We were almost lured into Club Astoria's Holiday Ownership

One Sunday in Boracay last year, my sister and I were strolling around station 2, when this guy, a representative from Astoria Hotel in Station 2 approached us.  He asked us if we're interested in taking a tour of Astoria Hotel and enjoy the free buffet. We just had our lunch but we don't really have much to do so we accepted the offer.

And in addition to that, after checking the place out we're going to be given out free gift certificate, good for two, for a 2 nights, 3 days stay at any Astoria Hotel and affiliate hotels of our choice, in exchange of listening to the 90-minute presentation.

We're not newbies when it comes to these disguised invitations. We just don't have anything planned out on that afternoon and we figured out why not check out the hotel for free?

So when we got there, there's this buffet with lunch and dessert and there we had our " sisterly business meeting"  while waiting for this guy who's assigned to assist us.

Just to need to show you the free dessert that we got. And because it's free and buffet, there's nothing special about it.

While we were waiting, little did we know, there's this lady who appears to be the manager and was already eyeing us from the bar. Like what her job tells her to do so, she had a little chit chat with us and started fishing out what do we do for a living. I can already tell from her questions that she is checking us out if we can actually pay or have the means to pay.

Then the guy, I forgot his name, finally came to us and we instantly hit it off. After talking for an hour, we were led into a room filled with other guests, like it was a cafeteria, and there they made an offer: To have a Holiday Ownership.

Now what is it exactly?
Because I don't want to blab about it and take too much of your time reading it, basically they offer you a membership to stay in their hotel and their affiliated hotel chains, making it look like you're getting it cheap. You get to stay with VIP treatment for a week, each year. And you pay for it on a membership rate, and you get to have discounts all year round.

They said it's more practical than buying a condo, because if you buy a condo its just on one location, but if you own a holiday, you have all the options and not tied down to one location.

The catch?
You still have to pay, can't stay/book during the peak seasons and it's membership is valid for 30 years.

The come on?
They said you can sell it, earn from it, and incorporate it with other business etc etc.

They also show you the room that you will get to stay. This is the Astoria Hotel Showroon in Boracay:

Yes, it's by the beach, located on the border of Station 2 and 1. 

Personally, it looks nice but it was not kid friendly because of the sharp edges around. 

The surprise?

The price is 500,000.00 for a 30 year membership.The mentioning of the price has been long avoided when the conversation started.

They have retention plans for you. If you opt not to get it, they can reduce the cost from 2 bedroom unit down to studio. They can even break it down to installment plans and you only get to pay for 3,400/monthly. They said that it's one time offer only and once we walk out the door, we cannot have the same offer again.

Not true. Because we got invited again the next day, which of course, we no longer went to.

One thing I remember, the guy who was selling the holiday ownership told us that he was actually surprised that we got to the part where we are interested in how much it costs. Meaning, he was surprised to find out that we are interested and might be able to afford it.

He made a mockery of his other so-called clients that went to the beach first to ask for a sign to go for it or not. My sister was actually willing to go for it , for it has a potential to be linked to her business, but she let me decide. I was the one who declined because:

1) I understood it perfectly but it was not clear what we're getting out of it.
2) They were pitching it that we can make money out of it, but it was not explained to us how.
3) It took us 2 agents to convince us to sign up, but I trusted my gut feel.
4) We're not really the pa-sosyal type to want that, and though we like travelling, we scrimp on accommodations and go for the adventures instead. ( I'm using pa-sosyal, because this is the sales pitch of the sales agent assigned to us. This is because one of the sales pitch of the guy was it would make us look and feel that we are in Class A, because we have a holiday ownership. Hay naku, I can actually make recommendations and refer people I know who would spend just to belong and look like they belong in Class A. But we're really not that kind.

I have never seen such hard working sales agents who were obviously disappointed when we declined the offer. In a nutshell, at first they judged us if we can actually pay, and when they found out that we're not delinquent payers, they were already hard selling the membership to us to make that sale. We did not lead them on, we were really interested about it, but I was more surprised when, after the experience and having drinks an hour later after declining the offer, that we were checked out to see if we can afford it.

The promise.

The meeting we had lasted for over 90 minutes and in exchange, we got free accommodation to either of these locations: Bohol, Boracay, Bali, Bangkok and a few more location. But the thing is, if we are going to avail of the free accommodation, we would pay security deposit of Php5,000.00, and book our flights within the said period (6 months) of the gift certificate.

We were initially planning to book a trip to Bangkok this month, but then we realized we'd rather save the money since we just fly with promo plane tickets.

It was actually a good experience although I researched about it when we got home. It was a business strategy and if you're easily swayed out of your senses and lure into the fantasy of travelling around the world  on a cheap price but VIP accommodation, you might give in.

It was "Mind Fuck", as my friend Eisen would say.

I have forgotten to blog about it, but because I had coffee yesterday with a family friend who just came back from his first trip to Boracay, I suddenly remembered to blog about it.

Some links that might be helpful:

• Club Astoria Holiday Ownership,Scam or Not?
• anyone familiar with club astoria holiday ownership?
• Club Astoria -Holiday Ownership Promo Marketing Experience

P.S.

I've been getting messages/inquiry/comments about this. Maybe it was different for others, for us, and perhaps had we gotten a better agent we could have had a different idea/impression/experience about the whole thing, but don't let this post influence you. I believe that my blog readers are smart so if you get an invite, check it out and see it for yourself.