My wife and I just got done with our Owner Tour/Update at the Strip property. Here is the summary of what they tried to sell us and also some interesting information the salesman told us. We worked with Ray who we really enjoyed and who was friendly, professional, and not at all pushy. We had only 1 issue which I'll discuss later.
1. Ray spent a lot of time explaining that owning at Kings' Land as we do is pointless because there is always availability so the only advantage of owning somewhere (the 12-month priority window) isn't worth anything. He even had me log into our HGVC account on his computer to show me how much availability there is right now for a summer 2015 week at Kings' Land.
2. Simply put, his proposal for us was to give HGVC our KL week (2BR, 7,000 points) and in exchange they would give us a week at the Sunrise Park City property worth 8,400 points. The MF's are 20% lower in Park City. So we would get 20% more points for 20% less MF. Not a bad deal.
While I agree with Ray that there generally is availability at KL, I value the priority booking window because of the complicated custody arrangement with my older daughter and I need to be able to plan way ahead and guarantee the dates I want. He then said "then how about more points at KL for the same MF." He was suggesting we move from the base 2BR to a plus or premier unit. I told him we didn't want a plus or premier unit because with our 2 young girls we actually want the ground floor unit so they can go out on the grass and play.
We then got to Ray's final pitch.
3. For $8,000 and giving back our KL week we would get 14,000 points and lower MF's.
That's where things derailed and the "issue" I mentioned above came into play.
We had a tight schedule today. Our appointment at HGVC was at 2:30 and we knew we were obligated to be there for 60 minutes in order to get our $200 Hilton certificate. We told Ray several times we were tight on time. However, twice during the meeting he went to get someone for information (their computers were down so he couldn't pull the current inventory) and both times took at least 10 minutes to come back. I think part of the delay was intentional to perhaps give my wife and I time to talk about things. But I found it unacceptable to leave us sitting there alone for over 20 minutes and ultimately have us leaving about 20 minutes later than intended. Not a big deal and as I said the only "issue" - but I didn't appreciate it. Otherwise we liked Ray quite a bit.
3........so Ray came back after disappearing for over 10 minutes (for the 2nd time) and said "you paid $40K for your KL week and your 7,000 points. We'll take that back and for $8K additional you'll have 14,000 points and lower MF's."
Unfortunately by now we were late and I was agitated so we said "no thanks, we need to go." He then grabbed the guy to walk us out and we left.
On the way out the guy walking us to the front offered the standard VIP "lock-in package" - 7,000 HGVC points which are good for 1 year for $1,700 and they lock-in the pricing/offer that Ray gave us today for 1 year. We declined the offer although it's a great offer for anyone actually considering buying direct from HGVC and it's the same offer we used when we bought our KL week.
Anyway, since we quickly left after the $8,000 offer I have no idea where we were actually going to own if we accepted the offer. I'm not sure where you can get 14,000 points AND have lower MF's then our current KL 2BR MF. At the end of the day paying $8,000 for 7,000 points and lower MF's is a good offer especially since it's direct from HGVC so the points would count towards Elite (which we already are and the extra points wouldn't get us to Elite Plus).
Other interesting comments from Ray:
Elara - Hilton was basically given the Elara property when it went into bankruptcy. They of course paid to update and such but they got the property for next to nothing.
Anderson - Hilton got the property VERY cheap from the developer who built it as residential condos and then when the economy tanked couldn't sell them so unloaded the property on HGVC.
Sunrise Park City - Same thing as Anderson.
Sunrise Park City - the MF's here are low because 1 of the 3 buildings that comprise the property are privately owned condos. So those owners share in the MF's which reduce the MF cost that HGVC has to pay.
Maui - New (refurbished) property will open in 2017 and Elite owners will have the first shot to buy.
Washington DC - HGVC is taking over a Doubletree and turning it into a HGVC resort.
Elite - I voiced my opinion to Ray about what I thought of the Elite program. I told him I'm happy to use the few perks but they were not worth the HUGE price difference of buying direct from HGVC vs. buying resale. He said HGVC was trying to do something nice for people who demonstrate their commitment (by virtue of having a lot of points). I said "HGVC created the Elite program to discourage resale purchases."
