Hilton Timeshar on W 57th st in NYC

[sherlock123]

While staying at the Hilton time square we got invited to a presentation. I am very new to the timeshare concept. I was hoping to get some advice from the members of this forum.

They are offering a Studio 1 share ownership for 50k with AMF of $1,300. It would give us 5250 points per year, which if converted to Hilton honor points would be about 250kish points. This would be a deeded purchase. In addition they are giving us 2 Gold VIP memberships for life and 500,000 Hilton honor points.

Is this a good investment?

 

[vacationtime1]

First, it's not an investment. You cannot sell it for what you paid for it and you never will.

Is it a good deal? Probably not. Do the math. If you are paying $50,000, you could invest that money and earn $3,000 per year (assuming 6%). Add that to the $1,300 maintenance fee (which will go up every year) and you will be paying $4,300 for a week in a nice hotel room.

It is a nice facility (we stayed there last year), but no way would I pay over $600/night to stay there. And even that number ignores the 50-60% loss of capital as soon as you buy it (or as soon as the rescission period ends).

You can play with these numbers: different opportunity cost on capital, valuing the developer perks they are giving you, etc., but it is pretty much impossible to make any purchase of a timeshare from the developer (with the resulting immediate loss of equity of that magnitude) make sense economically.

Look at it as a lifestyle purchase and analyze it accordingly. We did not buy and we did not consider it to be a close call.

 

[Talent312]

Is this a good investment?

No way, Jose!
What TS developers sell their units for exceeds the wildest dreams of avarice.

Hilton runs one of the more customer-friendly timeshare systems, but
there's no reason to pay full-frieght when you can easily buy the same
or similar for ~ 2/3 LESS $$ on the resale market.

You won't get any signing bonuses, but frankly, they ain't all that, and
once they're gone, you'll have a TS for which you still paid far too much.
It'll be worth what... ~ 2/3 LESS $$ on the resale market.

 

[mhernandez0421]

Not a good investment. The value goes way down after you purchase directly thru Hilton. You can get on for $19K on the resale market. Do your homework and you will see.

 

[jehb2]

You can get on for $19K on the resale market. Do your homework and you will see.

A good investment?

You lose if you later sale it. This isn't even is good financial decision if you rent or use it yourself. Let's say you keep it for 20 years and the MF never increases. :hysterical: 20 years of MF plus the initial cost is 76,000. That's 3800 a week or 542 a night. Right now a room at W.57th on hilton.com is 319 - 429 a night.

I'm curious how they worked the numbers at your sales presentation. The whole selling point use to be that owning a timeshare made vacationing cheaper than renting a hotel room. Plus you had the added advantage of a 1-3 bdrm suite, full kitchen, blah, blah, blah. Maybe that's why their focusing on this whole "investment" idea.

I should add I have been a very happy Hilton owner for 14 years but current developer prices are wacky.