T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
Great input.So if we’re comparing prices, expenses and clubs......
DRI’S THE Club management fee’s, a pure management fee was something like $545 the last year we were owners (2015). The more we owned, the higher the fee went.
With MVC (I know, it’s not HGVC so who cares), we own two 3 bedroom, one 2 bedroom plus 4250 trust points. The management fee to participate in their points program is currently $280. Single night reservations at 13 months, no exchange fees, no lock off fees, and no weeks exchange fees when using II and exchanging between MVC resorts. Polo Towers MF’s were equal to MVC’s Grand Chateau’s MF but, PT’s was putting only $100 towards cash reserves while GC was putting $400 towards cash reserves.
HGVC’s dues are, I believe $195 regardless of how many weeks you own. Members pay an ala carte fee structure so, if you use it, you pay for it. If you don’t, there’s nothing extra to pay. Their membership fee is mandatory. If memory serves me, as a deeded week owner with DRI, I could opt out of THE Club and not have to pay their membership fee. When we left DRI and deeded back our PoloTowers deeds, the MF’s were somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500. At that same time (2015) our HGVC MF’s at HGVC LV Blv was still under $1,000, and that included HGVC’s membership fee. There is no comparison between Polo Towers quality, both in resorts and units, and HGVC LV Blv.
The comparison led us to get rid of DRI while keeping HGVC and expanding our MVC ownership.
DRI had some advantages. Considerably more locations than HGVC and an easier to use internal exchange program. I find HGVC’s program somewhat restrictive. Having to wait 9 months is inconvenient for us. I preferred DRI’s 10 month window. Booking Hawaii with HGVC can be challenging to say the least. Booking deluxe units at DRI’s KBC was very easy. At the time I prefers that DRI exchange with II and not RCI (although that’s apparently changing now). In short, DRI had the better internal exchange program with great locations, but that price tag was horrible. DRI’s quality, while better than average, was still beneath HGVC’s quality.
Our reasons for leaving DRI and keeping HGVC and MVC was purely financial. I loved the program, it was just to expensive considering the quality and we’re we live. We live in the Midwest. If we had lived on the west coast and if we could fly affordably to Hawaii, we very well may have kept DRI and dumped HGVC. As it is, Hawaii is a good 12 to 18 hours of flying with a price tag of $1,200 to fly coach and $3,600 to fly first class. Since we used DRI primarily for Branson and Las Vegas with occasional trips to other drive to locations (Santa Fe, Colorado) or the less expensive flight to Phoenix, DRI just didn’t make sense for us at their price point. HGVC and MVC had us covered for less money and better quality.
So, if we’re going to have a wish list of what we’d like with this acquisition, I want to see HGVC’s management fee structure combined with DRI’s more flexible booking engine. Will that happen? Probably not. But I also don’t anticipate that HGVC will adopt DRI’s horrendous management fee structure. I’ll be happy if they keep both programs reasonably separate with the ability to book across brand lines so long as the cost is reasonable. MVC had an original “joiner fee” around $695 for deeded week owners participation i. The DC points program. I’d be content with something similar out of HGVC with a decent points overlay program (1 HGVC point = x number of DRI points).
I’m not nearly as anxious with HGVC’s management in charge as I would have been with DRI’s management team. The escalation in management/MF’s chased us from DRI several years ago. If DRI had been the management team in charge, I wouldn’t jump off a bridge....... yet, but I’d be looking at exit options just in case.