HGV CHARGING $25 a day resort Fee

[dannybaker]

WTH. I just booked six exchanges into Hilton in Orlando and luckily I read the fine print. The new fee is $25 dollars a day resort fee. So in addition to my $239 exchange fee x 6, it’s another $175 resort fee x 6 plus I’m sure other tax. I believe all Hilton owners should pay $500 to exchange into my units in San Diego. Where does this end? Does every time share include this resort fee in the future? Sorry I had to rant I’m really upset with the way Timeshare’s are heading. My $79 dollar exchange has gone up a lot in 13 years. I’m sure the answer will be simply don’t stay at Hilton. What if all resorts start charging $175 resort fee.

 

[Travel1]

Agree. If all timeshares start charging resort fees, it would truly starts defeating the value and the need to own a timeshare.

 

[tschwa2]

I worked for an airline in the early 2000's. They were always raising fares and adding fees and hoping the other airlines would follow suit. If they did not an it hurt business they would remove the fees. If the others followed suit the fees were there to stay.

Disney and Diamond were two of the pioneers of adding fairly significant weekly fees ($100+)onto exchanges. There are also a handful of others that charge a $25-$40 per week.

In certain places that either offer a significant advantage or amenities over other area timeshares or have location and availability that other timeshares can't match- maybe. But come on, Orlando (non DVC) and Williamsburg resorts with amenities that are on par with other options should not be charging those fees and thankfully for now they can be avoided. Hopefully other resorts will not follow suit.

While one could say that owners at the resort benefit from this as they don't pay the fee and it supplements their week. In reality, I don't think the developers have a line item for giving these fees back to the HOA. They pocket them.

 

[SmithOp]

6 exchanges, seems excessive?

I've paid resort fees exchanging into SoCal resorts, they are all charging it now, Hilton is just catching up...

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I agree that resort fees stink. We recently cancelled an RCI reservation because the resort fee at the Manhattan club would have been close to $1000 for an upcoming stay when you add in the exchange and housekeeping fees. This was on top of paying with expensive HGVC points.

FWIW...HGVC does not care about people exchanging into their system because they would rather incent you to be a card carrying HGVC owner. Owners do not pay for resort fees for use of the HGVC internal system with points.

The other part that stinks about RCI is their draconian policy for reservations. We currently are locked into a reservation and will lose our $239 fee for a reservation that we have made for 2 years from now. That's crazy.

Plus, with RCI you are typically locked into a week whereas the HGVC system enables us to take several long weekends. These factors are incenting us to increasingly use the HGVC internal system which means fewer HGVC weeks available on RCI.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

In reality, I don't think the developers have a line item for giving these fees back to the HOA. They pocket them.

In this case, they should be depositing those resort fees into the HOA to offset maintenance because they are exchanging owner's weeks paid with owner's maintenance fees and not developers weeks. If not, this is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

[dannybaker]

where does this end? Do all resorts charge start charging $500 resort fees.

 

[jestme]

In this case, they should be depositing those resort fees into the HOA to offset maintenance because they are exchanging owner's weeks paid with owner's maintenance fees and not developers weeks. If not, this is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Just like the Open Season fees should go to the HOA as well, especially since the HOA is incurring additional costs for room maintenance (maids) , checkin, electricity, furniture wear and tear, etc. But they don't. There is no line on the Financial statement for that revenue at all.
Hilton and other hotels add the "Resort Fees" after the booking rate. Unless you read the fine print when you book, you usually find out when you arrive and get the shock. There was some talk last year about forcing hotels to advertise the full ACTUAL daily rate, including all fees, etc. but I haven't heard any follow up on that for a while now.

 

[pedro47]

I feel DRI started this by charging non Diamond Club Owners a daily resort fee a few months ago. All non Diamonds owners exchanging into a Diamond Resorts must pay a daily resort fee.
HGV is just following DRI marching orders to add to their profits margins and that is IMHP.

 

[Talent312]

We currently are locked into a reservation and will lose our $239 fee for a reservation that we have made for 2 years from now.

Being locked in...
I lucked into getting an RCI Exchange on Lido Key at the beach.
We waited ~six months, then with a month to go, I looked at the confirmation.
It was for one year hence. So, we went elsewhere and waited out the year.
Then, with less than a week to go, Hurricane Irma blew through.

It took a hurricane to get our points+booking fee refunded.
.


.

 

[Cyberc]

More info on the subject here.

https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/new-hgvc-resort-fee-as-of-1-16-through-rci.269123/

Turns out not all HGVC resort are charging the fee, but most are.

 

[Travel1]

Shouldn't exchanges be just that...if a Hilton timeshare user offers up his unit (and doesn't have to pay the resort fee themselves if they stay in their own unit), shouldn't the person exchanging into his Hilton unit get the same benefit.

