Westgate Reservations Reviews

The lady gives some sappy story about her mom dying and how she wished they would have vacationed more, blah, blah, blah. They then release you to take a tour of the facilities. My wife was almost sold on this thing! I had to remind her that after you pay $6k, you still have to pay $500 per week. And I reminded her we were staying at a similar property for about that same price already, without putting down $6k. Their tactics do work. DO NOT go if you have a problem saying NO multiple times. We then sit down with our sales person. She asks our opinion. We say we love the place, but we aren't buying. We lie and say we just bought a house, so we can't take on any new liabilities. I also bring up that on RedWeek I got our week for $249, so half what they are selling, and I didn't have to put $6K down. She buys it and gets her manager.

He offers like 4 other options, 0 down financing, $3k buy in and we say no. He gets a little agitated. We stay super nice and calm. Just keep saying NO. He then offers a 3 night stay for $100. Timeshare presentation required. I said no again. He said I was not being rational. I told him I don't book a year in advance, so even if it was $1, I would decline. He signed our paper, and sent us on my way. He was visibly irritated. I didn't care. We got our money and got out of there, but sitting for 3 hours and having to say NO so many times is taxing. Just be prepared. I thought I was prepared, but still found it very irritating and would never do it again.

Below are tips for getting through it if you think the $100 is worth it: When filling out survey, make sure you say you vacation at least 4 weeks a year, otherwise they will try and guilt you into taking more. Act like you are paying attention in the presentation. Enjoy the tour, just realize you are looking at a model, not an actual room. When asked if you liked it, say yes. Of course it's nice. When asked if you are going to buy, say NO. Give a good reason that they can't battle. "I just bought a house." "I don't make purchasing decisions in a day, so I'm not signing anything or giving over any money, CC, future obligations." Tell them they can give you a copy of the contract, but you aren't signing or paying anything today. AND MAKE SURE YOU DON'T. You will need to say this at least 4 times. Don't get irritated. Stay focused. Once they see you aren't budging, they will move on.

They will get visibly irritated. That's fine. You don't have to. You aren't buying anything they are selling. If you have to, say you go to RedWeek or another website and get it for cheaper. Or better yet, pull up a resale on eBay for their property. Look at the time, note that you gave them more than 90 mins, you aren't buying, where's your prize? Good luck!

Bugs? It's a high traffic place in warmer locations of course you will see bugs! Go to any restaurant in the middle of the night and turn on a light, I bet you see bugs! Now I can say we bought way back in the day and paid 1/3 of what they are selling for now so that probably weighs in here a bit. Our maintenance and taxes have doubled and that sucks but being that we paid it off 10 years ago we are not complaining. I know where I am staying and if I have a complaint I let them know in not uncertain terms that I am not happy and they need to make it right, which they have always done. We also bought at the Palms and quickly realized that was a mistake, we got rid of it after 2 years. If you don't like it, book your stay at the Howard Johnson and enjoy your stay... Nobody can force you to buy or make you stay for the spew, get up and walk out!

Been on the phone with several people over this to finally get an email from my agent saying "you're booked for the week you wanted in a 1 bedroom." I thought nothing of it got online to my acct. Yea it's a 1 bedroom but NOT what I paid for. We are suppose to be oceanfront with a full kitchen etc. We have king size bed, pull out sofa, mini fridge, microwave, and coffee pot!!! Very irate and would not recommend them to anyone!!!

We adamantly refused and they changed our room to (V12). That room was a moderate upgrade as it was still very poorly cleaned. Again past guests hair and dog hair in the linen. Mold in the shower, and bugs whom I think felt as if we were intruding into their personal space. Upon switching rooms on Sunday, I had left my son's jersey in the first room and when I called the front desk to retrieve it I was told that would be unable to be done. I was floored! Which further proved the rooms were not adequately cleaned anyway because it would have been in Lost & Found. Three days of calling Lost & Found and Guest Services and no results.

The sales people in the lobby tried to bait us in with their Torture Sales Tactics, and my husband almost fell for it as I'm not the one for wasting my precious time. Once you go into the lobby in the morning they tell you that you have to pay $24.00 which is non refundable to sit through a 90 min sales presentation. I didn't come down here for that and was not about to waste our vacation making such an expensive purchase when they don't even give you a written contract. All of the weary looking families being herded into the lobby waiting to be picked off by the Vultures aka Sales People... I'll pass. Don't Stay There and Don't Buy from this company!!!

Before we even left the house, we got the first call from Marque to meet him for breakfast. There was another call en route, and another when we arrived (a six hour drive). Our 'cabin' ended up being more of a Motel 6. It is in the "Owner Referral' section adjacent to the busiest area of the resort, the registration lobby, aka meeting central. It is NOT the 2 bed, 2 bath, hot tub cabin with a view that is bought and paid for. It is a 1 bed, 1 bath, galley kitchen, 3rd floor noisy hotel room. There is a lovely view of the highway, complete with construction trucks going in and out, beeping, honking, about 50 golf carts coming and going, a loud speaker announcing every time they get a new owner, and folks going in and out all day on the receiving end of "the timeshare talk."

Within hours of our arrival we agreed to meet with Marque for a deluxe breakfast the next morning. This includes tasteless fruit on a buffet, cold scrambled eggs, sausage patties and canned biscuits and gravy. All served on the finest PLASTIC-ware. We were about to be right in the middle of what we witness daily. Our view from about 8am-6pm is resort employees taking people in and out of meeting central to tour the property, go in a model, and then be given a two hour sales pitch. They tell you how the billionaire owner is now investing some of his OWN money into making the newly rebuilt cabins even better. They plan to rebuild in two years what took 18 years to build.

They pull out a worn binder and show you 6-8 bedroom cabins with a price tag of $240,000, "but oh, nobody can afford those, lets move on..." and then go on to tell you how much your property is worth, such growth, such real estate, and "now you can offer your timeshare to others and charge them a fee..." on and on. He also informed us if we call and book through the Gatlinburg number, we would not have to pay a fee for going to a different resort, good to know, after paying it twice. So my husband tells them he is not interested in any further upgrading, gives a few complaints about what was expected, and what we got, because we DID inquire on the phone and made clear we like peace and quiet and views. Marque makes a few notes and calls over a General Manager. General Manager goes on to tell us how the fires affected the property, yadda yadda, and he and Marque make small talk about any free tickets they can give us.

Since we prefer to sightsee and relax, we are not interested in dinner theaters and the like, so we cut the talk short. My husband tells him he only needs to know how to have my name put on the deed to the property, due to his previous wife with whom he purchased the timeshare being deceased. The general manager leaves, and comes back with a set of papers claiming he cannot believe his findings... "You are qualified to buy a $240,000 cabin, but for you, we can discount it $100,000 making your purchase price only $140,000!" And Marque adds, "WOW, Who ARE you people? I've never seen that before!" This sends my husband over the edge. Had we of thought quickly, we should've said "I'm Batman, and this is my wife, Wonder Woman." My husband again said he wasn't interested, and then they wanted him to sign a form saying it was ok to "release this property for a different owner to take advantage of."

My husband (being a lawyer) said that would imply some sort of intent in the first place, he wasn't signing anything and to please call when they got the information about the deed he inquired about. And with that, he offered a handshake and we excused ourselves. Rather, we disengaged from the pitch. The two sat there dumbfounded staring at each other in disbelief as we walked away. There is no bar in which to lounge with a beverage, there is one, may be two? restaurants above the pool that is about 102 degrees, constant hammering and sawing, constant construction traffic, folks jabbering on cell phones trying to make the next sale, financiers walking back and forth with their little black briefcases...

There is a nice indoor water park, and an outdoor pool, though they are still hammering and rebuilding the back portion of the outdoor pool. There are delicious free cookies in the model, go get some. And after waiting (and calling) two days for the spa to open, I was able to get in and have a wonderful massage with Amber. At some point in the future, I could see bringing grandchildren here, to enjoy the water park, and go into Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge for the day. But at no point, does this seem like a quiet, peaceful, relaxing vacation with a view. We have contemplated putting a sign on our balcony facing meeting central that reads "JUST SAY NO!" or maybe "Who ARE You People!?"

They told us sales was out until Monday and on Monday when we called sales they told us we missed the 3-day deadline which we tried calling over the weekend but we were told we were not allowed to cancel over the phone. Needless to say we were stuck with 2 years of payments. Fast forward a year later we had to cancel our reservation last minute due to a medical issue with my husband and I offered to provide documentation but WESTGATE SCAM shows up again. $100 rebooking fee. I would not advise anyone to deal with Westgate in the future!

The salesman was great, until we said NO... he went and got his manager who tried to change our minds. When that didn't work they handed us over to the gentleman to get our tickets who then proceeded to say he was going to fire our salesman!!! VERY PUSHY!!! If you struggle saying no, STAY AWAY!! Once we received our tickets as I stated we paid for 3 months prior, there was no cart to take us back to the clubhouse where we were parked... had a long walk back.

So we decided that after reading the contract we did not want a 6000 dollar hotel room which is the cost of ours if we paid monthly and then the fee of 899 dollars on the year we stayed in the hotel as that is what it is. A resort is a joke. We stayed in a three bedroom room and in the master there was a huge spa in the middle of the room. And it as well as the other shower had water stains and mold and the suite smelled old and was out of date. We were also told they had shuttle service to the Disney parks. To use the shuttle you had to reserve your time in advanced and it took you to the park at 830 am and picked you up at 630 pm, I didn't buy 1500 dollars of tickets for that little of a time at the parks. If I was going to pay that kind of money I would expect the Hilton or Swan at Disney.

Anyways I got a call to set up a time the morning we were to check out. I said no we do not have any time to spare as this is a family vacation and we had plans. Was then told that we had to sit down to a meeting with a rep or they would charge us the full price of the room and bill it to our card. Good thing we didn't have a plane to catch. We were then brow beaten into buying a timeshare we couldn't afford. We told them all of our concerns about the room and that we would not be buying a timeshare for an old, dirty room. Ok they sell us one in a new building that someone apparently pulled out of that was almost paid for at a huge discount. We fell for it and decided a few months later to pull out. It is overpriced and run down and what they promise you in the beginning is a scam to get more money from you.

We have loved the vacation experiences and will be going to Orlando later this year. Last time, in Gatlinburg, we were not given what we owned, but they did give us a free week for 4, which we are using this year. So, although we were very upset, and it got a little ugly, in the end they worked to make us happy. The amenities are wonderful and our children have enjoyed everything. Unfortunately, we would have been going back to Gatlinburg except for the wildfire. So this year, we will be trying out one of the Orlando resorts. In all, my advice would be not to purchase on the spur of the moment. Although they promise you will have "free" vacations, we have certainly spent more than if we just spent the money at a hotel.

On the other hand, we have had beautiful and spacious accommodations, which we would have never had with a hotel. And because we are going to Westgate Resorts, we have went to places we probably would not have chosen otherwise. I like being able to cook and wash our laundry, and I love the spaciousness and privacy of the condos. So although we have spent more money than we should have, we have enjoyed our Westgate resort.

Why should I have to pay fees when I am paying mortgage and taxes, and cannot stay there. I'm very frustrated! It just seems like Westgate wants to suck out all of the money they can. It's never enough. Tennessee owners should be accommodated at any resort at anytime during this rebuild. I don't think it's fair to charge fees when we have no other option, but to go elsewhere! If I have to take this greedy Goliath to court, I will!!! I'm sure other suits will follow!!!

My husband told her we were done, we didn't want no part of a timeshare and we were not buying into it. She got very rude, stood up and started yelling for security. When I told her the noise was bothering me upstairs I could not do it she made a very nasty remark about "maybe we should let Isis go take care of that." We were not there for a timeshare. We live in Florida and we were there to visit family. Like I said she was very rude. The whole resort was a fiasco. We paid 200 bucks a night to stay there and it was very uncomfortable.

After all of this I will never stay another Westgate Resort and I had plans on making sure none of my family does either. The way we were treated was uncalled for. When you say No it should be left at that. You should not be forced into something. Thursday I suffered from seizures and was stuck in bed all day long and we're pretty sure it was brought on by the stress that we went through from the staff at Westgate on Wednesday morning. Just to make things clear when we arrived the first night at Westgate the staff at the front desk that check doesn't work very well mannered and we're no part of this whatsoever.

The only choice one has is to get nasty right back. Sales does this for a living and only understand one language... the language of rudeness! As for the resort... it's tired. It's very 80’s ish. Mold in the shower, appliances don't work and decor is way out of date. I booked this place as a secret deal from Priceline because it was a 4 star resort! No idea how it got that rating but we won't be staying here again.

When you do go to use your timeshare (and I own one), they bother you repeatedly to come to an "update" to waste a couple of hours, where they try to sell you more and do not let you leave. They bring in a supervisor to offer another deal and you don't go until you buy something--what you purchase, however, is not what they promise and you WILL NOT BE HAPPY when you switch resorts from one Westgate to another, you get the identical room that any other guest would have for the price you pay for yearly maintenance--so this will NEVER become a worthwhile investment. You will never reap a real benefit from this timeshare.

And, although they tell you that you can exchange for cruises, this is also a lie. If you try to do that, you will give up your week and get a 100 dollar discount on the cruise--meaning, it is not worthwhile at all. So, everything they tell you is a real scam. When you do go to complain, there is no one that can talk to you. You are switched to different agents and a "supervisor" finally will talk to you, but will tell you that you were told everything and there is nothing else he can do---so it is a complete waste of time and, you cannot get rid of the timeshare. There is absolutely no market and you are stuck forever! If you like the resorts, use them like a hotel--much better deal--just don't buy anything. It is the worst investment we ever made.

Today January 28, 2017 after making plans we called them and they said that they had called us on Dec. 13, 2016 (an imaginary phone call) and notified us that our reservations were cancelled. It never happened. This company is full of bold faced LIARS. Do not bring a checkbook, cash, credit card or any other payment form to any sales presentation with these people. YOU CANNOT TRUST THEM!

Immediately after check in, the sales pitch started. We were directed to a VIP desk for our welcome package and invited to a deluxe breakfast or lunch the following day and a 90 minute presentation of the property and timeshare purchase options. As a thank you for our time, we were offered VIP access to the resort amenities (but the water park is an extra fee), $50 in vouchers for our choice of the onsite restaurants, an exclusive savings book that in reality was available from any visitor center, and passes to attractions that could be chosen at the gift shop. We were under "no obligation to purchase anything", but this "is a sales presentation". We said "OK, can we go get some sleep now?"

After we had to return to the check in desk because our key cards did not work, we found that our condo turned out to be no more than a moderate hotel room with the added convenience of a kitchen and in room laundry. Ok, still a good deal. Sleep was difficult, because the adjoining room was separated from us by a poor fitting door that allowed the light, as well as all the noise and animated conversations, to come spilling into our room.

Upon waking, the other little inconveniences showed up as well. I tried to make coffee, but the coffee maker did not work properly. It was a simple fix, so I fixed it. The bedroom TV had a poor picture. The cable was not properly connected, so I repaired and connected it. My wife tried to make an energy shake for breakfast and the blender was DOA. It eventually got replaced. My wife tried to log in and use the WIFI with the provided access credentials and found out it is not free, you must pay for it. Hmm, going downhill fast, and we haven't been to the sales presentations yet.

The deluxe lunch was cold hotdogs with stale buns and some rice and beans. Way to make an impression! The room was full of weary vacationers and hungry sales persons trying to reel one in. Our presenter spoke heavily accented English, but offered flawless Spanish if that would be better, and put out a lot of information that sounded impressive, but really made no sense. The opportunities and travel options were endless, and this was a much better option than renting a hotel room, and you could have a real warranty deed, an investment that was yours forever! Wait, what, forever? Yes, pass it on to your kids and grand kids, forever. Just pay the yearly taxes and maintenance fees, and the booking fees, upgrade fees, and exchange fees if you want to use a different week or location. It forces (her words, not mine) you to take a vacation, because quality time is important.

