GoodOrBadIdea
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- Jan 31, 2016
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So we just got back from a free 3-day stay in exchange for a TimeShare presentation by Holiday Inn Club Vacation (HICV). The wife & I agreed beforehand that we would listen, but no impulsive buys. Lets walk away; we're not interested in time shares.
With respect to the many reviews/comments we've come across, we didn't feel any pressure or any of the staff being push toward us at any point (I can't say that for everyone else in the room; the table next to us was getting pushed pretty hard to make a sale).
In short, what was scheduled to be around a 2 hour sales pitch turned into a 7 hour thorough info-session (because we took our time). We asked 1001 questions, had some private time to chit-chat and crunch some numbers with one another, and most importantly ask one of our friends (who owns a timeshare with a different company) regarding his experience and suggestions. Because of this, we addressed several of our questions before the deal, and not after.
Several hours in, it seemed that the math added up, especially seeing we would be paying a minimum of a third (if not half) of the timeshare purchase price in the next 2-3 trips we planned on taking this year alone. So I think we got a pretty good deal, but I'd love to hear others' perspectives/feedback:
- HICV, Points-Based system, so can book (through HICV) with Holiday-Inn Resorts, IHG (80% point exchange value), or RCI (50% point exchange value)
- No black out dates; only that certain high demand locations will require requesting months in advance, and very exclusive areas may require a wait-list (if it's another TimeShare owner's home base, which they can reserve up to 3 years in advance, so they get priority in the reservation over us).
- Non-weekend reservations (Sun - Thur) are at half-point cost
- You can take advantage of others' last minute cancellations for even better deals too.
- Our home base is Orange Lake Resort Orlando. Being that we're Floridians, that's a great value, because we have access to the resort amenities (without using any points or actually booking a hotel/resort room) for free. Unlimited use. So can literally have family/friends from out of town and drive over to the resort and use the park/water amenities, free of charge.
- The initial sales pitch was for shares @ $00.24/point. The "if you buy today only" sales pitch was $00.21/point. A quick online comparison shows another HICV member selling their timeshare on Ebay on a timeshare resale website for $25,000 for 166,000 points ($00.1506/point). So we initially thought lets wait and shop around to buy from existing owners looking to unload their timeshare.
- We asked about this indirectly; the HICV staff stated that if you purchase someone else's timeshare, you're stuck in the week-specific timeshare setup (old setup) and aren't allowed to upgrade into the point system, plus they don't extend the partnerships to IHG and RCI for them either. Its their way of making sure they control the sales/competition, and that this applies to ALL timeshare companies. So basically we're told that either you buy new and get the point system giving you flexibility to reserve anywhere, or you buy used and get locked into a specific week at a specific location. Period.
- My friend warned us about the high maintenance fees, reservation fees, and membership fees (go to through partners like IHG & RCI, etc). It seems that HICV does have its fees, but they really aren't that bad, given their initial buy-in price is a LOT cheaper than say, the #1 rated Marriott Vacation Club (http://vacation-club-review.toptenreviews.com/). And there are NO membership fees (beyond the HICV annual membership fee) to use their affiliates (eg you don't have to pay an annual membership fee with IHG, and another with RCI, etc, as some other timeshare companies make you do). There are higher reservation fees when using IHG or RCI, but that's per use.
- I'm an IHG VIP Plus member (Platinum Elite) through work, so they were able to open up deals from existing owners trying to sell back their timeshares to HICV. So we were able to get 127,000 points for $18,400 = $00.1448/point. Maintenance cost is $781 annually and $147 for property taxes annually.
- Additional points (up to 50% of your annual point value) can be purchased for $0.01/point, per year.
- You maintain IHG Platinum Elite status, and unused HICV points can be rolled over into IHG where they don't expire. Ever.
- You can rollover one year's point to HICV for the next year, but the points expire after 2 years (if not rolled over the IHG). What you do use the second year will be deducted from the rollover points FIRST, before that year's allotted points, so you can technically rollover that year's unused points as well.
So again, overall, I think we got a pretty good deal. Obviously you're limited to the 16 HCIV sites within the US, but when you combine them with the RCI options, and IHG reservations (coupled with racking up points via an IHG Credit Card), you can pretty much go anywhere with HICV for minimal out-of-pocket expense. Or at least that's how I'm seeing it.
I'd love to hear others' feedback regarding this, in particular to the following:
1) Did we indeed get a good deal?
2) Are timeshares purchased in the resale market truly limited to the week-specific system, and prevented from being upgrades/changed to the point system after transfer of ownership? Because we're ONLY interested in the point system.
