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Hotel Harvest in Japan

zora

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Has anyone used points to stay at a Hotel Harvest timeshare in Japan? If yes, how did you make a reservation? When I spoke to the HGVC VC, I was told that I have to contact Hotel Harvest myself. I sent an email through the Hotel Harvest Kyoto Takagamine website but there was no response. I called but there was no English speaker available.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Suzanne.
 

alwysonvac

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Has anyone used points to stay at a Hotel Harvest timeshare in Japan? If yes, how did you make a reservation? When I spoke to the HGVC VC, I was told that I have to contact Hotel Harvest myself. I sent an email through the Hotel Harvest Kyoto Takagamine website but there was no response. I called but there was no English speaker available.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Suzanne.

Try emailing input@hgvc.com.

Several of the Hotel Harvest resorts have the following special note on the HGVC webpage:
Special Notice for non-Japanese speaking travelers: Our hotel is friendly and accommodating but our staff on property is Japanese speaking only. Please be aware of this prior to booking travel and plan accordingly.

Perhaps HGVC forgot to add the special note to this particular Hotel Harvest resort.:shrug:
 

SmithOp

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Try emailing input@hgvc.com.

Several of the Hotel Harvest resorts have the following special note on the HGVC webpage:
Special Notice for non-Japanese speaking travelers: Our hotel is friendly and accommodating but our staff on property is Japanese speaking only. Please be aware of this prior to booking travel and plan accordingly.

Perhaps HGVC forgot to add the special note to this particular Hotel Harvest resort.:shrug:

Ironic given that all the Hawaii resorts have Japanese speaking staff.


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Passepartout

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Ironic given that all the Hawaii resorts have Japanese speaking staff.
It just shows what demographic they are aiming at serving. A touch off-topic, but last year in Tokyo, EVERY time I stood on a corner scratching my (very white) head, within SECONDS, a friendly voice would say to me in perfect, unaccented English, "How may I help you?" I suspect there was someone on the hotel staff who COULD speak English, whether they wanted to is a different issue.
 

CalGalTraveler

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Clearly these are intended for the Japanese buyers who want to travel closer to home.

With the emergence of translation headphones such as Google Pixel Buds and Google translation (not great now but will get better over time), there is no reason that staff could not use these technologies to interact with visitors speaking in a foreign language.
 

tompalm

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Has anyone used points to stay at a Hotel Harvest timeshare in Japan? If yes, how did you make a reservation? When I spoke to the HGVC VC, I was told that I have to contact Hotel Harvest myself. I sent an email through the Hotel Harvest Kyoto Takagamine website but there was no response. I called but there was no English speaker available.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Suzanne.

I would recommend calling again. Every hotel, big store, or government agency has someone that speaks English working there that should be able to assist you. I lived in Japan a year and never had a problem calling anywhere in Japan doing the above. Keep in mind that all Japanese people learn English during grade school and most of them understand what you are saying, but they don’t speak English very well and will try not to communicate with you. Call during the day when someone should be there to help you.

Please let us know what you find out. I am planning a trip to Japan in the Spring and might try this Timeshare if getting a reservation is easy.
 
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zora

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Maverick1963,
I sent an email, rec'd a reply in japanese, used google translate and copied and pasted the reply below:

"Thank you very much for your continued patronage of the Hilton Grand Vacations Club. E- mail inquiries we are trying to answer during the same day, but it may take time depending on the situation. We will reply within 3 business days, so thank you for your understanding.


For the following, you can also do so at the club member's website club.hiltongrandvacations.com/ja/login # / index .

" Home Week Reservation, Home Resort Booking, Club Reservation, Open Season Booking

" Carry over as a save point of the club point, exchange to the Hilton Honors Point

" Home owner's association information, administrative fee payment

" Check account status

" Update contacts


At the time of receiving an inquiry by e- mail, the procedure has not been finalized. If you are in a hurry, please contact us by phone or please do so at club.hiltongrandvacations.com/ja/login # / index .


Club service contact:

Free dial from Japan 0120-805-811

From Japan and mobile phones 03-6866-4900  


business hours:

Monday to Saturday morning 9 am to pm 6 pm

 Closed on Sundays and public   holidays



We are looking forward to the staff to be able to help you on your next trip.



This email is an autoresponder. Please understand beforehand that we can not reply.


Club Traveler ( Clubtravelerjapan.Com/ of) " club information " in the page

Practical and timely information for members is updated and published from time to time.

Please register on the Internet favorites page right now and check the latest information.


