I started working on this blog post after my trip to Mexico last year. While it wasn’t as prevalent at my resort or I wasn’t hassled as a travel agent, I was reminded what a pain point it can be. The blog took a back to seat to high travel demand and I forgot about this post. After watching the most recent John Oliver segment on timeshares over the weekend, I thought it would be a great time to finish and publish this. While the below post covers the annoyance of the pushy sales pitch, that segment was frightening about the serious problems with actually using or selling a time share after buying it.

There are various time share companies around the world but it seems to be becoming bigger at the larger beach resorts in the Caribbean.

I know some people are happy to sit through the pitch just to get an extra perk. However, many are not and get annoyed with the more aggressive salespeople. Here are a few helpful tips to get them to leave you alone.

Tell them you are a travel agent. I’ve found this very effective and started to tell clients to say the same. The sales people may not get credit for presenting to a travel advisor or realize that travel agents usually aren’t going to buy into a time share.
Tell them NO as sternly as you can and walk away. They will keep talking but just keep going! Don’t worry about being rude as they are not. It’s their job to make you so uncomfortable that you relent to attend their presentation or even make a purchase just to avoid dealing with their rudeness. They are often paid just for you attending the presentation and not just if you sign up.
Pretend that you already attended a presentation and that you are insulted that they don’t remember you… I just heard this one and thought it was brilliant!

If anyone else has tips, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list!