMED into this deal and another deal of SEEING A $150 SHOW FOR ONLY $50.
Remember this is Vegas, they say good luck to you right before they take your money.
For GOD sakes, stay away from these people and don’t get fooled.
Hi,I wont tell u my story because is the same as the others a horrible experience, anyways we did buy a timeshare at Grand View in Las Vegas but after we read the contract and we realized that it wasn’t what they told us we decided to cancell,we read that we had 5 days to revoke and give up the property so we went to the office and we cancell and we signed the revocation form and the lady told us that they will refund our deposit but it will take about seven days,is been 15 days and yet we haven’t recieve our money back.What should we do?We cancell two days after we signed the contract.we try to contact them but the peolpe we spoke on that day they’re never available and they send us to a cancelletaion office but is nobody there only the answer machine.
Did you keep proof that you cancelled? I cancelled too, they stalled a while and they did give the full refund. As long as you kept some proof you should be fine. Also if you paid by credit card, you can contest the charge with the credit card company, too. I was set to do that, but then they sent me a refund check. I don’t know why they didn’t just credit that card, but hey I got extra rewards points on my card.
[...] 6.Luxor – Las Vegas, NV Apr 26, 2008 … If you attend a timeshare presentation at the Grandview at Las Vegas …… what we were getting into, but we wanted the free Criss Angel tickets. … http://rcivip.com/grandview-las-vegas-is-it-worth-it/ [...]