This email message (including all attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. Hilton Grand Vacations may monitor all incoming and outgoing email communications in the United States, including the content of emails and attachments, for security, legal compliance, training, quality assurance and other purposes. This transmission is not a digital or electronic signature and cannot be used to form, document, or authenticate a contract. Hilton Grand Vacations and its affiliates accept no liability arising in connection with this transmission. Copyright 2017 Hilton Grand Vacations Proprietary and Confidential WARNING: Although the company has taken reasonable precautions to ensure no viruses are present in this email, the company cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this email or attachments."

I will try to call the listed numbers next week during their business hours. Suzanne.
 

Maverick1963

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zora, thank you for letting me know the outcome.

First I am so surprised with the quality of Google translation. Maybe the reply was a sort of regular communication and easy for Google. I believe you understood the email completely.

The email address is intended for Japanese owners. So no wonder that the automatic response comes in Japanese. When I email to hgvc.com, I get English response. I am sure that English-speaking people are there at HGVC in Japan. You should be able to get response. I am a Japanese owner and, when necessary, communicate with the local office. But one time I called up US phone number. I requested a reservation change and it was made accordingly. So if you should have any problem in getting help from HGVC in Japan, I would be surprised.

If you should need help in planning your trip to Japan, you could PM to me.
 

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Has anyone used points to stay at a Hotel Harvest timeshare in Japan?

I haven't but I did hear from one of the TUG Japanese members that this would be a poor use of HGVC points. Of course @Maverick1963 could enlighten us all on this.
 

zora

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Maverick1963,
Thank you for your assistance. I rec'd an email (in english) telling me that my request was too early. I was provided with the date and time after which I could email my request. My DD and I are taking advantage of the Scoot Air special. I am traveling first class (R/T from HNL= $1,250) and my DD is traveling in the "silent section" (R/T from HNL= $433). If I need help planning I will take you up on your offer to pm you.
 

Maverick1963

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I haven't but I did hear from one of the TUG Japanese members that this would be a poor use of HGVC points. Of course @Maverick1963 could enlighten us all on this.

It is always to use the points within the HGVC resort network. This is always the same. I believe Harvest Club in Japan, which I have never used, is upper scale resort club and many of their resorts (or constructions) are not so old. Trip Advisor's reviews are positive. You can see the rooms in Kyoto from the links.

 https://www.harvestclub.com/Un/Hotel/Kg/index.html
 https://www.harvestclub.com/Un/viala/Kv.html
 (Hope Google will translate contents for you.)

One thing to note is that Japanese timeshare rooms generally do not have kitchen. Instead they have restaurants. That is because for most of the Japanese, a week long vacation is not a popular practice and cooking is not anything you expect when staying at accommodations for pleasure. Harvest Club Akagamine Kyoto is located near Kinkaku Temple, a little away from the downtown area. The surrounding areas should be very beautiful. You could see the photo search result here. If convenience is preferred, it can work better to stay at a hotel near Kyoto station.
 

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zora

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Thank you everyone for your assistance. And thank you Yaz for the informative emails. We just returned home.
We spent 2 nights at the harvest club in Kyoto Takagamine. It is NOT centrally located but there is a bus stop right in front of the property. The front desk (very limited English) sold us daily bus passes for 600 yen per pass and provided us with instructions on how to get to where we wanted to go.
The hotel has 2 buildings with a shuttle/ski gondola that runs between the 2. We were in building 2, lower on the hill but the building with the 2 onsen (one for women, one for men). Having an onsen downstairs was truly wonderful.
Spring break for my DD was also spring break for schools in Japan. So instead of 3,400 points per night, it cost 4,200 points per night. This is for a large hotel room (no kitchen but refrigerator and hot pot) and breakfast was a separate charge (about 2,000 yen each). Very expensive use of points. I took photos but am tech challenged and haven't figured out how to post them. Our room was comparable to image 3 in: http://www.resorthotels109.com/en/kyoto/room.html
The fold out sofa can accommodate 2 additional people. The hotel has vending machines which have hot soup, ice cream, beer, water, and flavored drinks. We caught the bus, toured, shopped in town, ate dinner in town, took the JR line to Nijo Station, and then caught a cab back to the hotel (about 2,000 to 3,000 yen depending on traffic). We had Haagen Daz from a vending machine for desert.
It was a very enjoyable stay and the cherry blossoms / sakura were drop dead gorgeous. The only downside was the number of points.
 

tompalm

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Are you saying that it cost 4200 HGVC points per night. It seems like a hotel would have been a lot cheaper.
 

zora

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tompalm, a regular hotel would have been cheaper but it wouldn't have the onsen. I knew it was expensive but was expecting to pay 3,400 per night.
 

