That Time I Went to a Timeshare Presentation while I was on vacation in Las Vegas

It’s story time! Gather round if you want to hear.

The other day, I was thinking about the first time I ever went to Las Vegas, Nevada. I can’t remember the exact year, but it was probably in 2000. I got suckered into “free show tickets and dinner for 2 if you go to our vacation timeshare presentation”.

I was really naive back then. We were walking around town, checking out all of the hotels and scenery. In the lobby of one of the major hotels, there was a timeshare booth set up. They gave us their pitch, and we agreed to check out their presentation.

The next day, a shuttle bus came and picked us up at our hotel. They drove us an HOUR out into the desert, and we eventually arrived at a gated community outside of Vegas. My first impression was that it was a beautiful property. The first thing we saw when coming in was the community swimming pool and recreation area. It was really impressive looking.

We toured the property and saw about a dozen units. they told us that the huge construction site down the road was going to be a Mall of America, and that this area would be built up full of attractions very soon. But at the moment it was just a gated community in the middle of nowhere, in the desert by itself.

After a couple hours of walking us around the property and looking at all of the beautiful condo-style timeshare units, they took us to a giant cafeteria and offered us something to eat and drink. They then tried to pressure us into taking out a 90k loan (a Nevada notary public was on hand to assist) and we kept politely saying “No, sorry, we can’t afford that today, we didn’t expect this, thank you for the tour and the free tickets and dinner vouchers but we really can’t afford this.”

So after 20 minutes and several people trying to convince us otherwise, they finally gave up in disgust and took us to a room to wait with the other “No’s” for a shuttle to take us back to our hotels. We spent over an hour waiting in a dark, uncomfortable room with several other couples. There was no one there to give us updates, they didn’t tell us how long the wait would be, and there was no water or any kind of amenities. After what felt like forever, we were finally taken back to Las Vegas on a shuttle.

When we got back to town, they unceremoniously dumped us at the first intersection and we had to figure out where we were and how to get back to our hotels. They had picked us up at our individual hotels, but since we didn’t buy anything, they didn’t give us the courtesy of taking us back where they found us. They had essentially wasted 5 hours of our lives in exchange for 2 show tickets and a free dinner. I think the show was about 90 minutes long and we were at the restaurant for 90 minutes. We probably should have just bought show tickets and dinner and saved our precious time. Live and learn. lol.

We did enjoy the show tickets (we saw a fantastic all nude revue). Before the show, we also enjoyed our free dinner at the Buffet of the World, which was really good that first time, but not as good in 2003 when I went back on the next trip.

Recently I was thinking about the experience and feeling curious, so I googled “Mall of America in Nevada”. There is no such thing. They had insisted that there would definitely be a Mall of America there and that the property would be in the middle of a thriving “New Vegas” kind of location, increasing the value of investing in their timeshare. Apparently, they were 100% wrong about that.

Based on my personal experience, I’d say that vacation timeshares are a scam, a scheme, and just not very punk rock at all.