Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas Timeshare

As soon as we checked in, the staff at the front desk pressured us to attend a presentation. We declined several times with the 2nd front desk staff Luis, who gave us a $70 gift card (found out others who got $150 – such inconsistencies). Luis promised we would have no pressure to buy anything during our stay.

During our presentation, we were pressured. Met with three sales people. The first one Mary was friendly when we declined any timeshare purchases.

The second sales pitch came from supervisor Al, who provided us with some scare tactics (ie. “Vidanta will soon own all of Marriott’s vendors and even replace the Chase credit card with Starwood AmEx”); again we declined.

We were passed on to another person they called the “exit” staff, who gave us yet another sales pitch. Only difference was that this sales rep (don’t recall her name) was rude and very aggressive. She was impatient with us when we still declined. She shouted at us in front of others who could hear her say “What do you mean you can’t afford to buy this package?…” She briefly left us without explaining herself and came back, throwing a pink slip on our table, shouting “Follow me.” She ordered us to “Take that slip down the hall and give it to the staff or else you’ll have to pay back the $70 gift card we gave you.” … really? We were never treated this way by any staff representing Marriott – and we are Platinum Premiere members.

Altho’ the other staff workers (Housekeeping, Technician, Landscapers, Shuttle Drivers, etc.) were polite and professional, we are reluctant to return to this newly added Marriott brand (that recently merged from the SPG group).

This property had a motel feeling from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave. The pools were pleasant but really that was it for this resort. They checked us in to a not so pleasant room first then moved us next to “VIP” area with a better room.

Everything was worn hard and put away wet if you know what I mean. The rubber like duvet was creepy and kept me from sleeping well. We own a timeshare in the Vistana group and let me tell you we would NEVER have purchased one if they looked like this. And whats with the only food venue on this property is a fried fish shak?? And drinks in cheap plastic cups the size of shot glasses.

Nope and nope!

Oh yeah, hard timeshare sell here disguised as “Owner update”

As an 18 year owner I can honestly say this check in was horrendous. Reserved two villas neither was ready was ready when we arrived even though I did diamond lane check in and told them we would be arriving early since we had an early flight in from New Hampshire.

We then decided to go to lunch at Zimmies on the property 10 minutes later received a call saying one room was ready and the other would be ready in 30 minutes we proceeded to eat and an hour and a half later went to get our keys one room was ready and were told the other one would be ready in 10 minutes we then went grocery shopping at Walmart which took another 45 minutes we called and were told by the time we got back to Vistana our keys would be at the outside kiosk we got back in keys were not there went inside and were told it was still going to be another 10 minutes by now it was well past the normal check in time for trips to this resor.

We finally got our keys and arrived at the Villa to find three people still cleaning the kitchen which is well over five hours from the first time that we arrived, needless to say I will not be returning to this Vistana in the near future and I’m thinking of selling my timeshare arrived. was quite embarrassing since second villa was guests that had not been there before.

Customer relations did very little to appease me when I reported what happened.

Property is too spread out to go to the restaurants/bars on-site, the menu is limited and food is not that great. Marriott site should clearly state that this is a timeshare property and not a “hotel”.

Be ready to walk a lot to get an Uber if you want to go offsite.

We stayed here for a week in February of 2019 using our timeshare. We travelled as a family of four, with two young children aged five and under. I’ll start off by saying this is a large resort, and the grounds are beautiful and clearly well taken care of. The pools are nice and having a variety of options to choose from was also a nice thing to take advantage of. The resort is large – depending on where you are staying it could be a long walk to a pool. Our unit was fine – it was the older style that did not have the jacuzzi tub and had two single beds in the secondary room. I believe it was Courts building 12.

That about sums up the positives from my perspective. It seems like my experience was similar to some previous posters in terms of their experiences with service, staff, and accommodations.

We checked in and immediately asked if a high chair could be brought to our unit to accommodate our 19-month old daughter. They said they would bring one over right away. It did not show up on the second day, so we callled again. It did not show up on the third day, so we called again. I gave up after the third attempt.

We also did not have oven mitts (or pot holders) in our unit, and the vacuum cleaner did not work. We again called front desk and ask if these things could be resolved. Three phone calls later, and we gave up once again. We tested a theory and called front desk asking if we could have some information on timeshare and lo and behold, in less than 10 minutes we had someone knock on our front door. So, this sort of tells you what the focus is. We found the staff to be not unfriendly, but certainly not friendly or outgoing in any way – very little interactions took place between us and staff.

This resort is also not very family friendly in my opinion – they seem to cater to a specific group of people and families are not that group. There is a small splash pool and several small parks to entertain your tots, but in terms of resort-led activities or an entertainment team – it was next to nothing. I’m not expecting a resort to babysit my kids – but it would be nice for them to have activities to look forward to.

To sum it up – thankfully we had a great week of weather because we spent very little time inside but I won’t step foot back in that resort. There are so many other nicer options available in the area – and it fact we left one night early to stay at our favourite resort a short distance away. In my opinion their focus is on their bottom line, and not on their guests staying in the resort. They’ll bend over backwards if you attend a timeshare meeting but if you actually require assistance, you have to jump through a million hoops.

Travellers with young kids – you can do much better by staying elsewhere. You shouldn’t have to ask over and over again for basic services.