Hilton Head Guest Services: Discount Tickets With a Timeshare Tour

• Sells: discounted activities, dining and getaway packages
• The catch: the deepest discounts need a 90-minute sales tour
• Tour for: Palmera Vacation Club
• Since: 2001
• Office: 1 Executive Park Rd, Suite B

Hilton Head Guest Services, which signs itself HHGS, has sold discounted activities, restaurant deals and vacation packages to visitors since 2001 from an office on Executive Park Road, on the south end of the island. Its concierges book things like bikes, dolphin and dinner cruises and parasailing, and bundle them into plans for a family's week. It is a real local business with a real office, and plenty of guests are happy with it. What it doesn't put up front is how the lowest prices are paid for.

Is Hilton Head Guest Services a Timeshare?

Not on its own, but it is the front door for one. HHGS works with Palmera Vacation Club, the points club behind Coral Sands, Island Links, Coral Reef, Port O’Call and Palmera Inn & Suites. The office calls its best rates VIP pricing. To get them, and to get its discounted getaway stays, you sit through a vacation-ownership presentation of about 90 minutes. Guests describe being taken to a Palmera property for the tour, and some of them joined a club there.

That is the trade. You give up half a vacation morning or afternoon and sit through a sales pitch, and in return you get cheaper tickets or a cheap stay. Some people are glad to make it. Just know it is a timeshare presentation before you agree, not a ticket counter with good prices.

What to Ask Before You Pay a Deposit

• Which prices need the tour? Ask which items are discounted with no presentation and which need one, and get the answer in writing.

• How long, really? The pitch is quoted at about 90 minutes. Allow for the drive, the property tour and the offers that follow a first no.

• Who qualifies? Offers like this usually set rules, such as a minimum age, a household income, or both partners attending. If you turn up and don’t qualify, ask whether you lose the deposit.

• What is refunded, and what else is due? Getaway packages take a deposit by phone. One couple was told their deposits would come back and then found taxes and fees due at check-in. Read the terms and conditions link in the confirmation email before you pay.

• When do the tickets arrive? Ask whether you get the discount before or after the tour, and whether the dates you want are held.

If You Go to the Presentation

You can say no, and you are still owed what you were promised for attending. A first offer is often followed by a smaller one when you decline. If you do buy, South Carolina lets you cancel a timeshare contract in writing within five days of signing; the contract gives the exact deadline. Our guide to timeshare sales-presentation deals covers what to check, and the Hilton Head timeshares page covers resale and renting a week instead of buying one.

Other Ways to Save on Hilton Head Activities

If you would rather keep the morning, most island tour operators sell direct. Our Hilton Head deals page collects where to find offers with no tour attached, and our things to do guide books dolphin cruises, kayaking and fishing trips straight with the operators.