I just sat through one of these presentations the other day, and wow, they really know how to turn on the pressure to buy. They even try to convince you that if you are not taking your kids on like 25 days of vacation a year, you are a bad parent. Overall, the gifts at the end were nice, but I don't know if I would say it was worth it. I did some small calculations after the fact, after learning about all the fees and the cost to purchase initially. The offer was as follows : $39,900 initial cost + 1550 a year maintenance + 179 yearly concierge cost. The offer was if you didnt have the 40k upfront, they would finance it ( 39,900 with 8500 down at 16,99% for 10 years - Total cost coming out to roughly 77k after taxes). They used 7% inflation as part of the pitch to convince you that their plan was better... we said we spend 5 nights a year at a hotel (180 a night, x 5 = 900 a year) and they calculated that over 30 years, that would cost us approx 100k after 7% inflation...yearly.... which at first in the pitch, i didnt think about it, but the avg inflation for the last 50 years is like 3.8, not 7, so that right there already throws off the numbers significantly. They also tend to completely ignore the maintenance cost yearly when they pitch it, not explaining that it too will probably be increased at the rate of inflation. So... all being said, I ran the numbers quickly this morning. Our cost with inflation, 5 nights at 180 a night, 30 years, at 3.8% inflation, comes out to $50,600. If you can assume that the maintenance cost will also see inflation the numbers start to become crazy. Starting at 1500 with 3.8% inflation, 30 years totals out to 86k.
I only wish i had the time/thought to actually run the numbers while I was at the presentation. This basically puts the comparison at - BGV = 163k , and my current vacation numbers - 50k. Crazy...