At this point, I am still trying to do the math in my head to determine what type of property is assessed at over $500,000 per acre for property taxes, and the rest of the pitch is lost on me. After the initial numbers were put out there, my wife and I politely tell the sales lady we are not interested. When pressed as to why, we respond that we don't plan or take a lot of luxury vacations, and the cost just doesn't make sense. Furthermore, we are here to relax and have no intention on making a huge purchase while on vacation.

After some back and forth, she relents and tells us she will go get a manager to sign us out and we could get our free gifts. He comes in and starts round 2. I get up to leave telling him I am not putting up with a tag team effort. This is not a tag team, he is simply showing some different options. No need to put on a show. He could get us into a "trade in" for a significant savings, and drop us to a single bedroom for only one week. The implication being that the initial pitch was for a brand new unit reserved just for us.

Again we say no, less politely than before. The tone changes and we are told we need to stay for the 90 minutes and then accusingly asked "Why would you sign up for a presentation with no intent to purchase?" I pointed out on our invitation that the check box for staying 90 minutes was not checked (a technicality) and the line that indicates no purchase required to receive your free gift. He gets visibly annoyed and they both get up and leave, taking our copy of the invitation (needed to get our free gifts). The original presenter returns to sign our invitation that we no longer have, and must retrieve it from the manager. She rudely gives it back to us and walks away.

We take our paperwork to the ticket counter, get some of the promised freebies and are directed to another desk for, wait for it... another sales pitch. If we want to get all of our offers, we must attend another presentation, but don't worry it is not a timeshare offer and is not affiliated with those folks. We can even upgrade our offer for a small fee. It is not high pressure and we can have brunch on them. Just bring an open mind. Why not, I'm so irritated that my weekend is shot anyway.

Turns out it is not a timeshare property presentation, but is a sales pitch for an overpriced exclusive vacation club, offered through Westgate Resorts. The brunch consisted of pastries and fruit. The highlights of the presentation are: you still pay an upfront cost, yearly fees, resort fees, exchange fees, upgrade fees, and booking fees, there are blackout dates, and the accommodations and amenities are the same. Doesn't make sense to us so we say no to the presenter, then say no to the manager, and finally leave, having wasted four hours of our lives, and disrupting most of our weekend with mid day presentations.

The rest of our stay was pleasant enough. We spent most of our time away form the resort taking part in our own activities. Upon casual encounters with other guests, some of which were timeshare owners, we found that our experience is pretty much the norm. Everybody is pressured into buying or upgrading. Booking the time and location you want is frustrating. The quality of the units as well as the furnishings is sub par. You do not get what you are promised. Not my idea of a luxury vacation.

The appearance of the unit is ragged. The dishwasher is rusted and broken when pulling out the trays to place dishes. The trays come out of the rail and drop on the floor. The cabinet around the dishwasher is rotted, and the cabinet doors are splintered and separating. The kitchen had no hot water. The apartment is deplorable. No one should be placed in this unit and it is reserved for disabled guests. It appears that WestGate Vacation Villas has an inferior standard for guests with disabilities. It does not think much about providing the same comfort and service for guests that have physical challenges. The hotel management has made little effort to correct these issues, knowing we were inconvenienced for 3 days out of our week's vacation dealing with the broken and run down facilities in the unit. Lastly, we had a dog barking in the unit next door for three days Sunday through Wednesday.

Out of 52 weeks in the year we have one week to vacation and have to deal with this nightmare. What a terrible way to spend a vacation. This issue was raised to several people, we spoke with three managers, Shane who sent the repairmen back twice, Omar ** sent a security to check on the dog barking but did nothing more. And Allan, Front Desk Manager, whom we spoke to last communicating all the issues, he was going to return a call and never did call us back. The Management we have tried to reach have not returned a call nor offered an acceptable compensation for all of our trouble. Do not recommend this as an amenable place to stay. STAY AWAY.

The units are in deplorable shape. A lot of their timeshares are in old buildings and no better than a seedy roadside hotel. Most good hotel chains are way better than what you get at Westgate. Beware. This is only a 2 star at best. Includes, the Lakes, Villas, Williamsburg. Stay away. Book a nice hotel for the money you will waste on Westgate. The prices I see that people pay to buy are all over the place. Do not be scammed by Mr. Seigel. Go look up and see what he lives in. It will make you sick. That is where all the upkeep money goes to, obviously.

Two hours wasted, but we received $60 per hour for sitting through their torture tactics! And we didn't give them the requested "twenty" dollars prior to the session either. My husband said, "Why would I give YOU twenty dollars?" They folded. Of course, they tried to convince us to "upgrade" and told us because we didn't buy through them, we were "missing out" -- I have yet to figure out what exactly I'm missing out on! They tried to tell me they could do better than the "private sale deal" I got -- I laughed and said, "I highly doubted it."

You see, I did purchase a Westgate timeshare but not directly from Westgate. Through a private seller on eBay, I "purchased" a FIXED week 2 bedroom with loft (sleeps ten) villa in the NNN building for ONE DOLLAR. The seller then refunded my money to avoid Westgate trying to use their right of first refusal. My condo/unit is absolutely beautiful and conveniently located near the entrance, the store, and restaurant, and a three minute walk to the water park. This was a private seller -- not a company, or dealer. She told me she had used the unit with her family for many years and now lived in Florida. She also gave me the most wonderful advice ("RULES") about how to enjoy my vacation there without falling prey to Westgate's salespeople and I am going to share it with you below.

We have used the condo two years in a row, and love, love, love it! It is updated, clean and beautiful. I have no problem making reservations. The only issue I have to decide regarding dates is whether to arrive on Friday, Saturday or Sunday of our fixed week. The fees are just under $1000 per year and I did receive my discount for paying early. It is far cheaper for us than paying for two hotel rooms at Disney -- although if I could afford to buy into the Disney Vacation Club, I would do it in a heartbeat! So here are the "rules" we use to make sure we have a very enjoyable vacation at Westgate each year thanks to the lovely lady who "sold" me her beautiful time share condo.

RULE ONE -- At check in, when the "invitations" to attend "owner appreciation" breakfasts, dinners etc begin -- say " No thank you," in a firm voice, and then again, NO, THANK YOU. NOT INTERESTED, and REPEAT -- as many times as needed. They usually give up after the third NO, NOT INTERESTED -- the reception area staff are not as pushy as the sales staff.

RULE TWO -- DO NOT ANSWER YOUR ROOM PHONE! Who needs it anyway? Everyone these days has a cell phone, right? But regardless, if you need to call someone using your room phone, call them, but don't answer calls from Westgate staff. If you need maintenance work done, then by all means answer the phone and if it's anyone else, hang up. We haven't needed any maintenance done the past two years.

RULE NUMBER THREE -- If they try to "visit" you and leave a nice invitation to talk/dine etc on your door, respond by leaving a big note over the top of their note, stating, "DO NOT CONTACT ME. NOT INTERESTED." If you are unfortunate enough to be at your unit when they arrive, just close the door, and/or leave. One year they did, the next year they didn't. They do not, I repeat, THEY DO NOT OWN YOU -- the USA is a free country. You can say NO, and MEAN IT, and they will leave you alone. They have never come back after I left that large note on the door.

I have found the staff at the reception, the water park, and the store to be delightful. We get an owners discount on purchases from the store, and of course, free tickets to the water park and other amenities. We have enjoyed their mini-golf, ping-pong, the fitness center, their paddle boats and bikes -- all free for owners. The condo is always stocked with a "welcome" package, including dish soap, dishwasher soap, laundry soap, toilet paper etc. Internet is free for owners. I don't understand why they feel they need to use such awful high-pressure sales tactics because the resort really is beautiful.

So in summary, if you want to own a Westgate timeshare, buy privately, learn how to be firm, say 'No' and mean it and go enjoy your vacations! If you have been scammed into buying one you can't afford, stop paying for it, and threaten them with legal action -- or better yet, hire an attorney and have him/her write them a letter telling them you are on to them and know there is no legal binding contract they can hold you too. Close that bank account or cancel that credit card and don't lose any sleep over it, because they do not actually have a legally binding contract over you -- surprise, surprise -- they lied about that, too.

Arrived at Westgate, we were made to wait for 30 minutes despite of "booking" the time. Going inside the big hall where they had about 40-50 salespeople pitching and selling their condo rooms. First, we were told our infant won't be getting childcare as he's not potty trained (surprise!!)... then the sales guy forced us to go eat before he can present (even though we had a full on meal right before). Excruciating 3 hours later, he revealed the numbers (200k to own a condo in the hotel for one week/year at an interest rate of 20% borrowing) and we had to make a decision there and then!! Of course we said no!

Then the rudeness kicked in. Did we kick our bedsheets this morning and promised we weren't gonna buy? Did we never intend to have an open mind? Etc etc... He called his manager (Sharmisa) and she was the epitome of rudeness and discourtesy. Her final offer was to buy a week of a condo in Florida for $70k which we have never seen. And then she started calling us different rude things...

Their manager came and apologized for her behavior and led us out of the sales floor. We got our MJ passes and heaved a sigh of relief! But later that evening, we were denied entry to the show because (surprise!!) infants weren't allowed!! My wife cried for having wasted our day and still not being able to watch the show!! What a bad experience!! Stay away from these guys in the malls who try to give you cheap tickets for shows and make you attend their silly timeshare presentations. The product is soooo bad that no one in their right mind will buy it.

However we were told that if we did not attend we would be charged $10 a day for Wi-Fi over our 7-day stay, we were also “assured” that the presentation would take 90-minutes at most and that there were no high pressure selling tactics. We reluctantly agreed to listen to the presentation to avoid being charged another $70 for Wi-Fi thinking it was only 90-minutes at most. We were told that we had to put $20 down on the spot and then we would get that $20 back if we showed up, which was a little odd in itself.

Once at the presentation 2-days after check-in we found out rather quickly that we were we suckered in to dog and pony show where we kept being asked, “what would you pay for the property” repeatedly 6-7 times after we stated we weren’t interested in the $28,400 price tag for 1-week a year. At one point I look down at my watch and noticed we had been there for 2 hours and 10 minutes after we were “assured” that the presentation would last 90-minute at most and that there were no pressure selling tactics. After telling the agent that there was absolutely no way we would make a decision like this on the spot, however we were told that in order to get our promised gift the manager had to speak with us to close the presentation, just another ploy to get us to buy on the spot we suspect.

After waiting for the manager for what seemed like forever I again looked down at my watch and we had now been there 2.5 hours. At this point I was up upset as it was very obvious we had been taken advantage of, we told the sales agent that we had activities planned today and that we could not wait any longer for something we were not going to buy. Again we were told that in order to get our gift we had to speak with the manager. I’m not sure if this staff does all of the presentations or not at this property, but what I am sure about is that this is the most unprofessional group of sales managers that we have ever come across, we felt like we were at some off the wall used car lot it was so unprofessional. Not one manager ever apologized for the wait and/or said "give us 5-minutes, 10-minutes, etc. and I will be right with you." All we kept being told by the sales agent was “it shouldn’t be long.”

Long story short we NEVER received ANY gift because we had other activities that we had already made reservations for on our VACATION! We did receive back the $20 that we had put down though, I guess that was supposed to be a consolation for us wasting 2.5 hours of our vacation time for being treated like just another couple in an assembly line of customers, we’ll get to you when we get you mentality.

The icing on the cake for the manager’s reaction when the sales agent told him we couldn’t wait any longer because of planned activities. He made it VERY obvious he was not happy and stormed by us without looking at us or saying anything to us. My wife and I could not believe the childlike reaction and the unprofessional nature, at the minimum we expected a “sorry for the wait folks” but I guess he didn’t care since he knew we weren’t buying that day. But the worst part of it was throughout the initial presentation my wife and I actually became quite interested in the properties in Park City, UT and Branson, MO and briefly spoke in private that this may be an option in another 3-6 months.

However one thing I can now guarantee is that we will NEVER buy a timeshare property from Westgate and we will NEVER again stay at any Westgate properties. If we could have received a refund for the rest of our stay at the property we would have happily packed up and went to another venue in Williamsburg. I personally have been treated better at the Motel 6 venues that I stayed at while in college, so why would I want to give over $25,000 to a company that obviously ONLY cares about my money and NOT the experience? Additionally how are we supposed to have trust and confidence in our $25,000 purchase after being treated like that? There are way too many other timeshare properties out there and I’m quite confident we will find one that is polite, professional and accommodating to their customers.

In the last 40+ years I can count on (1) finger how many complaint letters, bad reviews, etc. that I’ve ever taken the time to write, but our treatment has left an unbelievably sour taste in my mouth. I will be writing as many reviews as possible on different sites to warn other potential guests before they unknowingly get suckered in to wasting 2.5 hours of their vacation time, I even wonder if we would have ever got the $125 as promised in the first place, after the “used car salesman” tactics that were used I’m sure that was a gimmick in itself also. It’s quite embarrassing to admit that we allowed someone to con us in to something of this nature, but we are now educated on the process and hopefully we can warn others before they fall victim as we did.

Also, the one time that I did book there, it was dirty! Dirt in the corners of the bathroom! They had told me that they would go through with a blacklight and make sure everything was spotless. That was at purchase. And then, there was obvious dirt in the bathroom. And we had to call maintenance twice the one week I did stay there. As for their business practices, I told them I wanted out, to sell the property, and they made an appointment for me to talk with them while I was there. The pitch was why I should upgrade my ownership. I was taken to the new additions and then taken down to a "sales room" and the pressure was on to upgrade. They told me how much my ownership was now worth (according to them, it had almost tripled). I then asked them if they would give me just HALF of what I paid for it and they, of course, said no. It got bad! I asked them repeatedly to take me back to my condo but they kept trying to talk me into upgrading.

Finally after close to four hours, I told them that they were dangerously close to me taking legal action for them holding me against my will. In Tennessee, that is called unlawful imprisonment, and also told them unless they wanted me to start showing "my **" in front of their potential buyers, they would immediately get me out of there. Yep! I was EXTREMELY upset and after 30 years in law enforcement, I'm pretty good at keeping my cool in stressful situations. I BEG you, please do not do business with this company! One last thing, I will add, a couple sued them in Knoxville, Tennessee and were awarded punitive damages. If memory serves, the punitive damages were for half a million dollars. Westgate is a scam. If I could get out, I would.

This week my wife calls to get some info about our package and guess what?! The package was completely different to what the SCAMMER at the resort told us!!! 1 week for $798 and the other 4 weeks are only discounted!!! Plus we have to pay the $798 before booking the one week vacation! I call to get my money back and to cancel! So guess what! I only had 10 DAYS TO CANCEL from the date we purchased (in which more than half of that time I was on my vacation) and the only way to TRY To get my money back is to write to corporate! Or as the rep on the phone "recommended but then didn't recommend" cancel the payments on my credit card. Sure, so that they can report it on my credit report. COMPLETE SCAM! Corporate will hear about me for sure until I get all my money back. I work in sales and customer service for years. This completely unfair and unprofessional!

When we got there we were told my oldest two children would be able to stay in the childcare but my youngest would not due to him being in a pull up. Despite my making them aware of the fact that he has Down Syndrome and he should not be excluded due to his disability they did not allow him to stay. We stayed for the presentation because we would have lost the $40 we already spent. Fortunately my son did very well but that did not change our mindset. We did not buy and will never buy from an establishment that would exclude a five year old child due to him not being developmentally on target.

They assured me that purchasing this timeshare, I and my family we would have right to use, one or more weeks, ilimitadas called weeks of escape in any hotel or resort anywhere in the world, which appeared in the Book INTERVAL delivered upon purchase. The amount of U$ 39.00 to U$ 399.00 per week, this price change would depend on the low, medium and high season, that only in places much demand should the reservation should be made 2 months in advance.

