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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Grandview Resort Las Vegas


I don't mind a sales pitch. I understand a little bit about marketing. I also follow business, and I know how important it is to capture the attentions of potential customers. After all, no business could ever survive without its customers.
Still, there is a fine line, I think, between marketing and just being a flat-out pest.

My wife and I recently took a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, and stayed at the Excalibur. We flew Southwest airlines and took a Showtime shuttle to the hotel. We had an early flight, and so when we got to the hotel it was too soon before check-in. We went through the casino, luggage in tow, and headed for the bag storage. Walking past the registration desks, we were approached by a woman, "How long will you be in Vegas?"

"Till Sunday," I told her.

"Come with me," she said and walked us over to another desk a few feet away.

We were offered a choice between two tickets to a show, or $100 worth of gambling money which could be used in any casino where the MGM Player's Club card was accepted and two buffets at the Excalibur. All we had to do was sit through a presentation for a new resort in Las Vegas, The Grandview, which is a time share, and have a look around the place.

All fine and dandy. It's not really my thing. But I let my wife decide and she decided if we couldn't check in yet anyway, and we'd get a few things free, why not? What did we have to lose?

Well, nothing really. Though we did have to cough up $40 right off the bat. $20 would be returned to us at the end along with the rewards.

We sat through the presentation, and checked out the condos, and listened to the spiels. I won't get into the details. We all know what a time share is. We also know what it is not. All I will say is that we politely said "No thank you" to at least 3 people before they finally let us go and we were able to collect our rewards—which we did get.

The time share deal was a bogus one. The presentation was weird at best. But my problem was more with the fact that throughout our stay we were approached by the Grandview people on the casino floor at the Excalibur at least 25 times in 4 days and 3 nights. It probably would have been a much higher number had we spent our entire time on the Excalibur's casino floor—but it's Vegas, and there's myriad casino's to choose from. So we went to others.

The Grandview folks were at the Luxor as well, I should note.

Again, I don't mind being thrown a sales pitch. Business is business. And no matter what my thoughts may be on time shares, it's a business, and there are customers who enjoy them. There is a market. And if you want to fill rooms, you have to market them.

But I will say this. The experience left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

I like the Excalibur. It's a nice hotel. The staff was courteous. The room was nice. The price was right. And they have an amazing casino and the upstairs section between the Excalibur and the Luxor is very convenient with McDonald's, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and whatever else you may fancy, including Pizza Hut.

But when you have to constantly say no to someone who approaches you it becomes annoying. When it's repeated over 25 times? It's extremely annoying. Excalibur should be aware that it has customers too. It needs to keep those customers coming back. I'll likely stay there again. But this is strike one. In this case there are only two strikes allowed. If my next stay at the Excalibur is riddled with sales people at every door, and at every turn, I will not stay there again.

As for The Grandview Resort Las Vegas? It's a scam. It may not seem that way in the beginning. But once you reach the end of it, it becomes all too clear.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Got approached for the Grandview presentation today, and we're considering just going through with it to get some free tickets to Phantom. Is it too much of a hassle to bother with it? That "give them $40 and they give you $20 later" thing sounds really weird.

For what it's worth, we had the same experience at the Excalibur two years ago, and it really soured the trip for us. Every.single.time walking through the casino, acosted by salespeople. Wears thin after a while - we're in The Hotel at Mandalay Bay this time - large suites, low rates, no sales. Check it out next time you go.

Anyway, is the timeshare presentation worth the trouble if you just want some free tickets out of it?

Unknown said...

I did with the ability to return to las vegas. They returned all of my money I just had to pay room taxes and resort fees. Best part was is that i said i made less than i really do so when I got there I waited for the rep for 25 minutes to be told they didn't have enough reps to help us even though the next bus had arrived and they took people from that bus. It worked out for us we got a free room at the Luxor without having to say no. And we signed up again and plan to do the same thing

Short Stuff said...

I agree with your posting. We just came back from Vegas and stayed at the Excalibur. I wish I had seen this blog before we went because my wife and I went through the same torture. Except they didnt even have the show tickets we asked for! That was the icing on this crappy cake. We left with $200 gaming and dining vouchers and supposedly a free cruise but I know there will be strings attached to that too.

I would never stay at the Excalibur again! The sales pitch started out nice and friendly at first then once we kept saying no politely their attitudes changed and couldnt keep their part of the bargain. And there is not refunds either! Waste of our time and lesson learned on our parts. Free does not mean a good thing.

Do not go to this timeshare presentation!