Never buy a timeshare from this place.
Never buy a timeshare from this place.They lie and change their policies and you always end up with "not enough points"... I was able to legally exit mine and a major weight was lifted from my shoulders, after wasting thousands of dollars. Even though I legally exited their timeshare for fraudulent and predatory sales tactics, the stated it was an involuntary repossession, negatively affecting my credit report.I would give negative 10 stars!I know most of us have been approached by timeshare exit companies and most seem like scams, but I was contacted by SDS Properties and they offer a money back guarantee. Was was hesitant but spent about $3K and thought; what do I have to lose?I was able to legally exit in 9 months, official as of 12/1/24. I stopped paying so my credit took a temporary hit, but they have a credit service that disputes on your behalf and my scores are starting to come back up.I'm not trying to sell anything. but this perpetual debt was a major burden for me and my family and if I can help people get out of theirs, I will be posting this everywhere I can!
Bruce Inman
WELKS RESORT IS A FRAUDULENT COMPANY!…
We all have been Scam by this fraudulent Welks and now Hyatt Time Share company! it is insane to pay for a maintain fee of $ 1900 last year!!. We are from middle class we live by check by check! how these people are now being Sue for all the lies that they told us! we all need to do something about it!
Lo Cardenas
Hyatt Vacation Club - scammers!
🔴 WARNING! Beware of Welk Resort Group Inc. and their high-pressure sales tactics. 🔴My wife and I were deceived by Hyatt Vacation Club, a timeshare company that is scamming people out of their hard-earned money.I'm posting this to warn everyone about our horrendous experience with the so-called Hyatt Vacation Club Platinum Program (#P-324963). We were subject to an aggressive sales pitch, and deceptive promises, and they even separated us from our 6-year-old kid during the process, creating an environment of stress and pressure. It seemed they would stop at nothing to make the sale.What's worse, they will not let you out of the contract. We have tried numerous times to cancel our contract, all met with blatant refusals. They put us under tremendous financial stress, wrecked our credit score, and even negatively impacted our health due to the constant stress.Please, be cautious. Don't fall for the same trap we did. Always remember to take your time and never let anyone pressure you into signing a contract on the spot. Do your research, understand your rights, and consider all potential consequences before you sign anything.
Eldar Kalachev
Resort was sold by Wyndham maybe a year…
Resort was sold by Wyndham maybe a year ago-lies after lies about the convenience and willing to take back the title with no renumeration.Do not buy as this is not true.All the salespeopel will pressure you to buy an upgrade and not worth a penny at all.All they care about is their own profit no regard to consumers they scammed.If there is zero it is.Very poor
Ivie Lynch
They will scam you.
There have already been many reviews about their scam when purchasing timeshares. But they also scammed me when I made a reservation to stay at their Escondido resort for three days. I made the resort reservation six months in advance then canceled it within one month after scheduling it. When I tried to cancel it I spoke to four different customer service agents all of whom stated that they could not locate my reservation even though I provided a confirmation number and all of my contact information. They insisted that there was no reservation on file. I asked to verify there was no reservation and they provided an email address as there was no one that they would allow me to speak with. I sent an email to the address provided with no response. When the dates that I had scheduled my stay had arrived I was charged for three days. When I called to inquire about this erroneous charge I was then told they charged me because I did not show up for my stay. I made every attempt even reported them to the Better Business Bureau and in the end they insisted that I was responsible since I was a no-show. I was out over $700. It is not possible the four different agents could not locate my reservation so clearly this was a scam to be able to charge me and still rent out the rooms. Do not under any circumstances book a room with them.
