The Secret Reason Staff Are So Friendly At All-Inclusive Resorts (And How To Avoid Getting Scammed)

"That one may smile and smile and be a villain," Hamlet seethed in the Shakespeare play of the same name. Fewer sentiments could be truer to modernity's endless onslaught of smiling face-filled ads and manipulative sales techniques. And, if you're like us, the last place you want someone foisting unwanted garbage on you is when you're on vacation. This is especially true when you've already spent so much money on a perk-filled, all-inclusive resort that's supposed to provide you with everything that you need. Even there, a smiling employee might be softening you up for the kill — the upsell kill.

Sure, not all resort staff are villainously plotting to grift you. And, sure, you can be as cordial as you like — just don't be a sucker. There is a huge difference between an employee making a nice suggestion regarding a resort's services and, as one Tiktoker bemoaned of her trip to the Caribbean-based Sandals resorts: "You cannot take two steps without some member of staff trying to sell you something." She and her husband wound up evading staff like special ops forces on a stealth mission.

The sad truth is that upselling is a standard feature of hotels and resorts. An endless ream of online articles discuss precise upselling strategies like ads in your room (those laminated food and activity cards) and collaborations with other businesses, or advise tweaking strategies based on different hotel guest types and their needs, like families, couples, repeat customers, and health-and-wellness minded people. Meanwhile, hotel upsell tools like Oaky even celebrate (and recommend) their services, generating an extra $41 to $235 per guest per month via upselling. While there are lots of things guests can do to ward off such unwanted advances, ultimately you just need to stand your ground and say "No."

There's a good way to approach any and all smiling resort staff who start explaining about this or that service: assume it's an upsell. Leave your goodwill at the door (and your hard-earned money in your bank account) and don't believe that a for-profit business has anything else in mind but tapping you for cash. Try to keep this in mind if you feel bad about turning them down. Plus, some "all-inclusive" resort deals are anything but, and necessitate buying loads of extra stuff later. This puts guests in an intentionally tough position.

Beyond steeling yourself, you might also feel more assertive when dealing with staff if you peer into the mind of an upseller. Oaky, for instance, admits that it's hard to upsell at an all-inclusive resort, but advises pitching things that feel like a special experience rather than products. They also advise basing these pitches on metrics like exclusivity, convenience, and uniqueness.

Similarly, Operto, a hospitality management software, frames upselling as a chance to improve customer experience — like the resort is there to "rescue you." However, they still admit that upselling is all about money. Finally, Book4Time,  another management software, suggests no less than 18 different upselling techniques: while booking, during check-in, through package deals and add-ons, after folks use amenities like spas, and much more. Ultimately, though, customers can protect themselves from these techniques by digging into the details and asking pointed questions about fees and caveats not mentioned from the get-go. And of course, you can always say, "No, thank you."