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| - Stayed at Hilton Elara March 8-12, 2014 as part of a deal where we had to attend a Hilton timeshare presentation.
There are many nice things about this hotel. It's clean and the location is great. Many people have complained about having to show your room key just to get on the elevators. This is true. But I do understand it. As the hotel lobby is connected to the Miracle Mile Mall, the public can walk into it with no problem. This could lead to a flood of people just coming to use the hotel pool or maybe break into a room. Some of the "key guards" were more friendly than others, but I do understand the need for the security.
THE GOOD
Staff was generally friendly
Valet folks were great. (but $15/day)
Bed was very comfortable
Starbucks right on the premises
THE BAD
Internet: $10/day. (Free at most hotels I stay at)
No restaurant on premises (Go to the mall)
The room was a bit small for was we were told was a King Studio Suite.
Check out time is 10:00 AM. Isn't this Las Vegas?
The pool closes at 5:00 PM. And they mean 5:00 PM! It's a beautiful afternoon. The sun is shining, 70+ degrees and I'm sitting with my wife at the pool bar having a cocktail when at 5:00 PM sharp several badged security people enter the pool area. The guy that's closest to us looked like a body-guard for Tony Soprano. He was wearing a silver badge and had one of those ear-pieces with the coiled cord going down his neck and into his shirt. He stands by a table close to us and those people left NOW! He looks over at us and boy! we left too!. No lingering to finish your drink or conversation. Rules are rules and they cut you no slack. They have the muscle to enforce it too!
There is better toilet paper in most gas stations than there is in the rooms. You can actually see through it. I think this is a really stupid place to cut corners because it makes it seem that, well... they cut corners! Since I was visiting to check out the company that was going to try to sell me a timeshare, it just seems stupid to be cheap on such a basic item. I should have checked out the TP in the timeshare we toured... :-)
The timeshare presentation experience. They start out friendly and to tell the truth, I was fairly interested because of the Hilton name and the flexibility of their arrangement. I did, however, do my homework before I attended. I found an Elara timeshare for sale for $4.995 and found rentals for around $1500/week. I also found and printed out a dozen or so other prices on various Hilton timeshares. Once we got into the pricing part of the presentation, Victoria, our host, pulled out two sheets. I looked at the pricing and was stunned. One plan was for $65,000 and the other $52,100. (There are also yearly dues that you have to pay.) So I showed her what I had found. The first thing she said is "oh well, that's a scam. You have to be real careful on the Internet, you know"". I said, There are literally hundreds of these on eBay on other timeshare sales and rental sites. Are they all scams?" Then I said, "This one is for Elara. She says, "It's not a Hilton". I said, "What"? She said, "That's not a Hilton". I said, I'm staying there and it says Hilton right on the building! (She was trying to say that the deal that the seller was offering was probably from when the building was a Westgate timeshare and did not come with all of the Hilton "extras") She then grabbed the two pricing papers she had set on the table and put them back into her folder and said that she had to find someone to answer my question. She comes back with a gentleman and he and I chatted about the options. He was very straight forward and I appreciated that. I asked at two different times if I could see the two original price sheets she had pulled out. Alas, to no avail. Something to hide, I guess. And now the prices were coming down, and down, and down. Meanwhile, Victoria was looking incredibly bored. The gentleman did say that in our particular circumstance that renting could be a good option for us. When it became clear that we were not going to purchase, Victoria was visibly angry as she started putting her things back into her briefcase/folder. The gentleman got up and we shook hands. Victoria got up without a word and started to walk away. I turned around and offered her my hand which she then shook. They say that if you don't buy, a timeshare presentation will never end amicably. In this case, it was true and the experience kind of turned me off to Hilton in general. I do have one question for the timeshare people: If these are such great, incredible, wonderful deals, why do you have to try so hard to sell them? And why are so many people trying to sell the ones they already own? This is high-pressure sales. No thinking about it overnight. You either do it now or you don't do it. We had read about these presentations so I was a prepared and did not let it ruin our vacation.
Overall, there are probably better places with more amenities for the same mone
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