The lure of a free vacation in Hawaii was just too strong…so I decided to attend a timeshare presentation so I could get a voucher for a free stay in Hawaii. I promised myself I would stay strong and keep saying no, no and no in the 3+ grueling hours at the timeshare presentation where I was bombarded with sales person after sales person. I was finally able to get out of there without committing to a timeshare, and voila! I had a voucher for a 4 night stay in Oahu, Hawaii! Whoo hoo!
The voucher I received was with Holiday Travel of America, and they call themselves a “travel incentive marketing company.” During slow times They purchase deeply discounted packages from unused travel inventory about 30-45 days out, and they are then able to offer a free trip to voucher holders.
As a voucher holder, here’s what you need to know:
- You are responsible for taxes. For Holiday Travel of America, they ask for $50 in taxes for the 4 night stay in Oahu.
- The inventory is based on availability, so they ask you for a few choices of dates. You will need to give them a few choices at least 60 days out from the dates you want to request.
- The dates you request cannot be +/- 5 days from holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.). They recommend something during mid week to maximize your chances.
- They will contact you 30 days from the dates you requested to let you know if the reservation is confirmed or you need to reschedule.
- Since they are buying unused inventory in bulk, no changes are allowed once reservation is confirmed. Your name on the voucher and your travel companion name cannot be changed for these reservations.
As you can see, using these vouchers is very restrictive, so you will need to have a lot of flexibility in your travel/vacation plans to take advantage of this. You will also need a lot of patience because you will probably get rejected many times before you get the reservation.
For me, I got rejection after rejection for 2.5 years before I finally gave up and told them I wanted my $50 back. Apparently this did not come as a surprise to them so they happily refunded my money. I was told that Hawaii is quite popular so I needed to pick a less popular destination to have a shot at getting my free stay. But then again the whole point of me going to the timeshare presentation was to get this trip to Hawaii, and the other locations (Mexico, Caribbean, Bahamas) didn’t appeal to me as much. In the end, I found myself wasting time at a timeshare presentation that I didn’t get anything out of other than wasted time talking to representatives at Holiday Travel of America trying to figure out a time that may work for my free vacation. For me it wasn’t worth my time, and I would even say it’s a borderline scam (you don’t get what they advertised). However, it might be worth a consideration if you have a lot of time at hand and you are very flexible with the location and time of your vacation.