My in-laws have been owners at Westgate Lakes in Orlando since 1998. My wife and I have visited various Westgate properties throughout Florida as their guests in that time. While we have always enjoyed our stays, on this occasion we were really surprised at how poorly we were treated.
We exercised our option as relatives of owners to purchase a week here and stay in an adjacent room at a discounted rate. That purchase was a little over $2k and the property is about an hour from our home in Lake Mary. We arrived on the early side since my father-in-law had done pre-check-in and we assumed it would be a fairly painless process. Instead, our room wasn't available until about 5:30. So we ended up sitting around and lost most of our first day at the resort..
While we were waiting, my teenage son arrived and i helped him to get parked in the extremely limited and tight parking. I was accutely aware of the condition of his car, having guided him into the space. About an hour later, he went back to his car and found it had been side-swiped. There was white paint transfer, so I went about looking at white cars in the lot to see if I could find the culprit. However, after checking all the white cars in the lot, it was apparent that whomever hit the car had left. We were hoping that Westgate would show us the camera view so that we could identify the responsible party. However, rather than accommodate us, they instead insisted that the car had arrived with the damage already present. When I saw that footage, it was clear that they misunderstood the concern - their entry footage only showed some sun glare off the door handle which they insisted was the damage (it absolutely and very obviously is not). I wasn't asking them to assume liability for it - merely hoping that they would help identify the person who caused it. They refused and insisted we submit a police report to compel them to share the footage.
The next day, we sat through their sales presentation, but when asked what we thought of our stay, we brought up these customer service failures. Rather than attempting to remedy or compensate in any way, we were in essence accused of taking up their presentation time complaining about their poor service. This is laughable as service and courtesy is obviously a huge part of the customer experience... and failures are obviously a deterrent to selling your product.
The idea of having a beach resort available to us, even as locals, was actually pretty appealing. But frankly, though we would be inclined to exercise some of the options presented to us, I would not give them my business as a matter of principle. Furthermore, Westgate in general will never see another dime from me.
The damage to my son's car is easily repairable. I can buy the door handle pre-painted for $58. I can likely buff out the paint transfer as well. Though I wasn't looking for monetary compensation, they lost tens of thousands in business over what is in essence less than $200 in damage.
Nothing like being penny wise and pound foolish! Between my wife and I, we do pretty well. In fact, we are probably a company like Westgate's dream customer. But I'm also very disciplined in how I spend money - and if it were the last beach resort to exist and I could buy in for pocket change, I wouldn't spend here on principle alone.
And so dear reader, if you've stuck with me for this long and you're wondering if this is a good bet for a timeshare, please know that this company could give a shit about your patronage. There are better options to out there. Also, in the odd event you choose to stay here, please know that you will receive no actual help if another guest damages your vehicle park with extreme caution. read more