Most (but not all) timeshares are interests in real estate. But buying a timeshare is more like buying a car than buying real estate. There are numerous makes and models. You can buy new or used. Most go down in value after your purchase. It would be difficult for one person to tell another to buy only Fords. Many of the participants in this discussion forum probably don’t even like Fords, or at least they like some other brands better. Or maybe they like Ford trucks but not Ford cars. Or maybe they would be satisfied with one Ford and one Chevrolet, or one Ford and one Toyota, etc. No two people are the same, and the number and variations of timeshare and vacation ownership plans in the marketplace is mind-boggling.
Hilton has been a great choice for me. I like its high-quality resorts and I like how the club works. Instead of a particular week every year at one resort, I can use my points for stays from 3 days to at least two weeks. I can stay in locations as diverse as Miami Beach, Orlando, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Carlsbad, Honolulu, the Big Island, and more. The club is easy to use. Maintenance fees are not cheap, but my impression is that they are less than what is charged by Marriott, Westin, and Sheraton. Marriott has more locations than Hilton, but I’m not interested in staying at most of Marriott’s additional locations. Maintenance fees are generally more. It used to be that it wasn’t very easy to own a week at one Marriott resort and trade for another. I understand Marriott has made some improvements, but whether it has caught up to Hilton in that regard I will leave to others to discuss. I’m so “invested” in HGVC at this point that I would never consider buying a Marriott week. But there are others who contribute to this discussion forum that like to have two different cars in their garage. And anyone can go into TUG’s Marriott discussion forum to learn more about what Marriott offers.
Montedk, you almost purchased an every other year timeshare for $13,750.00 which requires spending $868 in maintenance fees every other year. I looked on sellingtimeshares.net, a respected HGVC reseller, and it has a listing for a two-bedroom week at HGVC on the Las Vegas Strip for $4,750.00 with maintenance fees of $870.00 every other year. Instead of 3,400 points every other year, you would get 7,000 points every other year.
You say you don’t need a lot of points because your travel plans are modest – a 5 night vacation (presumably every other year in many years) and even then you are going to travel off season. With something like the week referred to in the last paragraph, you won’t have to limit yourself in that way, and it won’t cost you more money (actually, it will cost $2.00 more every other year, which isn’t material, but would save you at least $9,000.00 up front at the time of purchase (and maybe more if you negotiate a lesser purchase price). Maybe some year you will want to travel during platinum season, or maybe some year you will have guests to use a second bedroom. Perhaps more important is that over the years Hilton has “inflated” the cost of some units. Twenty years ago all one-bedroom weeks during platinum season were 4,800 points. This is still the case at resorts built back then (HGVC Seaworld and Tuscany are examples), and there are often at least some one-bedroom unit weeks during platinum season at some of the newer resorts (Las Palmeras is an example), but check out the point costs at the Grand Islander in Honolulu: 7,200 points is the cheapest one-bedroom unit during platinum season. You can still find one bedroom weeks at some of the other Hawaiian resorts (the Lagoon Tower is a good example), but guess what? It is first-come, first-served, and you better think about making reservations 9 months in advance at that resort. Even then, sometimes you won’t find availability because owners at that resort have the right to make home week reservations between 9-12 months, whereas if you own at a different HGVC resort, you can only reserve 276 days in advance of your check out date, which is basically 9 months plus the length of your reservation in advance.
If you really have your heart set on limiting yourself to what 3,400 points can get you every other year, then there is such a week listed for $1,000.00. So you can save at least another $3,750.00 up front and limit yourself to 3,400.00 points every other year. I don’t recommend it. If you like the program, you will want more points. If you buy more points, your choice is to buy another week and then have two weeks for which to pay maintenance fees and taxes, or sell the first week and buy a week with more points. Timeshare weeks are hard to sell.
You will see many other conversations where people ask if they lose benefits by buying resale as opposed to buying directly from the developer. The answer is “yes” or “no”, depending on your ownership. Hilton has been very good about giving resale buyers the same benefits as the other buyers get. Hilton does have several levels of Elite status which give some perks to those who have it, and there are some requirements about buying at least some of your points from Hilton if you want that. With 3,400 or even 7,000 points, however, you wouldn’t have enough points to qualify even if your purchase were directly from Hilton. The lowest Elite status requires ownership of weeks associated with at least 14,000 club points. Many members of this website do not believe it is worthwhile to pay developer prices to get Elite status. If you purchased two weeks of 7,000 points each or even one week of 14,000 or more points (which you could easily do in Hawaii or New York) directly from Hilton, the cost will probably take your breath away.
If you do buy a HGVC week, make sure what you are buying will get you into the time you want at the resort(s) where you think you will go most often. Weeks from Orlando, Miami, Carlsbad-Marbrisa, Myrtle Beach, and Las Vegas will get you a good selection of dates at most of the HGVC resorts. They aren’t great at getting you into the Southwest Florida resorts, New York City resorts, and The District in Washington, D.C. HGVC has reservation restrictions relating to the NYC and DC resorts. If you don’t own there, you can’t reserve as far out as you can with resorts in most HGVC locations. By the time you can reserve, most of the units will already be reserved by others. The Southwest Florida resorts are in the club because they were managed by a company which Hilton acquired when it formed HGVC many years ago. In order for a HGVC member to reserve one of those weeks with club points, the owners of those weeks have to deposit them into the club, and they don’t do it very often. You almost have to own there to stay there. Once in awhile you can call the club or look on-line and find time at one of those resorts (and once in awhile RCI or II may come through for you), but most of the time there is no availability. So if you really want to be there, you should own there and release points to the club when you want to stay elsewhere.
