WorldMark Kona — Hotel in Hawaii

WARNING TO MEMBERS!!!!!!!!||So….. Worldmark Owners….BE WARNED!!! CAUTION!!!! If you go to a yearly update meeting, and the sales rep AND the sales manager tells you that, “if you buy the Club Wyndham Discovery package, it will be considered a “qualifying event” to get you into the Worldmark Travel and Leisure”, THEY ARE MISLEADING YOU!!!!! IT IS ALL LIES! What they told us at Kona, Worldmark, in their sales office, is that “If you buy the Club Wyndham Discovery Package (for $4000), you will be in the Travel and Leisure and you will be getting your info about that sent to you in the fall of 2024.” We asked them to write it down and they replied, “I am telling you that this is a qualifying event and you don’t need to worry about that.” ||||Then the very next day, we went back to the same sales rep and sales manager and said, “we are very unsure about how this all works. And asked, again, if it is for sure a qualifying event that would allow us to use our Worldmark credits in the Travel and Leisure”. And again, the manager at Kona Worldmark Sales Office, said, “absolutely yes! It is a qualifying event to get you into Worldmark Travel and Leisure and you can use your Worldmark credits to access Travel and Leisure. And further said, “why are you so concerned about this? You need to just go enjoy the rest of your vacation!” ||||So we foolishly believed him. Fast forward a few months, to a phone call from some sales lady with Worldmark who called to try to sell us points/credits to get into Travel and Leisure. We argued that we are already in Travel and Leisure. She told us we are not. So we immediately contacted Kona Worldmark and basically got the run around. The sales manager never called us back. He told the sales rep to tell us that he sent this up the chain of command. So again, we waited. ||||And finally someone called to say they are working on our case. Well that was a month or so ago. Today, the investigator called and said, they are closing the case for “lack of evidence”!!!!!! WE ARE NOW GOING TO GET A LAWYER! There were 3 people that heard these words come out of that managers mouth. My husband and I and the Wyndham Sales Rep in the worldmark office in Kona. We have been long time members of Worldmark and This is not okay!!!! ||||After my husband asked the investigator from Wyndham, she said she didn’t even contact any of the employees to ask them about this! Her reason is because we didn’t get the Travel and Leisure qualifying event in writing. ||||We were 100% mislead!!!! We went back the 2nd day and they lied again to us! How in the hell is this our fault?????!!!!! Lawsuit coming! Have they done this to anyone else? I would love to hear from...

This was our first stay at the WorldMark Kona. It is the smallest WorldMark resort that we have stayed at. The "resort" is kind of an ugly brown box on Alii Drive with a second ugly brown box to the rear, about 1.5 to 2 miles south of downtown Kailua-Kona, on the other side of the street away from the ocean. Private houses block a view of the ocean. We had a ground floor two bedroom, two bathroom unit in the back building. A queen bed was in the master, with two twin beds in the second bedroom, and a comfortable Murphy queen bed in the entrance hall area. The bathrooms were pretty basic. Our unit was quiet with a deck overlooking the pool/spa area between the two buildings. Alii Drive is pretty busy and the units in the front building may get more noise. We could easily walk to a very rocky beach to watch the sunsets, but the nearest restaurants or bars (Huggo's and Don the Beachcomber) were a long walk away (just over a 1/2 mile away). Most of Alii Drive has no sidewalk, but sufficient shoulder area to walk on. You needed to drive the car to get to a decent beach or buy groceries. A new Safeway superstore is approximately 2 miles away and a large KTA is about 5 miles away. Everything in the unit was in good working order, although the air conditioners ran full blast (unless the sliding glass door to the patio was open) and we had difficulty figuring out how to turn them down. We saw nothing in the unit or the exterior that needed attention or repair. The BBQ area was convenient, just outside the pool/spa area between the two buildings. The three BBQs were cleaned regularly and always worked fine (we used one most evenings). The living room and each bedroom had modern flat screen televisions. Since we purchased our WorldMark points on the resale market there was a modest charge for WiFi service, which worked fine for both mobile telephones and our laptop computer. The number of parking spaces at the resort was sufficient for the number of guests, but most spaces are on the small side. The spaces are fine for a subcompact, but we had a full-sized vehicle and there were only two spaces in the rear parking area that were adequate for such a large vehicle. Overall, had a good stay and the relative lack of pressure to attend an "owners'...

The location itself was great — we could walk to a cluster of restaurants and the beach — but our stay was overshadowed by how we were treated by staff, particularly Jason.

On our first day, Jason told us that because our aunt was a member, we were entitled to special benefits. He spent about an hour helping us get two discounts on services we’d already booked, which we were genuinely grateful for… until later, when he used that time as leverage to guilt-trip us.

Near the end of our conversation, during checking while receiving a parking pass, he quickly and vaguely mentioned a “briefing” with a reward. Before I fully understood, he took $40 to “secure” our spot.

When we realized it was a long sales meeting — not how we wanted to spend the first morning of our honeymoon — we skipped it and accepted losing the $40. That afternoon, Jason called and aggressively chewed us out. He said his “managers were looking at him sideways,” reminded us how much time he’d spent, asked if we “didn’t want” our discounts, threatened to reverse them, and gaslighted us by denying he ever said the benefits came from our aunt’s membership. The call went in circles, with him berating and talking down to us until we gave in and agreed to attend the next day.

At the presentation, Frank also asked if we wanted to forfeit our discounts (it was clear we weren’t buying and were waiting to leave). We told him no — we had sat through their pitch and weren’t leaving without the rewards we were promised.

Between the bullying, guilt-tripping, manipulation, and gaslighting, this confirmed every negative stereotype about timeshares.

To top it off, the pillows were awful and uncomfortable. I also never had the experience of having to request new towels or linens ourselves - was a bit odd in that regard.

It was a terrible experience. Staff behavior made me cry during what should’ve been a more stress free time to celebrate our marriage. We won’t be returning and strongly urge management to address these high-pressure, unethical...