HGV positives?

[HaberHGV]

Are there a few positive points folks have about the HGV program?

 

[GT75]

Yes, about the HGVC resorts, staff at the resorts, and CS. What about you?

 

[dayooper]

Yes, about the HGVC resorts, staff at the resorts, and CS. What about you?

This. We love the resorts and the resort staff are excellent. The flexibility of the system is fantastic as well.

 

[Talent312]

Pros:
-- Uniformly high quality & up-to-date resorts.
-- The high quality of the staff is self-evident.
-- Booking is very flexible and darn near hotel-like.

A list of "Cons" might be more interesting:
-- Transaction fees are ubiquitous and significant.
-- No buy-back program makes moving-on difficult.
-- Various booking windows & complex rule structure.

.

 

[ljmiii]

I'm not sure if you are comparing HGVC to other timeshare systems (e.g. MVC) or to hotel stays...but here goes.

Pros
The points are tied to the deeded week which helps preserve resale value
Home Week reservations are comparatively easy to make - (knock on wood) I've always been able to book mine
If you are booking a Club Reservation using points at the opening window, many locations have good to great availability.
Savings compared to hotel stays - particularly for larger suites - can be quite substantial.

Push
Good quality resorts though I would say across the systems MVC's are slightly nicer (though each resort varies).
That said, MFs are slightly to significantly lower than MVCs while HGVC's fees are substantially higher.

Cons
Club Reservation availability at some locations (particularly affiliates) is quite limited
You really need to be able to plan vacations at least 276 days in advance.

 

[GT75]

Another Pros is that HGVC has been able to keep MFs increases, especially in the past year reasonable.

Another Con, HvgMax rollout has been a disaster (IMO) with no clear set of written rules. I believe this is because of who HGV has delivering the rules (still verbal at this point).

 

[letsgobobby]

a lot of cons are cons only if you bought into a sales' reps wild claims about great availability at thousands of wonderful locations all over the universe. Once you disabuse yourself of that idea the core HGVC program is good and mostly delivers what it promises. We get home week (12 month advance) reservations in high season, somewhere we go just about every year at the same time. We love that. The accommodations in a 2BR for our family are terrific.

 

[WIHuck]

Pros = Great resorts and much much better accomodations compared to hotel stays.

Cons = Untrustworthy lying high pressure sales people. The program is a great idea where you buy time to spend at many wonderful places all over. When we bought many years ago we were told it doesn't matter where you own. That is not true anymore because many places we want to go, Florida gulf coast and alike, are all booked up. In order to get a reservation you need to own there and book at the 12 month window. By the time the 9 month window opens for members who don't own that particular resort everything is gone. The new Max program opens booking at 6 months to the additional newly acquired Diamond offerings. I dought much will be available.

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[HaberHGV]

Those are good observations…it is frustrating how the salespeople make promises like “reach out anytime and I’ll help!” I’ve found that only has worked with one person- other than that, once you sign- that’s it.

But the quality of the resorts are overall, very nice. I look forward to them smoothing out the Max program cause no one really has a clear understanding when communicating the overall structure.

 

[pacman]

A lot more pros than cons IMHO. I really like HGVC. I've owned Marriott, Starwood, Worldmark, and it ranks right at the top for us.
I won't repeat what others have stated, but agree with the pros and cons as mentioned.

 

[scottc42]

Pros = Great resorts and much much better accomodations compared to hotel stays.

Cons = Untrustworthy lying high pressure sales people. The program is a great idea where you buy time to spend at many wonderful places all over. When we bought many years ago we were told it doesn't matter where you own. That is not true anymore because many places we want to go, Florida gulf coast and alike, are all booked up. In order to get a reservation you need to own there and book at the 12 month window. By the time the 9 month window opens for members who don't own that particular resort everything is gone. The new Max program opens booking at 6 months to the additional newly acquired Diamond offerings. I dought much will be available.

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I think currently Florida Gulf Coast properties are still rebuilding from extremely significant hurricane damage.

 

[WIHuck]

We made our reservations nine months ago.

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[GT75]

I thought of another positive, but please don't throw tomatoes my way. IMO, I think that the HGVC club website is overall pretty good. I know that we have some issues (but most of these are minor and we find ways to work around them) and usually experience problems after an IT update. I see some real problems with some of the other major TS brands reading through the forums. I know that Fiesta Americana's club website is almost totally useless (but their booking/communications with CS via WhatsApp is wonderful)

 

[kanerf]

I like my HGVC Club ownership at The District in Washington D.C. and it is where I stay most of the time. I have used points at some of the resorts in Orlando as well. I like the resorts very much particularly The District that features an owners lounge among other amenities. Parking there is extremely expensive, but it is D.C. so not unusual. I work in D.C. so I am never there for their sales things, though they always ask. This resort being on the top floors of an Embassy Suites gives access to those amenities as well including the cooked breakfast and managers reception in the evening.

I am really not interested in MAX since I have access to many of the same resorts via RCI or the same locations via my Wyndham points.

 

[dayooper]

I thought of another positive, but please don't throw tomatoes my way. IMO, I think that the HGVC club website is overall pretty good. I know that we have some issues (but most of these are minor and we find ways to work around them) and usually experience problems after an IT update. I see some real problems with some of the other major TS brands reading through the forums. I know that Fiesta Americana's club website is almost totally useless (but their booking/communications with CS via WhatsApp is wonderful)

I agree, for the most part, the website is great. I wish the app was more intuitive

 

[GTLINZ]

I think currently Florida Gulf Coast properties are still rebuilding from extremely significant hurricane damage.

True - but even before Ian, Gulf Coast inventory has been very sparse.

Many assume that since these resorts are listed with HGVC they will be accessible. It's not until you learn the difference between mandatory and affilate resorts that you understand the reasons. Most of the "affiliate" resorts (including Marco, Ft Myers, Sanibel and Captiva) are standard deeded weeks and the owner has to opt to join HGVC (but many do not) . Then if the owner has joined, they also have to choose to turn in their week for it to be accessible. So the inventory is low for affiliate resorts. In a "mandatory" resort everyone is part of HGVC and if they don't make a home reservation in their "week/season" that week will end up in inventory by default.

It was work but I have been able to book stays at Sunset Cove, Eagles Nest and Charter Club on Marco, SeaWatch on Ft Myers beach, Casa Ybel on Sanibel and HarbourView villas on Captiva over the years.

And now the hurricane has devasted Ft Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva, Marco has been hit over the years but many of the buildings are high rises and have been fortified during past rebuilds. Marco has not also had the level of beach destruction that just happened north of them either.

Once of my favorite HRC resorts is just below in Bonita Springs. The main buildings escaped major damage and they are still having to repair elevators and their lazy river - and the private beach island we had access to just south of Ft Myers Beach has been cut into 4 "islands". It's repair is still under evaluation. Most of the beaches in that area may still be closed.