Recently rescinded offer now want to buy resale.

Johninsc · Aug 14, 2013

For once I was able to make a smart move and rescind the over priced package we were mislead into buying. Now I need some guidance on the right amount of points, platinum or gold season, location and any other great advice I can get.

A little about our selves, my wife and I have been married 16 years no kids and we take up to 4 vacations a year (work hard play harder) 3 of the 4 weeks we are wanting to be out of state. We do take our nice and nephew with us some times. We have always wanted to go to Hawaii. We don't really stay at one destination every year other than Key West.

1. What amount of points should we look for?
2. Does it matter where we buy (location)?
3. We were never explained the platinum/gold season in the sales process, so does that matter?
4. How do you go about buying resale?

Passepartout · Aug 14, 2013

Here ya go:

Here is a short list of TUG members who are respected brokers:

Fred Messreni (TUG user name FredM if you want to send him a pm)
www.timeshare-gallery.com

Seth Nock (TUG user name the same if you want to send him a pm)
www.sellingtimeshares.net

Judi Kozlowski (TUG user name the same if you want to send her a pm)
www.timeshareresalepros.com

Syed Sarmad (TUG user name Syed)
www.advantagevacation.com

List complements of DeniseM

Of course you can use the powerful TUG search function to search for thread that will cover any possible question you might have. I cannot imagine any timeshare related question that hasn't been asked multiple times

Jim

PassionForTravel · Aug 14, 2013

This thread will answer a lot of your questions and give you a good place to start.
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58716

The brokers Jim mentioned above are a good place to go to start. Another option is eBay but there you need to be careful.

Here's a link to the member guide.
http://www.2013clubprogram.com/

1. Only you can know how many points you will use. The member guide will help.
2. Yes and no. Some locations have lower (Vegas) MF than others. You home resort and season give you a booking advantage, the only place this matters is HHV.
3. With HGVC MF are based upon unit size not season. So a 2 bd gold would give you 5K credits, platinum would give you 7K for the same MF. Of course a 7K would cost more initially. In club season (9 months) you can book anywhere you have credits for, the only location which can be tricky is HHV.
4. See Jim's post ahead of mine.

The sticky above should answer alot of your questions.

Ian

presley · Aug 14, 2013

Is there a reason why you are only looking at HGVC? Based on your vacation needs, I can't tell if Hilton is the right fit for you.

Johninsc · Aug 14, 2013

presley said:
Is there a reason why you are only looking at HGVC? Based on your vacation needs, I can't tell if Hilton is the right fit for you.

From the sales process it looked to be the most flexible with RCI. Plus we like the Hilton brand.

presley · Aug 14, 2013

Johninsc said:
From the sales process it looked to be the most flexible with RCI. Plus we like the Hilton brand.

If you are thinking that you will be using RCI a lot, Worldmark is better. It costs a lot less to buy and the annual dues are a lot less. Also, if you ever book a vacation less than 60 days out, with Worldmark, you get a significant point cost reduction. Hilton doesn't give us a break at all. I think Hilton is the only company that doesn't offer a deal for the short notice exchanges.

I'm not trying to talk you out of Hilton. It is my favorite and I will choose a Hilton resort first, but there are not a lot of locations. Pretty much anytime that you trade your Hilton for something in RCI, you will be trading down, getting less quality while still paying top dollar for your Hilton. It isn't a good value for RCI.

Read through all the stickies regarding HGVC here. There is a lot to learn and consider. If you vacation 4 weeks per year, figure you need about 5000 hilton points per vacation. If you want the best units in prime time, you'll cut your vacation time in half with the same points.

Look at the other systems, too. There may be some that have the locations you are interested in. If you were to buy Worldmark, you would be affiliated with both RCI and II. That means you could join both and trade for the best in both systems.

PassionForTravel · Aug 14, 2013

The member guide lists the places where HGVC has resorts. If those locations match where you want to go then HGVC will be a good fit. HGVC is one of the most flexible out there and can provide great value.

