HGVC small contracts

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

More curious than anything.... Is there any benefit to buying a small HGVC club contract? I've seen them as small as 2400 points, but I fail to see the benefits of those contracts. If you have to use 3 years worth of points for a decent one week stay, the 3 years of MFs really adds up.

Does HGVC have discount cash rooms for owners? Can owners rent more points if needed for a stay?

In Worldmark, we get significantly reduced rates on cash stays if booking within 2 weeks of arrival. Also, they run other cash price specials. Plus, we have the added benefit of renting one time use credits from other owners.

Just wondering if/what benefits are there for the small HGVC contracts.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Presley I own a 5K biennial so I guess it's like a 2.5K per year contract.
I find it just enough for my needs since I own so many other TS's.

There is alot of open season availability in the club. So much so that I've done more open season ressies than points ressies in my two years of ownership. I've done 4 Orlando open season rentals, all in big 2 and 3 bedroom units even in high season and a few SW Florida rentals in 2 bedrooms as well including during snowbird time.

I find it a great benefit of ownership. You can reserve within 30 days of check in as few as 2 nights on open season rates. I've always got something nice that is available to me on short notice within driving distance when the bug hits me.

My most recent Orlando stay was at Parc Soleil and being an owner I was able to get an extra day tacked on on my last day instead of checking out. The manager was super helpful as the house was sold out so he saved me the first cancellation/no show and walked them to another resort. Now that's service to owners. HGVC really does make their owners feel special.

I found that I had points that were going to expire and I'd have to rescue so decided to snoop around in RCI and scored a nice Manhattan Club NYE ressie so didn't have to pay to rescue those points.

If this were my only TS then I probably would feel that I underbought, but since this is just a compliment to my many other ownership, it's a perfect fit for me but I can see why others would fee that it was too little points.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I think you'd get alot of mileage owning HGVC and just renting open season with all the California affiliates coming on board. It seems that HGVC is going into partnership with Grand pacific in a closer relationship. When I was at Marbrisa there was no mention of GP, just HGVC. It's almost as if GP didn't exist. Maybe that's the image they want to portray but it's good for us HGVC owners since it's opening up new open season possibilites.

Open season is also available thru RCI by calling the club. I've not yet done any open season thru this avenue so I'm not sure where they get the inventory but it is supposedly available nightly not just weekly so I'm guessing that it's coming from points inventory.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Does the open season include Club Intrawest?

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

So when u say "open season" does this mean rental?
Rather then last minute (under 30 days) low point resies, they rent at a low rate?

Similar to Bluegreens bonus time?
Just curious.


And when u went to Maribisa(sp) in CA, that was a regular reservation that you made 6 months out?

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

Thanks for asking that as I was thinking the same thing.

So when u say "open season" does this mean rental?
Rather then last minute (under 30 days) low point resies, they rent at a low rate?

Similar to Bluegreens bonus time?
Just curious.


And when u went to Maribisa(sp) in CA, that was a regular reservation that you made 6 months out?

[rikkis_playpen Diamond Club Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close rikkis_playpen]

With Hilton, maintenance fees are based on the underlying unit- not the points.. For example, a low season 2br (2500 pts) pays the same annual fees as a platinum 2br (7000 pts).

While your savings at the time of purchase can be substantial- your annual costs can be drastically higher- costing you much more over time.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

With Hilton, maintenance fees are based on the underlying unit- not the points.. For example, a low season 2br (2500 pts) pays the same annual fees as a platinum 2br (7000 pts).

While your savings at the time of purchase can be substantial- your annual costs can be drastically higher- costing you much more over time.

Excellent point to know

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Does the open season include Club Intrawest?

I believe it includes all the affiliate resorts although I've not yet tried out a Club Intrawest. I have booked several of the SW Florida affiliates though so I'm guessing that it works with Intrawest as well.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

So when u say "open season" does this mean rental?
Rather then last minute (under 30 days) low point resies, they rent at a low rate?

Similar to Bluegreens bonus time?
Just curious.


