Welk Resorts

Update***
Helen from the Welk resorts reached out to me shortly after I wrote my first review. I really appreciate her fast response trying to solve my concern. Finally, I got what they promised me. Thanks Helen for your response. Will share photos from Disneyland on July 11^th !

Thank you Helen for actually responding to this post after your help our membership was cancelled and refunded. Customer service needs to step up as every number I was given lead to an unanswered voice message. Shame it had to come to my post to get it resolved, I hate leaving bad reviews and it could have been prevented if someone would have taken care of our request two weeks prior. Thank you for your customer service glad to know you have ethics.

Great i loved it and thought it was entertaining. And you get gifts

Disappointed. We thought the room would be nicer for $ 451.00 for two nights.
My son is staying here and they have a lovely room, I expected the same. Very disappointing.
We have stayed here several times before over the years, when it was small and as it grew.
We came this time after a many years absence because my son and his family were staying her for a week.
We came for two nights.
I booked directly through the resort, which appeared to be the same price as on other booking sites.
I should have investigated more.
My sons one bedroom room is much larger than what we got. He had a beautiful bathroom, shower and large tub, nice kitchen.
We got a shower, no tub. Little kitchenette.
He got a large balcony with a view.
We got a small balcony with a view of the parking lot.
His room had a fan in the living area, we got zip.
The room is very out of date and needs upgrades.
I suppose the room size is not bad for a motel «suite», but it was advertised as a villa suite.
A small detail, but the ice maker does not work.
And the room next door is playing very loud music and there’s a lot of banging around.
I called to report it and they did get the music turned down, but never got back to me.
Won’t come back again unless I can get a better deal or a better room.
I guess we are spoiled, that last time we stayed in one of the condo villas here, it was lovely.
Make sure you know exactly what you are getting before you book.
You might get booked into an old room or a more upgraded one.
If you get the right room for the right price, it still could be a nice place to stay.

This place is garbage.
Overpriced, snobby, trash littered, kid overrun, far away from anything fun, worst resort you’ll ever waste your money on. Stay at the Best Western 10 minutes away and save some money for beer at some great breweries in the area.

Misleading, fooling around, keep pushing to sign. After about 4 hours of misleading marketing I said NO, I don’t like it. Then, I went to the front desk to receive what they promised ((2 adult Disneyland tickets+ 3 nights hotel accommodations)) before I come to their SCAM presentation. Unfortunately, I got a MISLEADING voucher and I should redeem that through a SCAM shop called ((Holiday Travel Of America)).
((Welk Resort & Holiday Travel of America)) are affiliated, OR MAY BE ONE OWNER, to mislead their customers.
Two options are available if you go to their presentation: either you buy their Misleading points or you will NOT get what they promised you ((either Disneyland tickets, Hawaii flights, a lot of other lies, etc))
I am trying to redeem my vouchers (Two Disneyland Tickets only+ 3 nights hotel) since November 2015. Since 8 months I chose different dates (Weekdays and weekends since I am living here in San Diego). I paid a mandatory tax in order to be able to select dates. Every time they declined the reservation because THE ACCOMMODATIONS ARE NOT AVAILABLE
FOR THE SELECTED DATES …
In order to select another date, you should notify them 60 days in advance to keep GAMBLING with them.
I waisted my time going to their office, listening to the presentation, tax payment, hours of phone calls and NO result.
To sum it up, finally they will push you to be frustrated and to request your tax refund and you are gonna be the only loser.

Horrible, HORRIBLE. Initially we went because of the perk of sitting through a 90 minute promo with the promise of a 2 nite stay in Hawaii. After about 5 hours, we decided we didn’t care to buy into the resort for aprx. $ 30,000.
So next they took us to another room to get our initial money back which we paid to reserve our tour spot for the promo. Then we were told we could have a 2 year temp. membership with a whole list of perks. including the Hawaii trip.(which by the way we were told it would take up to 45 days to get a date for the trip but to be persistent). SCAM!
We called Holiday travel in Carlsbad and sent the paperwork in as scheduled, 45 days later we were told the couldn’t give us a date, to allow another 45 days or «we have a better deal for you».SCAM! They promised us special pricing for hotel stays plus $ 500.00 in dinner credit. SCAM! What we got in the mail was a Entertainment coupon book of buy one get one free:.What a joke. Then the hotel stays were not free either, you have to book and pay for a week to get any time away. SCAM!
PART 2! We had one day at the Welk Resort left and they notified us to offer us a 2^nd day if we did a updated 90 minute tour. So it was my birthday so we though… sure. HORRIBLE! Initial visit a year or so ago was a beautiful 2 bedroom suite. this time a one bedroom dungeon. It was in a lower level, down 2 flights of stairs and very dark at the bottom of the stairs. The room was UGLY! scratches on the furniture, scratches on the woodwork, cheap furniture that didn’t match. Very uncomfortable sofa bed, and mattress in the room wasn’t comfortable either. What a joke! They changed our room from the dungeon, but it was the identical type of room, UGLY! We did the 90 minute promo that turned out to be almost 3 hours.
When my husband questioned them about the sales tactics, they became uncomfortable. He told them we don’t trust them, and that they didn’t keep their word because we never got the hawaii trip. WELL, the big guns came out to smooth things out. We paid $ 999.00 for this 2 year temp membership at the welk resort. This guy comes out and tell us how sorry he is about what happened to us and how he wants to make it right. He even agreed we stayed 3 nights which equals about $ 333.00 a night, but to get it right he wanted us to give them $ 2300.00 instead of the usual $ 2500.00 for another 2 yr. temp membership. What a joke, we told him no way. He never made any attempts to refund us any of the $ 999.00 we paid and actually only had 3 nights stay + the one free night in the dungeon. BUYER BE-​WARE! We never want to deal with these shysters again!