But in my first attempt to use this service, I discovered with the attendant INTERVAL, that this is a LIAR argument used by vendors of Westgate and that several victims calls there complaining about it... Since February 2013, when I discovered this lie I try to cancel my contract and get my money back and I cannot. They accept cancel but do not return the dinheiro. Outra thing that perplexed me, the cost of weekly maintenance: U$ 835.00 for 7 days, or is, U$ 3,580.00 per month for 1 simple 1 bedroom apartment!!! This without consiguir justify convincingly that it is possible... because anyone with a minimum of intelligence will pay a fee that if at a much lower value anyone rent a bigger house and better??? So CAREFUL when someone is aborado by any seller of this company offering some kind of advantage...

We paid the $40 for 2 tickets and agreed to take a 90 minute resort tour. We would get a free buffet breakfast and a mini vaca to use at a later time. So we showed up at 9:45 the next morning and took a shuttle bus to the resort. We were assigned our own "Tour Guide" LOL and finally hours later I told my husband to end this. Let me tell you, suckers beware! We're originally offered a single bedroom 1 week timeshare for $60,000 then we were offered a $14,000 special buy for the same thing because someone else upgraded. But wait! That still being too rich for our blood we were offered a 1 week timeshare for $7800 at another hotel. But wait! That being too much for our poor selves we were offered a 1 week vacation for $499 at another hotel. After we declined once again we were finally escorted to the exit to collect our show vouchers for Chris Angel's show.

Not done yet... oh no we had to take their free ride back to our hotel then walk to the Luxor to buy our tickets with the voucher they gave us. Once there we were told our seats were the cheap seats in the back. We had to insist on a manager with them saying they have this trouble with Westgate all the time and finally gave us our $109 seats. Chris Angel was awesome by the way! Now for the free ride back to our hotel... that was eaten up going to the Luxor and now from the Luxor we had to find our own way back to Planet Hollywood. We arrived back at our hotel around 5 pm from what we thought would maybe would be a 3 hr event. Remember we left at 9:45 am.

When we called to book our 5 bedroom, I was told they only had 2 bedroom available, so I took it. Once I checked in I was cornered once again by salespersons stating they only wanted my opinion on the resort, wouldn't try to sell me anything. After 3 1/2 hours I walked out. Every time I would try to make reservations they didn't have anything. This past summer they didn't have anything so I exchanged to another resort. What do you know, it was a diamond resort and guess what they hit me with the first day... Purchase a timeshare. Told them no and in 5 minutes our conversation was over and we enjoyed our stay.

Made reservations for Vegas in April for last month, couldn't get over a 2 bedroom, took the booking. When we arrived we were once again accosted by salesperson for me to upgrade to elite. Told her no, she said fine. Wanted to know if I would fill out opinion card, told her I had been down that road, wasn't going there again. She said "oh no, just a card" they wouldn't hold me hostage. She invited us to owners dinner. We went, had a great time with great food. Made appt to fill out opinion card over breakfast, thought about it overnight, called and cancelled.

A while later after another phone call and several text later I agreed to meet her the day before we left. Big mistake... 4 hrs later I was still saying no. Was invited again to dinner, we went had a great time, but, at end of dinner was approached again about upgrading. Told her no. While we were loading the car to leave the next morning, received a text wanting to meet before I left, message ignored. We could not enjoy our vacations due to the salespersons.

I just got off the phone wanting reservations at my home resort for November. I can get a 3 bedroom but I have to pay 159.00 because I had used a 2 bedroom, that was their fault I used a 2 bedroom, not mine. I have never been able to get my 5 bedroom due to them stating they don't have it available and now they think I should pay them. I don't think so. This place is a scam. DO NOT fall for their spiels. It is ALL lies.

But wait! That still being too rich for our blood we were offered a 1 week timeshare for $7800 at another hotel. But wait! That being too much for our poor selves we were offered a 1 week vacation for $499 at another hotel. After we declined once again we were finally escorted to the exit to collect our show vouchers for Zumanity in Las Vegas. So after 5 hours we were finally free from our 90 minute tour. But wait! We were offered at the checkout desk by an older gentleman to come back the next for a 50 minute powerpoint presentation and we could get more free gifts. I looked at my wife and started laughing my ass off. So if they're 90 minute tour lasts over 5 hours, how long would have a 50 minute slide show presentation have lasted. What a colossal waste of time. Never again, if I can help others prevent at least a fraction of they're time this will have been worth it. Thanks.

I just got off the phone with them and was on hold for 25 minutes of a 40-minute call. Westgate reps call three to four times a day. I receive 5 to 10 emails a week promoting services and vacations. Yet, what I have paid for has never been honored in 12 months of being an "Owner". I also have paid over $700 in property taxes which I will be saddled with for the life of this timeshare. I really want out. This company is so fraudulent and disingenuous. This is a true case of BUYER BEWARE!

So here is how our 90 minute presentation went yesterday. We checked in upon arrival at the desk and were eventually escorted into the "cafeteria" room to meet our sales rep Scott. Very friendly guy and well trained in the Westgate sales approach. He mentioned at least 4 times that he is an "owner" at Westgate, thanks to his grandmother deeding her timeshare to him. The way they go over the numbers is convincing enough and that is how the psychological sell begins. While you are in this room, every few minutes or so a sales rep comes over the intercom telling the other repa to remove unit blah blah blah from the inventory and welcoming the newest suckers to the Westgate "family."

So I ask Scott "why is that unit taken off if it can be sold potentially 52 times?" No good answer. They are masters at making people feel pressure without words. Then they show you all of the "extras" you get if you buy right now. Never available again. Give me a break. I told him I always research before buying pretty much anything and especially something costing this much. The two bedroom unit was $43000 for one week. They are mathematical magicians at making that look like nothing.

First they ask you how much you typically spend on accommodations for vacation and how weeks per year you go. Then that is multiplied by 20, 40, 50 or whatever number of years. So Scott says he always is conservative with numbers and says "let's go low." Another sales tactic to make you think they are on your side. So our number for our vacations accommodations came to $168,000. Well why would we spend all of that money when we can "buy" it for just $43,000 and have the many extra benefits they offer, like the ability to will it to your kids! Seems like a no brainer, right? Scott assured us MANY times that he was fine if we did or did not buy, he was just here to save us money and show us how wonderful Westgate was.

Finally we were taken up to see the sample unit. It was very nice. Somewhere I would definitely stay. Then we are taken back down to the sales area. On the way there Scott points out the pics of David Siegel with so many celebrities it was almost disgusting. Then he shows us the huge number of charities that Westgate donates to. Every cause imaginable to tug at your heartstrings! What a wonderful company, right?

Now we are at the table in the make the deal area. More of the announcements of taken units and the entire sales team standing up and clapping. I tell him again I have to research and then read off the quick bit I found on my phone. All negative stuff he came up with every excuse in the book of how they could be mistaken. How only people who are dissatisfied post comments and to take them not just with a grain of salt but a whole pound. Of course there is some truth to that but... Finally he takes no from us and says he needs his manager to sign off and get us out of there.

Now we have been there for 3 and 1/2 hours. A woman comes over and asks how Scott treated us and what they could have done to make the sale. Again I tell her I need to do more research. She leaves and comes back with some seemingly amazing deals of units that are available due to circumstances that they owners had to give them up. Wow a 2 bedroom ocean front for $18,000! I must say I was nearly suckered in on that one. Shewey! Boy so they ever watch every expression on your face and use it to play it on your partner. Scott says to my husband, "You should have seen her face when she saw that price. You both deserve to go on nice vacations. Let me show you how you can make her happy."

I piped in and said I was merely watching my husband's face because we were really needing to leave. I told him we really needed to go because the kids have been waiting way too long. Okay so he gets up again and over comes another woman with another deal. Something about a way to try out the resorts to see what we may be missing out on. $995 for three separate stays at Westgate properties.

I again firmly said "no, we have to leave now." She tried to continue with my husband while I was texting the kids. At last we were released from the waaay too long waste of time just to get tickets to a local water park for $100. I'd will pay $400 next time to go to the water park and not lose out on 4&1/2 hrs of my time. Please Google David Siegel's name and Westgate to see what your hard earned money goes to. I cannot believe a company like this is allowed to do this to people. He is nothing more than a glutinous piece of crap and hopefully will be taken down to the level his company has taken so many people.

The sale-mobsters tried every intimidating tactic they could. It did not work. My wife and I was not having it. What is it with these people? Like most vacationers we just want to enjoy our vacations without the Westgate-sale-**. The Westgate-pimp-manager/owners have you ** selling your souls and telling the public lies about having a better vacation and pay for your deeds on your new vacation home??? What new vacation home? Do you mean pay for Westgate deed, property maintenance, property insurance, and fat ROI's **! Please. Westgate are scammers!!! Stay away far away.

So we meet Josh and he's so nice and friendly. Says he won't be pushy just wants us to keep an open mind. We see pics of his fam, he sees pics of our baby, etc... We laugh, we chat, and he tells us we are awesome! All along we know that we can't afford this and we drop hints throughout his whole spill - baby, trying for a second baby, I'm a poor teacher, daycare expenses, etc... He has to know that we won't say yes! He's nice until we see the numbers and the monthly cost (without hoa fees, taxes, & other hidden fees) is equivalent to our mortgage. No way!! So, lovable Josh's body language immediately changes, he stops talking, and starts playing on his cell.

We ask "What's next" because we feel bad. Why do we feel bad?! I'm so irritated to think that he made me feel bad! Anyway, Josh is waiting for a manager to close out and deliver our prize. Bad breath Vallerie walks up trying to be our friend and starts giving us more prices. I finally say, "Thanks but no thanks." She continues to give us more prices and options. Vallerie just can't take no for an answer! I finally say "I'm done and I want to leave!" Do you think we were able to leave? NO! Lance shows up to AGAIN try to sell us a timeshare plus a vacation there for $645 plus $150 deposit!! NO WAY!! We want out because it is now 5 HOURS LATER!!! I'm not even to the worst part of the experience!! Really!!

We walk down to a dingy ticket office and meet the three witches of Eastwick. They are rude, mean, and unprofessional! They call the theatre to see if they can get us tickets. I realize then that there is no way that we'll get tickets. Let me add that Gatlinburg Dolly promised that the tickets would be reserved for us because we paid $20. Of course, there are no tickets available and we're leaving the next day. I was so furious! We wasted 5 hours!! So, we asked if we could have $100 cash like others were offered and the answer was no. They tried to offer other tickets but I knew calling at 1:30 pm for same day tickets was useless. I said this was the biggest scam I'd ever endured and they blamed us for taking so long in the presentation! What?! Like we wanted to sit there waiting for different pushers to pressure us!!

The witches could only promise $82 but they'd take that away if I didn't lower my voice. I calmed down and made them count out the $82 and $20 before signing. That was such a big deal - sign before anything. My husband refused to sign until we were handed what we were promised. They didn't like that and said we wouldn't get anything until signing. Ugh! So immature and stubborn! Being a kindergarten teacher, stubborn has no effect on me! They threatened security and I simply said, "Why? You're the one being aggressive and withholding."

Anyway, I left in tears and told everyone that it was a scam and they didn't deliver on promises. Maybe some of the poor saps sitting in there heard me. Other workers tried to talk but I was too upset and just wanted to leave. My husband had to tell a security guard that we knew where we parked and no escort was necessary. Really? I wasn't a threat! IT WAS THE WORST VACATION EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE AND I HOPE TO BE WISER NEXT TIME!! When something is too good to be true - IT IS!! I hope someone from Westgate SMR reads this but more importantly, I hope my review saves you from wasted time and lies!

So now I'm getting pissed because I have wasted 40 minutes of vacation time. Long story short we informed the saleslady that we were not interested. She says "Ok I will go get your Tixx." 30 minutes she comes back with another salesman trying to resale. Again I tell them I'm not interested. They say we have to ride a golf cart to the other side of property to pick up Tixx. I ask "what were you doing for the last half hour?" She replies "your time was not up yet." Ok now I'm super pissed so I tell her to just give me my deposit back. She says "ok let's go up front." Front desk then decides to resale what I had already told them I didn't want. In the end we wasted 2.5 hours plus we were out of 40 dollars with nothing to show for it but a headache. STAY AWAY.

It seems they have a "keep whatever you find in the room" policy! The REALLY ironic thing is while you're on hold you're listening to this "Spiel" about how they strive for 100% Customer service!! Needless to say, I'll never stay with them again! I wonder IF my Daughter & Son-in-law had purchased the "Timeshare" that they were pressured to do by 3 (THREE) agents IF I might not have had my items "stolen"?!

Brandon was a very nice guy and not pushy in any way. He explained everything to the best of his ability. Also showed us a model of the timeshare. We asked him if we could take this information home, research and think it over. Brandon told us, no, that we had to buy right then and there. At the end of the presentation, 3 HOURS LATER, we told him "no" again and he called over his manager, Alejandro, who was the most RUDE little man ever. He told me to shut up, he was tired of hearing me talk and wanted to hear my husband talk. My husband told him the same thing, "Thanks, but no thanks". We expressed to them over & over that were not interested. The manager, Alejandro, kept pushing proceeded to tell us that we needed to get rid our cable at home so we could pay for the timeshare.

They also wanted us to put $25,000 down for the down payments. As if we have that money at our fingertips ready to give out. Then Alejandro told us, "This man is here working, making a living for this daughter, while you guys are on vacation." The nerve of him!!! We also work and make a living. That is NONE of his business. Alejandro knew I was livid at this point. He looked me directly in my eyes and said, "You're getting mad at me, aren't you?" I said, "Oh yes, I AM!" He then said, "That's OK. My wife gets mad at me all the time". He kept telling my husband, "Don't you want to get this for your wife?" Like trying to make him feel bad. That didn't work with us because we both knew that were NOT going to give in.

We told them repeatedly that we didn't want any of their gifts, all we wanted was our $40 back and we wanted to leave. They made us stay there for another hour asking us questions and insulting us. By the time we left, I was in tears!!! They lied and ruined our last day in Vegas and took up almost all of our time, with their lies and insults! How dare these people try to tell us how to spend our money and make us feel bad for being in vacation in the 1st place! If you see these people... RUN!!!

Here are the lies the rep told us: We were told we could break up weeks and use it for partial days (lies). They said we could use any of the resort in the interval app (lies). They are never available! Also we signed the paperwork as 4 and interval claims my best friend and husband aren't on the paperwork. Westgate constantly gives us the runaround. You can never get a hold of anyone to help you or to answer questions. I wish I knew a lawyer that could help because this is just a money dump. Please don't let them scam you.

We told them that we wanted to see the unit they were offering us which was in building 100 unit 24C. Our sales rep, David, took us over to the model in building 80 which is next door to building 100 and told us that our unit would look identical to the model which contained granite counters in the kitchen and bedroom, stainless steel appliances, etc. With the long presentation and leaving us in the owner's lounge to wait our turn to meet with the closing agent it completely slipped our mind that we still were not shown the actual unit we were signing for. I didn't realize that until we had already signed and left. I decided to research the Westgate Resort timeshares due to us not being shown the actual unit we were given. I didn't have a good feeling about it.

The reviews that I read were quite disturbing which included high pressure tactics and lies. The yearly HOA fees would increase drastically every year. The grace period was never mentioned in person. The signed documentation showing the grace period was hidden in the owners binder and many more. I wish we had googled it while we were there and we would have walked away.

The next morning before we went to Disney we went over to building 100 so that we could see where unit 24C was located. When we got to the first floor we located units 24A and 24B but could not locate 24C. We asked one of the resort employees (not a timeshare rep) who happened to be outside the building if building 100 has C units. He told us that building 100 does not have C units. I also called the front desk to ask about unit 24C in building 100. The lady told me "that unit does not exist." Not to mention, we were able to look into vacant rooms in building 100 and saw that they did not look anything like the model unit we were shown. They were outdated like the unit we stayed in.

These individuals are not only selling lies, but they are also selling units that DO NOT exist. We clearly were in vacation mode and did not think logically during all of this. As soon as I started to think logically about it all, I very quickly realized how things did not add up and did not make sense. For instance, the $700 in HOA fees they require per year. Why would each timeshare owner have to pay $700 a year in HOA fees for a 1 bedroom for 1 WEEK of use?!! My home's HOA fees cost about $1000 a year and I lived in the home 365 days a year.

