Anyone who owns HGVC and Starwood, how would you compare the two programs as far as quality of their resorts and system in general?
How does HGVC treat re sales? When you say it's similar to Starwood, do they have mandatory vs voluntary resorts?
So we own both. Got both resale. Wanted Starwood originally but got ROFR'd on WKORV's 3 times so gave up trying for a bit and picked up Hilton. Both programs work pretty much the same now with the ability to roll over StarOptions now with Starwood. Hilton had that all along.
Hilton nickel and dime's you a bit more with fees for booking your room which is annoying, but o well. With Hilton you have a 9 month instead of 8 month non-home resort booking window, so you can plan a tad farther out. Hilton does have a lot more resorts. What they didn't have was a Maui property though which is why we ended up getting the Starwood membership. They are going to have a Maui resort in 2017 though so thats nice.
Maintenance fees seem fairly similar. We own an EOY with alternating years. With the Hilton one, we just have to pay the full maintenance fee on usage year, where as with Starwood, its half ever year. So one year we get nailed with 1.5 maint fee and the other .5 lol.
Resort quality seems fairly similar. Starwood maybe a touch better but very close. The real benefit with Hilton is the # of locations. They have a bunch of stuff in like Scotland, and new Italy property. Both seem to be adding new locations though.
HVGC treats Resales and Direct Sales exactly the same with the exception that Resales do no count towards Elite Status.
You can even convert HGVC points into HH points or use them for cruises, etc. That may not make 100% sense financially, but at least it seems like it works as an even trade between your MFs and the credit you get. IMHO, this in a very good thing because of the flexibility it provides if you don't need more banked HVGC points and cannot use your points during the year.
I like the number and locations of their properties.
Thanks for all your responses.
Yes. You can bank and use in eve year or the next odd year.Hi since you own EOY I have a question. I am buying starwood SO . Its an odd year 1 bed and /or 67k points . For example Can I use 44k points in my"odd" year and pay a fee and bank the rest of points (23k SO) to the next year 'eve' year?...... thanksonder:
Yes. You can bank and use in eve year or the next odd year.
I don't own at HGVC, but most of the exchanges I've had and properties I've seen sleep 6 max in the 2BR.
HGVC is following SVN. They announced the spin off from Hilton. Estimated to be completed by the end of the year. HGVC will enter into an agreement with Hilton to maintain benefits.![]()
Starwood uses II while HGVC RCI.