Overall a Pretty Good Place!
Over our 1 week family vacation at end of October-​November, we stayed at Welks San Diego and had a satisfying stay.
Even though there is an area where the sales people are for the timeshare, they are not pushy. They simply let you know that there is a tour. So check-​in was nice and easy.
The grounds are clean and well kept. Multiple pools, 2 beautiful golf courses, recreation areas and most of all the beautiful views of the SoCal mountains.
Our 1 bedroom unit was renovated and very comfortable. Only one minor complaint I have — there was trash outside our pathway that was left out for two days.
The resort is about 15 – 20 minutes from Legoland, Safari Zoo, about 40 minutes to Coronado island/​San Diego and we even drove to Disneyland and that’s about an 1 hour and ½ drive. Not bad. We will definitely consider staying here again on our next trip down.
Here’s a little drive-​through tour I shot during our vacation. Hope it helps:

Welk Resort Representative, Ms. Helen Denton, has since reached out to us in efforts to counterbalance our less than pleasant experience. The actions and efforts put forth to research and remedy were welcomed and greatly appreciated. Ms. Denton, thank you for your professionalism and diligence. We feel very confident that any issues that we experienced were resolved. We look forward to re-​taking the tour in the future.

Let me just start by saying I absolutely love this place. The house cleaning department needs some major improvement. I did not complain at all in regards to the lack of house keeping this trip. I was very happy to get an early check-​in after making the long drive early a.m. I planned this mini vaca 2 months in advance. I booked a Cabana by the pool make sure you tip out the waiter & bartender separate. Also, we got to the Cabana at 1:30pm they shut down service at 4pm, but are open until 7pm. Confusing if you are not properly informed prior to booking & arrival. I will always return as long as they will welcome us the grounds are lovely. My children enjoy the pools & water fun! They have several water slides and water splash play areas for small children. The restaurant takes a very long time to bring your order. The lady forgot one of our appetizers, but I did not complain. When the food finally arrived it was good, but not great it could have been better. Overall I stay here several times a year it is a wonderful place to visit.

Great job !
Just was not for me

Stayed here with the family for 3 days and 4 nights and overall we had a good time. Lots of activities for the kids and the pools and water slides were great. The canyon grill was very good we enjoyed the buffet. This is by far a luxury resort and there were some minor issues. We checked in on Monday and did not get any kind of room cleaning until Thursday. I had to eventually track down a dumpster and take out our own trash! This is the last thing I want to do while vacationing. The other issue we had was that we were locked out of the room in several occasions due to a faulty lock. On one instance I had to wait over 45 minutes for someone to come look at it. Although it was fun, I would not pay to stay here again.

Thank you Helen for personally reaching out to me and making sure that my concerns have been addressed accordingly! I still feel the same way about out my original review as far as my experience, but again things like these aren’t for everyone. I am just really glad that at least Welk has really good management!

