GMan82
TUG Member
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2019
- Messages
- 193
- Reaction score
- 122
- Points
- 154
- Resorts Owned
-
Elara, a Hilton Grand Vacations Club
West 57th by Hilton Club
Hi everyone,
I’m here visiting from the HGVC forums. I happen to be in Key West and opted to stay in the HRC Beach House via the Hyatt hotel site. It’s me and 3 other people, and the price for the 2 bed suite was too good to pass up. Anyway, they offered me a chance to sit through a presentation for $150 in gift vouchers to the cool restaurants / activities here, and access to the HRC membership discounts while I’m a guest.
I thought I’d post my experience here to see if it is what most would expect, as well as what they offered to sell me. I also had a question, as their Portfolio program is what they pushed on me.
Anyway, I’m not an owner, but in the interview at the beginning, I let them know I’m a HGVC owner. I had bought retail, but never again will I make that mistake. I discovered TUG too late, and not in time to rescind. That being said I’ve made use of the program, am in a unique position to afford it without major damage, and genuinely enjoy the resorts and the travel opportunities that opened up.
The salesman was this nice elderly man who didn’t seem to pressure me. He seemed very interested in his job and seemed to like the program. Truth being told, I loved a lot of what he mentioned when he described it to me.
He described the portfolio program where we buy 2200 points in this REIT that lets us use the points anywhere in the portfolio. I love that you can do single nights if you want, the lack of reservation fees, and the automatic rollover for up to 4 years. Hilton doesn’t have those aspects. Access to II is also a plus vs RCI. He mentioned that if I were to buy resale, I wouldn’t have access to the Portfolio and would instead be obligated to my fixed week. They mentioned this Beyond program to use points for cruises and other options. They really pressed II. They also really emphasized the “Saturday night savings” of 40% if you opt to not stay Saturday night at a resort. They also brought up small luxury hotels etc and how I could use my points and covert to WOH to stay at those places. Not the greatest deal, I know, but still a perk they advertise. They did bring up their version of elite status too, starting at 2201 points, existing in tiers.
As far as pricing, they presented the original which was about $21/pt and the the covid discount to $14ish per point. About $32k for 2200 point week, with initially 150k WOH points, upgraded to 225k points. They’d take my hotel reservation and apply to the cost. Maintenance fees about $0.89 per point, implying that you pay fees based on how many points you own rather than the actual unit. They said that would be going up to about $1 in Jan and that they want to revert the sales from $15ish back to $22ish per point. They did also present a 1320 point option, with the covid discount being about $17ish per point.
All things said and done, I almost caved. The locations complement HGVC so well. I was particularly interested in the Sedona, Key West, and Carmel locations as I don’t have those in HGVC. They offered me at the end $1295 for 5 days and 4 nights in Key West, which would be $995 in off season. They would preserve the $21/pp price level. I passed. My gift was 3 x $50 gift vouchers for use at a list of places, including nice restaurants.
I think I’m sure of this answer, but did I do the right thing in passing on this “deal”? They were so very convincing with the program.
Is there truly no benefit to buying resale? They said I wouldn’t have access to the portfolio program and would need to do fixed week only.
Is the program really as flexible as they made it seem? There is no difficulty in obtaining reservations? It’s easy to get exchanges through Interval?
They told me the Legacy system’s units also don’t impact availability in the points portfolio.
Is Marriott really going to keep out of HRC even though they own HRC now?
I told myself I would never buy retail again, but they made this deal sound just too great. Hence my long post and question to the experienced folks here at HRC.
Thanks all.
I’m here visiting from the HGVC forums. I happen to be in Key West and opted to stay in the HRC Beach House via the Hyatt hotel site. It’s me and 3 other people, and the price for the 2 bed suite was too good to pass up. Anyway, they offered me a chance to sit through a presentation for $150 in gift vouchers to the cool restaurants / activities here, and access to the HRC membership discounts while I’m a guest.
I thought I’d post my experience here to see if it is what most would expect, as well as what they offered to sell me. I also had a question, as their Portfolio program is what they pushed on me.
Anyway, I’m not an owner, but in the interview at the beginning, I let them know I’m a HGVC owner. I had bought retail, but never again will I make that mistake. I discovered TUG too late, and not in time to rescind. That being said I’ve made use of the program, am in a unique position to afford it without major damage, and genuinely enjoy the resorts and the travel opportunities that opened up.
The salesman was this nice elderly man who didn’t seem to pressure me. He seemed very interested in his job and seemed to like the program. Truth being told, I loved a lot of what he mentioned when he described it to me.
He described the portfolio program where we buy 2200 points in this REIT that lets us use the points anywhere in the portfolio. I love that you can do single nights if you want, the lack of reservation fees, and the automatic rollover for up to 4 years. Hilton doesn’t have those aspects. Access to II is also a plus vs RCI. He mentioned that if I were to buy resale, I wouldn’t have access to the Portfolio and would instead be obligated to my fixed week. They mentioned this Beyond program to use points for cruises and other options. They really pressed II. They also really emphasized the “Saturday night savings” of 40% if you opt to not stay Saturday night at a resort. They also brought up small luxury hotels etc and how I could use my points and covert to WOH to stay at those places. Not the greatest deal, I know, but still a perk they advertise. They did bring up their version of elite status too, starting at 2201 points, existing in tiers.
As far as pricing, they presented the original which was about $21/pt and the the covid discount to $14ish per point. About $32k for 2200 point week, with initially 150k WOH points, upgraded to 225k points. They’d take my hotel reservation and apply to the cost. Maintenance fees about $0.89 per point, implying that you pay fees based on how many points you own rather than the actual unit. They said that would be going up to about $1 in Jan and that they want to revert the sales from $15ish back to $22ish per point. They did also present a 1320 point option, with the covid discount being about $17ish per point.
All things said and done, I almost caved. The locations complement HGVC so well. I was particularly interested in the Sedona, Key West, and Carmel locations as I don’t have those in HGVC. They offered me at the end $1295 for 5 days and 4 nights in Key West, which would be $995 in off season. They would preserve the $21/pp price level. I passed. My gift was 3 x $50 gift vouchers for use at a list of places, including nice restaurants.
I think I’m sure of this answer, but did I do the right thing in passing on this “deal”? They were so very convincing with the program.
Is there truly no benefit to buying resale? They said I wouldn’t have access to the portfolio program and would need to do fixed week only.
Is the program really as flexible as they made it seem? There is no difficulty in obtaining reservations? It’s easy to get exchanges through Interval?
They told me the Legacy system’s units also don’t impact availability in the points portfolio.
Is Marriott really going to keep out of HRC even though they own HRC now?
I told myself I would never buy retail again, but they made this deal sound just too great. Hence my long post and question to the experienced folks here at HRC.
Thanks all.