Questions on VIP package and buying HGVC

[LindaJ]

I am not familiar with HGVC and went on a promotion to Las Vegas. I own at Carlsbad Seapointe (CSR) and I do know that some of the CSR owners have HGVC points. The representative said that it is advantageous to buy a small package at either Las Vegas or California and convert my CSR to HGVC. I was not really interested in buying anything more, but was intrigued by what the rep said. I told them I would not make a decision to buy anything that day, but I ended up purchasing the Vacation Introduction Package of 7000 points for $1,695. Unfortunately, no will power. The fine print in the purchase agreement says “This is a legally binding contract; no refund will be given in the event of cancellation.” I believe that I am stuck with the VIP trial membership and I plan to use it for Hawaii or New York. I’m hoping that you all can answer a couple of questions:
1. What are the advantages of converting to HGVC? Would it be lower maintenance fees than what I’m paying now (about $1100)?
2. If I really wanted to buy into HGVC, could I buy it on the resale market and then convert my points? The rep said that I would have to buy a small package from them and then convert the CSR units to HGVC points. Was she telling me the truth?
3. They also told me that HGVC was using their right of first refusal. Is that true for all levels of points? At what level might that not be true?
4. What’s the best strategy for getting reservations to Hawaii or New York? I have 18 months to use the 7000 points.
5. Would buying into HGVC make sense?

 

[itradehilton]

1. What are the advantages of converting to HGVC? Would it be lower maintenance fees than what I’m paying now (about $1100)?
2. If I really wanted to buy into HGVC, could I buy it on the resale market and then convert my points? The rep said that I would have to buy a small package from them and then convert the CSR units to HGVC points. Was she telling me the truth?
3. They also told me that HGVC was using their right of first refusal. Is that true for all levels of points? At what level might that not be true?
4. What’s the best strategy for getting reservations to Hawaii or New York? I have 18 months to use the 7000 points.
5. Would buying into HGVC make sense?

Answers

2. Buy resale, we used Judy K, she and another broker get mentioned a lot on TUG. HGVC has ROFR except at the Flamingo property.

3. Many property sales are completed resale. Don't convert though HGVC as you will pay too much.

4. New York is very difficult to get and has a very short club reservation window. It is much easier to get into Hawaii, book as soon as the reservation window opens.

5. We bought direct from HGVC originally, paid too much but learned how to use the system and never regretted buying. We did find TUG and saved buying resale later.

Continue your research to make sure you are informed first.

 

[tompalm]

7000 points for $1695 is not bad. You will probably get priority over others and get the timeshare you want when you want because they want you to think it is easy to get Hawaii and a great place to buy a Hilton timeshare. Traveling during Spring Break, Christmas or summer to Hawaii is the high demand period and that might be more difficult. But make your request and see what you can get. Oahu is also more difficult to get than the big island. Call them and let us know how it works out.

Once you are an owner, getting HGVC on Oahu during the period mention above will be very difficult. The big island is not to bad.

 

[onenotesamba]

We recently did the same presentation in Vegas and bought the same VIP package for the same price. I can't speak to the issues about converting points, but on some of the other questions:

The 7000 points can be used for up to a week of travel--meaning, you can't stretch out the points to do three long weekends, like you would with regular HGVC points. We thought the price was a little bit high for a week (which we could probably rent for a little cheaper, depending on location), but there are definitely ways to maximize the value. We've just used all the points to book a full week at Kings Land in a 2BR in August. We'll be traveling with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and their two kids, so getting a week's lodging in a 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen, washer and dryer at that price for six people seems like a pretty good deal.

I was really eager to book the trip, so I called them a couple of weeks after we got back from Vegas, and the VIP account hadn't been set up for us, yet. It will take about 21 business days (according to them, but for me, it took longer), before you'll actually be able to make your booking. As far as availability, I asked about the other Hawaii Properties--Grand Waikikian and Lagoon Tower--but they didn't have availability on the exact week I needed--because of our niece and nephew's school and sports schedule, there was really only one week that we could travel together, so we were pretty limited, but even before my account was set up, they checked availability for me, and told me it was wide open for mid-August at Kings Land.

