grand pacific resort questions

[jc92869]

Looking to buy a grand pacific unit. wife and I are SoCal locals, and on the west coast GP reigns king. there is the pesky 4-1 rule, and the only way to circumvent is by being a GP owner.

So questions.

1-what is the difference between GP and HGV? For example, I notice some of the resorts are hilton grand vacations at grand pacific palisades.

2-Is there Day use at GP at the resort you own, or can you have day use at ALL GP resorts?

3-on Ebay there are a lot of grand pacific at palisades. is this a bad resort? why are there so many resales at this property? --much more than any other GP resort.

4-overall recommendations, tips etc to buying and being owners at GP?

 

[presley]

1-what is the difference between GP and HGV? For example, I notice some of the resorts are hilton grand vacations at grand pacific palisades.

2-Is there Day use at GP at the resort you own, or can you have day use at ALL GP resorts?

3-on Ebay there are a lot of grand pacific at palisades. is this a bad resort? why are there so many resales at this property? --much more than any other GP resort.

4-overall recommendations, tips etc to buying and being owners at GP?

1.) Some of the GPR are affiliated with Hilton. How it makes it different is that if you have a converted GPR to Hilton, you can use Hilton points instead of booking your week with GPR. You still have the full GPR benefits, but you have the added costs of HGVC membership.

2.) Some of the resorts offer day use. Not all of them do. Day use is for the resort that you own only and it covers as many people as your room can hold. If you buy a one bedroom, you can have a total of 4 people with you for day use.

3.) Grand Pacific Palisades is a great property. There are probably a lot of resales because the annual dues are pretty high, about $1100. all in for a 2 bedroom. That includes property taxes and reserves, though. Also, many of the original owners are very old. I think they are probably getting to a point where they can't/don't travel and it is also a very child friendly environment so when people are beyond the years of having kids and grandkids along, it may lose its appeal.

4.) Buy where you want to stay the most often. You will have to pay a daily resort fee at all the properties where you do not own. Also, buy in the season that you want to stay. If you are trying to get past the 1 in 4 in RCI and buy a HGVC affiliated resort, don't use the HGVC portal for exchanging in RCI. You'd want to buy a second RCI account and exchange your week without going through Hilton.

 

[buzglyd]

Also regarding Day Use: It is ONLY at the resort that you own.

Newer MarBrisa contracts do not offer day use.

Villa L'Auberge does not offer day use.

Palisade and Seapointe are both excellent for Day Use and some may be converted to HGVC.

Carlsbad Inn is great for day use but those are not affiliated with HGVC.

If you just want day use, you can find every other year weeks for free at Seapointe or Palisade which means your annual fee is half.

 

[itchyfeet]

The reason there are so many units for sale at GP is that it is a very large resort. We own at GP and love it. Great pools--both for adults and a separate location where there is a pool with slide and play area for kids. Met quite a few day use people in the hot tub.
Carlsbad Inn pool is very small compared to GP & Seapointe.

 

[buzglyd]

I think anyone buying for day use should decide what is most important to them. All the resorts are nice but each has a different strength/weakness.

 

[jc92869]

Thank you for ask the answers.

Some follow up questions.

1-How much are the hgvc fees?
2- what is a good amount of hgvc points? (For reference I own at VVP and get 92k rci points. I think that is a good amount)

3- for anyone with hgvc/ gpr, are the added hgvc benefits with it? How?

Sent from my LG-D415 using Tapatalk

 

[presley]

You'd need to pay a transfer fee ($995. for a GPR/HGVC) + an account set up fee + the first annual fee ($135. I think). Estimate about $1500. more to transfer/set up a HGVC affiliated unit vs. not.

You'll have the HGVC club fee of $135. every year in addition to your normal MFs and taxes. When you book via Hilton, you'll pay a reservation fee. You won't pay that if you book your normal deeded week through GPR.

Good amount of points varies greatly depending on when you stay and what type of room you want. If you want a 2 bedroom in summer in California, you need 8600 points. If you want a 2 bedroom in Florida, you need 7,000 points. You should be able to find points charts online and get more of an idea of how much you need.

The added benefits are only worth it if you plan on using HGVC because you pay fees for anything you do. Even if you don't do anything, you pay an annual fee to Hilton. Grand Pacific Palisades lets owners split their week into a couple stays if they want to. There is a small cleaning fee of $25. (probably went up, but that was last I saw) when they do that. If you took that same week and booked it through Hilton for 2 reservations, you'd pay a reservation fee both times which is $52. - $99. depending on if you do it online or over the phone.

Hilton owners don't pay the daily resort fee when they book GPR. You would pay that if you exchanged in through GPX or RCI or any other exchange company. Since you will pay an annual fee to Hilton, that won't be a savings unless you do more than a week per year in a GPR unit at a resort that you don't own.

If you have Hilton and want to go to Hawaii or Vegas, you can just book those through Hilton and not deal with the exchange game. If your goal is truly the southern California resorts, you may not need Hilton. GPR has way more resorts than what they have affiliated with Hilton. You will have access to GPX where you'd be able to rent additional weeks for under $1,000 per week, which is cheaper than owning in many cases.