Westgate wants almost that same amount for a 1 bedroom for 1 week. Just think about how much money they are getting from all their timeshare owners by charging that yearly fee for a week of use. That's only for 1 bedrooms, the more bedrooms the higher the HOA fee. Also, our flight and condo at Westgate Resort came out to $506 for a 5 day/4 night stay in Orlando for the both of us. Meaning, my fiance and I both stayed at the resort and had our round trip flight for over $200 less then their yearly HOA fee and stayed almost the same length of time.

I will NEVER support this company again by staying at any of their resorts. It's a shame that we allowed ourselves to fall victim to their scams, but I am glad that I was able to take time to think logically about everything while we stood in those long lines at Universal Studios. DO NOT ATTEND THE TIMESHARE PRESENTATIONS! No matter what they offer you, do not attend even if you plan on saying no because the 60 minute presentation is actually several hours. We lost half our day due to the presentation.

I just hope anyone that signs for a timeshare does their research beforehand, requests everything they offer to be put in writing and demand to see the unit you are signing for to see it for yourself. If those that do fall for their scams, I hope that they realize it within the state's grace period and immediately mail them a cancellation letter demanding the return of any money paid and to cancel any agreed financing terms. I will be mailing my cancellation letter to the address stated in the paperwork via overnight mail so that I can track the shipment along with a signature required receipt. I've already notified my credit card company as well and they will be reversing the deposit charge. Best of luck to everyone!

We stressed the fact that we were here for a wedding and cannot be late, in which this was totally ignored by the "presenter". This was not even a presentation. It was a lady by the name of Amber (she's mentally unstable) constantly trying to sell me and my wife on buying in. After numerous times of telling her, "No, thank you", she proceeds to take us up to one of the suites for a last ditch effort to change our mind. Then she calls her boss Angel over to try to sell us as well.

We had to ask a million times how much money would it take to be an owner, and finally 3 hours later she tells us that the suite we just went to costs a mere $149,500 and we would only need to give her $42,000 down to own this. After laughing our asses off we tried to leave again, and her boss Angel comes back several more times with new proposals in order to get any money she could out of us, going all the way down to $300 down and telling us that we might be approved for a line of credit to cover the rest. All of this just to get a free dinner and show tickets is definitely not worth it.

Also, the food is overpriced and underwhelming. We went to Sid's Cafe for lunch and ordered steak and eggs, which was $20 per platter, and a short stack of pancakes, which was $9. I was pissed at the prices, but decided, "What the hell, I'm on vacation. Why not?" The food comes and our steaks are literally tougher than both pairs of our shoes put together. I damn near broke the steak knife trying to cut into it, no joke. I apologize that this review is so long, but I just want to make people aware of the crap you will be dealing with if you stay here. Who goes on vacation to give a stranger $42,000 dollars? Certainly not me. Again I urge anyone thinking of staying here, please reconsider and GO SOMEWHERE ELSE and enjoy your vacation.

Questions are asked about what you annually spend on vacations, where you go, would like to go, etc. They do calculations and presented an offer which seemed good. Not an 1 1/2 hour but over 7 hours later when it came to signing the contract the Notary, JD, is acting like my best buddy. Acting like he's looking out for me, congratulating me. The signing of the contract was done on his tablet digitally. This makes it scarily easy to sign away! As I read I had concerns about discrepancies, my new buddy assured me it was just how things are worded, that everything was OK. He had me sign a sheet that was previously stapled, and I asked about that. He assured me I was going to get everything on the CD disk.

I'm in Vegas for a conference, I have no means to read a CD, so I asked for all paperwork, and reminded him that I wanted the hand-written paper of the agreement that I came to with the sales rep. JD assured me I would receive all this. After a couple of days at the conference and dinner out, I take a look at the paperwork and the hand-written agreement is not there, the other paper attached to the one previously stapled paper I signed and was told it was to agree to audio recording the transaction, was advising that Nevada law states that I have 5 days to cancel the contract. Hmm, why would they hide this from me at the signing? After looking closer at the contract I found that it was not just "how things were worded" but actual discrepancies, serious dependencies.

So now, after the contract I start my due diligence, researching Westgate. I can find nothing positive about them. Everything is negative, very negative. This is why the will not let me take a week or even sleep on it as requested. So yesterday, 4 days after signing, I sent a certified letter canceling the contract. Upon sleeping about this I could not just leave this as it is. The least I can do is share my experience to warn others. In my opinion Westgate is organized to mislead, deceive, manipulate, lie to and defraud people.

Funny thing is I met few people that just rented a week, not owners, they were staying in very nice units, had great customer service. I offered to sell them my unit, they laughed. Said their week was cheaper than my maintenance fees, and they didn't have to pay the money to buy it. I'm guessing Westgate want to impress the prospective buyers and don't care about the owners (suckers). They already have our money! Anyone interested in purchasing a timeshare? I have one for sale cheap. Lol.

We were slandered by ** the Operations GM and the manager for Flamingo Bay, calling us "pattern complainers" and the "disabled" couple! My husband is a disabled vet, and I am disabled as well, and we frequent Las Vegas 2 times a month. This was disclosed to our snake of a salesman and he still lied to us because we didn't receive what we were supposed to. So because we requested to have things repaired that were broken we were referenced as such. The nerve!

We checked out on 3/3 and came to WGLV to try to gain some understanding on why we are spending so much money to use our timeshare. Much to our avail, we have been totally unsuccessful in achieving anything and we were given 2 comped nights by a very rude little man and then was given a rate of $50 per night for the nights we were staying as if we wanted to continue to spend more money after just forking out $1243.00 in February for our 2 stays and our mortgage payment.

Since we have been staying here in WGLV in the owners villa timeshares, which by the way, they only have 14 total that are what they call ready to occupy which is a lie, we have had to be moved 4 times due to room issues that were no fault of ours! The jacuzzi tub in the first villa we were in would not drain, so we had to move because we were told by engineers it was not "habitable". Then we were moved to a room that was a smoking room on the 12th floor, which my husband cannot be around smoke because of his allergic reaction to smoke, but was told that they had no other rooms available to move us to. So, the next morning we were moved again to another villa that we were in for about 4 days and had a leaking ceiling issue from the upstairs unit which was filling up the light with water.

There is also a non secured washer/dryer and a constantly running toilet. Not to mention we have to hear drilling as early as 8 am in the morning from upstairs. Now the room we were in has a leak in the ceiling over the jacuzzi tub, and water was pouring out of the light! Yes that's a fire hazard and we were not moved promptly like it was suggested. Also the washer/dryer combo literally comes out of the cubby hole when it goes on spin cycle. And the dryer does not work at all because there is no ventilation to hook up the dryers to we were told.

There are also no stoves in the so called kitchens! Engineers came and told us and the front desk along with owners services that we needed to be moved NOW and we just got moved on Monday! Now get this, I am a vegan, I don't eat like everyone else so I buy my own food, so therefore I need a full size refrigerator! The room they moved us to has a mini fridge which is not big enough to hold my frozen food or fruits and veggies! This is all in the notes that I need a full size fridge! So all my food thawed out and cannot be refrozen! And please believe that I will be getting compensated!

The view is great, but the room is dirty and worn, the carpet needs to be cleaned and once again, yep you guessed it, the jacuzzi tub leaks at the base and has the carpet soaked on my side of the bed!! We cannot get a break it seems with this place and the people who call themselves employees have no integrity at all! Because of all this stress that has been placed on us, my husband had to be taken to the VA emergency room and Saturday because his BP was 186/120 and was told that he needed to relax! How is this possible when we can't stay in a room long enough to relax? I was told that he is stressed out and that he cannot make any road trips right now and may possibly have to be admitted in the hospital if his blood pressure does not come down.

We are truly unhappy with our ownership and have not had anyone sit down with us to discuss our options and I personally have made every attempt to communicate with any and everyone I possibly could. When we first arrived on March 3rd, we sat down with an executive SB and explained our concerns about our timeshare and instead of addressing our concerns he gave us a "hush" comp for 2 nights. He promised he would sit down with us and discuss our issues and has yet to do so.

Also, SB slandered me in front of my husband and JD who is a deed closer, while I was inside of the owners department here at WGLV. He didn't know the man was my husband and called me a liar and stated that I misrepresented HIM because he asked me did we want to go to dinner or go to a show, and at the time I declined, and later decided that we could use dinner because we were hungry. My husband had to tell him who he was and he then turned beet red and tried to clean up what he said but it was already too late and not to mention, there was a witness besides my husband there who heard everything.

We have been nothing but inconvenienced since becoming owners and the communication between the hotel and owners department has been poor along with the unprofessionalism that has been displayed to us as owners. I even sent 2 emails to David Siegel and met him while he was here on the property and told him I have a lot of things that he needed to know. I got the feeling that he doesn't care. I had to request a concierge, and since we have had Walter, he has been such a big help as much as he is allowed, because like I said, one was never assigned because I wasn't aware that in order to have a concierge assigned, we would have to deposit our week, which we don't have one this year and to have a reservation a week in advance. This also was never disclosed to us either, so we didn't know.

We frequent Las Vegas 2 times a month and I don't feel that our timeshare is able to accommodate our travel needs. We were taken advantage of like a lot of you on here. I am interested in getting a class action lawsuit started and will be doing my due diligence to get it started. Enough is enough! I am at my breaking point. I can't sleep, I am stressed out, frustrated and tired. I hope that you find what I had to say helpful! Please run the other way and steer clear of this joke of a timeshare!

The sales representative and manager lied blatantly about what it was that we were receiving with our purchase while we were on the sales floor and after 5 hours of presentation/negotiation/waiting, both me and my wife were too tired to realize that what we signed for wasn't what we were promised. The paperwork was lengthy but because the representative seems like was so helpful and trustworthy; she explained everything. The closing officer let us sign the contract in a tablet without reading all the information. We even ask her at that moment if she can give us the hard copy of the contract and she told us that they will send it by postage mail through our address and we will receive it after a week. We also ask the sales representative to bring us to the resort that we purchase in the contract and we were very disappointed of what we've seen.

So the next day me and my wife decided to cancel our purchased. We called the closing officer and ask that we like to cancel our purchased and we would like to come to the office to cancel it. And she made excuses - she's not in the office for couple days and no one can take care of us because she is the one who is in charge in our account. We ask her if we have to sign any letter of cancellation into her office and she said we don't have to. She said we don't have to worry because she can cancel it through by phone and that we don't have to come to office to cancel it. She made assurance that to us. We told her that we were leaving back to Canada on November 2, 2015. She told us to call her on the Next day so she can open our account and start the cancellation process.

November 03, 2015, we made a call right away early in the morning and we talked to Giselle ** our closing officer and so she told us again that we don't need to worry because she can cancel it. She don't mention about the letter of cancellation and so I ask her if we need to send any letter to cancel it and she said no need, in fact we have a voice recording of what we have talk about. She told us also that we need to wait after a week for the letter that she will send us and two weeks for the money to go back to my credit card.

We were scammed by a crooked Westgate Timeshare Resort! Of course we didn't receive the papers for 2 weeks despite of our numerous calls. By that we didn't even know that there was 10 days rescission period as they didn't show us the paperworks and all the documents. After a week we haven't receive anything so we call her again but we cannot contact her anymore until after two weeks past the rescission period. Finally we did talked to her - it was November 16, 2015 and this is the time she told us about the cancellation letter and everything. We told her that she didn't even mention from the start that we have a 10 days rescission period in the cancellation and even didn't tell us about the documents that they put in the disc that it was there in the black suitcase which they give us at the start during the contract signing. They hide it in the pocket.

And she said "refer to our documents" which we know she didn't give us any documents during that time. She didn't give us proper instruction. Finally we figure out that we were scam by this people, as we open the files on the disc. All documents was there and we find out that there was 10 days rescission period and it was past more than a week for rescission period. We were too late to submit our cancellation letter and they wouldn't let us cancel! We find out that she did not tell us this, she did not tell us that. After reading the fine print, the truth was we would be paying triple the amount for all the fees, maintenance fees, monthly and annual fees. At a high interest rate 18.99% for 120 months. The sales rep had no intention mailing our documents on time as they promise.

We were taken for granted and violated. We were very disappointed in the false representation and false advertisement and so called promotions covered with lies. Their charge is inaccurate because it was a Fraud committed during sales process. The company violated good business practices. They are doing fraudulent and deceptive practices with their consumers. We are on the process in filling our complaint against them.

We arrived at Westgate Las Vegas Casino and Resort and were greeted by nice people that took our information. I started the clock on my iPhone. Over the next 7 plus hours we were unsuspectedly manipulated and lied to. We were "pencil sold" on how much vacations would be with our children in Vegas without this wonderful deal. As a remarried single Dad of 4 children they identified my family weakness early and built a series of verbal lies around that weakness. After initial attempts at selling me a 2 bedroom unit annually for $40,000 failed, they located "a deal". A one bedroom suite for $11,000 and the best part is that I could add the additional attached room when I wanted to for only $40 per night. This seemed reasonable to me so we proceeded.

We were then told the promised airline tickets were a lie and we spent an hour working through that problem. Ultimately we did end up getting them but unbeknownst to us there were a lot of things tied to it and it isn't free. Other offers were added... Free limo rides, breakfast, gaming chips, an IPAD that really was an IPAD. After hours of negotiating I finally agreed on $5500 down and the remainder of the $11,000 spread over 36 months interest free.

Once we got into the signing area we were introduced to a new individual that said he would be doing our closing and he was an independent agent there to protect our rights. We were told that the transaction was being recorded as directed by the State of Nevada. The paperwork was all digitally presented on what I would describe as 8 inch monitors. It was getting late and we had already missed a show that we had tickets for so trusted that the paperwork mirrored what the closing individual as well the salesman told us. We caught errors in the paperwork that needed to be corrected as well as the system locking up several times.

At some point we realized that the timeshare we were buying wasn't a week per year but actually a week every other year and not until we got home did we realize it is. 4 nights and 5 days. When we initially questioned why it was every other year the closer explained that it wouldn't make sense to pay the $440 in maintenance fees on the off years when we as owners can book our same room for $40 per night. $40 per night times 7 nights equals $280 which is less than the annual maintenance fees so it makes more sense to just leave it at every other year. So we signed. It wasn't until last month when we tried to book the room where we realized that this was all a lie.

We called in to the owner line and after 35 minutes of trying to book a room I was hung up on after being told I couldn't get my room for any dates and even if they were available I could never get close to that price. Needless to say I am frustrated and am seeking legal counsel. I am sure I have missed some details on this but I want to make sure I put something out there for others that might be dealing with this as well. If you want to ping me try **. Thanks.

I gave us 15 minutes before I called the transportation company to pick us up. Ten minutes later, our sales person called our name and the process began. After describing the timeshare, he said that the normal price was $49,500, but if we bought today, there would be a 10-15% discount. I said that there was no way I'd commit without doing research. We went on the tour and the rooms that they showed us were quite nice. When we returned, we sat down at the table and he said he'd be right back. He came back and said that there was one resale unit for $17,500 (second lie). He said that it could be financed with at 17.99% rate, or I could put 40% down with a 0% rate.

I told him again that I wouldn't finance anything at that rate and I wouldn't buy anything without researching the details. He said this was a one time deal and wouldn't be offered again (third lie). I asked that after I did my research and wanted to buy at that price and pay cash would they take it? He said that they wouldn't. I then said that I wasn't interested in buying now. He was understanding, said "Thank you", and said he would get the "manager" to sign off on the gift. The manager was unbelievable. She stated that we were making a mistake and should "try" the property (for $$) to see what we were missing. I wasn't going to spend several hundred dollars to "try" their property. I stated again that I wanted to research more information about the company and customer experiences before I made a commitment.

