Hilton HHonors - HWV: DO HGVC OWNERS HAVE ACCESS TO THE POOLS?

I am thinking about buying a HGVC at the Waikoloa - does anyone know if HGVC residents have FREE access to the Waikoloa pools?

We were told "no" when we bought ours so we just usually trade our HGVC points for a ALON and stay at the hotel. I'm sure that if you read some of the HWV posts there may be a way around this issue without having to pay a day fee for the pool use. Good luck.

Just returned from there last week and the answere was NO!
We own a HGVC membership in LV and went to the sales presentation while in Hawaii. This was the one thing that kept me from purchasing a time share at the Hilton Waiakalo Bay Club. Day use for HGVC members was quoted at $75 per day. (No kidding) Higher for non members.
They issue wrist bans and towels with blue stripes. If they see you using a different towel they assume you don't belong there.
I got a long, not very satisfactory, answer as to why this is. Supposedly the Bay Club is almost sold out and then Hilton is going to start the second phase and the sales rep thought things might change when they do. But of course no promises.

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"A day without Points/Miles is like a day without SUNSHINE"

Ok, so let me get this straight: upon arriving, they try to sell you on the HGVC at the Waikoloa. Then, if you buy in to their program, the only way you can use the pools at the HWV is to pay $75 a day OR you can convert your HGVC points to HHonors points for an ALON2. Then, you redeem your points AT ALON2 (THE NEW LEVEL of 175,000 points representing a 75% increase over the previous point-threshold).

Where is the value then in the HGVC at Waikoloa? Why not buy another (more reasonable) timeshare?

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"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been,and there you will forever long to return." Leonardo da Vinci

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints."

Robert Louis Stevenson


200 nights/200 legs a year

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hotlancer:
Ok, so let me get this straight: upon arriving, they try to sell you on the HGVC at the Waikoloa. Then, if you buy in to their program, the only way you can use the pools at the HWV is to pay $75 a day OR you can convert your HGVC points to HHonors points for an ALON2. Then, you redeem your points AT ALON2 (THE NEW LEVEL of 175,000 points representing a 75% increase over the previous point-threshold).

Where is the value then in the HGVC at Waikoloa? Why not buy another (more reasonable) timeshare?
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That about sums it up.

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"A day without Points/Miles is like a day without SUNSHINE"

I can confirm this as being true. I just spoke to a man who was there from the Bay Club does the street who was trying to use the pool. - Same thing $75.

I told him to go down to our pool without paying and offered him a spare room key to flash if anyone gave him SH**.

22 Grand later for his timeshare, he is getting a real whiff of what these people are all about.

I own at the Bay Club and purchase prior to this being a HGVC property. It has only been in 2003 that Hilton actually took over management of the property. Prior to that it was the owners, now Hilton is under contract, but it is still owned by another corporate. It is an HGVC affiliate not a Hilton owned property. As Hilton takes over the development of the newly planned phase, things may change. If I find any news from the HOA I will post it here.