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Wow, I have heard that these Japanese hotels were going to be a little expensive but 4200 HGVC points/night is around $630/night by my MFs cost. Thanks for the report back.
 

Tamaradarann

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Wow, I have heard that these Japanese hotels were going to be a little expensive but 4200 HGVC points/night is around $630/night by my MFs cost. Thanks for the report back.

I think the idea of going to Japan is great and would like to mention that we communicate with fellow guests that are from Japan and don't speak English at the HHV using the translators on our phones very effectively.

However, the thought about using 4200 HGVC points a night blew me away. Furthermore, the valuing at $630/night is an under value and not how I think at all. 4200 HGVC points is about enough for 2 weeks in a Studio in an HGVC timeshare with a small kitchen. Therefore, you can put a value on that anyway you want but I would give that a value of at least a couple of thousand dollars. Maybe I am cheap or too efficient, but this resort is overpriced using HGVC points.
 

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I think the idea of going to Japan is great and would like to mention that we communicate with fellow guests that are from Japan and don't speak English at the HHV using the translators on our phones very effectively.

However, the thought about using 4200 HGVC points a night blew me away. Furthermore, the valuing at $630/night is an under value and not how I think at all. 4200 HGVC points is about enough for 2 weeks in a Studio in an HGVC timeshare with a small kitchen. Therefore, you can put a value on that anyway you want but I would give that a value of at least a couple of thousand dollars. Maybe I am cheap or too efficient, but this resort is overpriced using HGVC points.

Wow 4200 points is almost a week in a 1br at hhv lagoon tower or kalia tower. How much does it cost in usd for a night at this hotel in japan?

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1Kflyerguy

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I did a quick search and booking.com offered a room at this hotel for just $168 per night. Looking at the points chart on the club website, the points vary by number of people in the room. Two people in a room are "only" 1500 points per night for Sunday to Friday, Saturday is 2000 points per night. At the Max occupancy of 5 people per room, its 3750 per night, and 5000 points for Saturday night.

Not sure if the cash rate is for the same room as HGVC owner would get with club points.

The picture look nice, but don't think its for me.
 

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I did a quick search and booking.com offered a room at this hotel for just $168 per night. Looking at the points chart on the club website, the points vary by number of people in the room.

I'll put a disclaimer up front that maybe my experience was just atypically fortunate, as it's the only time I've tried this but...

Last year I was looking at how to spread my points, and came across the room rates for Parc Soleil that was $189 per night to stay in a 1BD over the weekend Fri - Mon in February. The points to stay the same three nights would have been 2040. So I did some mental math and figured I'd rather use my points later in the year and instead booked the $189 a night - it came out to about $650 total after taxes. When I checked into the hotel, they had upgraded me to a 3BR Penthouse (presumably because I'm a Diamond member with HHonors). I suspect they had no idea that I was actually a HGV owner as well.

So I walked away seeing that I got 4200 worth of value (that's what it costs to rent the 3BR penthouse for that weekend) for just $650 and I started wondering... could I get more value just booking HGV hotels in this way (as long as I have the HHonors status) because they seemingly upgraded me to then ask if I wanted to go to their sales presentation. I declined.

Was this just an anomaly?
 
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jehb2

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We spent 3 weeks in Japan this past summer. We splurged on a really really nice onsen on Kyushu. I mean this place was ridiculously nice. It’s was $230 a night. So I don’t understand the high HGVC point value.

Also, onsens are different from hotels. I would compare them more to spas (sort of). But the point of going to an onsen is to be at the onsen and enjoy the hot springs baths and enjoy the specialty dinner.

Finally, Japan isn’t really that expensive. I was shocked. It was actually cheaper to travel throughout Japan then it was when I lived there 25 years. Travel in Japan is currently cheaper than traveling in New York City, Paris, London, and Washington DC. Of course you have to get there first.
 

frank808

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I did a quick search and booking.com offered a room at this hotel for just $168 per night. Looking at the points chart on the club website, the points vary by number of people in the room. Two people in a room are "only" 1500 points per night for Sunday to Friday, Saturday is 2000 points per night. At the Max occupancy of 5 people per room, its 3750 per night, and 5000 points for Saturday night.

Not sure if the cash rate is for the same room as HGVC owner would get with club points.

The picture look nice, but don't think its for me.

Wow...I value my hgv points at more 8 cents a piece using the 2000 hgv point for 2 people model.

Will definitely check paying cash vs using hgvc points next time I am in that situation.

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