She threw the gift approval on the table and got up and left. Really?? She didn't say a word as she left. I took that as a sign that this was a culture that was more interested in pressuring people into bad decisions than providing a quality product. Oh, not to forget, that 90 minute presentation is nowhere close to 90 minutes. It's more like 3 hours. I was absolutely amazed at how many people had contracts on the table as we walked out. When we went to the "gift room" (or reimbursement for pain room), they tried to give me $100 universal credit instead of cash. I saw two couples just leave after standing in line for their gift because they had previous plans since the 90 minute presentation took twice that long. Since we didn't buy, we were eligible for another "gift". When we went to that counter, they said it was free tickets to the park if we watched a video presentation the next day. Really??

We did get to the park by 11:00 am, didn't have to buy breakfast, and we had our parking paid for the week with the $100. Was that a win? I don't think so, but it was a good lesson for our kids. If you have a good product, you can be honest, transparent, and patient. You will get business. If you don't, you have to pressure, bully, and convince.

After that experience, I spent 30 minutes on the internet and saw several things: Several sites (this included and TripAdvisor) had reviews of customer stays. Most were average to horrible. I was surprised at the number of comments on consumer sites about how bad the properties were (re: bug bites, run down, disgusting, etc.). Verified resales of several units in Orlando (where they showed us the units) were less than $5K. $49K starting price in the sales pitch to market price of less than $5k... Hmmm. Search yourself and verify. Many other prices were all over the map... Up to $20K. Bottom line for me: If someone is not going to be honest with me or a be a jerk to me, I'm not spending a dime with them.

So he brought out a guy named billy, his supervisor. He was a complete bully, talking to us in a degrading manner, his tone of voice was rude. We were so shocked in his approach to try to sell us a timeshare we just sat there. By the time he was done speaking and left our table my fiance and I were furious. He was so angry on how bill treated us that he didn't even want to stay in the hotel anymore, even though we already paid for the night. Oh yea, and all those free buffets and this and that they promise, we didn't get any of that!

Difficult to get the two bedroom condos; studio or subpar hotel accommodations are the norm. The Hertz program they offer you in car rental program is already free to public. $500 weekly fees for Westgate resort vacations, are for one week only; if you want 10 days...you will pay another full $500.00. Use a Florida travel agency to set up "hot week getaways"; employees are unhappy with employer (high turnover). Closer will pitch increased "hot week getaways"...if you can find them and if you want to keep paying "usage fees". Upfront fee to "join" travel club, $6,900.00, then $500.00 dollars to stay somewhere that isn't great (Westgate) and then usage fees (another 500.00) if you are lucky enough to find those rare "hot getaway" deals and don't forget the 199.00 annual membership fee. What's the deal in that? Steer clear folks! It's a pyramid scam!

We finally got to the presentation part and the sales rep started talking in circles and constantly backtracking what he would previously say. I finally asked him if he was new, thinking maybe he was nervous. He told us he usually only dealt with Spanish speaking guest, so it was different doing it in English. So I kept asking the same questions over and over. And the more I would disagree the longer he would proceed to tell us, "Wait just listen to this part". Finally after a good 4 hours we toured the facility. It looked amazing, and up to date, and cost us nearly what we paid for our vacation per year. He then convinced us it would be amazing, and at the low cost of 40K it was definitely worth it. I told him no, we were trying to buy a house by the end of the year, and I couldn't see paying that much.

He took us back to the breakfast room, and T.O'd (turn over) to his boss, who would not take no for an answer. They finally brought us a "foreclosed" model at 17K. They also said they wouldn't run our credit but would open a line of credit for us. Turns out that was also a lie. They also lied to us about other things, and I could go on forever. But mostly I wanted to write this review for one reason only... TO OPEN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT. If you are interested please feel free to contact me at **.

Due to our circumstances, we won't be able to use our vacation package during the timeframe that was given to us and so now they don't want to refund any of our money and basically steal what we've paid and what we're going to keep paying till it's paid off. They're a ripoff. Scammed artists. Don't waste your time with them!!! I regret ever stepping foot in their facility. Worse decision of my life and now me and my kids are short $800 for something we will never use.

Spoke to someone there today and she basically said I should have known what the contract terminology meant and that they won't do anything because it's a he said she said type of situation. This company will take advantage of you in any way they can. We let our guard down and now are saddled with a worthless so called "vacation". If you still can run, don't walk away from this company. They represent all that's wrong with corporate greed.

For those who have had the same experience, please file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission. For BBB complaints, the company is listed as: Central Florida Investments, Inc. The least we can do as consumers is call out the shameless fraudulent and deceptive practices of this company because the money is unfortunately now flushed down the toilet.

Well, apparently we purchased only the vacation "leisure time" package and not even timeshare owners, in other words the amount of money we put into leisure time passport vacation get away, we will end up paying for our own package as opposed to this false awesome offer we thought we had joined. Today (11/09/2015) I spoke with Maria ** of Westgate, I tried to explain to her the "verbal" presentation we were given and the reason we signed the contract, she indicated "you wouldn't get a timeshare for that amount, timeshare is $8,000 to $20,000..." After going in circles with her and trying to explain that we were misinformed and mislead and want a reimbursement of the $495 we had already paid and have not used the packages to date and do not desire to do so, she made remarks "didn't you read your contract", "don't you read what you sign".

I told her we entrusted the manager when we signed up and trusted his word, he told us "everything I am tell you is in the fine print", she told me "you signed the contract so you should read what you sign", she tried to make a case scenario but she would not listen to my case scenario. The conversation going nowhere I decided to write a review and see what I can do with BBB. We wasted $495.00 so far in a package that was not what we were told we had. Lots of loopholes, re-direction and falsified information coming from Westgate... I am so very disappointed in the false representation and false advertisement and so called promotions covered with lies... lies... lies. I advise, if you are interested in timeshare, etc... AVOID WESTGATE!!!

Then we get it paid in full and 2 years later, after haggling over the maintenance costs and dissatisfaction of the entire "ownership experience," we get a letter stating that we were in default $2000+ and our unit was being auctioned off. Not another word since then, around the 12th of August, 2015. If anyone is INTERESTED IN CONTACTING US FOR A CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

To make matter worse, they sold my Planet Hollywood timeshare to Hilton Grand so we are treated like red headed stepchildren. Everything has to go through Hilton who does not care about us because we don't own from them. I hate Westgate and I promise out of all my days, this was the worse investment. Even after I own the property, I will still be paying 500 biyearly in maintenance fees and $140 in exchange fees just to spend 3-7 days in a resort. Do I have a witness that I can pay for this out of pocket and still come out better. This amount doesn't include our mortgage payments. (SMH.)

Attended the owners' party, swam in the water park, got a massage, and visited the city to eat and walk around. Found some good deals at the outlet mall and had a good dinner at a steakhouse. In June 2015, I booked a weekend in Vegas but ended up not being able to go, but getting the deal took some careful planning and patience. What you see online is not normally what is available so you have to call to see what's really available.

I have read many unhappy owner and prospective owners about their experience with Westgate but I can only say my dealings with them has been positive, all around. To take advantage of the deals requires lots of flexibility and patience. Yes, you can cancel within 24 hrs of booking a trip and it helps to have several places in mind, so you don't get discouraged when one falls through. I have a travel agent friend who's always trying to get me to buy one of his cruises or trips but he agrees that he cannot touch the prices that Westgate offers. Happy travels!

Then we can't afford it anymore. They started sending letters to us credit collectors phone calls. It's going foreclosure. When we try to explain how we can discuss to solve the solution coz my husband can't afford to pay anymore... they sent us letters and calls from credit collectors. It's really frustrating. All they need is money. Our money was wasted and we never used the timeshare even a single day. It's really sad. People are struggling with hardship while others scam people. Not good. We really don't know what to do. Please advice.

Needless to say, we were not allowed to rebook the remaining three days because it was from a previous year. But had that been possible, we would have been assessed a rebooking fee. Westgate staff has misrepresented over and over and over. In addition to the runaround on banking the three days, I turned in a long list of repairs needed in the unit. I would NOT recommend this timeshare to anyone, and would personally like to know if anyone is interested in joining me in a class action suit against Westgate.

My husband and I go away and return at 4:30 with our small dog. Our units are still not ready. We wait and wait exactly as in the reviews. An extremely nice young lady was acting as liaison between her manager and me. I asked if we could just have one of the units now and the other later and was again denied. Finally, a short overly friendly older lady named Cindy said she was our personal concierge. Extremely talkative on the ride to the top of the mountain and inside the villa until I refused to attend her so called meeting on Thursday or Friday. Immediate silence after a few confrontational sentences between us, she laid the check in packet down and left. By now it is 6 pm. We are exhausted. I picked up the dog and walked out of the room only to lock all of us out. I immediately asked security for help.

Approximately 40 minutes later and several request to housekeeping and security a very nice man came let us in and helped carry all of our luggage in. He was nicely compensated. Terrible experience!!! On Monday private Concierge Cindy calls to ask us to change our mind and meet with her. She continues to call everyday and on Friday, she rings our room 5 times to ask us to come. On return home she even left a message at our home. At 9 am today, a person of color swiped a card and opened our door to see me in my underwear. We had not checked out! I am very disappointed to learn that Westgate sales persons, now called Concierges, are going to harass me like this every time I try to spend a week in MY timeshare. I hate the time share presentations. I was told at the time of original purchase, I would never have to do one again.

Finally we were told the pool near our villa would be open on Monday as it did not pass inspection today. So very not true. We learned on Saturday the new pool had major problems which were confirmed by the pool contractors. The pool was under major repairs as we checked out a week later. My husband and I are well-educated professionals and we have been deceived. I cringe to think how others have been mistreated.

They did give us renovated units (bldg 5800) HOWEVER they were not the units that were shown to us and stayed in by us from the previous year. This upset my grandmother so much she ended up in the hospital for THREE DAYS because of the stress and lies that Westgate had told her she was getting and then come to find out it was a lie. Not mention when we asked about what's going on we get a different answer from everyone we talk to. Fast forward to this year, we staying in another "renovated" bldg (4000) but again that wasn't the renovated units we were promised. There's no stainless steel, it's not as spacious, no bar area, there's old cabinets and sofas (one has a rip that they think they gonna charge us for?!?! You kidding right?)

***BEWARE WHEN DEALING WITH WESTGATE*** Get everything in writing. They pressure you for hours until they get a yes. Meanwhile the billionaire owner is building the biggest house in America. Do get me started on the standard of living has gone wayyy down. The owner's bbq lunch and breakfast is pathetic. Constantly being cheap but they haggle more and more for money. Don't get me started on the newly built water park that they promised to my grandmother FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. Don't waste your money.

Every time I call I get transferred to 2/3 people if I'm lucky. No one seems to know what is going on. The cruise and travel part of Westgate that I purchased has been the best part. The guy I felt with has been very nice and honest. I took my family on a 8 day cruise and it all worked out great. I am now in the process of trying to sell my timeshare. I hope it works out. My husband and I have traveled 8 times since we have owned the timeshare and it was so difficult to use it I ended up booking our trips on my own. Crazy after paying so much money for a timeshare. They told so many lies!! Nothing they said was the truth. They supposedly taped the info they told us but who knows if they did or didn't.

Luckily I called again and fortunately a customer service by the name of Anthony and his manager Moira were so helpful and kind that to help me with modified my account... I thank both of them and still do not understand why Westgate would have as an account manager such a rude and unprofessional person representing them.

I wonder does Siegel care about his company? Because they are going to lose business if they continue to treat owners the way they do. I would rather cancel than give westgate another penny of my hard earn money. They are horrible and would never ever recommend anyone to purchase a timeshare with their company. There is better value for your money out there. I would also like to join in a class action suit if there is one. It is time that someone put a stop to their deceptive practices.

Heather lead us to believe that there were getaways which there are but explained by her incorrectly. We were told that we could use a getaway anytime. I could come back to Westgate any time I wanted and prices would go from 49.00 to 499.00 highest that we would have to pay. Well come to find out that is not true. It is if you go through Interval International and there is a list that you have to choose from. I can go back to Westgate if I want to pay approximately 3,000. We were told that we would get what we purchased. Well that not true also. We were given a good for interval and told we could choose a hotel from that book and go anytime. Also untrue.

The getaway is why we actually liked the timeshare. Unfortunately the person who sold us the timeshare Heather ** will not return our phone calls. I also called the Notary's office and have not heard back from her either. Were not sure where to turn. If they would just make it right and give us what we were told we wouldn't sell it but no one who has any authority will call us back. Actually Heather was not a salesperson. She works in the office. Anything you can do to help us would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

A class action can happen and would love to see it as I think they skirt the law and definitely wanna see a good high profile attorney go after them. I had cause back in 2008 could have sued their pants off but gave them a chance to make it right. Get everything in writing, verbal contracts or anything verbal will not hold up in court. I had mine in writing so I had them by the balls. But if you read this and with all the complaints it's cheaper to go on vacation in a hotel. If TripAdvisor has the timeshares avail without paying maintenance. That is def a BS charge. So buyer beware.

The 2 young managers beyond him were completely dismissive of the countless horrendous reviews... I explained that I have a type of job where I tick people off frequently and yet I don't have bad reviews, and all they could say is, "I bet you do." To top off the extremely high pressured sales pitch, we were insulted by one of the managers after I simply said, "I'd prefer to investigate further." He said, "There are renters and then there are owners" in a very demeaning and sarcastic tone. Now, being a landlord in previous years AND being an owner of my own home, cars, etc while challenging the 17% APR (current rates are in low 5's), I don't get exactly why he'd challenge my husband and myself with this type of comment. But ok. Westgate, you'll not have our business but thanks for the $100 and the 3.5 hour headache.

When we arrived to hotel we were assigned a Sales Rep that was absolutely out of her mind. She asked our daughter to throw away "her" food plate once she was done eating (extremely unprofessional). To make matters worse our sales rep took myself, my husband, two daughters, and infant son on a tour on one of the resort's assigned golf carts and she was darting in front of other golf carts and ran us into one of the resort's yellow hard concrete poles knocking it down and just kept going as if nothing happened. This is beyond the absolute worst experience I've encountered. The sales rep gave us a tragic story of her health and also informed us that Mr. Siegel the owner of Westgate Resorts was married to a young woman and they had just lost their 18 year old daughter to a drug overdose which prompted my 8 year old to automatically ask me what a drug overdose was!

To top this story off once we returned from golf cart tour as mad and upset as we were, we politely told the sales rep we were not interested and this tour was supposed to be 90 minutes long and turned out to be 3.5 hours long which made us have to cancel our water park day with our kids. She responded that the 90 min is just an estimate of time. Once we said no thank you she got up and had NOT ONE, BUT TWO different sales reps come and try to continuously pressure us into buying a timeshare. My family and I are traumatized by this experience. I would rather pay full price for theme park tickets than to ever step foot on a Westgate Resort. I wish this review could go to owner because he needs to know these employees of his are giving his company a horrible reputation.

We arrive at our hotel in Williamsburg VA @ 2:00 am, had been on the road since 4pm the evening before. We were killed & ready to lay down. No room, no reservations of any type at any hotel anywhere in Williamsburg nor anywhere else in the state of VA. The Days Inn employees were extremely nice, especially given the situation and we got a room with them, but did have to give up more credit card info (3x now) but they didn't debit it off our card until the next morning and gave us time to get it all lined out.

At 9 am promptly this morning, July 1, I looked online and looked up the very vacation we were promised and paid for and were told wasn't available. So I screen shot that, and send myself the link to that same vacation. Then I called Westgate to try and get our stay resolved so we can get out and enjoy this time in VA. The first sales rep I spoke to was very nice and was in the process of making us new arrangements and his "manager" stepped in, took the call from him, and proceeded to tell me there were no "tour" or "timeshare meetings" scheduled for this week and all that Westgate could do would've been talk to the staff at Days Inn Colonial and see if maybe they might give us a discounted room since Westgate couldn't do our timeshare meeting this week. Monday will be the first one we could get into, the rest were all booked up. We couldn't stay until Monday, my husband goes back to work Sunday night.