3) Any pros/cons we're missing by going with HICV vs another timeshare company, based on the setup we have?
Thanks for your time & help!
With respect to the many reviews/comments we've come across, we didn't feel any pressure or any of the staff being push toward us at any point (I can't say that for everyone else in the room; the table next to us was getting pushed pretty hard to make a sale).
In short, what was scheduled to be around a 2 hour sales pitch turned into a 7 hour thorough info-session (because we took our time). We asked 1001 questions, had some private time to chit-chat and crunch some numbers with one another, and most importantly ask one of our friends (who owns a timeshare with a different company) regarding his experience and suggestions. Because of this, we addressed several of our questions before the deal, and not after.
Several hours in, it seemed that the math added up, especially seeing we would be paying a minimum of a third (if not half) of the timeshare purchase price in the next 2-3 trips we planned on taking this year alone. So I think we got a pretty good deal, but I'd love to hear others' perspectives/feedback:
- HICV, Points-Based system, so can book (through HICV) with Holiday-Inn Resorts, IHG (80% point exchange value), or RCI (50% point exchange value)
- No black out dates; only that certain high demand locations will require requesting months in advance, and very exclusive areas may require a wait-list (if it's another TimeShare owner's home base, which they can reserve up to 3 years in advance, so they get priority in the reservation over us).
- Non-weekend reservations (Sun - Thur) are at half-point cost
- You can take advantage of others' last minute cancellations for even better deals too.
- Our home base is Orange Lake Resort Orlando. Being that we're Floridians, that's a great value, because we have access to the resort amenities (without using any points or actually booking a hotel/resort room) for free. Unlimited use. So can literally have family/friends from out of town and drive over to the resort and use the park/water amenities, free of charge.
- The initial sales pitch was for shares @ $00.24/point. The "if you buy today only" sales pitch was $00.21/point. A quick online comparison shows another HICV member selling their timeshare on Ebay on a timeshare resale website for $25,000 for 166,000 points ($00.1506/point). So we initially thought lets wait and shop around to buy from existing owners looking to unload their timeshare.
- We asked about this indirectly; the HICV staff stated that if you purchase someone else's timeshare, you're stuck in the week-specific timeshare setup (old setup) and aren't allowed to upgrade into the point system, plus they don't extend the partnerships to IHG and RCI for them either. Its their way of making sure they control the sales/competition, and that this applies to ALL timeshare companies. So basically we're told that either you buy new and get the point system giving you flexibility to reserve anywhere, or you buy used and get locked into a specific week at a specific location. Period.
- My friend warned us about the high maintenance fees, reservation fees, and membership fees (go to through partners like IHG & RCI, etc). It seems that HICV does have its fees, but they really aren't that bad, given their initial buy-in price is a LOT cheaper than say, the #1 rated Marriott Vacation Club (http://vacation-club-review.toptenreviews.com/). And there are NO membership fees (beyond the HICV annual membership fee) to use their affiliates (eg you don't have to pay an annual membership fee with IHG, and another with RCI, etc, as some other timeshare companies make you do). There are higher reservation fees when using IHG or RCI, but that's per use.
- I'm an IHG VIP Plus member (Platinum Elite) through work, so they were able to open up deals from existing owners trying to sell back their timeshares to HICV. So we were able to get 127,000 points for $18,400 = $00.1448/point. Maintenance cost is $781 annually and $147 for property taxes annually.
- Additional points (up to 50% of your annual point value) can be purchased for $0.01/point, per year.
- You maintain IHG Platinum Elite status, and unused HICV points can be rolled over into IHG where they don't expire. Ever.
- You can rollover one year's point to HICV for the next year, but the points expire after 2 years (if not rolled over the IHG). What you do use the second year will be deducted from the rollover points FIRST, before that year's allotted points, so you can technically rollover that year's unused points as well.
So again, overall, I think we got a pretty good deal. Obviously you're limited to the 16 HCIV sites within the US, but when you combine them with the RCI options, and IHG reservations (coupled with racking up points via an IHG Credit Card), you can pretty much go anywhere with HICV for minimal out-of-pocket expense. Or at least that's how I'm seeing it.
I'd love to hear others' feedback regarding this, in particular to the following:
1) Did we indeed get a good deal?
2) Are timeshares purchased in the resale market truly limited to the week-specific system, and prevented from being upgrades/changed to the point system after transfer of ownership? Because we're ONLY interested in the point system.
3) Any pros/cons we're missing by going with HICV vs another timeshare company, based on the setup we have?
Thanks for your time & help!