Hilton hotel reservation using HGVC points

[Seth Nock]

Scott and CaliDave; It will be helpful if you could share your experience with the following:

1. Have you ever got a RCI Extra Vacation week or Last Call week through HGVC? IF affirmative, which resort and year.
2. Have you ever got RCI week reservation through HGVC? In 0-10 scale with 10 being the most difficult, what was the level of difficulty?

I an having incredible amount of difficulty doing so with HGVC. It could be just my bad luck!

Thanks.

1 I have only booked an extra vacation week once. I tend to book HGVC open season instead. There tends to be more availability and I like the locations better.

2 I have gotten RCI weeks through club MANY times. I booked HGVC Craigendorff, Club Donotelo [in San Francisco(multiple times), Embassys in Hawaii, Embassy in Lake Taoe, Manhattan Club (more than 15 times), as well as many other resorts.

Where are you trying to book?

 

[biswassb]

1 I have only booked an extra vacation week once. I tend to book HGVC open season instead. There tends to be more availability and I like the locations better.

2 I have gotten RCI weeks through club MANY times. I booked HGVC Craigendorff, Club Donotelo [in San Francisco(multiple times), Embassys in Hawaii, Embassy in Lake Taoe, Manhattan Club (more than 15 times), as well as many other resorts.

Where are you trying to book?

I do understand. You are involved with HGVC as an affiliate or whatever. You can get whatever you want through HGVC. People like Scot, perhaps Dave, myself, and most others are ordinary folks and we simply do not have any extraordinary previleges like you do. That's why I wanted to hear experiences from other ordinary folks like myself.

 

[ricoba]

I do understand. You are involved with HGVC as an affiliate or whatever. You can get whatever you want through HGVC. People like Scot, perhaps Dave, myself, and most others are ordinary folks and we simply do not have any extraordinary previleges like you do. That's why I wanted to hear experiences from other ordinary folks like myself.

Dave & myself listed our HGVC trades.

I have a suggestion. Why not start a new thread asking the same question regarding trades that people have had with HGVC?

I think you will get more responses from more people in a new thread instead of tacking it on to this this thread which is about hotel stays. I know that there are HGVC owners here that will gladly answer that question, but they may not be reading this thread.

And btw, I think that Seth is an ordinary guy just like us. But he has extrodinary experience in being helpful to those of us here on TUG!

Rick

 

[sb1070]

Rick

As I never traded HGVC I can't say about how it trades other than I have seen many people indicate that it trades well.

I think the point isn't whether or not HGVC trades well. It's why nightly or extra vacations are never available and Hilton lists them as if they are common and easy to get. I say what good is a club benefit that's never available? How does it combine with other benefits to make HGVC stronger as a product?

Also nice gloss over on biswassb's point about Seth.

 

[Seth Nock]

I do understand. You are involved with HGVC as an affiliate or whatever. You can get whatever you want through HGVC. People like Scot, perhaps Dave, myself, and most others are ordinary folks and we simply do not have any extraordinary previleges like you do. That's why I wanted to hear experiences from other ordinary folks like myself.

I don't ask for any special treatment for my own reservations and don't get extraordinary treatment. Sometimes I will ask to bend some rules for my buyers (as 1 time exceptions), but not for myself. It would be unfair for me to explain to my buyers how something works if I asked for special treatment. I put out ongoing searches and can help teach you how to better use the system the way it is intended to work. Many of my reservations are the result of bulk spacebanks. I tend to put my searches out about 7-8 months in advance, as there are alot of bulk spacebanks at the 6 month mark. Almost all of my RCI bookings are the result of ongoing searches.

 

[biswassb]

In HGVC system you can not put out your searches anonymously, online etc. You have to call a HGVC counselor and ask to put out a search of anykind. They don't know me. But they certainly know Sethnock. So you do not have to ask for a special favor, you will get it anyway.

 

[myip]

I did use HGVC for RCI exchange. I got into Maui 3 times (summer) but decide not to accept the exchange because we want to use the point for International Hotel Stays.

 

[HGVClub]

New Thread

There is a new thread started about RCI/HGVC.

 

[CaliDave]

In HGVC system you can not put out your searches anonymously, online etc. You have to call a HGVC counselor and ask to put out a search of anykind. They don't know me. But they certainly know Sethnock. So you do not have to ask for a special favor, you will get it anyway.

When you call to put in the ongoing search.. there are 100's of reservation employees. Something tells me not many (if any) of those people know Seth..
I'd assume he's only known by a few in upper management and maybe some sales agents who lose business to him.

 

[biswassb]

When you call to put in the ongoing search.. there are 100's of reservation employees. Something tells me not many (if any) of those people know Seth..
I'd assume he's only known by a few in upper management and maybe some sales agents who lose business to him.

You have a point.

 

[biswassb]

It is interesting to note that although some (not all like Sethnock) HGVC members like myself having a little difficulty to exchange to RCI, RCI is listing HGVC sea world in Extra vacation for a phenomenal price. 2 BR Platinum for about 569.99 and 1 BR gold for 449.99. These are going very quickly, no wonder. I was stunned. I found several weeks for March 07 and also for Nov/Dec 06. However, I did not find any for special weeks like Thanksgiving, Christmas etc. I guess when Seth is exchanging his HGVC with RCI, it is somehow going into RCI extra vacation. Who said life has to be fair as long as it is interesting?

