posted 01-02-2005 15:07               

At Sunset Beach they are also selling time in some houses they are building on the property in addition to the timeshare units. If you are tired of timeshare presentations, ask to talk with a salesman about the houses instead. It's more like a regular real estate transaction and they don't tell you that you must decide on the spot. You can take the information and think about it.

posted 01-02-2005 20:22               

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own: Solmar Suites Cabo San Lucas

posted 01-03-2005 06:43               

Stay away from Cabo Villas! High pressure, gifts not worth it. When they keep sweetening the deal to sell and it obviously looks to good to be true, look-out!!

Fergdaddy

posted 01-03-2005 08:21               

The way to make the presentation less pressured is not to talk very much. Don't ask any questions and don't give them any more information than you have to. About the only objection the salesman can't overcome is "We don't like this place." They can come up with any number of ways to defeat the statement that "We can't afford it" but there's not much they can do if you don't like what they have to sell you.

posted 01-03-2005 09:30               

Our prior year tour of PB Sunset Beach was also fairly painless, but the breakfast STINKS, in my humble opinion. You're packed in a room full of timeshare sharks hawking their wares. Luckily we had a nice fellow, and when we told him: (1) we always buy our timeshares cash, and have never paid more than $1500 (2) we already have more than we need - 4 weeks of timeshare, but only 2 weeks paid vacation, (3) we would never buy right-to-use, we want a deed so we can pass it to our kids someday (4) we would never buy in Mexico.... etc. etc. Usually, the combination works and the guy will just slink away and tell the bosses "these cheapies aren't going to buy" and off we go. Sometimes we're out in less than 45 minutes!

Don't sign up for a tour at your resort -- you don't get much. The timeshare booths on the street in downtown Cabo usually give out the best deals. We've used the Avis Car Rental booth twice. We got $100 off on our Avis car rental, $50 dinner certificate, free glass bottom boat to Lover's Beach/the Arch. You can usually get $150 of goods/services, and if you're a really good negotiator you can get as much as $200, some Tuggers have said.

We always reserve ahead with Avis for a car, anyways, so the $100 off, usually brings the car rental down from $170/week down to $70/week, which is less than we would have paid for airport transfers for the 3 of us. It's nice having a car for trips to Costco & grocery shopping, dinner in San Jose del Cabo, or a daytrip to Todos Santos. We've done this twice with the $100 Avis discount, and it's always been applied with no problems when we return the rental car. (Also, Avis doesn't hassle you to take the extra insurance.) We've got a reservation in February with Avis for $149/week, so that means it'll only cost us $49 for a week of car rental. Can't touch this!

--- Rene McDaniel

posted 01-04-2005 22:33               

quote:

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Originally posted by flowers1227:
We will be staying at the Westin Regina so can we sign up for a tour at the Westin from a booth downtown and get a better deal?

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posted 01-06-2005 11:08               

I checked my Avis confirmation for Cabo and our 7-day base rate is $118/US, $145/with taxes, unlimited kilometers, Sat-to-Saturday for a subcompact (Chevrolet Pop or similar) for arrival at the end of January. I am not sure why the rates you saw were higher, could be a the difference in check-in date, or advance booking. We booked over 30-days in advance online at http://www.avis.com I did check the frequent flyer website for a discount code, and ended up using the code for AAA Auto Club discount (B900000), but that only brought the rate down $8 from the previous rate I was seeing online using no discount codes.

I just checked their website for this Saturday (Jan 8-15, 2005) and their weekly rates for a subcompact (with taxes): $175 with no code, $165 with the RCI discount code (B149868), or $158 with the AAA Auto Club Code (B900000). We usually get the cheapest car as we don't really use it much: to & from airport, Costco, or grocery store.

As for the timeshare tours, one additional quick note. When we were staying at the Westin Regina in 2003, none of the timeshare sharks would book a tour for us there. They said we would have to go thru our resort, which only offered a measly $50 meal voucher, or something similar. So, we toured PB Sunset Beach & got about $150 worth of goodies, instead. ($100 off our already-rented Avis car + $50 voucher for any Pueblo Bonito restaurant. We chose the dinner buffet at the Rose- outstanding! I highly recomment it.) The next year, in 2004, when we stayed at Playa Grande -- same thing. Couldn't tour Playa Grande (resort itself would only offer us a measly $50 in meal vouchers), so we toured the Westin Regina, and got the $100 Avis car credit, and $50 meal voucher for the Stoplight (a downtown restaurant right next door to the Avis both). What a mistake that was - Worst meal ever! Next time we'll stick to the resort meal vouchers.

Think twice about whether you want to tie up that much time on timeshare pitches. Since we are only there a week, 1 is about all we can handle. They are not all that pleasant, and they could end up eating up a lot of your vacation time -- when your goal is really to just relax and enjoy yourselves. I recommend scheduling only 1 when you arrive, something easy. Then see if you are up for another one, after you've done the first. We find, they start at breakfast and it pretty much kills the entire morning. (They usually want to pick you up & take you there, as
they get paid by the resort after they check you in and you over to the resort timeshare sales dept. for your tour. If you have a car of your own, they usually have you follow them there. I think that the resorts will only pay these guys for tourists who are not already staying at their resort. )

Also, I would recommend not dealing with the timeshare sharks at the airport. Bad idea. You are disoriented, toting all your worldly goods, and you would literally be surrounded by 25 people all trying to nab you simultaneously. We've passed by people doing this and it is not a pretty picture. They offer the same deals in town, and you can deal with each guy one-on-one with no pressure, and you will be more relaxed without luggage and jet-lag, to cut a better deal for yourselves.

You will love the Westin Regina. It's a really spectacular resort, and every room has a fantastic ocean view. Also, if you don't like the temperature in one pool -- try another. We always called the hotel pools hot, hotter, and hottest. The one with the swim-up bar (and vanishing edge) is the hottest of them all. A little too hot for my taste during the day, but fantastic at night when you can look up and see thousands upon thousands of stars. (A recommendation from DonnaD that we really enjoyed.)

Bon voyage! I hope some of these suggestions help, and that you have a great vacation.
---- Rene McDaniel

posted 02-26-2005 09:02               

IT WAS AWFUL. Don't go there. There's not even a resort to see -- it's not built yet. But it still took 3 long, gruelling, painful hours!!!!! We kept saying "no", but these guys don't listen. They just keep pitching and pitching and pitching.

Even when we told them that we already had 4 timeshares, but only 3 weeks vacation per year. They had a manager go off and call resellers, then came back pitching that our San Francisco week was worth $10,000 and that we could assume we could easily get at least $7,000.... and figuring that in, we could purchase a Royal Mayan off-season studio for $2,900. Originally, we were offered a 2-bedroom with lock-off for $49,000 for 1-week (with 1 yearly bonus week).

Painful, painful experience -- don't go there. It was so bad - we'd figure we'd rather just pay for the car rental ourselves next time!