I was only introduced to this resort by a lady who approached my boyfriend and I at the San Diego County Fair. She was a very nice lady, and asked us if we’ve ever heard of Welk Resorts. She gave us a rundown of what to do, and promised that we didn’t have to buy anything in order to receive our free gifts, though we did have to stay the full 2-​hr presentation. Keep in mind, we chose the paid airfare and two nights free for Hawaii, two free tickets to Six Flags, and a Harbor cruise. At first, it sounded too good to be true; we could’ve received more because of what the lady offered us, but I wanted to make sure this was legitimate.
Once we got to the resort, my boyfriend and I dreaded the fact that we read the reviews on Unilocal ahead of time — seeing that people said the salesperson can be pushy, rude, and you waste your time and walk out with no gifts. My mindset was that we’re only here for the free gifts, but I wanted to stay to listen for informational purposes and of course, be respectful to our sales representative. We were very lucky that we got Nick as our sales representative, who was kind to us even though we were a little late to our appointment. We started off in the «negotiation room» to discuss our vacation ideals, dreams, and goals. Before we started talking about everything, he went over that he doesn’t expect for us to walk out as «Welk Owners» and no matter what our decision was today, we would still receive our free gifts as promised. We both felt that we were making an epic connection with Nick because he could relate to us by his career choice of following his dreams. He remained friendly and respectful the entire time, continued to speak to us about making the time management and money to follow our dreams, then proceeded to give us the tour. To be honest, I could see why it takes a long time to be seated with the representative because we spent most of our time speaking to Nick about our lives.
I want to give a review apart from the free gifts, because Welk Resorts doesn’t get enough recognition for how beautiful it is inside. Even though my boyfriend & I fully agreed to say ‘no’, we didn’t mind the little detour. It was pretty much a little town in a 900-​acre lot. We were blown away by the villas and suites and how the designs can vary depending on the different countries Welk is located in. Once we came back, we were talking numbers. Both my partner and I are working in the medical field, so we received a VIP advantage and discount. In the end, a timeshare price for paying every year would be $ 9,999. Still a big number for us to commit to, so I respectively declined the offer and said this was not the right time for us to commit. Nick, and another representative that came in, were becoming a bit pushy at this point because they «assumed» we had the money, but that wasn’t the case. He might’ve pushed a little buttons just to get us to buy, but I mean, they’re trying to sell. In the end, we thanked him for his time and let him know we gained so much from his presentation.
We departed ways from here, went into another room for the rewards, and took a survey of our overall experience. I’m sure my heart dropped when I saw the lady give us our pamphlet of… You guessed it, ALL of our free gifts. The hidden catch with the Hawaii trip is that you do need to deposit $ 75 each person and it’s only Tuesday-​Thursday that you can use it. I wouldn’t complain saying it’s free. Depends on how patient you are with time, because we did spend a total of 3 ½ hours there. The Welk Resort is 15 minutes from where we were, so it was not out of the way.
Regardless if we got this trip or not, we were planning a Hawaii trip anyways, so this is beneficial ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Update**
Helen from welk resorts reached out to me shortly after I wrote my initial review, she was very professional and courteous, she offered me a giftcard as a token of appreciation, I appreciate that as well, thank you Helen for the giftcard and for being friendly thru out the process, good to know there are good people willing to help out.

Unlike the other reviews, I actually had a pleasant timeshare experience here. My sales agent Alice was very sweet and respectful to us and our time. My total time from check in to check out was only 2 hours and 5 minutes… although I must admit, my husband and I are pretty experienced with timeshare presentations. I do feel like I got lucky with Alice though since I saw some jerky looking salesmen there but if you go in knowing that their job is to practically harass you for not buying, then you’ll be fine lol!
At the beginning of the presentation, she asked us about our previous timeshare presentation experiences and what some of the negative were. We were honest and told her that we hate how sales people start off really nice and personal, then they instantly switch and get really rude and make things uncomfortable as soon as you say no. We then made it clear that we were not interested in buying today. She advised us even though we’re not buying today, she’ll still go through the presentation to give us really good info about timeshares in case we do end up wanting to buy in the future. Surprisingly, she stayed nice the entire time and was never pushy.
What to expect:
1) Check in and wait 5 to 10 minutes for your sales agent
2) Get snacks (drinks, juices, bagels, muffins, cookies)
3) Go into the «negotiating room» to discuss your vacation habits and plans
4) Watch a 10 minute film about how great the Welk company is
5) Tour the facilities
6) Go back to negotiating room to discuss
7) meet with sales manager to negotiate
8) Say no! Lol
9)meet with customer service agent to talk about your experience today
10) Get your gifts!
The resort itself seems nice with great amenities. The final offer I got from the sales manager was $ 10k. I stuck to my guns and said not interested. He only made things uncomfortable for about a minute before he got up and told us to have a nice life. Not too bad considering the rest of the presentation was just friendly chatting with Alice.
They brought the last girl in to get our input on our experience today. I was still on defense mode and told her everyone was great but we’re just not interested in buying. She then kindly told me she’s not trying to sell me anything and just wanted my honest feedback on the service I received today. Caught me off guard but I happily gave her my feedback.
Overall, I had a good experience. Got some snacks, free wine tasting, Angels tickets, and a trip to Cabo. Not too bad for 2 hours work!