Lynne
Beware of Welk Resorts and their…
Beware of Welk Resorts and their timeshare. They are a scam!!! These crooks don’t deserve a single star! My family and I were approached by their marketing team, and were offered free tickets to Six Flags, a visa gift card, and a 3-day stay in Hawaii if we agreed to attend an hour-long sales presentation…this turned out to be 3 hours of extremely high-pressure sales tactics and a dubious scheme to get us to sign a contract that we are now trapped into! Everything they told us to convince us to buy one of their timeshares was either a flat out lie or an exaggeration! They purposely didn’t disclose many details that would have prevented us from buying. Falsely claimed that the timeshare would benefit our credit. Never disclosed the increase in maintenance costs. They promised a dream vacation in Hawaii that never came to fruition. Don’t fall for their scam. Don’t accept the free gifts! STAY AWAY FROM WELK RESORTS. We’re now stuck with a garbage timeshare and a lifetime of debt! Availability is awful so having a timeshare with them is useless, even after you “upgrade”. No matter how many points you have the return on investment is NEVER worth it with Welk. Just LOOK AT WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING.
Carlos
Warning! Do not purchase.
My experience with Welk Resorts has been atrocious and I fully regret the day I got involved with their timeshares. I was initially introduced to Welk Resorts after I received a call from them saying I had won a contest. When I went to claim my prize, it was a bait and switch; I found myself in a day’s long sales pitch. Their sales agents are masters of manipulation who not only exaggerate the benefits owning a Welk timeshare but also purposely leave out the details that would make any reasonable person walk right out. It’s shameful to realize what they do to you after you’ve already signed with them. Welks sales agents led me to believe I was getting a once in a lifetime deal and that they had never seen deals for such a low price…all lies. They lied about the exclusivity of their resorts. They constantly haggle you to upgrade yet you never see the benefits of it. All their fees continue to increase, and I’ve recently found out I’m in debt to them $110,000. What does it say about a company that does business like this? Don’t believe their lies. The timeshare is hardly usable, availability is scarce and almost always available to non-owners. What is the point of getting sucked into a Welk timeshare contract if you always must pay to use it and have the option to book online? Unless you’re purposely looking to get scammed and deceived, stay away from Welk Resorts. I wasn’t so lucky, and I have had enough. I hope other’s read this and spread the word about Welk.
MDumlao
WELK RESORTS IS A SCAM. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE
WELK RESORTS: BREACH OF CONTRACT Welk’s representatives painted a very untrue and unrealistic picture of what membership would look like to get us to sign a contract that only benefits Welk. At the presentation we were given several gifts and were told we could go anywhere at any time. We were not given time to read the contract and were made to trust that we were being told the absolute truth. Since buying this membership we have not been able to make any reservations. There are hidden fees that have increased every year. They say there is a program to let you out of your contract but we have applied every year and are conveniently not chosen. We have paid them, in full, for something we have not been able to use and are told we have no options to get out of. THIS IS NOT RIGHT. There is no protection to the consumer and we want our money back. If you sign with Welk Resorts you are sure to regret it.
George&Mukarabe Makinto-Friebe
I feel for you if you have ever had to…
I feel for you if you have ever had to deal with Welk. If you haven’t had the displeasure, take this as a warning:My husband and I traded our week with Vistana to stay at a Welk resort. We were roped into a presentation where we made it clear that we had no intention of buying another timeshare. Our salesman gave us information about how Welk’s system worked and how the HOA fees would be every- other- year. He stated the trading power in FL vs. CA was different and we’d be better off owning in CA. The clincher was that a Welk contract would release us from Vistana because they’d use the Vistana timeshare as a down payment. Well, months later, we still had a Vistana timeshare. When we called to figure out what was going on, we were told Welk never contacted them! What’s worse is now we have 2 Welk contracts. We signed one in person and another that was sent to us later that we thought was the same as the first. Unethical salespeople and company. I’d give no stars if I could!!!
WalterO
Not what is promised, at all
I could write pages about how Welk duped me, but for those of you reading this, I’ll try to keep it short. Welk has caused me an extreme amount of stress in the last 4+ years. The sales staff was not truthful when explaining timeshare ownership, because if they were, I would have walked away without ever buying one. The maintenance fees I pay continue to go up annually, which was never discussed as a possibility. This timeshare purchase was never the profitable investment that was promised, all it’s done is leave me with a HUGE debt. A debt that will never pay off even in my personal vacations. I was lied to about resort amenities and the unit I was buying. I was promised access to the Disney Aulani resort in Hawaii and told only Welk has an arrangement with Disney. Not true. I found there was no affiliation at all. When I am actually able to make reservations, I end up paying out of pocket. If I have to pay per night, why am I throwing away so much monthly?! At every turn, Welk has been proven to be full of liars and I wish I would have never gotten in this position.
