Hilton HHonors - HHonors + HGVC = Ripoff warning

I am actually quite furious with HHonors / HGVC right now, maybe I am doing something wrong, or someone can help me better understand it, but this stinks.

I want to book at the Conrad Bali (Indonesia), which goes for $170 USD per night (Prepaid on both Hilton.com and Hotels.com, Christmas week 2009)
Conrad Bali 2009 is Level 4 (Currently 30,000)
Conrad Bali 2010 will be Level 5 (35,000)

At this time I want to stay for 5 days, and I am unable to use the VIP promotion codes reducing the rate to (25,000).

So if you consider I can buy a room for 5 nights for $850 or less (AT CHRISTMAS NO LESS), or I can burn 150,000HH points, each point is worth .006 Dollars. Almost half of what it costs to purchase them outright.

What a flipping insult.

We own week 50 and 51 at HGVC Waikaloa Village, at this resort we have ample space with 2 full bedrooms, and 4-6 of us never get in each others way, it is soon to be upgraded as well, with HHonors conversion now I can barely afford 6 nights for 1 std hotel room in Bali (not to mention I would need 3x that to stay), where things are meant to be cheaper. I feel extremely jaded and angry.

Is the 1=25 increasing in value?

In this situation HHonors is a complete ripoff.

I can buy a room for 5 nights for $850 or less (AT CHRISTMAS NO LESS), or I can burn 150,000HH points, each point is worth .006 cents.

Your math is off by 2 orders of magnitude - it's .006 Dollars, not cents.

I want to book at the Conrad Bali (Indonesia), which goes for $170 USD per night

Is that a prepaid rate? I'm seeing $210 per night as the lowest non-prepaid rate. For five nights it would amount to $1,050 plus tax, for the grand total of $1,270.50, resulting in each point being worth 0.85 cents. That's a decent value (I try to extract about 1 cent per point used, but most people here seem to value HH points at about 0.6-0.7 cents.

Thanks Eugene,

So at .006 possibly it is legit, but you have to purchase at .01. Sure I guess you aren't intended to purchase all too many.

The real issue then is the HGVC cross over: 175,000 points from 1 week. Our property is 1328 sqft (Verifying this now) 2 Bedroom 2 Bath, on a golf course, with 3 Pools, and the Beach .25miles away.

Alas, time to get out the HGVC/RCI manual.

:/

Sure I guess you aren't intended to purchase all too many.

Bingo! :)

The real issue then is the HGVC cross over

No disagreement here - I always thought that timeshares (especially when purchased directly) were a rip-off. Just my opinion.

One of the issues here is that it depends on where you purchase your HGVC, what weeks you own (yours are very pricey), etc. I believe that Hawaii is the most expensive for both purchase and maintenance fees.

We own at the LV Hilton, 7000 club points, maint. fee under $800. We usually convert to HHpoints and use those points for hotels that run over $200/nite at the highest point value we can get--most often in large US cities or in Europe.

Our sense is that we get a great value doing this. If prices are really low we just opt to pay for the stay and we save the points for a time when the value is in our favor.

Personally, we consider our HHpoints as one of the best travel values that we own. My DH has a yearly convention in places like New Orleans, San Diego, Chicago, etc. and we always stay for "free" on points. For a paid stay, it would usually cost us at least $1200 for 6 nights, excluding at least 10% tax, so it's a no brainer. If we can get into an Embassy Suites, we get a 2 room suite and a cooked to order breakfast, choose free internet as our My Way choice and we pay $0 at check-out.

I am actually quite furious with HHonors / HGVC right now, maybe I am doing something wrong, or someone can help me better understand it, but this stinks.

I want to book at the Conrad Bali (Indonesia), which goes for $170 USD per night (Prepaid on both Hilton.com and Hotels.com, Christmas week 2009)
Conrad Bali 2009 is Level 4 (Currently 30,000)
Conrad Bali 2010 will be Level 5 (35,000)

At this time I want to stay for 5 days, and I am unable to use the VIP promotion codes reducing the rate to (25,000).

So if you consider I can buy a room for 5 nights for $850 or less (AT CHRISTMAS NO LESS), or I can burn 150,000HH points, each point is worth .006 Dollars. Almost half of what it costs to purchase them outright.

What a flipping insult.

We own week 50 and 51 at HGVC Waikaloa Village, at this resort we have ample space with 2 full bedrooms, and 4-6 of us never get in each others way, it is soon to be upgraded as well, with HHonors conversion now I can barely afford 6 nights for 1 std hotel room in Bali (not to mention I would need 3x that to stay), where things are meant to be cheaper. I feel extremely jaded and angry.

Is the 1=25 increasing in value?

In this situation HHonors is a complete ripoff.

Why are you not able to use the VIP promotion code? Is it because of the Holiday season?

As mentioned by other posters, you own very expensive HGVC (in terms of maintenance fees). I own a 3 bedroom, 3 bath unit at the Sunset Cove (Marco Island), over 2000 Sq feet penthouse. My Maintenance fee is $1200 and I get 9600 HGVC points (they convert at 1 to 25 HHonors). Therefore, the converted HHonors are great bargain for me if used judiciously at expensive properties at prime location and prime time.