Recommendation: Seeking something a step less upscale (and cheaper maintenance) than HGVC

[StarSailer]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
1st-choice: Florida Panhandle or South Carolina / Georgia Beaches are in prime driving distance.
2nd-choice: The Smoky Mountains are in prime driving distance.

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?
About half the time. Alternating home resort with somewhere fresh would be cool.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
#1 Beach, local. (Florida panhandle, South Carolina, Georgia)
#2 Mountains, local. (Smokies)
#3 Beach, distant. (Florida space coast, Clear Water are top of list)
#4 Mountains, distant. (Rockies or Ozark)
#5 All-incusive Mexico/Bahama/Caribbean.

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself?
Variable.
40% - 2-adults, 2 children (core family)
30% - 4-adults, 2 children (with grandparents)
30% - 2 adults (getaway while leaving kids behind with grandparents)

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
Some flexibility, but school schedule availability is important for 4-6 person groups.

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
Half the time.

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
Maybe once a year. Booking an additional 4-night trip would be nice.

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
3-4 stars.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
$15,000 max with <$750 maintenance.

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?
Up to $1500 if the up-front was free.

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
Medium level of details planned.

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes, but something easily forfeited would be preferred all else equal just to hedge against maintenance increasing faster than inflation.

--------
Considering:
Diamond / Hilton Vacation Club. Mostly in the right locations... but their US collection seems to be golf resort heavy and I don't golf.
Sapphire. A point/credit company with low maintenance fee access to RCI... but a bit sleazy in reputation.
Other?

 

[GT75]

Diamond / Hilton Vacation Club

I wouldn’t recommend HVC because with resale you will be limited to only your trust collection and MFs are much higher than HGVC for less quality. HVC doesn’t treat their resale costumers well like HGVC. Since you ruled out HGVC, I will let other TS owners give you recommendations.

 

[CO skier]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
1st-choice: Florida Panhandle or South Carolina / Georgia Beaches are in prime driving distance.
2nd-choice: The Smoky Mountains are in prime driving distance.

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself?
Variable.
40% - 2-adults, 2 children (core family)
30% - 4-adults, 2 children (with grandparents)
30% - 2 adults (getaway while leaving kids behind with grandparents)

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
Some flexibility, but school schedule availability is important for 4-6 person groups.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
$15,000 max with <$750 maintenance.

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?
Up to $1500 if the up-front was free.

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
Medium level of details planned.

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes, but something easily forfeited would be preferred all else equal just to hedge against maintenance increasing faster than inflation.

----- --
Considering:
Diamond / Hilton Vacation Club. Mostly in the right locations... but their US collection seems to be golf resort heavy and I don't golf.
Sapphire. A point/credit company with low maintenance fee access to RCI... but a bit sleazy in reputation.
Other?

Club Wyndham checks all your boxes. $1,500/year maintenance fees for a week plus getaways would be a challenge in just a one bedroom in any timeshare. Since you want to travel with 4-6 persons during Prime season, you would likely need Advance Reservation Priority if you wanted a 3 bedroom. (Once our family stayed in a 3 bedroom, we never went back to a 2 bedroom.)

Owning at Club Wyndham Smoky Mountains would give you ARP access to a 3 bedroom (203,000 points for a full week). You could book 5 nights, Sunday to Friday for 120,000 points. Maintenance fees vary by resort owned; Smoky Mountains' are "reasonable"; for a little more, Club Wyndham Access would give you ARP at a number of resorts. Recent Smoky Mountains eBay auctions were for 300,000 points, sold for $26 all-in and maintenance fees $2,334/year, and another with 238,000 points for $597 all-in and $1,770/year maintenance fees. The second auction also required prepayment of 6 months of maintenance fees, so watch out for that in an auction.

There is an abundance of Smoky Mountains rentals on eBay, if you wanted to "try before you buy."

There is also Club Wyndham Great Smokies Lodge, but I think the maintenance fees are higher there.

An RCI membership is included in the price of annual maintenances for when you want to travel outside of Club Wyndham.