By the end of our conversation, he had already talked to me like a dog, ask me why I could not comprehend that they weren't going to give me the package they had already sold me, unless I have them my credit card info again and let them charge my card a third time. The card maxed out just after the 2nd booking. And I wasn't giving them anymore of my banking info. Anyhow, to sum it all up, we paid Westgate over $300.00 to stay 6 hours in Days Inn Williamsburg. They are supposed to be returning all the money to my cc, I guess we shall see. I will never again deal with Westgate, especially how the "customer service MANAGER" belittled us and talked to us. Even made fun of my KY accent.

I'm filing a claim with Better Business Bureau, calling Westgate headquarters, and probably will have to go to court to get our money refunded. I'll be taking all these steps as soon we get home. We are on the way home now (July 1, 2015) from this awful 1 day trip to Williamsburg VA from South East KY. I have sent a pic of the "deal" along with 2 of the confirmation numbers they gave us. They were supposed to have emailed all them to us, and it was like pulling teeth to get 1 of these 2. The first one I wrote down at the initial first reservation, the rest I was driving as could not write it down, the third I never got my email either, and the last was the confirmation saying we didn't owe them anymore money. Great deal Westgate, NOT. I hope that maybe one day we, the consumer, can shut down these money grubbing scammers. If anyone else would like to join a class action suit, I'm in! Thank you!

Once we returned from the tour he brought over his jerk of a closing manager that tried to identify with us because we came from Philly and he was supposedly born in the "ghetto" of Philly. We are both suburban living African Americans, he was white. Don't try to relate. When he explained it all down we still didn't want the place and he then turned into a forceful jerk, basically arguing with us and then throwing our lives back in our faces like that would make us buy sooner. Needless to say I was pissed and getting stressed and trying my hardest not to curse them both out! If I had to pick a place to say based on experience alone it would NEVER be Westgate.

We were also told that we had some kind of protection so that if one of us loses our job we wouldn't have to pay our mortgage for a year but we could pick up where we left off. Even with those too good to be true deals, we still didn't say yes yet. I asked the manager, **, what happens if we decide that we just don't want it anymore? He said, "just call the Owner Services number on the back of your Owner card and we will put your timeshare in a discounted inventory so that when other buyers want to purchase from us and can't afford the market rate, they can select from a different inventory just like we were able to do today." It sounded fair enough to me and my husband so we said yes. Our account number is **.

After we signed all of the documents, we got home and was able to thoroughly go through everything and we found out that we were lied to. I called the resort's sales department (865-430-4800) several times that week and was unable to contact anyone for days. It wasn't until exactly 11 days that I was able to reach the closer (** 865-209-8314 ext. **). He told us that we had 10 days to change our minds and that since it was one day past the 10 day mark, we were stuck.

I was upset. I was hurt. I was betrayed. We were sold the property with the belief that we would be able to call at any given time to resell with help from WestGate Resorts. We made a purchase under false pretenses and it is unfair. We did not pay anything out of pocket except for the time wasted with dealing with the company. Therefore the only thing we want to do is return this timeshare to WestGate. We are not asking for anything in return. We just don't want it anymore and we don't want it in our names. We shouldn't have been lied to.

In April of 2015, I get a call from a rep from Westgate named **. He told me that the company I purchased my original trips through had been bought out by a different company and that if I didn't "pay off" my trips, my account was going to go into "Default" and I was going to owe market value on them. He estimated this out to be close to $3000. I'm not sure how exactly he got my information, but he made it seem very convincing. I was frightened that I might have to pay the $3000, so he convinced me that if I paid $500 to his company, they would "buy my old package out" and add on to it with some new vacation packages. He made it seem like a great deal. I felt like I was backed into a corner, but at the potential prospect of having to owe $3000, I fell for it. I gave them my credit card information and waited.

The next day I got an email from my bank saying they detected fraudulent activity on the card that I had given them. That's when I started to get really suspicious. I immediately got online and googled Westgate scams and saw all of these comments. I told my bank to decline the payment, close my card, and reissue me a new card. I then proceeded to call my old vacation package company and they told me that everything Westgate had told me was a complete lie. My package was completely paid off, I didn't owe any extra money, and it was definitely not going into Default.

When ** called me the next day to ask me to release my credit card for payment since it "didn't go through on his end," I told him I wasn't going to do that. He then began to get very aggressive and threatened me that if I didn't buy their package, I was going to owe $3000. I told him I had spoken with my original company and caught him in his lie. He told me that my old company were the liars and that I needed to buy the Westgate package. I told him I was not going to and that they could cancel my "account" with them, he then proceeded to tell me that he was "going to put my bill for $3000 through" and hung up.

I cannot believe that this company is being allowed to operate. It seems that there are plenty of people here accounting stories that tell of their straight-up lies and bullying tactics. This company should be shut down for preying on people.

You take that 900 dollars plus, times that to 52 weeks that comes out to be well over 4,500 dollars a year between 52 owners for the same room. Multiply that to all the owners of a one week stay, at the same resort, it's astronomical. That will be a bill you'll have to pay annually, plus the increase. I have to say it was a mistake to get involved. Shy away before it eats you up... I stopped paying into the resort and have been receiving harassing phone calls daily and sometimes numerous calls a day. I want out completely!!!

She also told us we had to fill out the form a certain way, and if we didn't put down certain things, she wouldn't get paid so she pointed out the various things that had to be written the approved way. We came in the lobby, went over to a registration desk, gave our names and driver's licenses, they provided the form that had to be filled out a certain way as mentioned. After that, they said "sit down and someone will be with you soon", so a few minutes later a salesperson arrived, took us upstairs to a huge room filled with many tables and a bunch of victims I mean people working with salespeople in various stages of presentations. I would say there were at least 30 tables, and almost all of them were in use.

All the salespeople I saw with people as I walked by had a visual scribble diagram on the green paper, it was all very similar scribbled and divided into sections and house shaped scribbles with numbers and lines, I would learn more about the scribble/house/line/number art after the presentation started. Breakfast was typical breakfast at hotels, acceptable. They did have sausage, scrambled eggs, grits, some fruit, juice, soda. So I was thinking breakfast would be just me and my wife. Not exactly. The salesperson had an intro, we got breakfast sat back down, and then salesperson came back, talked for a minute, and set up an IPAD with a slide show of all the beautiful hotels they are connected to. As we wrapped up eating they came and sat down, I felt like they were watching us from a distance.

I have been in sales at various times over the last 20 years, so i'm familiar with sales tactics, so I was ready for them to hard sell me, the sales guy was being very relaxed. The Sales person started the presentation, and then paused, because someone with a microphone started introducing a couple that just bought a timeshare. Something like "HELLO EVERYONE!!! I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE OUR LATEST TIME SHARE OWNERS!!!! MR and MRS ** FROM (SOME CITY) NEW YORK!!!" And everyone in the place stops and quickly robotically claps, including most of the victims at all the other tables. Our sales person continues and about a minute later someone next to us purchased a timeshare I saw the look on the victims faces, the guy looked sick to his stomach, but the female victim looked happy. Poor guy, I felt bad for him.

The announcement and clapping process felt like a RELIGIOUS CULT that required all its followers to clap on command. It happened about 5 times in an hour. This announcement process reminded me of the movie THE ISLAND, those who celebrate winning a trip to the Island, are actually winning a trip to die for a particular reason. I mentioned this to my sales guy, and he had never seen the movie. Our sales person continued, pimping their westgate system, explaining how flexible they are and how I can trade my time slot with other resorts.

They explained how Orlando is the NUMBER 1 HOT DESTINATION in their entire system so it is much desired and tradable and worth more than other destinations in trade value. They showed me a bar graph indicating ORLANDO is by far the 1# and the 2nd was at 75% of Orlando and even Hawaii was something like 3rd or 4th place. Hawaii was probably about 50% of the bar of Orlando. (wish I had the info but all paper sales info is kept from victims taking away. more on that later)

They also said they were one of the top sales people, and get 1 sale from every 4 victims they sales pitch to. That's 25% of all people making an instant huge purchase on a sales pitch, that figure saddened me for the 25% of all people going thru this process, of course they could be hyping their numbers for their ego, but after it was all done, I bet they are right!

Out comes the Green paper with my printed info. They flip it over and start asking questions about interest in a time share, drawing 3 lines, talking of issues and reasons people are interested in timeshares, more lines get drawn, a house gets drawn, they ask our vacation patterns and ask for totals of what we spend on trips each year. Then incorporates those numbers into the green sketch, and then breaks out a calculator with an app to figure out inflation of 7% over 30 years for all that I would spend in the next 30 years.

It came out to be about 100,000$ then they asked about my food purchases, that number gets crunched the same way, both get put down around the house sketch and both numbers get spun, by asking who gets all the hotel money wanting and waiting for us to say the hotel owners. Then they say RIGHT!!! There were lots of questions that are designed to make a victim feel smart and they reinforce how smart the victim is.

Then they say how would we like to hedge that money instead from inflation and put it into an investment. Hence the spin to the benefits of owning a time share, they assume we are going to go on a vacation every year for the next 30 years. The topic of maintenance costs come up, they said there's about a 750$ and a 160$ fee per year with various options to pay. I asked how often it increases, they said casually with confidence, it has only gone up "like 10$ in the last 7 years" they have owned one.

After this point the maintenance fees are not mentioned, instead the topic turns to trading the timeshare slot for other really cool places around the world. And the only costs mentioned are the exchange fees of either about 150$ or 180$ and that fee is mentioned with every destination so it's implied that's all you pay, but you still have to pay the almost 1000$ a year or more maintenance fees. At this point we ask how many days you get per year, they say 7, but if you trade off one day from your Orlando timeshare, they will give you a total of 12 days at other westgate system locations. They also mentioned the importance of owning a timeshare at the #1 DESIRED location in the world, Orlando. And when I want to trade for some other place, I would get priority because I would own a share in the (INSERT #1 TIMESHARE IN THE WORLD REFERENCE AGAIN) and it's a popular and high demand place, so easy to trade, and that's a huge benefit.

They also hyped improvements planned for the main location in Orlando (behind the golden corral) such as a new pool place. At this point the sales presentation has been going on for about 60 minutes, we get up to take a drive to the example rooms, first we pass by a huge computer screen showing supposedly how many people at that moment were actively trading their time share slot with another location around the world, it was very full and flipping fast, implying to the victim its so easy to trade your time for another location.

Then we are led like cattle to the slaughter through a slow walk through a room with pictures and maps showing many amazingly wonderful things about the company and how successful they are and the famous people around the world that are members or investors. Then after the room we are shown the theater room. The chairs are all the same and there's no slope in the floor so you have to sit up tall to make sure you see over the next chair if you want to see the bottom of the screen.

After that we go downstairs to get a golf cart, and wait for one, finally get in and head out. First visual is the older section of the property from the early 80s, sales person hypes how they all look modern and were recently renovated. Insert hype about how they keep all their properties up to date. First stop, a restaurant/bar on the property, the environment felt odd. The greet staff were friendly, but other staff looked serious or tired, the victims visiting the restraint varied, there were older and younger people, including a guy at the bar wearing a sports jersey watching the game drinking a beer. He hypes the convenience of having an onside bar, next we walk around the corner to a small convenience store with a pizza shop in the back, the place appeared older maybe from the 80s or 90s. There were 2 employees buying lunch from the pizza place.

As we walked down an isle, the salesperson opens an unmarked door, and we go in, IT'S A NICE DEMO HOTEL ROOM HIDDEN IN A CONVENIENCE STORE!!! LOLOLOL i'm wondering how much hookup action has this room seen by employees of this place, it's so private and unmarked and convenient. That's my opinion there's no evidence of it. Lol I have worked with employees over the years that would have used a room like that in a second! By now, we have hit the 90 minute time mark. (1.5 hours after breakfast)

So we leave the hookup convenience store (I seriously think that would be a possible name for it when they renovate) and ride toward an actual demo room in one of the main buildings. More questions from the salesperson that are only correctly answered if I was an owner, so they are wanting me to think like an owner (a common process on this presentation) we get to the first room and it is nice, looks well maintained and very large, including fake rose petals in the Jacuzzi water and free cookies. The other room we visited was very similar. So we slowly ride back to the main room where we started, it's slow so the salesperson can point out the mini golf and other benefits, with another question to get me to think like and answer like an owner. By now it's about the 2.5 hour mark.

The Salesperson would not discuss timeshare price until after we had seen the locations. So we get back and we set down at the same area as before, now there are only about 6 other victims with sales people scattered around the big room. Sales person leaves us for about 5 minutes and comes back with more paperwork. I ask for the price, they show me a laminated sheet showing 3 options, they had names I can't remember, one was a 3 bedroom for 35,000$ and the other 1 or 2 were either 2 bedrooms or a 2 bedroom and a 1 bedroom, I think they were just 2 versions of a 2 bedroom. The middle was about 25,000$ and the least was about 20,000. I commented someone was smoking crack when they came up with these prices. They ran some numbers including a TODAY ONLY discount of about 2,000$ and some other numbers including tax and title fees. I said it's still nuts.

Then salesperson leaves, and brings in the sales manager, they sit down, and say something like "How can we come to a deal?" I said These prices are nuts." It was presented to me another version of a 1 bedroom for something like 15,000$ I said nuts. It was also mentioned I could buy a foreclosure 2 bedroom for 12,000$ I said I wasn't interested, then they say we have a 1 bedroom foreclosure for about 9500$. They said "we will come back in a few minutes." At that point my wife was interested and started badgering me that I was just leading them on. We debated for a few minutes, then I said ok, i'll look up reviews on this place while sitting there, I started and found a bunch of complaints and horror stories, the salespeople must have realized it and come over shortly after I started searching, I pointed out all the negative reviews, they said people who aren't happy and don't understand the timeshare process get upset and post many bad things.

They said some high percentage of people LOVE their system. Then one of the sales guys looked up Trip advisor and showed me all the positive reviews, and said "See it's where you look." I know Trip advisor caters to the users of the building as hotel guests, not owners. So in the end over 3 hours later I said "I don't want to make a decision today, I would like to think about it." They said, "Right now is the time to get this great deal, and it's ONLY available today." If I turn it down I can never take advantage of the specials and the bonuses they offered like cruise points and savings points and some other hyped stuff.

So after the hard sell, they bring over another guy who is the closer of the process. He seems very laid back and casual, a comfortable guy. He says he understands my situation, 9 out of 10 people don't buy time shares on the first round. But he would offer me a try before I buy option for 279$ I could stay for 3 or 4 nights and if I like it, they will reserve the prices of the non foreclosures for 3 years. But to get that I had to buy a hotel package costing 279$. He did say that if I wanted to buy a timeshare after that, they would apply the 279$ to the cost of a timeshare. He also said owners get 3 meals per stay, I asked him "Is that 3 meals per day?" He repeated himself exactly 3 meals per stay. To a person confused, it would sound like 3 meals per day. So I said i'm still wanting to think about it. He said the only way to hold is to buy package. I said, "Ok, well it looks like I have to say no to this deal."

He reminded me there's no turning back once he stamps my paper no. I said I understand. Then he says ok, sounding sad like I just missed out on a deal of a lifetime. He directs me to the gift shop. I go to it and say who I am. The woman behind the counter thinking she's a comedian, refunds the 20$ deposit in cash I paid to me and gives my wife the 100$ in cash, then directs me to another woman who gives me the FREE GIFT. It's a free hotel stay with vacation of a lifetime www.vacationofalifetime.info 3 days 2 nights accommodations.

I got out to the car and started reading the fine print of this vacation of a lifetime, in it says in the rules #2 ACTIVATIONS/RESERVATIONS that the place giving me this certificate MUST FILL IN THE ISSUE DATE of giving me the certificate, so I went back into the westgate system gift shop to the woman and I said the above requirement, she replied they don't write in any date and I can put in whatever date I want. I read further and see it is for a timeshare presentation. I decide to rip it up and throw it away. I have looked over google, there's other people who post fearful examples of being swindled or other variants of the process. Even some owners of these timeshares that warn others to stay away. I hope this review helps people to not make a bad choice.