It should work just like the housekeeping charge...all timeshares require them (as far as I know), so for me to deposit and exchange my unit, I have to include a Housekeeping token or the cost of a housekeeping token, but when I exchange to another timeshare, I receive the same housekeeping service. In others words....its an even trade.

Adding resorts fee to exchanges is not playing on an even field...when an owner puts their unit up for a trade, all benefits should go with it.

It does not only seem unfair to me, but also unethical and not in the spirit of what an exchange is supposed to be.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Being locked in...
I lucked into getting an RCI Exchange on Lido Key at the beach.
We waited ~six months, then with a month to go, I looked at the confirmation.
It was for one year hence. So, we went elsewhere and waited out the year.
Then, with less than a week to go, Hurricane Irma blew through.

It took a hurricane to get our points+booking fee refunded.
.


.

Life happens and that's why I prefer flexibility. Southwest and AK over Big 3 American air carriers. HGVC reservations over RCI. Changeable hotel reservations vs. prepay...

In this case we booked Disneyland for Christmas 2019 (Peacock Suites 2 bdrm) to visit Star Wars Land when it opens so we can't complain too much because cannot book Disneyland through HGVC. However I now realize that we could have rented a nicer timeshare from an owner (Worldmark Anaheim) for exactly the days we wanted for about the same price per night (savings $ on the nights we don't use.) We are locked in - live and learn.

 

[Tamaradarann]

Shouldn't exchanges be just that...if a Hilton timeshare user offers up his unit (and doesn't have to pay the resort fee themselves if they stay in their own unit), shouldn't the person exchanging into his Hilton unit get the same benefit.

It should work just like the housekeeping charge...all timeshares require them (as far as I know), so for me to deposit and exchange my unit, I have to include a Housekeeping token or the cost of a housekeeping token, but when I exchange to another timeshare, I receive the same housekeeping service. In others words....its an even trade.

Adding resorts fee to exchanges is not playing on an even field...when an owner puts their unit up for a trade, all benefits should go with it.

It does not only seem unfair to me, but also unethical and not in the spirit of what an exchange is supposed to be.

I totally agree that exchanges should not have to pay resort fees just as owners shouldn't. You are exchanging your timeshare week or your timeshare points that you own for that resort. RCI sets the point or week exchange value and are the value level regulator of the resort and the accommodations for the system. For a resort to charge additional fees to exchangers means to me that RCI is NOT doing its job in keeping the field level and regulated. The resort is doing its own regulation after the exchange.

On a different level. Where do the resort fees go? I was under the assumption that the board of directors of the resort decided to initiate the resort fee to bring in more money to the resort without raising the maintenance fees. My view of that is that the resort board of directors needs to manage the maintenance fees and costs WITHOUT burdening exchangers. If that is not true and the fees are going to the resort management or developer then that raises a different issue which I have a hard time even addressing.

 

[alwysonvac]

... Where does this end? Does every time share include this resort fee in the future? Sorry I had to rant I’m really upset with the way Timeshare’s are heading. My $79 dollar exchange has gone up a lot in 13 years.

Exactly... This is more than just a HGVC issue.
Folks should have serious concerns about where this is headed (high maintenance fees, reservation fees, exchange fees, resort fees, transfer fees, etc).

 

[jestme]

where does this end? Do all resorts charge start charging $500 resort fees.

It ends when people stop paying them. The OP is paying $239 plus $175 in "resort fees" on top of the MF's he is paying for whatever he traded to get to the Orlando exchange per room in the first place. That's a lot of money just for the privilege of exchanging into a resort. When you take all those costs into account, plus the restrictions of exchanging and check-in days, the long term pre-planning required, as well as the uncertainty of getting what you want, and the fact you could have booked a place, when you want to, where you want to stay, with cancellation options, directly, without those restrictions, the advantages for exchanging go away.
Once the costs exceed the value of using a timeshare, or exchanging into one, people will stop using them.

 

[Mosescan]

This is another reason to own where you want to stay. No fees if you don’t trade.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

This is eventually going to cause issues for low cost RCI (and II) trader properties, who's owners purchased with the intent of trading into brand name timeshares. RCI is disincenting brand timeshare owners from depositing due to high fees. This creates less supply with the major brands depositing less often.

On the other side the owners of RCI and II traders see more expenses to exchanging and less supply and will dump their units. This will cause some of these trader properties to financially collapse.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Unlike other timeshare weeks systems, the beauty of the HGVC system is the ability to trade with minimal friction within the system. If club reservation fees get too high, this could change the dynamic of the entire system - and not for a positive outcome.