Here is a map of Club Wyndham locations in your area of interest:

and the points chart for Club Wyndham Smoky Mountains, as an example (each resort is different)

and a link to the most recent CW Directory, with more information and points charts at other resorts:

2023-2024 CW Directory

media.travelandleisure.com

 

[jp10558]

I think for less than one week stays would limit you to points systems. I can't exactly tell if you already have HGVC or not? I'm assuming from the group size you'll be looking at 2BR options? I think you might be someone who should consider a RCI points account? Like Grandview, which can be gotten for transfer fees - I think there are some right on the free TS here at TUG right now, and they seem to come up occasionally. MFs for a 2BR I think are around $1k. Exchanges currently cost $400ish with exchange fee plus average resort fees, so you'd be looking at the $1,400 if you didn't go to Vegas if you use it as a "full priced" week. That said, there are frequent reports of weeks you can get for ~1/2 of the total points you get from Grandviews, with last minute stuff as low as ~1/11th. So you might spend $2,200 for 3 weeks. I'm not as sure how the RCI points works for shorter stays, I think it's not often a great deal as you'd pay the same exchange fee but less points? Another one that has looked good to me is Tree Tops near Gatlinburg.

However you get RCI though many of your locations will be available as Extra Vacations and Last Calls, so you could also supplement with that - they've started having more 2,3,4 etc night stays, though I bet they're Monday to Thursday so ... But also they've always had full weeks. Again, usually for Last Calls it'd be better to book a full week and just leave when you want to because they cost the same as the shorter stays. So another way you could do this is get a weeks account with something cheap like Magic Tree in Orlando where the buy in is reported to be $1,500 for a 2BR and MFs of $650, and just exchange that week for a total of around $1,050 and then supplement with Extra Vacations and Last Calls.

These are all going to get you mid 3 star resorts, which to me are mostly fine, and often appreciated for location and value.

If you had to do a point system internally, I guess Wyndham would likely be best for it being mostly cheap or free to pick up - here on TUG and on eBay primarily, CWA points are all over eBay and while they're often seen as a bit expensive, they are free to get. CWS points tied to a specific resort can be cheaper MFs but are less available for free (not saying they're not ever, check the forums and marketplace here), but even eBay prices often end up at $2k or less after all transfer fees. Wyndham has a lot of locations HGVC doesn't have, including Smoky Mountains, many FL beaches, Ozark Mountains too. You would have to look at the points values and may have to pay more in MFs for more points to get 2BR say, BUT you could also use Wyndham for the 2-3 day stays with a small points contract and then still often use RCI Extra Vacations and Last Calls for at least some of the locations like Ozarks and Smoky Mountains and probably some FL beaches.

EDIT: Wyndham is probably usually 3.5 star I'd say.

 

[silentg]

We used to own HICV at Orange Lake, affiliate locations in many of the areas you want to visit. Maintenance fees are high at Orange Lake but if you buy points at other HIVC timeshare maybe less maintenance fees. Also they are affiliated with IHG hotels you can transfer points to travel to any of their locations.
we enjoyed owning and points. But we have scaled back on timeshare ownership. I’m assuming you have a young family? Timeshare is a great investment for quality vacations. We have been timesharing since 1981.
Lots of great trips and memories. Good Luck and let us know where you buy?
silentg

 

[b2bailey]

I can't think of anywhere that you could find Maintenance Fees less than $750.

 

[StarSailer]

We don't have HGVC, but did attend an HGVC presentation which made us think we couldn't afford them. It was also a lot more luxury they we felt we needed. Maybe it is optimistic thinking, but I would be happy to stay at less grand resorts if they were cheaper. It is mostly the location.

Any reviews on Holiday In Club Vacations? Holiday Inn is a less prestigious name than Hilton in the hotel business. Does that mean their resorts have lower maintenance fees?

 

[jp10558]

We don't have HGVC, but did attend an HGVC presentation which made us think we couldn't afford them. It was also a lot more luxury they we felt we needed. Maybe it is optimistic thinking, but I would be happy to stay at less grand resorts if they were cheaper. It is mostly the location.

