I'm willing to bet that these same people, who are more optimistic than clever, are the prime audience for a rather expensive vacation scam known as "time shares".
With a time share, you pay a hefty up-front fee, usually tens of thousands of dollars, for the right to pay steep annual "owner's fees". In exchange, you get to stay in a hotel room that is slightly bigger than average and comes with a kitchen but no maid service. Except for the "paying hefty fees" part, this is a lot like home exchange.
Time shares are such a well-known ripoff, and are marketed with such a hard sell, that people selling them are forced to offer hundreds of dollars in bribes just to get someone to sit still during the sales talk. You have seen these come-ons if you have ever gone to a vacation destination favored by gullible tourists. For instance, in Las Vegas you see time share sales desks in most casinos, offering free tickets to expensive shows, or hundreds of dollars in cash, just for taking the time share "tour".
Those who fall for it go to a lecture showing gorgeous resorts in exotic locations. They are told that they can use their "ownership" privileges to travel anywhere for a fraction of the cost they might pay otherwise. The numbers used to justify this scenario are ridiculously inflated. Psychological techniques are used to appeal to the vanity of the prospective time share "owner". Those who question the massive cost are often told they must be too poor to take advantage of this wonderful deal. Despite the fact that they are selling garbage, the time share sales people are so aggressive that some people fall for their scam. When they try to use the promised benefits they find our just how badly they were ripped off.
Here is how one time-share industry veteran describes the process:
"The typical timeshare consumer seeking an exchange is forced to give up their use rights to what they have purchased before knowing what they can get and then pays a hefty upfront membership fee to a swapping service only to find that they cannot even get an exchange that they like in return.
What happens there is that the consumer that buys a more expensive $40,000 timeshare feels cheated when all he/she can find in exchange is a cheap timeshare in a place and at a time that they don't wish to exchange for. When they don't accept what is forced upon them, they lose their exchange but in the bargain have already given up their week plus the upfront fees. Many companies have abused the trust of these consumers by promising them a fair exchange. The attrition rates for new members from such exchanges is as high as 40% after just one year of membership."
OK, so time shares are a massive rip-off, especially in today's economy when the huge over-supply of new hotels and condos means you can rent lodging for a fraction of what you would pay for a time share. Time share sellers claim buyers can sell their time share rights, but in fact the resale market offers pennies on the dollar.
Having bilked math-impaired vacationers until the faltering economy dried up time share revenues, one time share seller is now using his database of gullible folks to push a vacation style they may not have heard of -- home exchange.
Yes, the same person described in an earlier blog post, who wants to facilitate dangerous third-party swaps and charge people $129 for each exchange they arrange through his site, comes from the time share industry. What a non-surprise. He isn't a home exchanger himself. He's just good at selling vacation dreams to the math-impaired.
Don't let a fox guard your hen house. And don't join a home exchange club run by anyone who is so lacking in business scruples that he was ever capable of selling time shares.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
No comments:
Post a Comment