 

[hurnik]

Wow, that's about as bad as the Virgin Islands (can't remember if it's BVI or USVI, or both) charging a daily resort tax on timeshares.

But in this case I wonder if it's Hilton or RCI doing the fee-fee collecting.
If it's Hilton, then they need (IMO) to use that collected fee to offset the MF fees, but I doubt they are.

 

[Tamaradarann]

Wow, that's about as bad as the Virgin Islands (can't remember if it's BVI or USVI, or both) charging a daily resort tax on timeshares.

But in this case I wonder if it's Hilton or RCI doing the fee-fee collecting.
If it's Hilton, then they need (IMO) to use that collected fee to offset the MF fees, but I doubt they are.

In my previous post I brought up the issue of offsetting the MF, also questioning what is being done with the RESORT FEE. The way this is handled it is clear to me that it ISN'T RCI doing the Resort fee collecting since it is resort dependent and collected. However, if it is indeed the Board of Directors initiating the resort fee with the purpose of offsetting the MF all timeshare owners need to ask the question why doesn't my Board of Directors start to initiate resort fees to reduce my MF? If all resorts started to do that it would become a wash in owners overall timeshare owning and use cost. It would only benefit those that own and don't use their timeshares at all.

 

[dannybaker]

It really is upsetting to see this being done in the timeshare industry. Thank you everyone for listening to my rant, I was fuming when I realized that HGV was doing. Is this not a lawsuit for the owners? Do the maintenance fees go down. Here is where the $25 goes.
Effective January 17, 2018, a mandatory Daily Resort Charge of $25.00 U. S. Dollars plus tax, will be added at check in and includes: Guest internet access; domestic long distance calls (30 min max per day); DVD NOW with unlimited movies; 2 complimentary cups of Starbucks Coffee OR 2 16 oz. bottles of water per day; 1-800/local calls.

 

[Tamaradarann]

It really is upsetting to see this being done in the timeshare industry. Thank you everyone for listening to my rant, I was fuming when I realized that HGV was doing. Is this not a lawsuit for the owners? Do the maintenance fees go down. Here is where the $25 goes.
Effective January 17, 2018, a mandatory Daily Resort Charge of $25.00 U. S. Dollars plus tax, will be added at check in and includes: Guest internet access; domestic long distance calls (30 min max per day); DVD NOW with unlimited movies; 2 complimentary cups of Starbucks Coffee OR 2 16 oz. bottles of water per day; 1-800/local calls.

So the $25 doesn't offset maintenance fees unless they were going to raise the maintenance fees to cover these ridiculous "Benefits".

- With cell phones who needs domestic long distance calls!
- DVD movies are nice, but NOT necessary
- 2 cups of Starbucks Coffee or bottled water; we make coffee in the room which is less expensive and more convenient in the morning and either buy a case of water for $4/case or use tap

The only benefit that is worth anything that I see is the internet access which is clearly not worth $25/day more like $15/week.

 

[hurnik]

It really is upsetting to see this being done in the timeshare industry. Thank you everyone for listening to my rant, I was fuming when I realized that HGV was doing. Is this not a lawsuit for the owners? Do the maintenance fees go down. Here is where the $25 goes.
Effective January 17, 2018, a mandatory Daily Resort Charge of $25.00 U. S. Dollars plus tax, will be added at check in and includes: Guest internet access; domestic long distance calls (30 min max per day); DVD NOW with unlimited movies; 2 complimentary cups of Starbucks Coffee OR 2 16 oz. bottles of water per day; 1-800/local calls.

Interesting. OK, let's pretend (I like to play let's Pretend--haha).
The fee would cover things that were previously not covered:
Internet Access (meaning prior to this, it was "included" in whatever HGVC is charging for MF and whatnot).
DVD NOW (not sure when this was added at the resort, but when I stayed last year in October there was a DVD NOW kiosk "included" with my stay).
Phone calls

OK, so now they're collecting this fee from exchanges only, so I don't see how this shouldn't reduce (a little) the MF. Although I'm not sure how detailed the budgets are.

I guess we should probably write into the various boards where we own and inquire as to this and maybe see what the answer is?

Granted, I have only ever exchanged back into HGVC once (long time ago as I had bonus points that were expiring and it was cheaper in points to get the same sized unit).

Although I know when exchanging via II/RCI into Vidanta resorts it's $12/adult/day resort fee (SFX has the flat $75 fee per unit still) which covers the WiFi, shuttle service and maid service. But that can add up too.

 

[tschwa2]

When it is a fee initiated by the developer/resort manager (vs the HAO) which I believe these are, it doesn't lower the MF's anymore so then when the developer raises the transaction fees or a guest fee. It isn't really so much a resort fee but a fee for the developer to manage the resort/amenities at the resort.