Welk ResortsReviews of welkresorts.com

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!!!

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.

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

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.

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!?

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!

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!

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??