Nicole Thompson
What a joke Welk Resorts are
What a joke Welk Resorts are. My husband and I could never recommend Welk to anyone after the deception and mistreatment we endured. We were approached at Six-Flags by one of their reps and were offered a free vacation to Hawaii… IF we went to their presentation. The rep said we had to leave our credit card information for the future booking as a deposit. Well, when we could not attend the presentation, they charged us $50! (This should have been the first red flag) Upon inquiring about the charge, I was told the money would be given back if we rescheduled.From the time we entered the presentation, we were bombarded with lie after lie. We knew nothing about this product and were very hesitant. The rep’s prey on people like that. We reluctantly signed up for the “audition” program. After that, we booked a vacation and when we check in, a rep tells us we must go to yet another presentation or we would be FINED!!! After FIVE HOURS in this second meeting, we became full owners. Unfortunately, nothing they told us was true. There is no cancellation option like they said there was, and the points are useless when you can never get a reservation. If you do ever get one, there’s always a mandatory meeting where the reps push you into another upgrade.This is quite a scheme they have going. It should be illegal to do business the way they do. I sincerely hope that my story saves another person from the frustration my husband and I deal with constantly
Valarie De La Torre
Completely lied to
My wife and I went to a Welk presentation in Escondido in 2014. The presenter learned that I am a veteran and my wife, and I were both in school. She kept pushing the family narrative and made comments like, “How much would it mean to your children to have memories of amazing vacations”. Obviously, that would be fantastic, but we told the presenter that our finances and schedules would not allow for it. During the 4-hour presentation, we were sold on a dream. We were shown beautiful rooms and given false information.This membership was sold as in investment in real property rather than a timeshare. We were promised equity that would only increase so we could resell our “asset” or gift it to our children. None of that is true. There is no property, equity, or value. What’s worse was the promise of recovering our costs through renting the property out and being part of a buyback program. We thought that with those 2 options, we had a way to deal with things if it became a financial burden but those were just more lies!As if these things were not bad enough, we always have problems with availability. We went over 2 years without being able to reserve anything. We were never able to rent out points because the program didn’t exist! That was the major selling point. If we knew we could not offset the cost, we NEVER would have gone through with this! This has become a financial albatross.
Terrence V
My husband and I took a free 2-night…
My husband and I took a free 2-night -3-day vacation, as long as we sat through a presentation. We agreed that we would take the trip, but we wouldn’t be purchasing. This “short” presentation took 5 LONG HOURS of being pressured by multiple salespeople. Every time we said we couldn’t afford it; they came back with more affordable options. They got us excited about the real estate investment they were offering by feeding us lie after lie until we purchased. A few months later I inquired with our accountant about the real estate being claimed on our tax return and I was told that we couldn’t file it on our taxes as it is NOT real estate, which directly contradicts the sales pitch we sat through! Owner’s updates are only a ploy to get owners to buy more points. After declining the sales pitches at our last “owners update” our rep got visibly upset and left the table, and after he returned, he said we could leave but the free gift we were promised was no longer available to us. HOW PETTY IS THAT!?
Dennis Eley
Do Not Recommend
We were approached at the LA Beer Festival by booth workers, they offered us a complimentary round trip to Hawaii in exchange we would need to come to a timeshare presentation, so we agreed to attend. On the day of the presentation, we traveled from San Fernando Valley to Temecula, and we arrived early in the afternoon.The salesperson laid a deal in front of us showing us all the places we could go if we decided to take the deal in front of us. The more hesitant we looked the more the salesman talked. 8 HOURS of this man talking we were mentally exhausted we were ready to go so we accepted the offer. The salesman walked us to the room to sign paperwork and every time we looked hesitant to sign, he would make another pitch, he even ended up sitting in the room with us as if he were guarding the door, just in case we had second thoughts and changed our mind.Once the contracts were signed, we still felt uneasy and 6 DAYS LATER we tried to call and opt out of our contract and were told they would get back to us with the status of our app. The next day we got a voicemail stating our app was already processed and “closed” and we could not cancel. WE FOUND OUT LATER CA LAW PROVIDES 7 DAYS TO CANCEL A TIMESHARE CONTRACT! We were told we had 2 weeks if we changed our mind to cancel! This company is full of liars and cheats I would never recommend them to anyone!
