Sedona Pines, Sedona, AZ

by Cary & Elaine Johnson
(Pelican rapids, MN)

My wife, Elaine, just before going into Sedona Pines for the timeshare presentation.

Sedona Pines! Hmmm! Where should we start with this resort? Well, maybe when we were on our timeshare vacation to Sedona Summit in Sedona in the summer of 2007.

It all started when my wife and I were visiting with my brother at his Dairy Queen in Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona. My wife saw the tourist information booth just outside the Dairy Queen. She wanted to get some brochures of things to do while we were in the Sedona, AZ area. I said, "Honey, that's a timeshare OPC booth," meaning it's staffed with timeshare representatives who get paid to direct you to a particular resort.
Well, the booth was staffed with a very nice woman who gave my wife the pitch to go see Sedona Pines. Well, my wife told me that the gift for taking the tour would be a helicopter ride over the Sedona, AZ area. Now, I was listening since we had never been on a helicopter. Now that was an incentive that would make the presentation worthwhile. So, we forked over the $20, refundable, when we arrived for our tour.
When we arrived, the parking lot was full. Wow!! Must be a lot of people here to take the tour. The check in went fine and we received our $20 back immediately. So, that was good.
We were soon introduced to a gracious and friendly saleslady. What surprised us, was with all the cars in the parking lot there were only about 10 couples in this large room. Hmmm!
Well, we got the standard timeshare sales pitch similar to what I have followed for years. In almost 4 years, the pitch had not changed. The salespeople were in the 40 to 70 age bracket, so that lent some credibility. We'd rather listen to someone who has been around the block a bit.
Now, Sedona Pines used to be a seasonal campground. The new owner came in years ago and decided to make it a timeshare resort. He completely changed the campground into a park model resort, selling each park model as a timeshare unit. It was attractively nicely laid out , and the units had all the amenities.
What shocked us was the price. $35,000 for one week ownership in a park model. Hmmm! This is an RCI affiliated resort and the price converts to points, which my wife and I really don't care for. I informed the salesperson that we had purchased over the Interent, a high demand week with II at The Village at Izaty's, a 5 star resort , for less than $3,000. She called in the sales manager who dropped the price to $18,000 sin 2001 since a customer had just upgraded; that unit was available at the 2001 price. Nope! we weren't interested.
Next, she offered to credit us the price of the Village at Izaty's week We could give the title to our Village at Izaty's week to them and they would credit us $6,500. The price was down to $12,500 Wow! What a deal. We rejected that offer and were shown the back door.
BUT- we did get the helicopter tickets and it was well worth the ride. So, folks, you have to decide if you want to give up 90 minutes of your time on vacation for a really great helicopter ride.