• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Feedback on buying into HGV Max at retail?

B

b3n0b1

Guest
Joined
Sep 19, 2023
Messages
8
Reaction score
3
Hello, I could really use some help and understanding on if buying into HGV Max at retail is in anyway helpful. It seems the use case fits us a bit but the HGV Max prices seem high compared to what I’m reading here, even tho we can afford this without financing right now.

The what to buy new questions thread is here for those that are interested
https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/what-to-buy-hgv-max.356735/

The details would be around a 30k up front buy in we don’t need to finance. $2400 in maintenance. We travel about 3 times a year usually doing a family trip (3 of us, targeting Europe for a week), a trip to Asia to see family(usually Seoul), a trip where my wife spends some time with her family (can be Asia or Europe)

There’s possibility that we may want to occasionally meet some place central between the US and Asia (Hawaii maybe), or Asia itself or the west coast of the US.
It feels like the DEX system might be a good fit via max, but I have concerns of inventory availability tho we generally can be somewhat flexible of where we go for the family vacation and the wife + her family getaway
Any feedback would be very much appreciated since this seems potentially like a good fit or drastically overpriced from an upfront perspective

Many thanks in advance
 
You want DRI/HVC versus HGVC so I would post this to that forum instead of this one. HGVC doesn't have many international properties; a few in Scotland, one in Portugal, another in Italy, a group in Japan, Mexico, and the Caribbean then the rest are in the US. There is RCI which provides international options but DRI has more options. If you join HGVC now and get in Max, then it opens it up some but it is only a subset of the properties so far until they are brought up to HGV standards.

When you think about buying retail and paying $30k plus the $2,400/year, you may or may not have enough points for 3 weeks. It just depends on what you buy but think about your overall cost. If you pay $30k and then the $2,400/year, that cost is $54k for 10 years...meaning that your vacations cost you about $5,400 each year and in 20 years, your vacations cost you $78k and about $3,900/year. (It will be more than this since MFs go up each year but I left it the same for easy math). If that is only a week, then you can rent cheaper off the rack and not join a club where you are tied in. On the other hand, if you buy a good resale (HGVC or HC) that is a fraction of the retail cost, that significantly reduces your cost but it would not get you into Max since HGVC resale do not get you into Max.

Look at the points sticky to see how many points are needed and where. There are also two different guides for rules; HGV rules guide and then The Club rules guide (this is DRI). Look at each to see which one aligns better to your needs. They are very different programs and your underlying ownership decides your core benefits. So, if you buy Trust points, then you are in DRI and get The Club benefits but if you buy a deed in HGV, then your core benefits are HGV.
 
Last edited:
Understood, thanks. Will post this over there. Very much appreciate the help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I just do not advise buying DRI/HGV Retail. The problem with buying DRI on the resell Market is you are restricted to using the Points to Book in your Home Collection.

Most of the DRI Locations in Europe and Asia are Affiliates and Hotels. This can make it hard to Book into them.
 
geist1223 said:
I just do not advise buying DRI/HGV Retail. The problem with buying DRI on the resell Market is you are restricted to using the Points to Book in your Home Collection.

Most of the DRI Locations in Europe and Asia are Affiliates and Hotels. This can make it hard to Book into them.
Click to expand...

Got it, thank you. This seems to be the common answer across the various threads I started (again, sorry for the spam)

I’ll look into canceling my transaction today. My hope was this would simplify our already hectic lives when dealing with vacations. Instead, this seems to add a new level of anxiety of inventory access to where I want to go.

I am sad this doesn’t fit our needs (was honestly looking to conscientiously invest some disposable income into family bonding time), but I am grateful to have found this community though, I think I’ll stick around, member up and look at the resale and rental market.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have the HGVC Max and that gives me access to former Diamond properties BUT ONLY 6 MONTHS OUT. So far that has been quite a bit of selection added, but I'm thinking as they sell more and more of this "bridge" (oh the irony, sell you a bridge!), it will eventually be just the least desirable destinations in the off seasons. I could be wrong! Also, I always say what do you need more selection for if you can only vacation so much and you are happy with your destinations plus you can always rent or be a guest (that reciprocates fairly!) from others?! FB, Koala, redweek, and the granddaddy of them all TUG . . . plus I have elderly friends that aren't using their timeshares I'm sure they be thrilled to let me use it and cover their MF which they are paying for nothing right now. Go check out all the wonderful listings, all the places you can go. Oh and besides that you can take a chance on the RCI Getaways, which I have had good luck with . . . I also married into Worldmark and VI, so I'm one of those people on the verge of not being able to use it all . . . hoping my Elara homeweek will rent for Superbowl week and take the edge off the maintenance fees. Stay frugal my friends!
 
b3n0b1 said:
Got it, thank you. This seems to be the common answer across the various threads I started (again, sorry for the spam)

I’ll look into canceling my transaction today. My hope was this would simplify our already hectic lives when dealing with vacations. Instead, this seems to add a new level of anxiety of inventory access to where I want to go.

I am sad this doesn’t fit our needs (was honestly looking to conscientiously invest some disposable income into family bonding time), but I am grateful to have found this community though, I think I’ll stick around, member up and look at the resale and rental market.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
You still can but I would buy a HGVC or Hilton Club resale and then use those. You would get US and Hawaii but also some in Europe with the options in RCI. Much cheaper route and I prefer a deed to trust points. Paying retail, for me, just isn't worth the cost. Also, if you buy a good resale deed, you can have the option to later trade it in with HGV which would give you access to DRI/HVC via Max but at a lower cost than the retail.
 
PS if you are using Max to access the HGVC side, they have lots of resorts but only in a few locations... so that's something to think about! Not getting a lot more destinations, only more resorts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top