Gabrielle Angeles
Misleading tactics and business
I do not understand how Welk Resorts gets away with this! The only way to sell a timeshare is to lie about it & that’s exactly what Welk did to us. My family found itself in a sales presentation back in 2015 and after a bunch of misinformation, false promises & undisclosed documents we bought into their scam. It has been worthless as we pay the fees but cannot ever book anything because of their infinite blackout dates. Looking back, I see the red flags that occurred during our presentation such as not letting us think it over and forcing us to decide “then & there”. We experienced buyer’s remorse immediately. Had they been honest with us about the legal cancellation period, we definitely would have taken advantage of it. To anyone who might find themselves in a Welk presentation, my advice is that you walk away. Do not believe their false promises. You are better off renting at a nightly rate, believe me it will save you thousands!
Jose Estrada
Welk Resorts
My brother and I attended a presentation with Welk (now Marriott) because we were offered discounted tickets to Branson attractions in exchange for our time. While we were led to believe that this would be about 90 minutes of our time. We were there for WELL over 3 hours! The entire time, their staff continued to push us into agreeing to make a purchase, even though we said no repeatedly. I was led to believe that this was a real estate investment that I could leave to my brother after I died. The pressure did not stop after this meeting! Their staff proceeded to call me relentlessly to attend another presentation. Every time, these meetings are just a guise to get me to upgrade into something that would be “more valuable”. They told me that I could rent out my weeks to cover my mortgage and that they would help me work with my bank for a better loan – none of which was true! Now they want me to give them referrals. Why would I knowingly put my friends and family in this situation??
Carol Rozier
While at a baseball game with my…
While at a baseball game with my husband, I was approached by a Welk rep who was offering a free stay in Las Vegas if we attended their presentation. At the presentation, I was told that this membership would give us the best and cheapest options available to vacation and that we could travel internationally at no additional cost. This all sounded amazing, especially given the champagne they were giving us! There is so much that the salespeople left out during the presentation that we did not learn until after the fact. For example, we were told that this was a tax write-off, yet we have never been able to do so. These employees have never been truthful with us and now that we are in this situation of their making, they will not help us resolve it! What kind of customer service is that?
Twila
Disappointment on this company
While at a street fair in San Diego, we spoke to a representative from Welk that was offering a ton of incentives for visiting one of their resorts. When we arrived at their Lake Tahoe resort, we were taken directly into a sales presentation where they started telling us about the amazing benefits of being Lawrence Welk owners. The sales staff led us to believe that we needed to make a decision before we left, so we accepted one of their offers, believing that this would allow us to fulfill our dreams of travelling the world. Since we returned home, we learned that nothing that they told us was true. We have been unable to make reservations as our membership did not qualify. We were never told that there were restrictions to these bookings! When we booked our alleged free cruise, there were so many out-of-pocket fees that it cost more than it would have been to just pay cash for the trip. To make it worse, this was cancelled due to COVID and it took about a year to get our money back! What kind of company is this??
Bertha L
**Please Don’t Be Taken Advantage Of**…
**Please Don’t Be Taken Advantage Of** Welk Resorts paints of very enticing picture of lush family vacations that are hassle free. However, this is NOT the case. They scam sign-ups for over paid vacations that require hours of frustrating phone calls and re planning rejected vacations over and over. Almost all vacations YOU choose are not available and the Bonus weeks are a false marketing strategy that ultimately you cannot use. Their tactic is to say if you just buy more, to the next level you will have the perfect vacation platform. It is a lie and they make millions off of it. The worst part is that once you sign up…your stuck and they know it.
Rebecca Lima