And when u went to Maribisa(sp) in CA, that was a regular reservation that you made 6 months out?

Yes Marbrisa was a club reservation. I wasn't sure about availability at the time so didn't want to chance not getting something but I did see availability thru the club for open season rates.

And yes Open season is Hilton's version of renting to ONLY owners bonus time within 30 days of check in. The owner HAS to check in. They will not honor the reservation for anyone other than the owner from what I understand. I've not yet challenged this though.

Hilton does not discount the points closer to check in like Wyndham does. Instead they offer you a cash option. I much prefer the cash option myself since I'm so points poor to begin with. It's definitely a nice perk and it's open to all HGVC resale owners as well, not just direct sales.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

With Hilton, maintenance fees are based on the underlying unit- not the points.. For example, a low season 2br (2500 pts) pays the same annual fees as a platinum 2br (7000 pts).

While your savings at the time of purchase can be substantial- your annual costs can be drastically higher- costing you much more over time.

This is true and why I opted for the middle ground because I wanted access to the Open Season more than just the club, although it's got all the SW Florida resorts that I love in the collection.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Yes Marbrisa was a club reservation. I wasn't sure about availability at the time so didn't want to chance not getting something but I did see availability thru the club for open season rates.

And yes Open season is Hilton's version of renting to ONLY owners bonus time within 30 days of check in. The owner HAS to check in. They will not honor the reservation for anyone other than the owner from what I understand. I've not yet challenged this though.

Hilton does not discount the points closer to check in like Wyndham does. Instead they offer you a cash option. I much prefer the cash option myself since I'm so points poor to begin with. It's definitely a nice perk and it's open to all HGVC resale owners as well, not just direct sales.

Bluegreen Bonus time is 45 (48online) days out to owners only as well. The Owner MUST check in. Resale owners can only reserve bonus time at their deeded resort so it is very nice that HGVC extends that benefit to all owners regardless of purchase status.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

I've been looking at the Marbrisa options for a while. I'm actually considering going to the presentation just to see what they would offer me to convert my Seapointe and GPP to HGVC. From the last posts I could find, they were allowing conversions if the member bought (retail, of course) an EOY studio at Marbrisa. I just haven't been able to tell the actual worth of everything.

It seems like Marbrisa resales are going for around $3K for 5800 gold points, or 4800 Platinum. I really still cannot seem to compare all the end costs. I am assuming it is still a better bargain to buy resale and just not convert the others.

At the owners annual meeting for GPP, it sounded like upgrading without doing a whole new purchase was something that was offered only for a very limited time. They don't plan on offering that again.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I've been looking at the Marbrisa options for a while. I'm actually considering going to the presentation just to see what they would offer me to convert my Seapointe and GPP to HGVC. From the last posts I could find, they were allowing conversions if the member bought (retail, of course) an EOY studio at Marbrisa. I just haven't been able to tell the actual worth of everything.

It seems like Marbrisa resales are going for around $3K for 5800 gold points, or 4800 Platinum. I really still cannot seem to compare all the end costs. I am assuming it is still a better bargain to buy resale and just not convert the others.

At the owners annual meeting for GPP, it sounded like upgrading without doing a whole new purchase was something that was offered only for a very limited time. They don't plan on offering that again.

From what I've read it's kind of tricky in Marbrisa. Some units convert and some don't so you'll want to know exactly what you are buying.

Of course you could skip the whole risky thing and just buy something that's more of a sure thing like a SW Florida affiliate. No active developer sales there, so no competing with the sales people and it seems that HGVC wants owner to convert so there is more inventory for the club. I'm imagining since there is ROFR there that that is probably the only way to add affiliate weeks to the club.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Do HGVC points work like DVC points? Is there a minimum # of nights that need to be booked? Do you have to pay for each booking (when booking less than 7 nights)?

I still think DVC has the best points system, but since they only have Disney resorts, that doesn't help much. I bought the small WorldMark contract, but it isn't easy to book the short stays at less than 90 days out.