Any reviews on Holiday In Club Vacations? Holiday Inn is a less prestigious name than Hilton in the hotel business. Does that mean their resorts have lower maintenance fees?

So don't use hotels as a guide here for prices. For whatever reason HGVC has some of the cheaper MFs, especially if you buy strategically. They also have limited locations though. HIVC is much trickier resale because of limitations they put in place that HGVC doesn't. That said the names are VERY specific - Hilton Vacation Club / HVC is not cheap or as good for resale and not as nice resorts as HGVC. That G is incredibly important. Then there are some HGVC like Sandestin that aren't actually in the club. Idk why the names are like this except to confuse people and sell them worse stuff.

I think Wyndham might be the best match - at least without a bunch of learning up front (though that would be a good idea, I know doing a lot of "simulation trips" beforehand isn't most people's idea of a good time).

You will have a bit higher MFs than the absolute cheapest but also easier use I think. You still want to book 10 months out if possible for availability.

 

[CO skier]

Any reviews on Holiday In Club Vacations? Holiday Inn is a less prestigious name than Hilton in the hotel business. Does that mean their resorts have lower maintenance fees?

According to this thread, there is a big difference between HICV "deeded points" and "trust points" maintenance fees.

HICV 2024 Maint Fee Increases

Saw this on a fb post, good start to the list. anyone own at some other resorts and want to post their 2024 increases/fees? OLCC VCAIII (OLCC East Village) 6.5% Orange Lake Vermont (Ascutney) 4.8% OLCC VCA (OLCC West Village) 8.0% OL Standard Trust 8.6% OL Signature Trust 19.8% South Beach EY...

tugbbs.com

 

[Sandy VDH]

Wyndham has choices in most of the locations you listed. So I would second that as a possible match choice.

 

[sue1947]

Your answers above have some challenges. Here are some additional questions to ask as you focus on specific timeshare systems.
1. When do you need to book a school holiday 2 BR unit in a popular location? You said you can only book a year in advance half the time so you will want to understand the cancellation policy. There will be more people wanting those larger units during school holidays than there are units available. If you wait until a couple months out, there likely won't be anything left. Booking early is the way to go but you need to understand the fees etc involved if you need to cancel.
2. What are the booking requirements? I own in one system that requires a week booking at 13 months and then shorter options open up at 10 months. At many locations, by 10 months, there's not much left. I get what I want by understanding the rules and working the system, but getting those shorter stays at popular spots (like the beach in summer) with a month or 2 notice is the exception and not something you can count on.
3. Do the resorts you want have the 2-3 Br units you need? How many? Some resorts don't have any. 3 BR or larger are less likely. There tends to be more 2 BR units, but they also get booked up quickly by other families looking for a vacation.

 

[jp10558]

The good news is I think Smoky Mountains are reasonably easy to book in Wyndham and I have seen them like in April come up on Bonus Time even. But IDK about like June/July. If you're looking for cash deals you can sometimes make multiple units work too. So 2 1BR instead of a 2BR. It'll cost more but a bit more available. Given Smoky Mountains #2 on the list you could also get one of the cheaper resorts being given away like my Gatlinburg Town Square unit with a $1k mf for 2br and seems easy to book 4th of July week one year out there. Then you have either a week right when you can go or a decent Interval trader as an alternative. Though trading has the fees and you also have to buy the Interval membership.

 

[StarSailer]

Your answers above have some challenges. Here are some additional questions to ask as you focus on specific timeshare systems.
1. When do you need to book a school holiday 2 BR unit in a popular location? You said you can only book a year in advance half the time so you will want to understand the cancellation policy. There will be more people wanting those larger units during school holidays than there are units available. If you wait until a couple months out, there likely won't be anything left. Booking early is the way to go but you need to understand the fees etc involved if you need to cancel.
2. What are the booking requirements? I own in one system that requires a week booking at 13 months and then shorter options open up at 10 months. At many locations, by 10 months, there's not much left. I get what I want by understanding the rules and working the system, but getting those shorter stays at popular spots (like the beach in summer) with a month or 2 notice is the exception and not something you can count on.
3. Do the resorts you want have the 2-3 Br units you need? How many? Some resorts don't have any. 3 BR or larger are less likely. There tends to be more 2 BR units, but they also get booked up quickly by other families looking for a vacation.

