ohange

Whenever I call into Hilton customer service, I always get offered to hear about a great deal, and for listening, they'll give me 500 bonus points, etc. for listening.

So - one day I bit. I listened to the person giving me the speech. While they were telling me about the location, the amenities, etc., I had googled/trip-advisor'ed, etc. the place, and knew approximately what rates I should expect to hear, and even figured out alternatives that were both more and less pricey.

I just did a forum search and found some other threads... but is there an FAQ on the HGVs?

cayenne92

Your best bet is to check out TUG-timeshare users group. It works similar to here but for timeshares.
In a nutshell, it works just like HHonors but for different properties. You can convert your HGVC to HH points but only once a year. I do own HGVC and can answer anything you want to PM me about.

nlkm9

I have a good friend who joined in NY---she paid $25000 a week and bought 2 weeks, and she has automatic gold status. she has gone on some great trips, but she regrets the purchase, the maintenance fees keep going up.....

ohange

Oh. It's a timeshare model. That's why it's so "different"...

AnthonyF1227

Timeshares are typically not worth it. If you could have gotten into one back in the old days when they first started and were dirt cheap, then it could have been worth it. These days, the entrance prices are so high and the maintenance fees don't make it any easier.

zussino

Those maintenance fees are incredible (the math simply does not work).

linsj

Rule #1: Never buy from the developer. It's easy to find great resale prices, and the maintenance fee math does work. For example, it's possible to spend 3+ weeks at HHV for less than $1,000.

Lots of info at tugbbs.com, the Flyertalk for timeshare users.

RickR

Amen! We estimated around $90/night for the maintenance fees. For that price we can find many other places, airB&B for one. Naturally there are up-front costs and other fees. So, if you are interested in buying don't do the math.

We went to a HGVC presentation and almost went for it. It does seem to be a good program. And, we got some goodies for listening and they threw quite a number of bonus points at us. (The system works on points. There are no dedicated rooms or weeks - just use the points where and whenever they work.) The presentation was professional, low-key and no pressure - and they stayed within the advertised duration.

The actual HGVC locations are a very mixed bag. Good selections in HI, FL and Vegas - and Scotland! Very thin to none otherwise. Their RCI tie-in is attractive - providing many more lodging options.

However, the killer is the maintenance fee. Definitely not worth it.

sethb

The HGVC location in Manhattan (W 57th St.) is very good, too.

IsleOfMan

As an owner, I'll +1 that you should never buy directly from Hilton. We recently bought 2 weeks/2-bedroom/Gold-weeks in Orlando for ~$3k on the resale market, and it even included the previous year's worth of banked points. The recession pushed A LOT of resale properties on to the market and they still haven't dried up yet. Beyond the small initial investment, our annual maintenance/club fees are ~75% what we would pay for the same accommodations booked direct. We visit Orlando enough that we don't worry much about the points going unused (though we're into year 2 and are just now exhausting the banked points that were included and actually starting to use the current year's points).

For other owners, have you ever actually converted your remaining points for the year to HHonors? The conversion rate seems extremely poor so we've just saved our points at the end of the last 2 years (so far we've only redeemed at HGVC properties, so not being able to use the saved points outside of HGVC doesn't bother us).

RoadWeary

I am an HGVC owner as well, and am happy with our membership.

I agree the locations are mixed, some good ones, and others not so exciting..at least to me.

If your interested, definitely buy resale instead of the developer.

The maintenance fees vary by resort, so you can shop aground and find a resort with lower fees. New York and Hawaii are high, Las Vegas locations usually have lowest maintenance fees.

linsj

I'm another happy resale owner and couldn't begin to book nice hotels for the number of nights I get, based on what I pay in maintenance fees.

I've never converted to Honors points because the conversion rate is extremely poor when compared to the number of nights I can get with my HGVC points. Some people on TUG think they get a bargain doing this when booking expensive hotels in Europe, but I still can't make the numbers work for me.

IsleOfMan

Same here... even buying points seems to be better math than converting from HGVC points. So far our only failure to book a HGVC property with our points has been NYC during Thanksgiving week (specifically for the Macy's Parade).