Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort & Water Park

“Be aware of the initial kindness and soft sell by your assigned "Concierge"”

We are long term owners at Westgate. Branson Woods in Branson, MO is our "home" time share. This is the first time we visited Westgate Smoky Mountains. The facilities are awesome! Very impressive. Beautiful location with great panoramic views of the mountains. Almost 1,400 individual units and … more

We are long term owners at Westgate. Branson Woods in Branson, MO is our "home" time share. This is the first time we visited Westgate Smoky Mountains. The facilities are awesome! Very impressive. Beautiful location with great panoramic views of the mountains. Almost 1,400 individual units and more under construction. The rebuild from the devastating 2016 fires are truly remarkable. The enclosed Water Park is a fun addition. Very well staffed and maintained. Lots of water pleasure choices. With one exception (keep reading below) the staff was very kind, courteous and helpful. Unlike some of our home experiences in Branson, when we needed something for the unit, it was delivered in minutes and not hours ...or the next day. They are still budling and expanding. We were taken to the new 8000 building which has the traditional rustic cabin exteriors but modern, sleek, sterile interior with nice upgrades that will sure appeal to a lot of folks but not to us. We prefer the rustic cabin experience. The kitchen in our unit was well stocked except for a paid of tongs. I texted to the help desk and within minutes a really nice set arrived. Great service. The only upset was the assigned Concierge. You get one as soon as you check in. They are really the main sales staff and their main mission is to upsell you on more time share or the extra you pay for amenities. Being long term owners, we are very familiar with the soft smooth tactics. The young man was very nice and helpful during our check in process. He even mentioned since our planned guests could not join us, that he would do the paper work for us to keep the extra lock-off room for another time. All we had to do was meet with him Wednesday morning to sign the authorization. Fine. Thank you. Wednesday came and we got a very nice tour of the complex and ended up at the "Preview Center". We got the time worn lecture on how we can use the Interval Partners to safe and even make money. We listened very politely even though we had seen the Interval presentation and been bombarded over the years with text, phone calls and emails covering the same issues. Our mode of vacation travel is rarely to stay in one place. We love spending our week in Branson. Due to the now extreme crowds in the Great Smokey Mountains, we are not likely to ever travel back there. We made this very clear to this young Man. We have Diamond Loyalty status with our cruise line and get great deals better than Interval offers for us. Paper work was signed for the lock-off unit to still be available to us at another date. The young man had a "profile sheet" on us (no surprise there, folks) but I was surprised we got to see it. He noted we had contacted Corporate with an issue and asked me what that was about. I told him those issue were between me and Corporate. He pressed on undaunted and said "Maybe I can fix it". I looked him straight into his eyes and told him in a somewhat stern voice, "No! You cannot fix it". Now he was becoming even more disrespectful and pushed further asking for some examples! When I mentioned a couple, he started disputing what I told him and arguing. During this brief exchange, his Sales Manager came and sat down and introduced himself. He did not hear the total exchange. Just the very last seconds when I stood up and told them were were done! My chair fell over as I stood making a loud crash and drew attention from the room. The Sales Manager packed up his notebook and disappeared. The Young Man was all apologies. He truly did not understand just how disrespectful he had been. He offered to drive us back up the Mountain to our unit. I should have said no. The Sales Manger should have stayed and taken control and drove us back up so he would learn exactly what happened and why. On the way back to our unit, this now arrogant and unfiltered young man launched into a harangue as to how he had done nothing wrong. How I had embarrassed him in front of his Manger and accused us of being negative the whole excursion. I am reporting this incident to the CEO of Westgate. Time will tell if he cares enough to take appropriate action. These young sales people make six figure incomes selling you time shares.

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