Hello!
I just went through a HGVC presentation in Orlando last week, and ended up signing on an every other odd-year 3400 points, 1-bedroom in gold season for $11,840. They said it was discounted by nearly $6000 (for a total of $11,840) and gave us 6800 bonus points. I had been reluctant going into the presentation, as I don't know much about timeshares. My husband however, felt that this would be a great way for the family (us and 2 kids) to enjoy vacationing more often. We signed the contract, but only after I realized we had 10 days to rescind...hence my current search for info!!! It seems many users have good things to say about Hilton's program, but I still have some questions.
1) They said the maintenance fees don't usually go up often, and in rare cases have gone down....any input?
2) They gave us a unit in the Las Vegas Strip property...not a place we were thinking of going with the kids, but they said the maintenance fees would be much lower there. It seemed kind of strange since the whole time we were discussing trips to Orlando or hopefully Hawaii. Does the location truly matter?
3) Do you get charged a fee for making reservations during the open season? They mentioned the reservation fees for club reservations, but don't see anything about fees for open season rentals. Just wondering if these rates are actually going to be lower than just using my AAA discount rate for a room.
4) They talked about maintenance fees and the club reservation fees, but did not mention the annual club dues until we were signing the actual contract. At that point, I almost backed out but figured we went this far, and $114 wouldn't be too bad. However, I just read over the guide book and now see it also mentions a "first year activation fee" listed on page 151 for $399. Is this yet another upfront fee they did not mention in the sales pitch? Are there alot of these types of hidden "fees" with this program?
5) They gave us 6800 bonus points and said they could be spread over the first five years making it feel like an "annual" plan. After reading the fine print, it seems the bonus points are only good for 2 years after being awarded. It seemed kind of shady to me, but if we need to use them sooner rather than later...maybe we can use them to take a really nice trip to Hawaii. As far as availability, is this being realistic?
6) As for occupancy restrictions, if we could only find a studio room available somewhere, would we be able to stay with our 2 children? The booklet says studios have an occupancy restriction of 2 people, but I was wondering if they are including the kids. Any experience with this situation?
Also thinking of buying "re-sale" as well now after reading many other posts, but worried that Hilton wouldn't approve the re-sale if they see we had rescinded. Our credit is decent, but not great....do they use that as a factor for re-sale? We would probably just pay cash if they are truly that much lower in cost. Just trying to figure out if we really found a good deal or if it's just a scam! Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks for any input!!!
I just went through a HGVC presentation in Orlando last week, and ended up signing on an every other odd-year 3400 points, 1-bedroom in gold season for $11,840. They said it was discounted by nearly $6000 (for a total of $11,840) and gave us 6800 bonus points. I had been reluctant going into the presentation, as I don't know much about timeshares. My husband however, felt that this would be a great way for the family (us and 2 kids) to enjoy vacationing more often. We signed the contract, but only after I realized we had 10 days to rescind...hence my current search for info!!! It seems many users have good things to say about Hilton's program, but I still have some questions.
1) They said the maintenance fees don't usually go up often, and in rare cases have gone down....any input?
2) They gave us a unit in the Las Vegas Strip property...not a place we were thinking of going with the kids, but they said the maintenance fees would be much lower there. It seemed kind of strange since the whole time we were discussing trips to Orlando or hopefully Hawaii. Does the location truly matter?
3) Do you get charged a fee for making reservations during the open season? They mentioned the reservation fees for club reservations, but don't see anything about fees for open season rentals. Just wondering if these rates are actually going to be lower than just using my AAA discount rate for a room.
4) They talked about maintenance fees and the club reservation fees, but did not mention the annual club dues until we were signing the actual contract. At that point, I almost backed out but figured we went this far, and $114 wouldn't be too bad. However, I just read over the guide book and now see it also mentions a "first year activation fee" listed on page 151 for $399. Is this yet another upfront fee they did not mention in the sales pitch? Are there alot of these types of hidden "fees" with this program?
5) They gave us 6800 bonus points and said they could be spread over the first five years making it feel like an "annual" plan. After reading the fine print, it seems the bonus points are only good for 2 years after being awarded. It seemed kind of shady to me, but if we need to use them sooner rather than later...maybe we can use them to take a really nice trip to Hawaii. As far as availability, is this being realistic?
6) As for occupancy restrictions, if we could only find a studio room available somewhere, would we be able to stay with our 2 children? The booklet says studios have an occupancy restriction of 2 people, but I was wondering if they are including the kids. Any experience with this situation?
Also thinking of buying "re-sale" as well now after reading many other posts, but worried that Hilton wouldn't approve the re-sale if they see we had rescinded. Our credit is decent, but not great....do they use that as a factor for re-sale? We would probably just pay cash if they are truly that much lower in cost. Just trying to figure out if we really found a good deal or if it's just a scam! Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks for any input!!!