Similar to a few other posts I've seen here, we received a promotional mailer last summer inviting us to visit the Westin Vacation Club location in Cancun, Mexico for $299 for 4 nights, in exchange for attending a 90-minute presentation on the Marriott Vacation Club.

In short, yes we enjoyed several nights in Cancun at a very discounted rate and the sales presentation was relatively painless and did indeed only last 90 minutes. That said, we had a pretty lackluster experience at the property and I would likely not return to Cancun or a Vacation Club offer. I did want to share my thoughts on the experience though and I'm happy to answer any questions from users considering the same promotion.

Some brief caveats:

I (32) traveled with my wife (32) and our toddler (2). The room we were assigned to was a "studio" and had a very small queen-sized bed (likely a full), and a pull-out couch. I ended up sleeping on the pull-out couch and letting my wife sleep with our daughter.

We live in San Jose, CA, and regularly go to Puerto Vallarta or Cabo when we travel to Mexico. We had not been to Cancun before and I don't think I realized how Americanized the area is. There was nothing charming or authentically Mexican about Cancun like you find in PV or even Cabo.

The presentation:

Most of the presentation was setting up the pitch of how much "value" the Vacation Club membership could offer in comparison to our average yearly vacation expenses. The presenter kept prompting us to agree that spending $800/week each year for a vacation was a considerable deal, compared to how much the stay would cost at the typical room rate. There are many different properties offered, but the vast majority seemed to be located in the US, at locations I would consider to be best enjoyed by those who golf and watch Fox News (Arizona, Florida, South Carolina ... sense a theme here?). The program is based on how many annual points you buy into, the standard being 44,000 points which for $800-ish gets you a week's vacation at the majority of the properties, with a premium price demanded for locations such as Hawaii or the handful of Ritz Carlton properties.

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The Kicker

About an hour into presenting the program, we finally asked what this would actually cost. The presenter pulled out a laminated sheet detailing a roughly $24,000 one-time "membership initiation fee". We both literally laughed out loud and said that isn't feasible, and the presenter quickly started describing how many different promotions/deals they could offer to make that one-time fee more manageable. My wife described it as a sale at Bed Bath, and Beyond where they show you a super-inflated initial price, to make the sale price seem like such a great deal. In addition to our toddler starting to lose it, the presenter made it pretty easy for us to turn down the offer without much additional pressure or sales tactics.

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Closing Return Offer

They did bring in a closer/sales manager to ask us about our stay and feedback on the presentation so far. We complained about the small room not being a very good introduction to the property, in addition to the complicated format of the Vacation Club pricing. They offered us an "encore experience" of returning in the next 18 months to stay in the larger "one-bedroom villa" either at the same property in Cancun for $1,200 or in Cabo for $995. Neither option seemed very appealing so we passed on that as well. We did receive $75 of resort credit as a "reward" for completing the presentation.

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Conclusion

I don't think the average 20-40-year-old Bonvoy Elite member is the right demographic for the Vacation Club program. There are so many great hotels in the Marriott family, that it seems silly to lock yourself into staying at the limited number of properties included in the vacation club program, especially with the limited number of international destinations. Without being too ageist, it really does seem more geared towards older, wealthy retired people who enjoy having a very set routine where they can escape the cold weather once a year to vacation to the sunbelt. The initial cost seems very daunting, and I am sure some number crunching could show you what a great deal it is over the course of 15-20 years, but I couldn't see the value in the properties being offered to us.

The Westin Cancun property was good but not great. The layout is very extensive and we got lost a number of times trying to navigate from our room and back. The studio room was far too small for a family and it seemed pretty lame that they didn't offer a king-size bed as an option for us, especially if they are trying to "sell us" on having ongoing vacations here. From in-person experience and from the photos I've seen of other properties, they feel very sterile and outdated by about 20 years. Again, this hotel is probably perfectly fine for some people but given far-better nearby options like the JW Marriott, I wouldn't return to this property even if offered the discounted rate.