 

[buzglyd]

My Seapointe Unit is converted to HGVC (prior to purchasing). It is a 1 bedroom fixed summer week (Plus unit=Ocean view) which translates to 6200 points in HGVC's system. A normal 1 Bedroom high season is 4800 and a float one bedroom would be only worth 3400 I believe.

My Seapointe unit is my Swiss Army Knife of all my units because it allows me Hilton access, GPX access, RCI access and day use and bonus time. Expect to pay more upfront for a fixed summer converted week.

My Sister and her husband picked up a Seapointe fixed week 43 odd year usage for free. It's great for them because they really don't know how timeshare works and just want the day use and bonus time and one day they might exchange their week in the GPX system.

If you like Palisade, you should be able to find an orphan and try out the system at minimal cost. You could always purchase a HGVC unit down the road if you want in.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

Wasn't there a thread in HGVC forum a while back discussing a decision by Grand Pacific limiting or even eliminating the ability transfer participation in HGVC on resale units?

Did they change that such that if you buy an enrolled week, you can keep the HGVC affiliation?

 

[buzglyd]

Wasn't there a thread in HGVC forum a while back discussing a decision by Grand Pacific limiting or even eliminating the ability transfer participation in HGVC on resale units?

Did they change that such that if you buy an enrolled week, you can keep the HGVC affiliation?

I'm not sure anyone has a definitive answer to that.

I think asking the people at the Carlsbad Inn would be the answer because that's how I got my Seapointe unit with the HGVC already added.

If I'm near. I'll pop in and ask the resale ladies that question specifically.

 

[presley]

If I'm near. I'll pop in and ask the resale ladies that question specifically.

If you do, can you also ask if they will still resell GPP? Their resale website doesn't include GPP, Seapointe or Marbrisa.

 

[buzglyd]

If you do, can you also ask if they will still resell GPP? Their resale website doesn't include GPP, Seapointe or Marbrisa.

Hmm. I said hi to Patti and Yolanda when I stayed last week. I didn't really get into the listings because they always try to sell me more!

I'll ask for sure.

 

[presley]

Wasn't there a thread in HGVC forum a while back discussing a decision by Grand Pacific limiting or even eliminating the ability transfer participation in HGVC on resale units?

Did they change that such that if you buy an enrolled week, you can keep the HGVC affiliation?

I don't think anyone knows the answer to this, even those who work there.
When I bought developer Marbrisa, they converted my Seapointe and GPP to HGVC with the purchase for no extra charge. I had read on the forum before that, that they stopped doing that. So, maybe it has to do with how many sales they need for the end of the quarter and not really about actual rules. It was important that I completed my purchased by the end of that particular quarter, but I was told that was because of sales bonuses and not because of any limitations on the conversions.

I was told during the signing of the documents that if I ever resold any of my weeks, they would lose their HGVC affiliation. I believe it was because they didn't want people buying tons of them for $1., converting them and then turning them over for a profit. However, when I sold one later, the buyer was offered by the GPR transfer department to pay to keep it in HGVC for the normal transfer fees. They did pay the extra fees to keep it as HGVC even though they had purchased it from me as a fixed week without HGVC.

It seems like whether anything will transfer or not depends on who you talk to at the time.

 

[jc92869]

Follow up questions.

Thank you for all the great answers so far.

REGARDING maintenance fees. Looking at several resale contracts on ebay, I'm narrowing down to getting a seapoint, palisades, marbrisa, carlsbad inn or san clemente. What i noticed is that on an average the M/F for a 1 bedroom is in the ballpark of 1,000 for any of the resorts listed, but the Average M/F for a two bedroom is ONLY like 200-300 more.

Am i seeing things right? is a two bedroom only a couple hundred more in M/F?

 

[presley]

Am i seeing things right? is a two bedroom only a couple hundred more in M/F?

Yes. I have had one and two bedrooms in 2 of the resorts you mentioned and that was the difference in MFs.

 

[VegasBella]

My thoughts, in no particular order:

- Grand Pacific Palisades is a great resort. I've stayed there three times and had a great vacation each time. It's larger than many of the others so that may be why there are more available.

- The day use question has been answered, but just to clarify: only some resorts offer it and many only offer it on some contracts. If you get day use at a resort you only have it at that resort. I have day use at all my resorts. I'm not a local but I like having the advantage that if we're in the area we can use resort amenities.

- When you're considering costs, don't forget to include taxes. They really vary quite a bit and some are included in the MF while others are not. I now pay $200 a year for my Carlsbad Inn taxes and that's on top of MF.

- Keep your goal at the forefront of your mind. If your goal is to have day use, get around the 1 in 4 rule for exchanges, and have low total costs then strongly consider an EOY ownership with low MF and low purchase price that has amenities you will use. If that were my goal I would probably buy at GPP. And I would probably get a 2 bedroom in prime season to have the best trade value as well as the best chance of resale later.

- Are these really your goals? Do you already have a TS? Are you already decided on using RCI? Are you factoring in the costs to exchange? If you just want to stay at Grand Pacific resorts and you're flexible then renting during non-prime might be the best way to go.

 

[psrrobbins]

Carlsbad Inn

Hi,
I own Carlsbad inn and resort, one week annual use, unit#117, week 20, one bedroom, sleeps four and will consider any reasonable offer for it.