I went to an Angels game in Anaheim and associates for this company trapped my wife and I into signing up for a tour of this place. Foolishly we agreed to do so because they told us we could get a free weekend getaway to Catalina Island out of it.
I agree with all of the negative reviews about this place. The sales people at the resort were very pushy and tried to make you feel guilty for not buying their timeshares. The truth is I didn’t see the point in buying a timeshare in such a remote area of San Diego county where it’s not even that close to a beach.
Anyway, we didn’t end up purchasing a timeshare thank God, but we did get a free voucher for a one night stay at some hotel on Catalina Island. I tried to redeem the voucher and they were always booked up and the only available days were during the week when we had to work.
Bottomline, going down to the resort, taking the tour, and listening to the sales person’s pitch was a waste of time. For anybody reading this review, don’t get trapped by these people at a baseball game or any malls in your local area.

UPDATE: Welk contacted me after posting this review and rectified the situation, therefore I am updating my review to 4*.
High pressure sales tactics. This company is a joke and has about the worst customer service I’ve experienced — they really don’t care. They convinced me and my wife to do a tour in exchange for disneyland tickets and hotel and were assured that we’d be given the tickets after completion of the tour. Cool. Well — we made a purchase during the tour but did NOT receive the hotel or disneyland tickets and were told to call another company about it on Monday. We called the company. They mailed us a form to complete. We completed and mailed a form. They mailed a form back to us with a request for pre-​payment of $ 75 in taxes. We made that payment (by mail of course) and included a completed form. Now, when we want to use the tickets and hotel, we learn that we must book at least 6-​weeks in advance.
My wife just called — «NOTHING available» until the end of August (3 months from now).
All along the way, this company has been extremely rude to top it off.

My wife and I have been Welk Owners for over 10 years and upgraded our membership to Platinum Premium last August. We are here again staying in a large one bedroom unit at Villa on the Greens that overlooks the golf course, we are also right next to the Boulder Pool that is a very nice pool, if you have kids it is a great place to come. There is also a new upgraded adult only pool that has a state of the art fitness center, spa and sauna also.
Over the years we have stayed at all the different units including Mountain Resorts, the Villas which were the original two bedrooms units that are all upgraded, as well as several times in the Villas on the Greens. As well Tahoe, and we have our Cabo unit for next year in Welk’s Rental program. In addition for the last 2 years we have been able to trade a small one bedroom unit at the Welk for Maui beachfront through Interval International in November.
The staff here are always very nice and there is always a lot going on. Be prepared, Welk is always building and expanding, and they will always hit you up at the front desk for either a tour or if you are a member an owners review, you can say no to them, if you accept one of their free gifts be prepared for a sale pitch about 90 min one on one. Somebody has to sell and somebody has to buy, we have enjoyed our time at the Welk and would recommend it, but timeshares are not for everyone.

It’s really unfair to rate this place on a two night stay. But I’d rather stay in Palm Springs if staying local… or Mexico if leaping out of the country.
its nice if you’re interested in staying within mountainous areas. They certainly have lots of amenities that you can take advantage of. For me I would prefer a beach resort.

I did my research and watched You Tube videos of the room before picking this place for our honeymoon. It looked like a great value from everything I found.
When we finally arrived I went to check in. The desk guy was very friendly and said I would need to get a parking pass from this other desk. This is where it starts to unwind, the concierge lady immediately started her spill by offering two tickets to the zoo. I thought great, maybe it’s a wedding gift. Oh but she said I would need to take a two hour tour of the property. Is this Gilligan’s Island? So I was confused, for me to get the tickets I would need to go on a tour? She then explains it for the Time Share. I didn’t see this on the website or come across it with my research. So I told her I couldn’t make the tour and would just purchase the tickets. This looks like it upset her.
So we checked in on a Tuesday and are leaving on Sat morning. Nice view, nice place but no one came to pick up dirty towels and replace with clean ones and we had to call the front for toilet paper. Not to mention the really try to push their Theater by calling and leaving messages. We also had to sleep on bloody sheets. Gross! I know blood stains and they are unable to come out but why would you put bloody sheets on a bed at a nice resort? All in all the place is nice and a great value of you don’t mind traveling to eat or sight see.
Just a few things that went wrong and that could have made it a better trip. San Diego was nice and the Welk Resort was ok but it’s no place like home. So back to Texas we go!

Enjoyed the time we spent as a family, relaxing in the villa! Beautiful view and the villa was so comfortable… from the moment we entered! Every room felt cozy and so private!!! Washer/​dryer, all appliances, dishes ready for us to use!!! I would come back again and again!!!
Weekend away from work/home…couldn’t be any better!