While having the ability to do RCI trading is a great plus for the club, I agree with Presley that if you are going to use it primarily for RCI trading there are cheaper ways of doing that (since you are in SC I don't think Worldmark is that good of a match).

Ian

sennyk · Aug 14, 2013

Judi helped me

I am going to close on a 7000 point resale (Flamingo) any day now. Judi helped me. She spent a lot of time on the phone with me and helped to convince my wife that a resale isn't a scam. She also made sure that I rescinded in the proper manner. I live about an hour from Orlando; she is located in Orlando.

lizap · Aug 14, 2013

This is really a good point. I like Hilton, and most likely will purchase, but I am waiting until they expand their locations, which I understand they are in the process of doing.

presley said:
Is there a reason why you are only looking at HGVC? Based on your vacation needs, I can't tell if Hilton is the right fit for you.

SmithOp · Aug 14, 2013

I used to like HGVC a lot better but they have devalued the brand in my eyes, it's easier for someone trading into the new locations than an HGVC owner. If you are waiting for new locations then get a good RCI trader and pick up the developer deposits in April/May. Owner have to be elite to book in new locations early, and the RCI portal blocks you from seeing the developer deposits more than 9 months out. The recent HH points devaluation with no bump in the exchange rate leaves me with no reason to add more HGVC points. They punish you with fees for not using your points, and they reward you for using points early by paying mf later.

presley · Aug 14, 2013

To add to what SmithOP posted, if you don't own Hilton and are using RCI to trade into a hilton, you will have access to Hilton weeks before the Hilton owners.

Case in point, a few months ago, there were a lot of sightings for Hilton Hawaii. They were for further out than what Hilton allows owners to book. As an owner, I couldn't see any of the Hawaii weeks in RCI. That is annoying for 2 reasons. One, of course is that maybe I wanted one of those weeks for myself. It wasn't even an option for me because I have Hilton/RCI portal.

The other big reason why it was annoying is because of the math. Looking only at the 2 bedrooms in Lagoon Tower in Hawaii during summer, booking through hilton would cost 7000 - 9600 points for a week, depending on the room. If I booked through RCI, it would only cost me 4800 hilton points in any of those rooms. I'd have to pay $199 RCI fee, but I might be able to squeeze out 2 vacations for the same amount of points.

Just more food for thought. Timeshares are expensive. Make sure you know exactly what you are buying before you sign your life away.

johnf0614 · Aug 14, 2013

presley said:
To add to what SmithOP posted, if you don't own Hilton and are using RCI to trade into a hilton, you will have access to Hilton weeks before the Hilton owners.

Case in point, a few months ago, there were a lot of sightings for Hilton Hawaii. They were for further out than what Hilton allows owners to book. As an owner, I couldn't see any of the Hawaii weeks in RCI. That is annoying for 2 reasons. One, of course is that maybe I wanted one of those weeks for myself. It wasn't even an option for me because I have Hilton/RCI portal.

The other big reason why it was annoying is because of the math. Looking only at the 2 bedrooms in Lagoon Tower in Hawaii during summer, booking through hilton would cost 7000 - 9600 points for a week, depending on the room. If I booked through RCI, it would only cost me 4800 hilton points in any of those rooms. I'd have to pay $199 RCI fee, but I might be able to squeeze out 2 vacations for the same amount of points.

Just more food for thought. Timeshares are expensive. Make sure you know exactly what you are buying before you sign your life away.

Many DVC owners say the same thing, that its easier for outsiders to exchange into DVC resorts than DVC owners...

