Traveling Hacking using Travel shows and Timeshare presentations

My earliest memory of timeshare presentations was attending one with my parents as a child. My dad almost got into a fist fight with the sales person who insisted that the Smurfs lived on the property in order to motivate me as a child to pressure my parents to buy. They even had a little replica of Smurf village on the property. Bwahahahah!

However, in spite of unscrupulous salespersons, another strategy to use for more fun and traveling at a discounted rate is to attend Travel Shows and Timeshare Presentations. I know everyone does not like to sit through sales pitches. But it can save you a few coins for your travels.

The most common Travel Shows are the Travel and Adventure Show hosted in many cities like DC, Philly, and Dallas; and the New York Times Travel show, hosted annually in NYC.

I’ve attended at least 3 of these shows over the years and they are awesome for meeting travel host celebrities from Amazing Race, Travel Channel, and the Food network shows. But more importantly, I sign up for at least two timeshare presentations. Sometimes you have to pay a small fee to hold the appointment. But you get the money back plus additional funds and travel benefits for attending the presentation. A few memorable presentations I have attended are the following:

• Massanuttan Resort (RCI Timeshare properties): Massanuttan resort normally advertises at the travel shows and Pentagon City Mall in Pentagon City, VA. For agreeing to listen to their 90 presentation I received a $300 visa card and 2 night stay on the resort. The resort is actually popular with DC families since it is 2.5 hours away. It seemed like an amazing deal but 90 minutes turned in 180 minutes. So after a $50 tank of gas, the experience ended up being a $31/hour part-time job that day. **5 hours driving + 3 hour presentation + Gas = $300-$50/8= $31/hour** It was a good deal but not amazing. I probably should have elected to stay on the property after the presentation
• Sundance Vacations was by far the best experience.  They kept their presentation and high pressure sales pitch to 90 minutes. And I attended the presentation at their DC office. I left with my “free” travel certificate that was redeemable for various cities in the US. “Free” meant my homegirl and me still had to pay hotel and airline taxes and other fees that totaled $400 to fly to LA.  However, we booked a rental car, flew Spirit Airlines with no issues, and stayed at a Wyndham property for 5 days in LA. We almost got into the Jimmy Kimmel Show in the photo above. For $600 total (Hotel/Air/Car) for two people, it was an awesome trip.
• Wyndham Vacations resorts was my most recent experience and they now own RCI. For attending their 120 minute presentation I received a $25 Amex card, a $50 Dining Dough gift card, and supposedly 4 free coach-class round-trip airline tickets to your choice of more than 30 destinations in the U.S., Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe. Now they were straight up about the fact that I would have to stay in one of their properties when I choose the destination. And, if I don’t want to fly, I can use the certificate for a discount of up to $100 per night at select hotels.  After reading the required hotel stays, the discounted hotel rooms may be a better option since I know how to get cheap airfare. Once I decide where I’m going, I’ll update you on the trip in a follow up post.