All You Need to Know About BookVIP.com

Jan 31, 2019
13 min read

Curios if BookVIP is right for you? After reading "All you need to know about BookVIP.com" you should have your answer; however, if you still have questions, please leave a comment below!

If you have a Facebook or Instagram account, I am going out on a limb here and guessing that you have seen an advertisement or two for BookVIP.com. If you are a curious traveler like me, then it is likely that you clicked on these ads in hopes to satisfy that curiosity. I mean, I have to give it to them; the advertised price tag certainly is appealing...a bit unbelievable, but appealing still.

Well, I am here to tell you that I took the plunge; I purchased and went on two trips through BookVIP.com and I am now ready to tell you all about my experiences; the purchase, the process, and the stay, etcetera, so to help you understand what you are signing up for when purchasing your own BookVIP.com vacation package.

If at the end of this post, you decide you would like to give BookVIP.com a try, you may use the link at the very bottom of the page or the link inserted in any of my photos below, to navigate to the site. I hope you find the following enjoyable and informative!

Click Here for Customer Testimonial!

1.) You should know that BookVIP.com is a legit company and not a scam.

This was my greatest fear when I was toying around with the idea of purchasing an all-inclusive vacation to Cancun, Mexico, my first vacation through BookVIP.com. For a couple of weeks, I continuously saw a colorful, eye-catching little advertisement for a Cancun vacation through BookVIP.com on Facebook and really wanted to click the link. However, I was so skeptical that I just avoided it as best I could. That is until one day when my curiosity was on overdrive and I just had to check it out.

The ad included a 5 nights and 6 days all-inclusive vacation package with airport pickup for 2 adults and 2 children (under the age of 12). This came at an astonishing low price of $349 total; not per person, TOTAL! I just knew that this was a scam. I just knew there had to be an additional monetary caveat. I just knew that I would purchase this trip and it would have either been a swindle or I would be tied into paying who knows how much more in additional costs when it was all said and done. The truth is that it was not a scam at all! In fact, it ended up being a spectacular and cheap vacation; one that I still hold great memories of almost two years later!

2.) I reviewed the crap out of BookVIP.com

Let’s rewind a little… I know I have already told you that BookVIP.com is not a scam; however, I want you to know that I did not just jump in willy-nilly; that’s just not my style! Sure, I can fly by the seat of my pants in certain cases but when it comes to vacation planning, I am all about that cheap travel and cheap travel typically takes a little more preparation and planning. I am also all about quality and doing business with companies that have good reputations. With that, my research side kicked in and in a single day, I read over one hundred BookVIP.com reviews (not an exaggeration; total truth). Do you know what I discovered? My findings were that the very large majority of reviews were positive! There were a few negative reviews; however, you cannot please everyone, right? Anyway, I liked what I read and the price would never be matched elsewhere, so I went for it! I purchased that 6 day trip to Cancun, Mexico and boy did my boyfriend and I have a fantastic time.

3.) Down Payment or Pay in Full

For all BookVIP.com vacations, you have the option to pay a down payment of $99 for international packages and $49 for domestic packages. Once the payment is finalized, you will receive a detailed email from BookVIP.com which outlines further instructions. Within this email, you will be instructed to call BookVIP.com (number provided in email) once you have decided on travel dates (my experience has been that you have 2 years to use your dates). Once you decide which date range works best for you, call BookVIP.com to confirm them. At this time you will finalize your payment.

You also have the option to pay upfront. What would be the point of paying upfront if you have the choice to hold off until you have specific dates, you ask? Well, typically, if you pay up front you are rewarded with gifts. We paid in full for our Montego Bay vacation (our second cheap trip purchased through BookVIP.com) and received a free 3 night stay at one of the BookVIP.com registered domestic location and a $100 credit for paying in full.

4.)Booking Your Dates

One misconception vacationers have about BookVIP.com is that they can always make your dates work. While reading reviews on BookVIP.com prior to purchasing our Cancun vacation, the few that were negative were centered on the displeasure of individuals who had dates in mind that did not work for the resort in which they would be visiting. This was likely because the dates they chose were too short notice and the select amount of rooms each resort that partners with BookVIP.com leaves open for BookVIP.com vacationers were already booked. This deserves an in-depth explanation, so let’s explore further.

As you may already know, BookVIP.com is a discount vacationing company that partners with time-share resorts to offer low cost vacation options to drive customer traffic to time-share destinations in hopes of selling them a world-wide time-share. BookVIP.com does all the marketing and advertising and initial organizing and scheduling for each vacation package purchased. They also assure that each purchaser fully qualifies for the promotion (more on this to come), then they pass the information onto the resort to finalize everything thereafter.