Bill4728 · Aug 14, 2013

Just a few short things about buying a HGVC TS

IMHO
-Buy a 2 bd platinum TS in either Vegas or Orlando. This will give you 7000 annual points for use in the 9 month "Club" booking window.
- Find the best price you can for that TS and don't worry about which resort has the lowest MFs since the lowest one this year may not be the lowest one in 3 years. (the MFs in all the resorts in vegas are pretty close and the same is true for Orlando)

PassionForTravel · Aug 14, 2013

Just to present the flip side of the coin to what Presley said. The weeks for Hawaii on RCI were only a subset of all weeks. I don't believe there were any in the summer so mostly shoulder. They were gone within 48 hours. They were for a whole week. They were mostly (if not all) 1 bedrooms (at HHV). They were for way in future (I picked up Thanksgiving 2014 with Worldmark through an ongoing request) in April 2013 so a full 18 months ahead of time.

Using the same analogy HHV with HGVC I can book less than a week (3 days or more). I see availability for most (not Christmas/New Year) at the 9 month point. I pick the type of unit I want (studio, 1 bd, 2 bd) and the view type (standard, plus, premium) to maximize either my point use or my view potential.

So both RCI with a trader and HGVC have their place, no one solution will get everything, that's why I've picked up a little in most systems.

Ian

rfc0001 · Aug 14, 2013

johnf0614 said:
Many DVC owners say the same thing, that its easier for outsiders to exchange into DVC resorts than DVC owners...

Well, unless you mean that literally (since DVC member can't exchange through RCI back into DVC), that's not really true...DVC always deposits into RCI inside the 7 mos window, so if you book at 7 mos you have access to all the resorts/unit types, save the concierge level at AKV which gets snatched up by owners, well before any go to RCI, and DVC only deposits excess inventory, so most likely the same resorts/unit types/dates are still available to DVC owners.

Conversely, what you don't get through RCI is choice in weeks/resort/duration. Sure, DVC scatters their deposits across resorts, but it's very sparse. I've traded into DVC 5 times, so I'm not saying it's impossible, but it took ultimate flexibility in dates/resorts to do so. Now that I'm a DVC member, we already have 3 vacations booked during prime times, at our first choice in resorts/room size, two of which are less than 7-day trips -- none of which would have been possible with RCI.

That said, to relate this back to the OP, own in the system, and in some cases in the exact resort you want to stay in most. That will give you access to book your home resort/room type at your home resort window (12 months for HGVC) and any date/resort/room type at your non-home window (9 months for HGVC). I'm not saying RCI exchanges aren't a great deal -- they are (e.g. we can get close to 3 DVC weeks in RCI for our 1 week in HGVC, and conversely get 4 HGVC weeks for our 2 weeks in DVC), but you can't rely on them to get what you want when you want (and when you want to book it). RCI exchanges require a lot of time, patience and flexibility -- great for frequent travelers, which this board mostly consists of, but not so great when you are a family that travels maybe once or twice a year, with availability limited to spring break, Christmas, and 2 summer months -- all prime time.

That said, buy HGVC if you plan on staying at actual HGVC resorts primarily. If not, there are better values and lower MFs if you plan on using it for trading into RCI. That said, HGVC is nice in that it has access to RCI Points and Weeks, and that in a pinch you can use your points for Hilton hotels (not great value, but better than loosing them -- the other alternative is depositing them for 2 additional years in RCI). If you do buy in HGVC, I recommend around 9600 pts minimum -- should be enough to book 1-2 bdrm most resorts most seasons, or enough for 2 2bdrm RCI exchanges.

PigsDad · Aug 14, 2013

lizap said:
This is really a good point. I like Hilton, and most likely will purchase, but I am waiting until they expand their locations, which I understand they are in the process of doing.

Hilton has been consistently expanding all the time. I have owned since 2006, and by my count they have added 11 resorts since I bought (just off the top of my head). IMO, that's a pretty decent expansion, especially giving the financial crisis in the middle of that time period.

Not sure what specifically you are waiting for, but I have been pleased with the rate of additional options Hilton has been giving us.

Kurt

johnf0614 · Aug 14, 2013

rfc0001 said:
Well, unless you mean that literally (since DVC member can't exchange through RCI back into DVC), that's not really true...DVC always deposits into RCI inside the 7 mos window, so if you book at 7 mos you have access to all the resorts/unit types, save the concierge level at AKV which gets snatched up by owners, well before any go to RCI, and DVC only deposits excess inventory, so most likely the same resorts/unit types/dates are still available to DVC owners.

