Aviation Airplane

The Tourist Meets The Timeshare Machine

t was a great summer day by the seashore and the board walk was crowded. Tourists Bob and Emily Sorenson and their two children had been casually strolling along enjoying the sights when they heard, "Hi! Are you folks here on vacation?"

Bob turned to see a cute young lady dressed in khaki shorts and a white golf shirt. She sat perched on a stool next to a tiny exhibit booth just outside the doorway of a souvenir shop. Her eyes met his and she flashed a big smile as she repeated the question.

"Yes we are," Bob responded.

"Well I have some nice complimentary welcome gifts for you if you'll step over here," said the highly trained, money-motivated, timeshare spider to the non-suspecting tourist fly. So began the Sorenson's introduction to the timeshare machine.

They had not been randomly selected. Spider's highly effective selection process had applied a defined set of clues to cull them from the masses. She may have seen them park their expensive SUV. Or maybe she had seen them exit a high-end restaurant or noticed the store names on their shopping bags. She certainly noted how they dressed or maybe was impressed with Emily's choice of designer handbag. She saw they had kids or in lieu of present children, would have searched for their wedding bands. She may have spotted jewelry or other tell-tale signs of financial status. Satisfied that they may meet her criteria, she had invited them into her lair.

Within three minutes she had verified the Sorenson's marital status, discovered they owned their home, used credit cards, were not timeshare owners and had never been on a previous timeshare tour of the resort she represented. And only when she was satisfied that they met the criteria did she offer them the chance to receive a very special incentive package in return for attending a ninety minute, no obligation resort presentation. She was happy. Their participation will contributor to her bonus.

In this article I respectfully created this fictitious young lady 'spider' as an example of thousands of hard-working, often unappreciated, front-line personnel who perform the difficult and critical marketing function of 'off property contact' for timeshare resorts. It's done on board walks and in shopping malls, restaurants and hotel lobbies and, although solicitation laws have severely limited this practice in recent years, it is still nearly impossible to walk the streets of any resort town where this activity is not present in some form. This process of hawking families to take timeshare tours is a form of intercept marketing and it is a big and highly competitive business.

In the good old days of the mid-seventies I was a sales representative and toured hundreds of prospects who were solicited from breakfast houses and public areas. I remember one promotion that awarded the prospect a whopping five Susan B. Anthony silver dollars as the incentive to tour, and they came. But timeshare was a new thing back then. As the public became more aware and less willing to commit to the tour, it demanded higher incentive offerings. Today these incentives may cost the timeshare resort $100 or more.

But I digress.

So the Sorenson family accepted the spider's offer and showed up at the resort. Three and a half hours later they were still there. Their kids were getting antsy. They were hungry. Bob and Emily were tired. For over two hours they had been skillfully bombarded by their sales representative and his manager with a list of seemingly logical reasons that they needed to buy that timeshare, right then!

"This is a today only offer," they were told. "It ends the minute you leave the building."

"You'll never have another opportunity like this," the rep and manager chimed, shaking their collective heads in disbelief at Bob's inability to recognize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"You said you like it," they reminded.

"You said you would use it," they stated, pointing out for the fifth time all the exotic vacation paradises their new timeshare would allow them to visit.

"And you said you could afford it, right?" they asked while again nodding their heads in unison as if to answer their own question.

And then, as if a switch had been flipped, the logic interrogation abruptly ended with an emotional statement. "Do it for them," the manager said pointing to the kids as he handed Bob a gold-plated Mont Blanc pen.

Bingo. Welcome new timeshare owner.

A bell rang and they were congratulated over the public address system. All the salesmen applauded. A split of champagne was delivered to the table on a complimentary silver plated tray emblazoned with the resort's logo. Two hours and a barrage of paperwork later, following an elaborate 'closing' and 'verification' process, they were back on the street; silver tray, 'free' dining certificates and new owner's kit in hand, and $15,000 lighter.