Westgate Reservations Reviews

The maintenance fees go up every time you have to pay them. I did some checking and found out that they told the same line to a lot of other people about having only 1 property left at Emerald Pointe. We don't have the money to keep paying the monthly payment and maintenance fees and they couldn't care less. I would like to get enough people together that have been screwed around by Westgate and file a class action lawsuit. I hate to have to change my bank account so they can't take any more money out and then have it go against my credit. We made the mistake of listing it with Timeshares Only and they are a BIG JOKE.

The only thing that Westgate has improved is their bank accounts. It seems as though I fund the new resorts that they continue to build. These people are purposely deceptive. We were also told by the salesman that they would buy back the property later if we did not want to own there. We wanted out after four years and of course, they said that they don't buy back any property. I can't believe we fell for that! We were told that we could swap out between any locations because we had a prime week. The fact that service is for a fee and the fee to do so was not even mentioned or disclosed. I called this year and it was $130 on top of the $600 + maintenance fee for a one-bedroom!

So on January 16, 2009, I called the number listed on my reservation package to make reservations at the River Ranch for February 6 and 7, 2009. I spoke to Micca and was given a confirmation number. I was informed that I would have to attend a 90-minute presentation. I expressed my feelings about that since we had been told that would not be part of this deal, but in the end, I agreed to attend this presentation at the River Ranch on Sat., Feb. 7 at 11:30 am. I was sent a confirmation by email on Jan. 16. The next morning, Jan. 17, my friend called to make her reservations for the same weekend package deal and she was informed that Westgate Resorts no longer honored that package and she was offered another deal in Orlando, we tickets to a theme park.

She also was told that she could go to the River Ranch, but the 2-night stay would only include rooms and tickets to the rodeo. (We paid $130 for extra activities and the rodeo originally was free.) The reason being that they were not having a 90-minute presentation at the River Ranch on that weekend so she could not participate and therefore, they could not honor the package she had signed up for. She told me by phone that they were going to call me and tell me the same thing. I called Westgate on Jan. 17 and was told the same thing, that in order to get the package we signed and paid for, we would have to pay an additional $100 in order to get the extra activities (which we had already paid for).

I asked the operator if they could refund the $130 that we had paid for the activities and just let us go for the two nights and the rodeo tickets. She informed me that wouldn't be possible because there would be no 90-minute presentation. Duh. So to make a long story short, we both asked for a complete refund of $239 which she said they would do. Of course, that remains to be seen. I told her it seemed illogical of them to treat us like they had. They were losing money and also getting a bad reputation because we would never go to a Westgate Resort again and also would spread the word to anyone who would listen, but that had no effect. My advice to anyone reading this, stay clear of Westgate Resorts and anyone affiliated with them! It's not worth the hassle.