One thing they didn't explicitly say to us at the developer presentation in Vegas is that you need to do another 90 minute presentation when you use your points. We really don't mind that--we can sit in a chair and say, "No, thank you" for a couple of hours, and based on our experience in the earlier presentation, the pressure was pretty low, especially once we mentioned that we were planning to buy in, but that we were planning to buy resale.

At our Vegas presentation, the three sales people (including the last guy who brought us the VIP package), said that Hilton always takes first refusal on re-sales. From hanging around here, I knew that wasn't true. If you poke around on TUG, you'll see pretty quickly that Hilton hasn't exercised on anything in several months. I've heard from a couple of reputable agents that they're exercising on high point packages (7K and up) at low MF properties. But no one around here has reported a unit being bought out from under them in a long time.

As for buying a small point package--if you decide to do that (and again, I don't know anything about converting your Seapointe to HGVC points, so I'm not commenting on that part of the strategy), you can definitely find small point packages at properties with low membership fees for a pittance, and I suspect that the consensus around here will be that HGVC won't likely exercise ROFR on it.

As for us, even before we take our Hawaii trip in August on the VIP points, we've decided that we know enough about HGVC (thanks, Tuggers!) to want to buy in, and we're waiting to close on a 4800 point 1 BR Sea World Platinum, which we got for about $2500. It's the third lowest membership fee for a 1 BR in the system (if I'm calculating that right), and the buy-in was low enough that we think it hits the sweet spot for low buy-in and low membership fee for us. We should hear about ROFR in a couple of days, and I'll report back, here, but in the meantime--it's definitely possible to get a small points package resale for a fraction of what the developer is pitching to you.

Lastly, there was someone around here who reported (and I can't remember who or which thread) that the HGVC sales people offered her about a zillion of these 'sampler packages' before she bought in. So, if you can stomach attending future sales pitches, and if you don't easily tire of saying "nope" for the occasional 90 minute stretch, you might be able to snag a couple more of these deals, before you decide to buy resale, if you're still on the fence.

Hope that helps!

 

[workshy]

Because you bought your VIP package from Carlsbad Seapointe, you also have access to Grand Pacific Internal Exchange. Two years ago, we were given options to book our VIP package on Hawaiian islands where there are no HGVC resorts (Maui, Kauai). We really enjoyed our stay at KBC in Maui.

 

[SmithOp]

Its only worth converting if you own a fixed summer week at Seapointe, they get the most HGVC points, and even then its probably cheaper to just buy a resale week that is already converted than pay developer prices.


Sent from my iPad Mini 4 using Tapatalk

 

[presley]

1. What are the advantages of converting to HGVC? Would it be lower maintenance fees than what I’m paying now (about $1100)? Your MFs for Seapointe will stay the same and you will have lots of more fees. You'll have a new MF for the new contract, $150./year HGVC fee and you will pay fees whenever you book a reservation unless it is your home week reservation. HGVC is a very expensive product to own and use.
2. If I really wanted to buy into HGVC, could I buy it on the resale market and then convert my points? The rep said that I would have to buy a small package from them and then convert the CSR units to HGVC points. Was she telling me the truth? The only one that I know of that will let you convert points after resale purchase is Bay Club in Hawaii. People buy that for $100. and then convert for a few hundred dollars and basically save over $15K dollars.
3. They also told me that HGVC was using their right of first refusal. Is that true for all levels of points? At what level might that not be true? It is true for some of the contracts. Many contracts are currently being sold resale for far less than they ever have.
4. What’s the best strategy for getting reservations to Hawaii or New York? I have 18 months to use the 7000 points. I don't know how those intro packages work. For normal owners, we book right at the 9 month window (the first chance we have to book it).
5. Would buying into HGVC make sense? Based on the limited information I have about you, I'd say no. Buying HGVC is only a good choice if you've been wanting to own there and you plan to use it a lot. It's a very expensive thing to own if you are going to trade it for something else.

My answers are in red.