Yah... something is going to have to give. Wishful thinking was for that there was a lower-tier travel company brand somewhere, but more likely either the budget or travel expectations will have to change. Maybe 4-5 week-night trips instead of full weeks? If I'm reading point costs right a Sunday-Thrusday night trip with HGVC, HVC, Wyndem, etc typically only costs half the points of taking the full 7-night week.

1. Maybe? With HGVC all the good locations/times were Platinum season, but other systems have times locations/times marked as high season on a mid/high/peak ranking.

2. We can schedule a big annual trip for say, summer holiday, on 9-15 month notice. We just want to have the opportunity to try and book a last call getaway as a bonus trip on shorter notice. Maybe as an RCI extra vacation trip if the company is RCI affiliated? If we had to we could probably get a fixed-week timeshare for summer holiday which we would use ourselves even years and put on exchange to travel elsewhere on odd years... but I wouldn't want to commit to a fixed week at resort we haven't stayed at before nor take a fixed week that we couldn't regularly use ourselves. Points feel safer.

3. I don't think we will need/want 3-bed any time this decade. We are only just now at the point where we need a 1-bed vs a studio when traveling with kids. For now 2-bed is only needed for the stretch-goal of taking the grand parents. By the time the kids are big enough to need 2-bed for our own family the grand parents will either be too old to travel or our finances will have let is double our points.

 

[CO skier]

Maybe 4-5 week-night trips instead of full weeks? If I'm reading point costs right a Sunday-Thrusday night trip with HGVC, HVC, Wyndem, etc typically only costs half the points of taking the full 7-night week.

You catch on fast, and shorter vacations is how you can stay within budget. If you ever need ARP for a popular time such as July 4th, Wyndham allows booking short vacations within the ARP for the resort or Club Wyndham Access that you own. Take your best guess to book as early as possible; if plans change down the line, check availability at the time, then cancel and book what is available on shorter notice. Points-based timeshares are really flexible.

 

[Janann]

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?

#5 All-inclusive Mexico/Bahama/Caribbean.

Don't buy a timeshare for all-inclusive. There are only a very small number of resorts where the math might work. The vast majority of the time you are better off buying a package deal from an ordinary travel agent.

 

[CO skier]

Maybe as an RCI extra vacation trip if the company is RCI affiliated?

Deals like the following are commonly available -- a 2 bedroom for $400/week. Sure it is when kids are heading back to school, but this is only a couple weeks away. There are a lot more cash vacations available if you start watching 8 months in advance.

 

[4TimeAway]

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
$15,000 max with <$750 maintenance.

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?
Up to $1500 if the up-front was free.

It's important to remember that you might not necessarily need a timeshare to enjoy great vacation experiences. There are plenty of alternatives, such as credit cards with cashback, signup bonuses, free miles, and more. Additionally, websites like Red Week, Armed Forces Vacation Club, SFX if you want higher end, might offer fantastic rental options without the commitment of ownership, which can be particularly beneficial in areas prone to hurricanes and challenging insurance situations.

Now, let's talk about costs. Given the expenses associated with timeshares, you might find that an every-other-year (EYO) plan could be a more suitable option for you. This approach can be especially appealing in places like Las Vegas, where the weather is generally more stable and predictable.

From my personal experience, I have found Hilton Grand Vacations Club (HGVC) to work for us. In Las Vegas, Elara is the only HGVC property that comes to mind, but I believe Boulevard might be lower cost. This is a complicated game that you can lose at.. Really your credit score and lots of money. Please be cautious and don’t buy retail or believe what timeshare salespeople tell you unless you vet it on TUG…. Not a few salespeople may not be pitching heat or lying, but assume they all ARE!

Before making any decision, I urge you to think deeply about your choices. My family and I have explored various vacation options, including camping, RVing, staying in hotels, and eventually timesharing.

We migth buy a third resale timesare "Resale via Retail" with a purpose we know going in. It has taken years but its been a fun learning experience.