With the above said, when you purchase a vacation package through BookVIP.com, you should keep in mind that it is best to do so with the expectation that you have at least a few months to plan. Even if you specifically do not need planning time, if your hopeful travel dates have little to no wiggle room, you likely are going to want to give BookVIP.com as much notice to reserve your dates as possible.

WARNING! VERY IMPORTANT SECTION BELOW!

When you call BookVIP.com to confirm your dates, give them your preferred dates first; the agent you speak with will check the dates with the hotel and inform you if your preferred dates are available. If they are available, great, you are on your way! If not, then you will have to choose different dates. Again, the reason for this is not because BookVIP.com is a scamming company. It truly is because each resort only keeps a certain number of rooms available for time-share presentation groups and it is first come first serve. The rest of the rooms are reserved for regular paying travelers (these individuals paid a lot heftier of a price than you did, trust me) or current time-share owner.

So, what you should take away from this section is that just because the dates you prefer to travel on are not workable for the resort, does not mean that BookVIP.com ripped you off or 'would not honor your dates' (a statement I read in a few of the negative reviews). This just simply means that others beat you to the punch on scheduling their BookVIP.com purchased vacation. If that time-frame is important to you; check with the agent to see if checking in a few days earlier or later than your original choice works. The resort may be able to work something out. However, if not, you may chose to hang on to your package and use it later (remember, you have 2 years to use purchased packages) or request a refund.

My Experience: I have purchased three vacations and the first two, Cancun and Jamaica, I scheduled with no problem. The third, Hawaii, was a gift from BookVIP.com; all I paid for was the resort fee and upgrade to ocean view ($150). Upon scheduling the dates, I learned that the condominium removed themselves from the BookVIP.com resort list because they were remodeling and were not going to have available rooms for a long-duration. BookVIP.com gave me the option to transfer the money to another location with no additional cost but I just opted to get a full refund, which they gave me with no questions asked. I was satisfied with this.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT STATEMENT:

I would suggest not booking your flights until after you have your dates confirmed with BookVIP.com; just to make sure that everything aligns properly.

5.) Why am I getting this awesome deal? What is in it for BookVIP.com and the resort?

The prices on BookVIP.com advertise at 50% to 80% off regular price vacation packages purchased through the resort or other third party travel companies. This is a tactic used to entice travelers to click on the advertisement and purchase the vacation. What BookVIP.com is getting out of this purchase is a large percentage, if not the total percentage, of kickback from the purchase.

Why would the resort allow this? What are they getting out of it?

Those are two great questions! Well, they are getting the opportunity to sell you on the purchase of a time-share. The main reason the resort basically gives all inclusive stays away for free is because they are banking on their fantastic, and they truly are fantastic, sales individuals to close a deal. This deal, ends up making them far more money in the long-run, than a one week, one and done stay would.

Do not be fooled; you have an obligation in order to secure this super low price as well and it is your attendance at a time-share discussion that typically takes place the morning of your first full day at the resort (your second day). The time-share presentation lasts around 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how interested you appear.

What does the time-share presentation entail?

Wow! Another great question. During the time-share presentation, a customer service representative sits down with you for breakfast and goes over the basics of what you are about to experience and also discusses with you, your vacation history, the average amount you currently spend on vacation packages, and your future vacation goals.

After breakfast, your customer service representative will take you on a guided tour of the property/properties and share various resort related information. After the tour, you will be taken to a sales pitch room. This is where your customer service representative hands you off to the sales shark. I don’t use that term loosely; these sales individuals are really good! It is up to you to decide if their sales pitch is enticing enough for you to actually sign on the dotted line or not really up your alley and politely bolt! Keep in mind, however, that they do not typically take the first no; they will continue to offer you packages at a lower, and lower, and lower cost. Until, you either are at the very bottom and still saying "No" or decided, "Hey, I can do this! This actually is a pretty great deal!"

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:

You must attend the time-share presentation; if you skip it, you will be charged the regular rate for the room and the all-inclusive package. Attending the presentation is well worth it for the price.

I know I already said it; however, if you are in fact interested, keep in mind that the sales individuals always come down on the time-share cost...ALWAYS!

6.) What happens after the presentation?

I know exactly what you are thinking, “OK, so I did not accept their sales opportunity to become a time-share owner with their property. This must mean that they surely will find some way to charge me for something additional?" Or, "Because I did not become a 'Member,' they will definitely treat me poorly." Nope! Not at all. In fact, I did not accept the ownership opportunity for either of the vacations I went on that were purchased through BookVIP.com and I felt like I was treated like royalty all throughout both and never accrued an additional dime in expenses.

Now, although I had a great experience and never had to pay anything additional; I for sure thought that one or both of the two above things would definitely happen after we declined to purchase. However, I was completely incorrect! Honestly, not one employees behavior toward us changed. In fact, at each resort, we were treated with kindness and respect 24/7 and the customer service was top-notch continuously; it was almost as if we were part of their family, truly.

