Zenichiro
TUG Member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2020
- Messages
- 617
- Reaction score
- 600
- Location
- Chicago
- Resorts Owned
- Paradise
The Crane Barbados
We attended a Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare presentation at Mystic Dunes. We could have switched it to Tuscany, but we’d never been to Mystic Dunes, so we wanted to see how it looked. My impression was they’ve put serious money into the sales office. Everything was very modern, with multiple desks equipped with large Apple monitors for the sales staff.
We had a quick 20-minute overview of the Diamond and Bluegreen acquisitions and the properties that were added or coming online. Of course the main theme was HGV Max, with the usual “get in now before it changes” angle.
Our salesperson was nice. We mostly stayed quiet and let him explain everything. His main push was trust points and how you could’ve purchased 4,000 points to get into Max two years ago, but now it’s 8,000. He also claimed you can use points to book flights and all kinds of hotels at a $0.40 per point value, which only applies at the CENTUM level I believe. For regular members the value is nowhere near that, more like $0.07 per point and I believe it only applies to 20% of the value or something.
We got the expected offers. First was $80k for 10k points, which was an immediate no. Then it dropped to $40k for the same 10k points. He got up and left like he was turning in our paperwork and signing us out, but came back and said he could offer 4,000 points at $4 per point to get into HGV Max. He said it was a steal since everyone else is paying $8 per point, so about $16k all in. We declined again and told them our ownership is complete and we’re not adding anything.
At the end, we met with the sales manager and raised concerns about the booking system. Southwest Florida properties are no longer viewable online to check availability or book, which is frustrating. We also pointed out that DEX had far more availability than what we’re seeing now under Max, which was also disappointing. There was no VIP offer, just questions about why we didn’t say yes and how the salesperson did.
We received our 75k points and were out in about 1.5 hours total.
We had a quick 20-minute overview of the Diamond and Bluegreen acquisitions and the properties that were added or coming online. Of course the main theme was HGV Max, with the usual “get in now before it changes” angle.
Our salesperson was nice. We mostly stayed quiet and let him explain everything. His main push was trust points and how you could’ve purchased 4,000 points to get into Max two years ago, but now it’s 8,000. He also claimed you can use points to book flights and all kinds of hotels at a $0.40 per point value, which only applies at the CENTUM level I believe. For regular members the value is nowhere near that, more like $0.07 per point and I believe it only applies to 20% of the value or something.
We got the expected offers. First was $80k for 10k points, which was an immediate no. Then it dropped to $40k for the same 10k points. He got up and left like he was turning in our paperwork and signing us out, but came back and said he could offer 4,000 points at $4 per point to get into HGV Max. He said it was a steal since everyone else is paying $8 per point, so about $16k all in. We declined again and told them our ownership is complete and we’re not adding anything.
At the end, we met with the sales manager and raised concerns about the booking system. Southwest Florida properties are no longer viewable online to check availability or book, which is frustrating. We also pointed out that DEX had far more availability than what we’re seeing now under Max, which was also disappointing. There was no VIP offer, just questions about why we didn’t say yes and how the salesperson did.
We received our 75k points and were out in about 1.5 hours total.