We are loving our stay at Elara and it's proximity to everyone. We are on the 26th floor and the view is amazing out towards PH, Caesars, Paris, Bally's and everything else. However, when we come back with our girls we'll stay at the Strip property as that is much more our style and family friendly.
1. Ray spent a lot of time explaining that owning at Kings' Land as we do is pointless because there is always availability so the only advantage of owning somewhere (the 12-month priority window) isn't worth anything. He even had me log into our HGVC account on his computer to show me how much availability there is right now for a summer 2015 week at Kings' Land.
2. Simply put, his proposal for us was to give HGVC our KL week (2BR, 7,000 points) and in exchange they would give us a week at the Sunrise Park City property worth 8,400 points. The MF's are 20% lower in Park City. So we would get 20% more points for 20% less MF. Not a bad deal.
While I agree with Ray that there generally is availability at KL, I value the priority booking window because of the complicated custody arrangement with my older daughter and I need to be able to plan way ahead and guarantee the dates I want. He then said "then how about more points at KL for the same MF." He was suggesting we move from the base 2BR to a plus or premier unit. I told him we didn't want a plus or premier unit because with our 2 young girls we actually want the ground floor unit so they can go out on the grass and play.
We then got to Ray's final pitch.
3. For $8,000 and giving back our KL week we would get 14,000 points and lower MF's.
That's where things derailed and the "issue" I mentioned above came into play.
We had a tight schedule today. Our appointment at HGVC was at 2:30 and we knew we were obligated to be there for 60 minutes in order to get our $200 Hilton certificate. We told Ray several times we were tight on time. However, twice during the meeting he went to get someone for information (their computers were down so he couldn't pull the current inventory) and both times took at least 10 minutes to come back. I think part of the delay was intentional to perhaps give my wife and I time to talk about things. But I found it unacceptable to leave us sitting there alone for over 20 minutes and ultimately have us leaving about 20 minutes later than intended. Not a big deal and as I said the only "issue" - but I didn't appreciate it. Otherwise we liked Ray quite a bit.
3........so Ray came back after disappearing for over 10 minutes (for the 2nd time) and said "you paid $40K for your KL week and your 7,000 points. We'll take that back and for $8K additional you'll have 14,000 points and lower MF's."
Unfortunately by now we were late and I was agitated so we said "no thanks, we need to go." He then grabbed the guy to walk us out and we left.
On the way out the guy walking us to the front offered the standard VIP "lock-in package" - 7,000 HGVC points which are good for 1 year for $1,700 and they lock-in the pricing/offer that Ray gave us today for 1 year. We declined the offer although it's a great offer for anyone actually considering buying direct from HGVC and it's the same offer we used when we bought our KL week.
Anyway, since we quickly left after the $8,000 offer I have no idea where we were actually going to own if we accepted the offer. I'm not sure where you can get 14,000 points AND have lower MF's then our current KL 2BR MF. At the end of the day paying $8,000 for 7,000 points and lower MF's is a good offer especially since it's direct from HGVC so the points would count towards Elite (which we already are and the extra points wouldn't get us to Elite Plus).
Other interesting comments from Ray:
Elara - Hilton was basically given the Elara property when it went into bankruptcy. They of course paid to update and such but they got the property for next to nothing.
Anderson - Hilton got the property VERY cheap from the developer who built it as residential condos and then when the economy tanked couldn't sell them so unloaded the property on HGVC.
Sunrise Park City - Same thing as Anderson.
Sunrise Park City - the MF's here are low because 1 of the 3 buildings that comprise the property are privately owned condos. So those owners share in the MF's which reduce the MF cost that HGVC has to pay.
Maui - New (refurbished) property will open in 2017 and Elite owners will have the first shot to buy.
Washington DC - HGVC is taking over a Doubletree and turning it into a HGVC resort.
Elite - I voiced my opinion to Ray about what I thought of the Elite program. I told him I'm happy to use the few perks but they were not worth the HUGE price difference of buying direct from HGVC vs. buying resale. He said HGVC was trying to do something nice for people who demonstrate their commitment (by virtue of having a lot of points). I said "HGVC created the Elite program to discourage resale purchases."
We are loving our stay at Elara and it's proximity to everyone. We are on the 26th floor and the view is amazing out towards PH, Caesars, Paris, Bally's and everything else. However, when we come back with our girls we'll stay at the Strip property as that is much more our style and family friendly.