CT says she felt like a "hostage"
Westgate Timeshare Resort Issues
Date of Incident: 5/20/2002
I've stayed in many wonderful resorts as a guest renter, always having the owners rights, from renting directly from the owner. At WestgateLakes, I was shocked to be totally mislead about a free breakfast or lunch to discuss how my stay was going. I was not asked, but told, I needed to meet with a man, for lunch, sometime during my stay. When I first arrived, he had to show me the unit, like I couldn't find my way around, on my own, he kept me on my feet for a good half an hour after the long trip to get there and I was exhausted and wanted to start enjoying myself. First off, the free lunch was hot dogs, chili, chips and mustard, period. I'm a vegetarian, so I was already unhappy.
I was taken on a tour, as a hostage and then forced to listen to not one, but three people try to get me to buy something! We have been invited to free breakfasts/lunches and asked to fill out forms, asking for our suggestions, but never have we been pressured to buy anything or even told we had to attend (since we rented the owner's week, we were treated as owners, with respect). Whenever, we were given an option to take a tour, we have been offered free tickets to area attractions, to at least, make it worth our time. WestgateLakes, gave me a 25% off coupon, good the resort owned spa, big deal! They wasted almost three hours of my vacation time, and gave me nothing to show for it and I wasn't even given a choice not to subject myself to the speels! I doubt I would ever go back to this resort or any of it's partners. I came to find out, they do this to all the owners, each vacation, hoping they can get them to buy more weeks and sometimes it works! They are supposed to be a 5 Star resort, I would agree, with this one exception, but it's a big exception, as far as I'm concerned.
One final note, they are a non smoking resort, before I chose this resort for my vacation, I read everything about them, I could get my eyes on, no where did I see that this was a non smoking resort, until I got my confirmation (then it was in tiny print at the bottom)and by then it was too late. The only place in the entire resort you can smoke is on your balcony and the phone didn't reach the balcony. All in all, I'd look somewhere else.
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