On Tuesday 3/10/15, I spoke w/ four different representatives regarding payment/reservations ask to speak to a supervisor - no return call again! I got progress in the customer service dept. On 3/10 at 5pm Pacific Time, I paid $378 for 3 days & 2 nights at The Westgate Flamingo in Las Vegas for 3/10-3/12. I'm terribly dissatisfied to find out inventory for renters & travelers other than the owners is why I was unsuccessful at reserving dates for 3/10-3/17 w/understanding from the advisory from a representative that I should book 11 months in advance. Huh I inquired for date 12/27-01/03/2016 - nothing for a owner at Westgate Flamingo in Las Vegas... I took off work Mon-Tues to resolve this matter, $308 per day I missed because I'm fed up w/ Westgate. One rep returned my call Tuesday. I missed the call, thank you.

Although it took 2 days to get a reservation, I'm not pleased I missed a possible opportunity Monday morning to get the dates wanted using my available week w/the first rep. Also, I wasn't able to deposit my 2015 week I to interval due to the none payment the rep kept proclaiming despite the notations in the computer of Westgate mistake.... I'm not stating I don't want to sell my timeshare. I don't want to lose the $$$ I've paid into toward my property. I like to bring awareness to all potential/new owners, also I'm requesting customer courtesy giving to me. I like point of information from a attorney regarding my rights. Please do not remove my dates that are paid for on 3/10-3/12/15. Thank you.

We asked to have 24 hours to think about it and then he brought over the manager. She said we could leave but we would not receive the first day incentives. First day incentives? What was that? We were never told about this. Well, it turns out that all the promises of exchanges all over the world not be an option. It was a total bait-and-switch. The women who was a manager was rude and condescending. She would not let us go even after we said we were not interested. I was very frustrated because we were never told about these first day incentives, we were late for our family and friends, and she would not let it go. She told me she never had a problem with anyone and that everyone likes her. It was so strange and awful. She even told me it was "weird" that I was not interested. I could say more but hopefully you got the picture. Do NOT deal with this company. Fortunately, we lost time and not money, but it still ruined our vacation.

Interval allows flexibility in exchanging, we have even received numerous bonus weeks to use in the past few years. This year, we are spending 1 week in Orlando, 1 week in Williamsburg, 1 week in Myrtle Beach, and 1 week in Gatlinburg. All with only minimal exchange fees. Considering that 3 of these are for 2 bedrooms. As far as the presentation, yes they ask. We attend maybe once a year at our home resort. But just to hear about improvements. Which by the way have been many at the town center. When we purchased, there was only a small deli, pizza hut, and no restaurant. Now it has a great sports bar with a restaurant, that is suitable for food on property. Great firepits for socializing. Water park under construction. Which we know people were promised a few years ago. But permits by the city and maybe other circumstances held it up. But it's coming soon.

Sorry there are so many negative reviews, We have had no problems. As far as being sold something that you can't afford, only you can answer that. Just say NO. We have been to many other timeshare presentations, they are all high pressure, you just need to be in charge of your own decisions, they can't sign your name for you. Nothing is Free. So if you don't read the rules for the "free" vacation. Then shame on you. The people trying to sell may get rude and upset, but it's money in their pocket for sales. Life is full of choices, you need to make the right one for you. Don't blame the sales people. Overall, Westgate is all we expected and more. Farrah is and always has done right by us.

Now they got her with another timeshare to pay plus the one we already had together. Tried to talk to anyone possible at Westgate to fix the situation but that was just a waste. They keep telling us now is our responsibility to pay for both and that they are not responsible for basically "lying" to us. Now about a week or so ago, they have now sent us to collections on both accounts. They are a bunch of liars when trying to get the most of people and get them into this unendless nightmare. Still it's not resolved after many phone calls.

I believe since I pay the same maintenance fee and am an "owner" at Westgate that I should be allowed the same privileges and rights as everyone else and that includes a $150 exchange fee instead of $450.00. I am now paying more as an owner at Westgate that someone that books a week online who has not invested what I have since 1999. I would NEVER recommend buying a timeshare at Westgate. Over the years the property, service, and privileges have decreased while the maintenance fees and exchanges increase.

Don't ever FALL for these words. After coming back, my husband loses his job and due to holidays I sent the letter of cancellation 24 days later where they said they couldn't accept. I get emails saying they are working on a deed, I didn't even give the full down payment of the timeshare. I was cheated on and applied for a credit card I never requested. I have conversation with the salesperson that even states that I shouldn't even worry about the credit card because it wasn't even approved and he didn't even know what I was talking about.

If you go to Vegas or any state, don't fall for these tricks. I do not live in Las Vegas so I am not familiar with their laws. Overall I called Westgate to find a way to cancel since it hasn't even been 30 days and they say unfortunately they can't do anything as I begged for their help and told them everything as we were not sober and how we were there 7 hrs the first time. I told them that I am not affording to pay for it and it will go to foreclosure that they are wasting their time and want to end this as peacefully as others. Besides they even disregarded my letter. So now I do not know what to do and they are not helpful at all saying it’s a contract and has consequences.

To be honest up to this point it can fall under foreclosure and let it be done for something I never paid and disputing a deposit since I was cheated on and lied to and they never told me about maintenance fees going up every 2 years. They supposedly record the closings, they should have it when they cheat people off. Spoke to the supervisor and she was no help and actually told me that unfortunately I was placed on this thing and that was that. People, I warn you - never fall for this!!!!

Also, I found out that the 0% interest form Reggie gave me was not true. In fact, Pay Pal would charge 19.99% if the $4,000 was not paid in 6 months. I called three times and finally was emailed a copy of my contract on November 4, 2014. At that time I immediately sent them a notice of cancellation which I believe I had the right to do after receiving a copy of my contract. They wrote back and said I was beyond the cancellation period of three days. The way I read the law, I can cancel within three days after signing or receiving the contract, whichever comes later. I have contacted them many times as well as every government agency possible and they will not refund my money. If they get away with "stealing" my $4,000, I will not get a thing for my money. After reading all the complaints, I don't believe I will get any travel discounts, etc. from them. I now owe $4,000 to Pay Pal and will have to get it somewhere. I am 72 years old and am on a fixed income. I wish there were some way to stop this terrible people.

During the presentation he refused to give out any cost numbers until the very end. After showing us the demo unit and we sat back down. He finally showed us the numbers and we were interested but cautious. We said that our money is being held by our financial planner and bank and we need to talk to them about letting money go for this. He pushed for a buy if you want it or don't if you don't. We said we can't commit without taking a bit of time to go over it. He said he'd give us a few more minutes to think about it. He came back with the textbook sales technique of "I went to my manager to see what else we can do for you" and all of a sudden we were considered VIP potential customers. Some lady who claimed to be from management came and sat down and cut the fees a portion. We started to explain the same dilemma and as we were speaking to her she got up, interrupted us and said "so I'll let you discuss with your family the offer." She completely ignored what we were saying and wasn't paying attention at all to us. She got up and went a few tables over and started talking to them with the exact same verbatim she did with us.

We did discuss it but again declined to Frank for the same fundamental reason- that they're trying to get us to make an immediate and expensive commitment without the opportunity to think about it or researching it. Funny that Frank didn't mention the state's "buyer's remorse" law that states within a certain period of days (think it's 10) we can change our mind and get a complete refund. Frank said ok and that he had to get the manager back to close the offer (not close the deal). The same lady came back and then said she'd close the presentation but then did another textbook sales technique and asked Frank if he showed us a modified deal and asked if he wanted permission to give me a special offer (this was all done in front of me). So she gave the offer and then left, leaving Frank to explain it in detail. We just flat out said no as this "only 90 minutes" sales presentation is not going into its 3rd hour. The only way this presentation takes 90 minutes is if you walk out on them. Otherwise they'll keep offering a lower priced deal after every rejection until the cows come home.

After our most recent 'no', he got visibly upset, snatched the papers off the desk and shook our hands and walked away.

Going back to child care... we didn't have our cell phone with us so Frank offered to give his number as the contact number to the child care place in case something happened, and all throughout the presentation he has looked on his phone. When I went to pick him up, they said he started feeling a bit unwell, coughed a lot, and that they tried calling the contact number TWICE during the presentation. Frank never said anything to us! How dare he keep that from us just so he can make a sale! He knows that if the child care centre is calling that means something is wrong and his presentation is over. He sat on it (like I said he has looked on his phone a lot during the presentation) and kept that from us. I was livid.

Oh, during the presentation he showed us 2 texts from "satisfied customers" saying that they want his contact number so they can refer their friends to him. He said he got those texts while he was waiting for us to discuss the reduced price offers. Very coincidental. I also recall during the early part of his sales pitch that if we don't take one today they'll all be snatched up tomorrow by others. After our several rejections and he gave us that lower priced deal, one that allows us to pay less and not commit as much he said "this way you can enjoy the facility while getting comfortable with it even though you're not committing to buying- because there's always many of our suites available at any time of the year." So now he's completely flip flopping on one of his pressure points because it suits him now.

If for no other reason I will never consider them again because of what he did to my son... but there are so many other reasons why I won't ever go with them. STAY AWAY!

So I finally talk to her and told her since it's been less than 2 months and I was Very Unhappy and Felt Pressured and I want to sell it back. She said I had to call another number, so I called the other number and they told me I CAN'T sell it back that I would have to let it go into Foreclosure. WTF. How can it go into Foreclose and I don't have an Apt. Number or nothing. I contacted a Lawyer to handle this matter because they tell Major Lies and Very Rude. Please everyone who reads this - be Very careful about Purchasing anything from Westgate. I wish I would have Researched them first.

After trying to sell us and my husband said no they bring another one to try to convince us, then another one then another one. Finally they told us they have one which is like a rental where we are not owners but renters and it is for 2 years. We can try it then buy the actual timeshare after that. He told us we have 8 days with any resort and can have 4 getaways that would cost us only $99 if we reserve it 30 days before which was LIES and LIES. We called the Westgate resort to ask them about it and they told us we only have the 8 weeks and we don't have the $99 dollars which was the main reason we bought that 2 years rental. And they will tell you it is not WRITTEN in your CONTRACT.

I am so pissed about it but I am so glad that we didn't buy the actual timeshare. They are a scam. The sellers will feed you with all kind of BS to make you sign. Don't fall for it. Now I believe why they said too good to be true is probably not true. I do not recommend westgate resort. The bad thing is when you go there you don't have the knowledge and you end up falling for their lies. I took my time to write this because I don't want anyone to have that bad experience.

The property we stayed at was old and rundown, and they nickel and dime you to death. $4 for a small bottle of water in room, no amenities, a cup of coffee in a paper cup in room $4 again. Windows were so dirty you could not see through them and the elevator had trash on the floor which remained for our entire stay. We were not interested in buying anything and they wasted our whole day. We almost missed our flight back home. We were told quite a few lies during the presentation as well. Stay away from these people.

At this point my 14-day cancellation window was about to run out. I did not receive a confirmation in these 2 days so I called again and was told that they do not have those dates available after all. I asked for my money to be refunded. They did not give me hard time, however I have yet to see if they actually will refund the money. After I insisted twice, I was given a cancellation transaction number. So I guess I will see if the representative just made up the number or really refunded my money. Needless to say, this was a waste of my time & possibly $212.14. Sadly, Westgate Resorts is a scam company.

Yes, they have almost 20 pools, and awesome hot tubs and great facilities. The people treat me like a queen from the moment I check in. I feel so special. I have no idea what all the people complain about. I choose to look at life through rose colored glasses and Praise the Lord for all the blessings. This vacation means the world to me. I take all my kids, grand children and foster children with me. It sleeps 10 people, and I invite my brother and his wife and kids to come over and swim and visit for the night. It is such a terrific vacation, I can't imagine complaining about it. The weather in Florida is almost always wonderful. Even if there is a rainy day or two, then rest. Relax, enjoy the lovely surroundings in your condo. Watch one of the four TV's provided in the condo. Rest for a long time in the private jacuzzi in the master bedroom. Sometimes, I hardly go anywhere and just go putt putt golfing and swimming, and to the free movie theater. I just love watching the big screen my favorite movies of all time.

Yes the owner's always need to go to the 90 minute presentation. I have accepted that as an owner. It includes a free meal, and another perk, so go have a nice time and just say NO, when they want you to upgrade. It is part of living in a time share. Thank you Westgate Resorts for giving me and my family some of the best family vacations of a lifetime! Keep up the good work. You other people just need to stop complaining, wow, I couldn't stand reading all the complaints. God bless you all!

Was told I couldn't use my property in TN until 2015, no problem. I wanted to go somewhere I've never been. Went on to Westgate Cruise & Travel Collection and found a Getaway to Kauai, HI Jun 2014, for a week--$99. It was a 2-bedroom, full kitchen, separate living area with pull out bed. My daughter & I met my mom, sister & nephew at the Makai Cottages and had a wonderful time. Cottage was modern, spacious and just what we needed. Beautiful experience! All you pay is your airfare, food & activities. Can't beat it!

Next, my job had a month gap in contract renewal. No problem. Went on to Westgate Cruiste & Travel to see where my next Getaway would be for 2 weeks. Snagged a $49 (1 week) to Acapulco and a $99 (1 week) to St. Maarten--back to back trips, Aug-Sept 2014. Paid airfare, food, & activities. What a bonding experience for my daughter & I in foreign places. In Mexico, we bonded even more since we knew no Spanish!

If you are flexible and not stuck on a particular date or location, you could really be happy with the Getaways offered by Westgate. By traveling with the Getaways, you forgo having to pay off your home association fee ($800+) in lieu of paying for airfare to enjoy these exotic locations.

I would recommend Westgate Resorts for timeshare buying. While in Acapulco, the Mayan Resorts tried to buyout my Westgate Resort timeshare. I walked away with an upgrade to the Grand Mayan (vs. Mayan Palace) that I was originally scheduled for. Grand Mayan is what you want to stay in if you visit Acapulco. It is definitely a grand experience.

I just got off the phone less than a hour ago and they told me that the only time left was in December and it would be in a room less than the one that we were paying for. On top of that, we would have to pay an additional $500. WTH? Westgate? They also told me that if I use my 2014 weeks next year in 2015 that I will have to pay an additional $150. I've never seen such a nickel and dime outfit in my 47 years of living! I love the resort and would love to give you a good rating but you are bending people over and putting it to them all the while collecting my $325 a month and my $800 a year maintenance fee!

I tried for an hour to tell him no! Then he brings over another guy who continues to push and starts getting nasty and mean. When I said just let me sign whatever you need for me to decline he pushed a filled out contract to me. I was so upset I almost signed until my husband said wait don't sign. Can you believe they were going to falsely make me sign the deal. Westgate is a horrible crooked scam artist. Do not go - it is never 90 minutes. You will have at least four representatives argue with you. Stay away!

I started the process and learned that it is in fact true that I can trade in my week. However, the week is traded for points on my Westgate Cruise and Travel account. What no one bothered to tell me was that once the points for my week at Westgate had been determined and placed on my Westgate Cruise and Travel account, only a portion of the points (small portion) will count towards the cruise. The rest I would need to come out of pocket for. I thought, "I pay a mtg all year, taxes and maintenance to be an owner and I will still need to pay for a vacation". There is no universe where that will make any sense.

Needless to say, after spending the vacation money paying for the mtg, taxes and maintenance, I was not prepared to spend additional monies to go on a cruise, especially when, in all likelihood, my week in the three-bedroom suite will be rented and net someone a nice profit. I decided not to go the cruise route. I just believe that I was deceived. This is just one of may stories I can share. I may do so in the future.