Conversely, what you don't get through RCI is choice in weeks/resort/duration. Sure, DVC scatters their deposits across resorts, but it's very sparse. I've traded into DVC 5 times, so I'm not saying it's impossible, but it took ultimate flexibility in dates/resorts to do so. Now that I'm a DVC member, we already have 3 vacations booked during prime times, at our first choice in resorts/room size, two of which are less than 7-day trips -- none of which would have been possible with RCI.

That said, to relate this back to the OP, own in the system, and in some cases in the exact resort you want to stay in most. That will give you access to book your home resort/room type at your home resort window (12 months for HGVC) and any date/resort/room type at your non-home window (9 months for HGVC). I'm not saying RCI exchanges aren't a great deal -- they are (e.g. we can get close to 3 DVC weeks in RCI for our 1 week in HGVC, and conversely get 4 HGVC weeks for our 2 weeks in DVC), but you can't rely on them to get what you want when you want (and when you want to book it). RCI exchanges require a lot of time, patience and flexibility -- great for frequent travelers, which this board mostly consists of, but not so great when you are a family that travels maybe once or twice a year, with availability limited to spring break, Christmas, and 2 summer months -- all prime time.

That said, buy HGVC if you plan on staying at actual HGVC resorts primarily. If not, there are better values and lower MFs if you plan on using it for trading into RCI. That said, HGVC is nice in that it has access to RCI Points and Weeks, and that in a pinch you can use your points for Hilton hotels (not great value, but better than loosing them -- the other alternative is depositing them for 2 additional years in RCI). If you do buy in HGVC, I recommend around 9600 pts minimum -- should be enough to book 1-2 bdrm most resorts most seasons, or enough for 2 2bdrm RCI exchanges.

I've exchanged into DVC twice, both times at 11 months. I've known others did the same. Granted, it's not that consistent, but it does happen.

johnf0614 · Aug 14, 2013

PigsDad said:
Hilton has been consistently expanding all the time. I have owned since 2006, and by my count they have added 11 resorts since I bought (just off the top of my head). IMO, that's a pretty decent expansion, especially giving the financial crisis in the middle of that time period.

Not sure what specifically you are waiting for, but I have been pleased with the rate of additional options Hilton has been giving us.

Kurt

Agreed. I've been an owner since 2003, and pleansantly surprised at their expansion as well.

rfc0001 · Aug 14, 2013

johnf0614 said:
Agreed. I've been an owner since 2003, and pleansantly surprised at their expansion as well.

+1

The only thing they are sorely lacking is a Maui location (enough with Oahu already).

Some more domestic beach destinations would be nice as well, e.g. Hilton Head, although Myrtle Beach was a nice addition.

johnf0614 · Aug 14, 2013

rfc0001 said:
+1

The only thing they are sorely lacking is a Maui location (enough with Oahu already).

Some more domestic beach destinations would be nice as well, e.g. Hilton Head, although Myrtle Beach was a nice addition.

Absolutely. Maui would be awesome. Maybe something more in the Caribbean other than Mexico.

gnorth16 · Aug 15, 2013

I have mostly used HGVC points to trade into DVC and used my other RCI trader to trade into HGVC.... Go figure!!!

Recently rescinded offer now want to buy resale.

Johninsc

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

PassionForTravel

TUG Review Crew

presley

TUG Review Crew: Expert

Johninsc

presley

TUG Review Crew: Expert

PassionForTravel

TUG Review Crew

sennyk

lizap

SmithOp

TUG Review Crew

presley

TUG Review Crew: Expert

johnf0614

Bill4728

PassionForTravel

TUG Review Crew

rfc0001

PigsDad

johnf0614

johnf0614

rfc0001

johnf0614

gnorth16