PS: I think the exchange has once in four years rule.

 

[Seth Nock]

It is interesting to note that although some (not all like Sethnock) HGVC members like myself having a little difficulty to exchange to RCI, RCI is listing HGVC sea world in Extra vacation for a phenomenal price. 2 BR Platinum for about 569.99 and 1 BR gold for 449.99. These are going very quickly, no wonder. I was stunned. I found several weeks for March 07 and also for Nov/Dec 06. However, I did not find any for special weeks like Thanksgiving, Christmas etc. I guess when Seth is exchanging his HGVC with RCI, it is somehow going into RCI extra vacation. Who said life has to be fair as long as it is interesting?

PS: I think the exchange has once in four years rule.

I don't know any of the people at HGVC Club desk. I know the upper management and many of the people at Interval International, as many of the properties where my buyers ask for help reserving are Interval resorts, not RCI resorts. Most of my buyers do just book Hiltons, and most of them book summer and school holidays, which are not available as extra vacation weeks. I advise my buyers who are trading through RCI to put teir requests out a minimum of 8 months in advance, as many of the confirmations happen at the 6 month mark. Try that when you are looking to make your next reservation, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Seth Nock]

I checked HHONORS by telephone. The choices for category 6 are as follows:

1. one to four nights: 40000 points per night with or without Hilton Amex.
2. six nights consecutively in the same hotel: 175,000 points.

4 nights is 125,000 with the AMEX, AXON is the reward code.

 

[Seth Nock]

It is interesting to note that although some (not all like Sethnock) HGVC members like myself having a little difficulty to exchange to RCI, RCI is listing HGVC sea world in Extra vacation for a phenomenal price. 2 BR Platinum for about 569.99 and 1 BR gold for 449.99. These are going very quickly, no wonder. I was stunned. I found several weeks for March 07 and also for Nov/Dec 06. However, I did not find any for special weeks like Thanksgiving, Christmas etc. I guess when Seth is exchanging his HGVC with RCI, it is somehow going into RCI extra vacation. Who said life has to be fair as long as it is interesting?

PS: I think the exchange has once in four years rule.

From a business standpoint, it makes sense to offer the extra vacations. If someone buys an extra vacation, they know how timeshares work. They tend not to have enough ownership usage. They tend to buy additional weeks. There is a 1 in 4 rule, so if they like the property, the only way to go back again within the next 4 years is to buy it. Hilton knows what they are doing.

 

[biswassb]

From a business standpoint, it makes sense to offer the extra vacations. If someone buys an extra vacation, they know how timeshares work. They tend not to have enough ownership usage. They tend to buy additional weeks. There is a 1 in 4 rule, so if they like the property, the only way to go back again within the next 4 years is to buy it. Hilton knows what they are doing.

Absolutely, I fully agree with you. It does make sense for HGVC to make HGVC Seaworld/Tuscany available to all RCI owners. HGVC owners are supposedly rich, and they can afford Open season rental rates, they do not need Extra vacations at HGVC and anywhere else. HGVC open season is like RCI Extra vacations and identical to Last Call except the price. I am sure that is also the business logic/model for not making RCI website available to HGVC owners at all. In addition HGVC owners do not have to pay the RCI annual membership fee of $89 or $99.

Those of you interested, I also found HGVC-South Beach on Extra vacations at a very reasonable price. More interesting part is, RCI is charging almost double for Vistana and Vistana Village ($1186 fro 2 BR Plat) in Extra vacations compared to HGVC.

 

[alanraycole]

What am I missing here... or did I just get ripped off with a bad HGVC purchase?

Including all related fees, I pay roughly $900 for my 3500 points every other year. That means I pay 25.7 cents per point. It takes 7609 HGVC points for the Category 6 six night deal. That comes to $1956 for the six days or $326 per night. There aren't too many Hiltons that I would prefer to stay in that cost that much per night. If there is a Hilton that costs that much in the area where I want to stay, there is probably a cheaper hotel not too far away that would satisfy me just as much. What am I overlooking... or can it just be chalked up to different strokes for different folks... or am I paying a lot more per point than most. For what it is worth, I own a two bedroom, silver season at the Las Vegas Hilton.

One example... I want to stay in Carmel, California area... I can stay at the Embassy Suites using points for $326/night, pay cash for $299/night, or stay at the Hyatt not too far away (and closer to Carmel) for $138/night through Priceline. If I choose the Hyatt, I can stay somewhere else at some other time at a timeshare with my points and pay in effect $129/night. So... for those above who celebrate Hhonors conversion in this thread... what am I missing... sincerely asking...

 

[PigsDad]

First off, using club points for hotel reservations has never been that great of a deal. Just read this whole thread, as well as others to confirm that.

Second, you said you own in the silver season. Since HGVC bases maintenance fees by unit size, not number of points, you are paying much more MF/point than owners of gold or platinum season. For example, if you owned your same property in platinum season, your MF fees would be the same, but you would be getting 7000 points per EOY, instead of 3500. That would cut your cost for the cat 6 hotel down to $163/night, using your calculations.

On the bright side, you probably paid much less for your silver property than people who bought platinum.

Kurt