P.S. Just got back from my one week, where we stayed in a room that was not what I paid for; tried to use amenities that were overcrowded, had to go back a few times to get bicycles to ride. Overall, my experience leads me to wonder if more attention is paid to potential owners than is paid to current owners. Call for maintenance and you wait... Someone vomited in the pool and you wait... I felt like I was on staff as for about one hour we had to tell others not to get in. It took about one hour for someone to come and block off the area; eleven large wasp nests on the building next to pool #13, and one right outside our patio in the 5700 building; leaky faucets. Happy to be home.

I didn't like the fact that I could not access the websites for about 30 days after I signed up. For such a major purchase, I think I should have immediate access so I can fully see what I'm getting into. The presentation was very good and I did not find it to be high pressure. My daughter and I attended, and we got $75.00 to split between us and a bunch of bogus tickets to stuff. The bogus tickets gave me pause. It made me wonder about the integrity of the company.

I took my first vacation this past June to Gatlinburg, TN. I'm happy to say I was very pleased with the accommodations. I had a two bedroom condo which was actually two separate suites. My daughter, granddaughter, daughter's friend and her son came with me. I had my own separate suite complete with living room, kitchen, fireplace, jet tub, and two tvs. The girls and their kids shared the bigger suite which in addition had two bathrooms, a bigger kitchen, and the balcony. All that for $500.00 for an entire week! The staff was very friendly and helpful. The air conditioning went out and maintenance promptly fixed it. When the other girl's son threw his stuffed animal over the balcony, maintenance retrieved it for us.

What others have said about the walls being too thin is true. Fortunately it wasn't that big of a problem for us, because our neighbors were quiet enough. I think their hallway was next to my bedroom, so I heard the doorbell and conversation loud and clear. Otherwise, I didn't notice it much. I'm leaving this Friday for my second vacation with Westgate in Orlando. This one is only costing $400.00 because I responded to an email offer around the end of the year. It is a three bedroom condo. I looked up on the internet the cost to non-members and it is $409.00 per night and I am getting it for $400.00 for the entire week! I figure my membership should pay for itself in less than five trips. I'm actually quite pleased and I'm glad I went through with it. Furthermore, my children (all over 18) are also named on my contract and they will have lifetime memberships.

Two years after my purchase, I traded my week thru Interval International for a week in Hawaii. I need to add that I believed that I had paid for 5-Star accommodations with Westgate, but my trade in Hawaii was less than a 3-Star. I have yet to see anything close to what I believed I purchased thru Westgate. And since that trip to Hawaii, I have not been able to trade with Interval International even though I have tried to make reservations over a year in advance. Other locations are always full or they do not have sufficient blocks available for trade. I even have had to trade to stay at a Westgate location and be denied because of the lack of availability. Even at a Westgate property, they will give preference to non-owners over owners. It appears that Westgate has over-sold as it is very difficult for me to use my weeks even at a Westgate property.

Westgate had the gall to report a non-payment of a remaining balance of Taxes and Maintenance of $62 to the Credit Bureau. My timeshare has been paid off since 2004, but appears that they look to ding you for whatever they can. The investment I made with Westgate has been the worst investment I have ever made. It is something I cannot use at any time and I continue to pay Taxes and Maintenance fees on something I cannot use. The customer service is poor and they don't even attempt to accommodate or help their customers. I believe that Westgate should be investigated by the appropriate authorities for the Pyramid Scheme the Fat Cat Siegel has created. If there is a Class Action Suit, I would love join it.

I get badgered on my vacation and held hostage until I finally have to be rude and say I've had enough. Right now their "new" referral program I have to pay them $49 to actually get them referrals and I made a referral for somebody who really wanted to do it besides my warnings and they didn't deliver the reward I was supposed to get. They say they are pet friendly but then raise the fees to bring your pets to $170. They change policies without telling you and your miles from home with a pet and now you got to cough up $170 from $80 that it used to be. They raise your maintenance fees every other year. Guaranteed! The resort is beautiful but it's not worth the anxiety, the headache and heartache. Trust me don't make the mistake I did.

This I believe was deliberately done as it seems from the conversation with the desk clerk it happened before. The company makes you believe that you're going to some really nice hotel then to find out it isn't so. After complaining to the company they promised a free three day/two night stay at one of their partner hotel. I haven't received that yet.

Gates are supposed to be locked, they are for the units around the pool, anyone can hop the fence. No modifications have been done and the units are still the same. It seems every year that we book our vacation, there is always a screw up. Last year we booked two other units using my preferred member discount for friends and family to come down, requested that we all be together. Well we were placed all around the resort. It took 2 hours of arguing before we got closer together. All I have to say, is make sure you have things in writing. Make sure you receive your e-mail of your reservations. They are a very disorganized organization. the problem is, once you buy they know they have your money. You can never sell your unit for what you paid. The maintenance fees just seem to go up every year. Why!! I could never answer that.

After this, a third manager was brought over and actually asked us if we'd return the next day. While a very beautiful resort hotel, I will never consider staying at any Westgate hotel or affiliate based on my experience. I'm 100% sure we aren't the only people who left feeling this way. I understand high pressure sales but to be rude, dismissive, condescending and otherwise unaccepting of a NO answer is extremely unprofessional and very frustrating.

To make matters worse, I was provided with incorrect information as to what was needed in order to get registered for the timeshare tour. The representative lied and said she did not mention a lease can be used as verification when in fact she did. The only person that spoke respectfully to me and explained accurately what was needed was the night shift manager. If the type of service the night shift manager provided would have been given to me in the beginning, I would have never wasted the entire day on Sunday dealing with the Welcome Center rude staff. I work too hard to waste my money with a company that does not appreciate its customers.

The focus of this vacation was supposed to be solely on celebrating my daughter's 7th birthday but instead time was wasted dealing with many issues that occurred. The only time your staff seemed to be concerned about the problems I was experiencing was during the timeshare tour on 5/28/14 at 7:45am. As a result, another manager came for me to explain the poor customer service and poor quality of the room. However, there was no resolution. He didn't even have the common decency to follow-up with me regarding my complaint.

I currently have 6 weeks banked plus the entire 5 weeks for this year. That's the way they were sold to me, "Just think, you will have 5 weeks to enjoy coming down in one year!" That's in addition to the $1200 maintenance fee, mortgage payment if applicable and get this - if you should happen to be single as I am and own just to have the opportunity to visit multiple times a year, I have to pay $150 each week I use it. Last year I was only able to get in one time. It was in May. When I tried in June to get in a couple of more weeks I was told there were no vacancies until December. Sorry guys. Not really the time I want to visit the mountains. I did make reservations last September to get in the third week in May and the last week of September this year. I will probably not be going back after September as I am researching attorneys to see what recourse I have. Oh, by the way, no dogs now unless you want to pay $270 a week to take them.

I have jumped around a lot I know, but I am so disappointed and so tired of the misrepresentation. Sales presentations last up to 4 hours or more in length. By the time you get to closing, they are "kind" enough tell you they know how long it's been for you and this is only going to take a few minutes and closing takes a very short time. Mounds of paperwork which would take hours and hours to read. I used to think difficulty getting in was because all owners time was being taken up by sales presentations and free trips to see the property. I still believe that is a lot of the problem but I am very inclined now to think that fewer owners are coming and most folks there are non-owners or brand new owners. I was always told the building I own in is only to be used by owners and also heard a sales rep relay that to a potential buyer last week. However, there was a commercial bus load of people staying in our building last week - Just an extra-large family maybe???

It is a lovely property but if you are considering buying, please read all the reviews. There are multiple sites with many reviews, and learn from other peoples mistakes. Ask the right questions and get the answers in writing. I have been told closings are tape recorded. Too bad sales presentations aren't. Oh, and on a final note, when you purchase this property, expect everyone you have contact with to give you their personal cell number and tell you they are only a phone call away. I have tried calling some of those people for help about different things. If they do answer, you will probably be transferred to customer service. The family is no more.

We felt that we had already invested enough money into this scam and there was nothing they could say to get another dime out of us. A few weeks later we got a call from a collection agency requesting payment or they would take us to court. We explained why we refuse to pay any more money into this scam. The collection agency representative told us that he has seen this happen a thousand times. He told us to write a certified letter to Westgate requesting a release from the contract and a written agreement that our credit would not be touched. In about a week we received an agreement letter from Westgate. We took the agreement letter to our attorney and he reviewed and notarized it. We signed it, made a copy of the letter and sent them a copy and we never heard from them again. Do not get involved with Westgate Resorts.

We would not bring anyone here for a visit. I WOULD HOPE THE FOUNDER OF WESTGATE MR S., WOULD REVAMP THE WAY THE SALES PERSONNEL BADGER AND MAKE OWNERS CRINGE THAT WE DO NOT EVEN WANT TO BE THERE.

I spoke with someone in Finance, which got me nowhere. They continued transferring me from Customer Service to Finance and from Finance to Customer Service. I called my bank and explained to them what happened and that the charges incurred from Westgate Cruise and Travel were unauthorized. So whatever you do, don't fall for the sales pitch and for your own sake, PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CHARGE CARD NUMBER.

Then we were taken back and asked bluntly with attitude if we were going to purchase either we like to, we didn't and we told them no. That's when attitudes with the next 5 salesman were escalated.... The niceness turned into wickedness.... We stood our ground. In the meantime they went and researched that we had attended a presentation with them before over a yr ago and told us we are not allowed to buy anything from them ever!!!! THANK YOU, WESTGATE. You don't know how close we were in writing you a check. We are not easy but we were so close.

Please people don't buy. They promise you gifts, money for your time which is priceless. Take cash and food only..... not show tickets!!!!!!! Some tickets say free with 30.00 drinks each. Does that sound like free? No. Go to the presentation, ask for cash. If they say no keep steppin'..... Even the 100 cash and 3 nite 4 day was not worth the headache from Westgate....... I hope you listen to these reviews, if not....... :-(

Hurried to find the lady who assured us she would be there to greet us "not on the property". So escorted to a waiting area. 10 minutes later, young girl comes up and introduces herself. She then proceeds to take us up to a "holding area" where she spends over 2 hrs telling us about her "military" husband, disabled child and her other 5 kids and how she works two jobs to support her kids and this place pays her by commission. So if we don't buy in, she does not get paid. Then we spend almost another hour touring the place, which was quite a hike and more of a socializing event for her than "work".

After that she takes us back to the "holding area" where she then describes the deal and how it works. She even says she and her husband bought in and use the "heck" out of it. Yet, she already told us she has not seen her husband for years because he is in Iraq for past 11 years and she has 6 kids all under 10 with him. When we saw the bottom line, we said no. So she calls her best friend's mom over to help us. She then drops the price by half, and we still say no. Then she tries to con us into another deal under the table, for yet another 50% off that lower price. When we told her absolutely no, and we were done, she calls her corporate person over. She wants to sells us on a one time vacation for $750 for 8 days and 7 nights at their resort. $20 a month at 17.99% interest. Oh did I mention lunch consisted of cheap hotdogs and canned chili? We got our $ back and left. What a scam. Buyers beware!

When I tried to get into other details concerning my package, everything is completely different than my initial purchasing conversation agreement. Again I was told, "You misunderstood your agreement," but there is one thing that they agree with me. It's that I purchase this mission impossible package and that I must pay my monthly finance fee of $201. If you're reading this, don't fall for this gimmick and, if you fell for it or know of someone who DID, send me some feedback and let's put a stop to this rip-off. I myself just made an appointment with a lawyer to cancel and run as far as I can from these money-making vampires.

To cut it short it took nearly 4 hours of showing us around then pressuring us into what a good deal it was. We had a tall Italian guy come over and offer us a better deal, which eventually we agreed just to get out of there. We had to sit through with a closing officer, his name was ** and he was as bad if not worse as he kept saying he was there to help us and not for the sales guys. Also kept saying I can help you whatever you need. He got us to sign all sorts of paperwork and said the whole thing was recorded for our benefit. This took another hour if not more and we insisted a number of times we wanted to finish this quick. Fast forward... we got our tickets which basically got us entry to a free water park but we'd lost half a day.

Once we got back to the UK, I realized what a big mistake we'd made with the timeshare. The costs just didn't add up and one of the questions I asked was where are all these hotel/apartments I can swap if I wanted to go somewhere in Europe. I then said if I'm going to the UK, I'd want to stay in London. There was not a single place to stay in London in their Interval book, which they said is fine because what you get is very good and they have places in other cities. Their nearest place was nearly 100 miles away. Then I looked at Rome... a similar thing, nothing available in Rome and a few other cities I knew well. Yet I still bought the timeshare.

One of the other things they said was in the wallet they gave us, would be the copies of all the documents we signed. We never checked whilst their but there were none of the documents inside - another lie. Just the interval book and a copy of the plan of the room we had purchased. On my return I called ** (closing Officer) and said I wanted to cancel. He said you can't, Westgate will sue you and they have everything recorded. Then he said he could offer me a smaller room for a better rate which would help with costs. I thought it for less than a second and said no... I want a refund of my deposit and this cancelled. He said, you can't it's not possible you have signed it all and agreed to the terms.

I put the phone down on him. I discovered that I could cancel within 10 days of the contract. It was 4 days at this point. I managed to find the address to where to send the rescind letter and importantly sent it registered and signed for in the post a day or so later to both the Westgate head office and the resort. I received another call from **, this time saying I had sent a letter to cancel and I could not and we should talk. I put the phone down on him. A few days later someone from Westgate called me and said I'd sent a letter to cancel but they couldn't work out the date it was sent. Another tactic hence send a letter registered and keep the receipt. It had to be within 10 days. I sent a scanned copy of my postage receipt and then the same day got another call to say my refund will be in place in 10 days. The guy from the office was actually very nice and helpful and very pleasant to speak to.

All I can say is don't be enticed by 90 minutes and free or discounted tickets. Just enjoy your holiday. If you have to pay $000's for a timeshare and then the maintenance every year or 2 and then be subscribed to Interval for exchanges, how can it be cheaper than a hotel... and remember you can't do 2 or 3 days breaks. Everything is 6 nights 7 days even if you don't want that long. Also remember the exchanges to another resort of apartment cost another $100-150, which in total could be over $1000/year. You can get a hotel less and for more nights, and you won't be stuck with their list of places and you won't be thousands of dollars poorer for buying the timeshare in the 1st place.

The presentation was entertaining with lots of pictures and stories about exotic vacations. They go through several destinations showing a fantastic price for a vacation of a lifetime. They tell you this is all because of bulk buying and last minute inventory available only to the Westgate cruise and travel club. They even show a printout of the last minute deals that change every week. For example, a 2 bedroom timeshare unit for $49 for the week. After the presentation, you go into that chaotic room filled with lots of small tables each with their own salesman. It was the exact same hard sell tactics of the timeshare. I actually made it out of this room saying no, and moved down to the next area where they give you more forms for your gifts and then try to upsell you a getaway package for a few hundred dollars. Well long story short, the upselling kept happening over several hours until I eventually "just had to have" my personal travel agent.

Well fast forward to today, and my advice is run, run, run away! This is really a huge scam. As I said, I travel a lot and I have gone to the site a dozen times and there are no deals to be had. Flights are always MORE expensive than what you can get with the standard commercial airline sites. Hotels too are just what you can find anywhere else, no special inventory. Remember that price list they show everyone of the weekly deals? Well it really is a represented inventory and you need to call. It's just a picture and you cannot click on the "deal" to find availability. There is a separate button to click on availability, and it brings you to a totally different screen that has about 6 properties listed with studio units (usually all in Mexico) for about $400 per week which is a standard Interval International rate. Bottom line is that I still have found absolutely nothing to book through Westgate travel and I have been actively planning 3 separate trips to occur in the next 3 months. If you call their number, BTW, it's only to help book at a Westgate property. No personal travel agent.

I'm kicking myself for purchasing and seeing the word "Westgate" makes me cringe. I've never posted a complaint before, but thought I should share about the travel option since most people wrote only about the timeshare experience. I hope to save someone from the same frustration and disappointment. My lesson learned is ALWAYS look at online reviews before buying.