While the hotel provided daily cleaning, fresh towels, and arranged sheets, the overall experience ruined my vacation.
We purchased discounted Universal Studios tickets through the hotel, only to find out they required us to attend a Holiday Inn Vacation Club presentation to get the tickets. When we asked to pay full price for the tickets and skip the presentation, the staff Victoria refused and pressured us to attend.
The presentation started at 8 AM and didn’t end until 12:30 PM, even though we made it clear we weren’t interested. We wasted half a day of our trip—time we should have spent at the park, which closed at 6 PM as our ticket is only for 2 park -1 Day. The $35 ticket discount wasn’t worth the frustration and lost time.
On top of that, the Vacation Club pitch is a scam. They claim their timeshare saves money, but when you do the math, it costs over $131,000 for two weeks of vacation per year, including interest and maintenance fees. Booking vacations on your own would cost less than half of that, with none of the headaches or restrictions.
This experience was disappointing and manipulative. As a loyal Gold member who regularly books hotels for my contractors, I’ll never trust Holiday Inn or their Vacation Club again. They ruined what should have been a special vacation.