If you really want HGVC, you can probably trade your Seapointe contract back to them for a HGVC one. Depending on what week you own, it could cost over $20K to do that. You could buy a small contract for $12K and they will convert your Seapointe, but then you will have 2 MFs to pay every year.

 

[LindaJ]

One thing they didn't explicitly say to us at the developer presentation in Vegas is that you need to do another 90 minute presentation when you use your points. We really don't mind that--we can sit in a chair and say, "No, thank you" for a couple of hours, and based on our experience in the earlier presentation, the pressure was pretty low, especially once we mentioned that we were planning to buy in, but that we were planning to buy resale.

At our Vegas presentation, the three sales people (including the last guy who brought us the VIP package), said that Hilton always takes first refusal on re-sales. From hanging around here, I knew that wasn't true. If you poke around on TUG, you'll see pretty quickly that Hilton hasn't exercised on anything in several months. I've heard from a couple of reputable agents that they're exercising on high point packages (7K and up) at low MF properties. But no one around here has reported a unit being bought out from under them in a long time.

As for buying a small point package--if you decide to do that (and again, I don't know anything about converting your Seapointe to HGVC points, so I'm not commenting on that part of the strategy), you can definitely find small point packages at properties with low membership fees for a pittance, and I suspect that the consensus around here will be that HGVC won't likely exercise ROFR on it.

As for us, even before we take our Hawaii trip in August on the VIP points, we've decided that we know enough about HGVC (thanks, Tuggers!) to want to buy in, and we're waiting to close on a 4800 point 1 BR Sea World Platinum, which we got for about $2500. It's the third lowest membership fee for a 1 BR in the system (if I'm calculating that right), and the buy-in was low enough that we think it hits the sweet spot for low buy-in and low membership fee for us. We should hear about ROFR in a couple of days, and I'll report back, here, but in the meantime--it's definitely possible to get a small points package resale for a fraction of what the developer is pitching to you.

Lastly, there was someone around here who reported (and I can't remember who or which thread) that the HGVC sales people offered her about a zillion of these 'sampler packages' before she bought in. So, if you can stomach attending future sales pitches, and if you don't easily tire of saying "nope" for the occasional 90 minute stretch, you might be able to snag a couple more of these deals, before you decide to buy resale, if you're still on the fence.

Hope that helps!

Yes, thanks much for letting me know about your experience.

I was told that I would have to attend another presentation at the first place we use our points. My e-mail confirmation mentioned that I would get a $200 Spend a Night on Us at any of their properties, ie, Doubletree, Homewood Suites, etc), but the certificate I ended up with is good only at a Hilton Hotel anywhere in the US. Did you get the same offer?

You said the 1-bedroom Sea World platinum is the third lowest membership fee for a 1 BR in the system (if I'm calculating that right). What are the lowest and second lowest?

 

[LindaJ]

Because you bought your VIP package from Carlsbad Seapointe, you also have access to Grand Pacific Internal Exchange. Two years ago, we were given options to book our VIP package on Hawaiian islands where there are no HGVC resorts (Maui, Kauai). We really enjoyed our stay at KBC in Maui.

I bought the VIP while at a presentation in Las Vegas. My VIP package did not have an option for California. It did have HGVCs in Orlando area, Las Vegas, New York, Hawaii, South Carolina, and Utah.

 

[LindaJ]

7000 points for $1695 is not bad. You will probably get priority over others and get the timeshare you want when you want because they want you to think it is easy to get Hawaii and a great place to buy a Hilton timeshare. Traveling during Spring Break, Christmas or summer to Hawaii is the high demand period and that might be more difficult. But make your request and see what you can get. Oahu is also more difficult to get than the big island. Call them and let us know how it works out.

Once you are an owner, getting HGVC on Oahu during the period mention above will be very difficult. The big island is not to bad.

That doesn't sound good. We like Honolulu.

 

[LindaJ]

Its only worth converting if you own a fixed summer week at Seapointe, they get the most HGVC points, and even then its probably cheaper to just buy a resale week that is already converted than pay developer prices.


