It’s all fair game for the sales team at Hilton Grand Vacations.  
 
All of many, many high-pressure tactics HGV deploys to rope people into buying a timeshare.
 
There are the excruciatingly long sales pitches to wear prospective buyers down.
 
The allegedly “only good for today” deals.
 
Over promising. Under disclosing. Shaming. Intimidation.
 
All despicable.  And all fair game just to make a sale at Hilton.
 
But in the hundreds of comments about Hilton on Reddit, you’ll find one more tactic customers frequently experience, despite the fact that it doesn’t seem to work all that well: being rude.
 
Doesn’t seem like a smart marketing tactic for the image conscious folks at Hilton.
 
Here’s how one prospective customer described it on the page called “Attended a Parc Soleil Hilton Grand Vacations Presentation in Orlando”.
 
“I was not at all satisfied with the treatment from Cher (our salesperson).”
 
“She was rude immediately, spoke down to us, used a sharp tone of voice, and wouldn’t respond to questions but rather immediately switched the topic.”
 
“When I made it clear that I wasn’t buying, she brought in Natasha. Natasha arrived and was reasonably polite at first.” 
 
“Her demeanor quickly changed as she realized that she wasn’t going to make any better progress. She called me stubborn, slammed her books shut, got up and stormed off. This is not how you do business.”
 
And yet…according to lots of other commenters, this is exactly how Hilton does business, over and over and over again.
 
In fact, the rudeness of the Hilton sales reps is what stood out the most for another customer at the exact same property.
 
“I had the same experience when I went there…The Hilton Grand Vacations Club sales rep was rude, would not listen to my questions. It was essentially the worst sales experience of my life.”
 
And the rudeness isn’t just reserved for prospective clients. Current HGV owners, like the one who posted “Owner Update Meeting Experience” get this treatment too.
 
“We actually had a sales person actually say, ‘if you guys are going to call me a liar then we might as well stop here.’ That situation was particularly tense and the ‘closer’ had to come and smooth things over just to make sure we didn’t swear off Hilton Grand Vacations permanently.”
 
It seems the Hilton team just can’t help themselves. 
 
Perhaps the most ironic case we came across was “In and Out in 55 min!”
 
“No freaking way we were buying. Didn’t offer any conversation. I ended the pitch when the ‘customer service’ rep said what would you pay and I said $20,000 a 75% discount. She got really upset, insulted us and told me we wasted our rep’s time.”
 
Imagine that! 
 
A Hilton sales rep got upset because she thought someone wasted her time – instead of the other way around.
 
We’re pretty sure the irony is lost on Mark Wang, the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations. But that shouldn’t stop us from emailing him at mark.wang@hgv.com to ask if treating customers so rudely is working for Hilton.
 
Chris Nassetta, President and CEO of Hilton Worldwide, might be able to tell us. You can  email him at christopher.nassetta@hilton.com to see where rudeness fits in to Hilton’s formula for success.
 
And let’s ask Jason Gamel, the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the trade association that represents the timeshare industry in Washington, DC if he’s recommending Hilton’s rude approach to other timeshare companies. Email Jason at jgamel@arda.org to find out.
 
How polite has your timeshare company been?  If it’s close to Hilton’s level, use this list of ARDA VIPs to contact your company’s leaders and tell them it’s not working.
  
Gotten a rude reception during a timeshare presentation? Tell us how it measures up to Hilton’s at info@timesharefacts.com 
  
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