Deed Swap - Diamond for Hilton

[DontWant]

My in laws just came back from a stay at their timeshare in AZ where were asked to go to an informational meeting, which turned into a sales pitch (shocking).

I am likely getting many details wrong, but am especially curious about one offer made to them, a deed switch.

The history: they bought a Diamond timeshare in maybe 2006. They didn’t really know what they bought - it turns out to be a deed (that is entirely unrelated to the place they typically stay - whole other city).

When Hilton bought Diamond the in-laws
agreed to buy Hilton points, apparently 15,000 at $4/point in January 2023.

This week they were told that when they bought those points the loyalty levels weren’t set yet and they are just 2,000 point shy of the next level, which they could buy for $6/point.

Finally after making it clear they weren’t buying anything, the salesperson gave the offer of “for you we can do something special and let you swap your Diamond deed for a Hilton deed!”

Now… doing some basic research, the $/point they paid seems absurd. But beyond that, any idea what this deed swap is about? Why would they do this? Why would Hilton offer this, are they getting something out of it?

Thanks so much for your help here. I know nothing about timeshares and have mostly just been going deep reading old posts here…

 

[SmithOp]

The only reason anything is offered at an "owners update" is to extract money for HGV and a commission for the salesman.

HGV has deeds to sell as well as HVC points, any kind of swap will cost $$$$, compared to resale.

 

[DontWant]

The only reason anything is offered at an "owners update" is to extract money for HGV and a commission for the salesman.

HGV has deeds to sell as well as HVC points, any kind of swap will cost $$$$, compared to resale.

Yes, I think that’s clear!

I’m wondering if there’s a reason Hilton is trying to get them out of Diamond (and if the deed portion has anything to do with it) or if it’s just garden variety offering all sorts of different “deals” to get $$&$ on the swap.

 

[dioxide45]

Do you know exactly what they bought? It is possible that they swapped their deed for something called Hilton Vacation Club (HVC) which is really just one of the old Diamond Collections. They called it a "Hilton Deed" because Hilton is in the name they market, but it is still a Diamond collection.

The only reason to offer this is to extract more money, nothing more and they probably didn't need to do this at all and may have just bought the same thing they already owned. We need some more details, but what they really need to do is rescind their current purchase. Buying more and "upgrading" for status is rarely worth the cost. Advise them to cancel if they are still in their rescission period.

 

[DontWant]

Do you know exactly what they bought? It is possible that they swapped their deed for something called Hilton Vacation Club (HVC) which is really just one of the old Diamond Collections. They called it a "Hilton Deed" because Hilton is in the name they market, but it is still a Diamond collection.

The only reason to offer this is to extract more money, nothing more and they probably didn't need to do this at all and may have just bought the same thing they already owned. We need some more details, but what they really need to do is rescind their current purchase. Buying more and "upgrading" for status is rarely worth the cost. Advise them to cancel if they are still in their rescission period.

Thanks so much. Swapping one deed for another that is exactly the same sounds like what it probably was.

Good news is they didn’t buy anything at this time (sorry I made it sound like they did!). I wish I’d found all this back when they bought their 15,000 points in January… (or even know they’d bought them) but here we are.

Frankly, I was hoping Hilton was trying to get people out of Diamond deeds for some reason, so we could use that as a way to get them out of their timeshare entirely.

 

[GT75]

When Hilton bought Diamond the in-laws
agreed to buy Hilton points, apparently 15,000 at $4/point in January 2023.

Since you stated they bought points, this is also probably still HVC (former DRI).

 

[DontWant]

Since you stated they bought points, this is also probably still HVC (former DRI).

Meaning they likely have both DRI and HVC? Since they bought the deed years ago and the points this year?

 

[GT75]

When HGV (Hilton Grand Vacations) bought DRI they changed the name of the DRI to HVC (Hilton Vacations Club) so I suspect that both of those purchases are still part of former DRI.

 

[youppi]

Swapping an HVC (DRI) deed to an HGVC deed (probably off-season) is good for HGV.
HGV off-load an HGVC deed that is hard to sell due to off-season (bad ratio $/point) and acquire an HVC deed that they can put in an HVC Collection (trust).
I suppose that unsold HVC points are part of the inventory available at 6 months to HGVC Max owners.
So, it's good for everybody except the person that swaps his HVC deed to an off-season HGVC deed.