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I do have a EOY 1 bedroom fixed Labor Day week (floor plan C) and also an annual 2BR floating. I've been thinking of selling the 1BR....hence, my contemplation of HGVC.

 

[LindaJ]

My answers are in red.

If you really want HGVC, you can probably trade your Seapointe contract back to them for a HGVC one. Depending on what week you own, it could cost over $20K to do that. You could buy a small contract for $12K and they will convert your Seapointe, but then you will have 2 MFs to pay every year.

I'm a little confused. If I buy a small contract and convert my Seapointe to HGVC, wouldn't it be combined and I would have one MF that might be less than if it was not combined?

 

[joeyb1180]

HGVC VIP program

The VIP for $1695 is not what it's all cracked up to be. I bought it last year when I didn't buy on the spot at the brand new Myrtle Beach Oceans 22 resort. They offer this to get you back there, when you go to book at your 9 month window, you have little to no flexibility. The allotment of rooms is minimal, not the same as any current owners, which makes sense but is not disclosed when they dangle it in front of you. If you are trying to book NY or Hawaii, you need to do this at the max 9 month and expect a headache.

 

[presley]

I'm a little confused. If I buy a small contract and convert my Seapointe to HGVC, wouldn't it be combined and I would have one MF that might be less than if it was not combined?

Nope. If you buy another contract, you will have 2 contracts. They will be listed under one HGVC membership and you'll only have to pay one $150. member fee, but you'll still have 2 MFs, 2 property taxes, 2 real estate deeds, etc.

The only way to get one contract is to trade in what you currently own towards a new purchase. Then, you will have one contract with one MF, one property tax, one deed and so on. You would not convert what you already have. You would trade it in for a new full freight purchase.

 

[onenotesamba]

Yes, thanks much for letting me know about your experience.

I was told that I would have to attend another presentation at the first place we use our points. My e-mail confirmation mentioned that I would get a $200 Spend a Night on Us at any of their properties, ie, Doubletree, Homewood Suites, etc), but the certificate I ended up with is good only at a Hilton Hotel anywhere in the US. Did you get the same offer?

You said the 1-bedroom Sea World platinum is the third lowest membership fee for a 1 BR in the system (if I'm calculating that right). What are the lowest and second lowest?

I did get the same offer. TUGgers warned me that if you wanted a particular brand for your $200 reimbursement voucher, that you'd have to ask that at the time they issued it. But I had a Hilton stay booked already, so the default was okay for me.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but in 2015, for 1 BR Platinum 4800 point packages the lowest membership fees are:
1) The Strip/Boulevard Location -- $570 in 2015
2) Paradise/Karen/Las Vegas Hilton -- $636
3) Sea World II -- $711 (There are two phases to Sea World, with different membership fees, but only II has 1 BR units.)
4) I-Drive/Tuscany Village -- $815
5) Flamingo -- $826
6) Park Soleil -- $829

I didn't track other locations, but I don't think South Carolina, Hawaii or other Florida properties are any cheaper than that.

For 2BR Platinum 7K packages, the order was a little different in 2015:

1) Strip -- $787
2) Paradise -- $888
3) Flamingo -- $909
4) Sea World II -- $996
5) Sea World I -- $1060
6) I-Drive -- $1163
7) Parc Soleil -- $1269

Hope that helps.

 

[mjack47]

Obviously experiences can vary. We bought the VIP trip on a free trip to NYC. Like others we felt it was a compromise instead of spending thousands under pressure. We ended up very happy with the experience. We booked 3 days in Honolulu and 4 on the Big Island. I felt we got our $1600 in value. Perhaps booking less than a week made availability better. So we got to experience both islands, had a year to consider instead of one day. We did have to sit thru a presentation but we stood firm and said no. Loved everything about the trip. Came home read lots of tugger, bought resale at the Bayclub. They do not use the right of first refusal there. Have been back once and are happy resale owners.

 

[EnjoyingHGV]

Same -- no regrets at all for the VIP purchase in Vegas, which I used for a 2BR premium room at Kings Land. Great week.