Diamond/HVC rules regarding Bent Creek Golf Village

[2rebecca]

My parents have owned a week at Bent Creek Golf Village in Gatlinburg, TN for about 25-30 years. They turn 75 this year and have suggested they might sign it over to me. I’m not sure I want to take it. I already have one timeshare and pretty sure I don’t want two! That said, I’m open to the idea of giving away the one I currently own and taking over my parents’ unit assuming I could find a taker. Bent Creek is a couple hour drive from my house, so having the convenience of using my home resort w/out airfare is a huge plus. My fear is the unknown…I don’t know how well it trades; or what to expect of maintenance fee increases with HVC; the HVC/DRI Max programs; etc. Although my parents have owned it for a long time, they have only traded it once and that was through RCI 22 years ago. All other years they’ve used it at their home resort. In the early years there were issues getting a week reserved at Bent Creek, but I’m not sure how much of that was the resort vs. my parent’s lack of understanding the system. They banked the last 2 years internally with Diamond and I’m not sure how that is going to play out. My mom called to make reservations a couple of weeks ago and was told she could have one week in late November and they would try to find a week in December. It seems odd that they would be short on lower-season inventory this early in the year, but I’m not familiar with the rules of the program.

I’m very familiar with trading through II. I’ve been using it to trade my Las Vegas week for 20 yrs. I want to learn more about the rules of Diamond/HVC so I can decide if taking this over is something I want to do. Can someone familiar with Diamond/HVC point me in the right direction? CliffsNotes of the process and a link to the rules would be ideal. My mom also mentioned selling it, but I told her it is likely worthless at least compared to what she paid. Is that accurate? I don’t want to mislead her. I can’t find any information on recent sales. She owns a 2-BEDROOM Log Cabin (sleeps 6) week in August. I need to find out which week because I think there is a big difference in TDI for early/late August.

 

[SmithOp]

If you look at the top of this forum page there are 4 pink highlights for "stickies" that will answer a lot of questions.
This location is part of the US Collection and should trade easily to other US resorts using the DEX (Diamond EXchange).

I think you have a good idea owning close to home but the maintenance fees are probably higher than a Vegas unit.

Best bet is to book early, one year in advance, so it's not surprising your mom could only get late in the year calling inside 6 months for a summer week. MAX owners have a six month window, so deeded week owners only have an advantage if they book early.

You are correct, it's probably not worth anywhere near what they paid, if anything over $1.

 

[2rebecca]

If you look at the top of this forum page there are 4 pink highlights for "stickies" that will answer a lot of questions.
This location is part of the US Collection and should trade easily to other US resorts using the DEX (Diamond EXchange).

I think you have a good idea owning close to home but the maintenance fees are probably higher than a Vegas unit.

Best bet is to book early, one year in advance, so it's not surprising your mom could only get late in the year calling inside 6 months for a summer week. MAX owners have a six month window, so deeded week owners only have an advantage if they book early.

You are correct, it's probably not worth anywhere near what they paid, if anything over $1.

Thanks. I'll take a look through the stickies.

Your assumption is right. The maintenance fees are higher than my Vegas unit, but this year my Vegas fees jumped up to $1058, so the gap is closing....assuming Hilton doesn't bump up Bent Creek Fees significantly. I think they are around $1300. My Vegas unit and Bent Creek are both Premier rated resorts in II, but my Vegas unit doesn't have a big brand behind it. I wonder how much the Hilton brand will help improve trade quality for Bent Creek.

Also, my mom wasn't trying to book summer weeks 6 months in advance. She was calling 9-11 months (early Feb) in advance to book fall/winter...and they only had one week to give her....maybe a 2nd in December. She is still waiting on confirmation for it. Since my parents are retired and it is only a 2-hr drive they are flexible in which week they'll take, so it seems odd they only had one available. That is why I'm trying to read up on the rules...she has to be missing something.

 

[SmithOp]

The other thing is, people are traveling again, there is a lot of demand now after three years of pandemic leaving people homebound.

HGVC averaged about 5% increase in fees this year, my 2 br Hawaii unit is up over $2K now. It's still early in the merger so can't tell how the DRI/HVC units will increase fees.

The summer weeks 23-30 have the highest demand at Bent Creek if you can pick a week to deposit, here is the TDI map:

 

[2rebecca]

The other thing is, people are traveling again, there is a lot of demand now after three years of pandemic leaving people homebound.

HGVC averaged about 5% increase in fees this year, my 2 br Hawaii unit is up over $2K now. It's still early in the merger so can't tell how the DRI/HVC units will increase fees.

The summer weeks 23-30 have the highest demand at Bent Creek if you can pick a week to deposit, here is the TDI map:

Thank you! You are right about more folks traveling this year creating higher demand. After thinking about it some more, I was assuming my mom was reserving her 2023 usage week, but if it is one of her banked weeks, I can definitely understand why there might not be availability. Just like with II or RCI, there would need to be a week deposited into DRI's internal trading system for her to trade into. I clearly need to question my mom some more.

 

[2rebecca]

I've been reading through all the suggested stickies and can't find an answer to this...If I take possession of my parent's timeshare will I be considered a resale owner? (They own a week, not points.) I read in another post that "Diamond punishes its resale owners, so anyone who buys it from you will have restrictions on the ownership". Is this still the case now that Hilton has bought them out?

 

[SmithOp]

I've been reading through all the suggested stickies and can't find an answer to this...If I take possession of my parent's timeshare will I be considered a resale owner? (They own a week, not points.) I read in another post that "Diamond punishes its resale owners, so anyone who buys it from you will have restrictions on the ownership". Is this still the case now that Hilton has bought them out?

Hilton allows transfer between family members and retains full developer benefits, you just need to go through their transfer department as a gift transfer to avoid ROFR, sorry I don't have the contact info.

I'm not sure if that extends to DRI / HVC now.

 

[2rebecca]

Hilton allows transfer between family members and retains full developer benefits, you just need to go through their transfer department as a gift transfer to avoid ROFR, sorry I don't have the contact info.

I'm not sure if that extends to DRI / HVC now.

Thanks.