I remember still being weary after our presentation in Cancun. It was our first time-share experience and everything was going great with our resort; we had an ocean view room with a patio that walked out onto the beach. We had an all-inclusive meal and beverage package. The customer service had been impeccable. However, surely, the other shoe was going to drop at any moment. There is no way that we were going to get away with having such a fantastic vacation at such a small cost. And, yes, I said "get away with it" because that truly is what it felt like. The vacations we took totally seemed like we should have spent thousands on. The reality was that we spent under $400 total (not including flights) on our all-inclusive Cancun trip and under $650 total on our all-inclusive Jamaica trip!

The "other shoe" never did drop. We had a fantastic time in Cancun. The resort we stayed at, “Krystal Resort Cancun” is stunning in so many different ways and is in the absolute best location! We had a very similar experience in Montego Bay, Jamaica at Sunscape Cove Resort and Spa. We did not accept their time-share membership; however, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the staff was all incredibly friendly and helpful.

FUN STORY & PROOF OF VACATION SAVINGS:

On our first day in Jamaica, we met a wonderful couple from Canada; they only live just over an hour from my boyfriend and me and we actually still talk to them to this day. Anyway, while soaking up the Jamaican sun and sipping some celebratory libations with our new found friends, we got to chatting about our vacation packages. We discovered that our friendly Canadian friends purchased their Jamaican vacation through their travel agent and spent around $1600 each ($3200 total) for an all inclusive package and their flights. We, however, spent around $1600 total for our all inclusive package and our flights; that is half the cost of our new friends package.

7.) Possible Snags

About two months prior to our Cancun trip departure, I received a phone call from a BookVIP.com representative informing me of a minor snag. She informed me that our original resort decided to close half of the property for upgrades and they needed to change our resort to another one; which is actually how we ended up at Krystal Resort Cancun.

This ended up being a great blessing in my eyes. I later discovered that Krystal Resort Cancun is in a better location (right in the thick of all the great Cancun tourist activities), it is a newer resort, and there are more dining choices than our original resort. It was a ‘snag’ in terms of changes made to our trip itinerary but it was pretty much an unexpected but welcomed surprise !

Now, remember when I mentioned my Hawaii vacation gift above? Let me touch on that a bit more seems it was a snag in the end. See below.

I received a text message from BookVIP.com that I qualified for a 6 day vacation to Maui, Hawaii for 4 adults in a one bedroom condo and it would only cost me $99 (resort fee) out the door; however, I could upgrade to an ocean view for only $50; total trip package (less airfare), $149; of course I purchased it! That said, when I called BookVIP.com to confirm our dates (probably six months after purchase), they informed me that they currently are not partnering with that specific resort at the time due to the reason previously explained, but they could offer me a trip to Cancun with an all-inclusive package for no extra charge or a vacation to Orlando for no extra charge. I informed them that I did not want to go to either of these places at this time, as I recently just went to both, so they refunded my $149, no questions asked, which I found to be honorable.

There were zero snags in our Jamaica trip; everything went off without a hitch!

8.) Does everyone qualify for BookVIP.com packages?

There are a few different ways to qualify for a BookVIP.com vacation package. See below:

Cohabitating Couple: Both individuals must be 30 years of age and have a valid credit card (debit card does not count). Must show proof of cohabitation. You will be asked if you collectively make over $50,000 annually; however, I have never been asked to show proof of this.

- OR -

Female: 30 years of age, has a valid credit card (debit card does not count). You will be asked if you make over $50,000 annually; however, never have I been asked to show proof.

- OR -

Male: 35 years of age, has a valid credit card (debit card does not count).You will be asked if you collectively make over $50,000 annually; however, never have I been asked to show proof.

Conclusion:

In the end, the choice is yours as to how you want to go about your vacation. However, if you are looking for a great deal at a 4 Star or greater resort and a great experience to match (statement based solely on my experiences with BookVIP.com and the resorts I have stayed at) then I would give BookVIP.com a shot at pampering you and while also being gentle on your wallet.

If you are interested in hearing more about BookVIP.com or searching the different locations they partner with and deals they have, click on the image below to navigate to their site.

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Selfies are so last season; unless you have the right selfie stick! Just kidding, the "selfie" will never die; it crashed into our world like a hurricane and will stay for forever! You see, the selfie started off a bit slow, but after the concept picked up steam it slammed into society with a fury. The best way to take a selfie, however, is with the right selfie stick!

Many times I have been on vacation and only had the length of my arm to capture myself surrounded by something really great; however, my arms are often not long enough! Finally, I decided I would invest in a selfie stick. As cliche as it sounds, the selfie stick made a world of a difference; my vacation scrapbook never looked so great!

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