las vegas timeshare-newbie question

[rajesh79 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rajesh79]

Iam looking to buy a 7000 point 2/2 platinum package from hilton in the las vegas area.The price is the same for the resort in flamingo and the newer hilton resort on the strip.Which one is better to buy.Any advise is really aprreciated.

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

If you are buying both resale for about the same price, the only difference is the location and the facilities at each resort. Many people say that being able to use the hotel casino & pool makes the Flamingo a better deal but others think that being away from the strip makes for a more enjoyable vacation.

Once you have purchased, your points are the same for use at any of the other HGVC resorts, so you just have to choose which resort you'll make your home resort.

Good Luck

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

The older Flamingo was looking at a small special assessment a few months back to pay for renovations to the rooms. I'm not sure where that stands now.

The newer resort still has two towers to be constructed and MGM/Mirage has purchased the land around the newer resort with idea's to build something on line with their City Center project on the south end of the strip. If that plan comes to light then there's going to be a lot of construction noise around the newer location for several years to come.

As mentioned, with HGVC points are points and can reserve a nights/weeks at any HGVC resort. The difference is that you can reserve your entire unit 12 months in advance at your home resort but only 9 months in advance at the rest. I don't think that would be much of an issue in Vegas. Many people will shop around and purchase a week where the MF's are lowest, then use their points to book where they want to stay.

[rajesh79 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rajesh79]

The older Flamingo was looking at a small special assessment a few months back to pay for renovations to the rooms. I'm not sure where that stands now.

The newer resort still has two towers to be constructed and MGM/Mirage has purchased the land around the newer resort with idea's to build something on line with their City Center project on the south end of the strip. If that plan comes to light then there's going to be a lot of construction noise around the newer location for several years to come.

As mentioned, with HGVC points are points and can reserve a nights/weeks at any HGVC resort. The difference is that you can reserve your entire unit 12 months in advance at your home resort but only 9 months in advance at the rest. I don't think that would be much of an issue in Vegas. Many people will shop around and purchase a week where the MF's are lowest, then use their points to book where they want to stay.

Thanks for the all information.Do any of own a hilton timeshare and if yes have your experiences being positive overall.Do you recommend me owning one if iam planning to do a lot of travel with my wife within U.S. and europe.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Thanks for the all information.Do any of own a hilton timeshare and if yes have your experiences being positive overall.Do you recommend me owning one if iam planning to do a lot of travel with my wife within U.S. and europe.

Yes, we own 7000 points (Plat. 2 bedroom) at the HGVC LV Strip. We purchased this unit to use and not exchange but, because we've purchased a few more units since purchasing this one, needs changed and we've actually only stayed HGVC once since our initial purchase in 2002. This year will be our first regular usage of this resort since we purchased.

The entire reason for buying into HGVC for us was it's flexibility. However, the resorts they list as member resorts are often affiliate's under Hilton management and not Hilton built resorts. As such not all unit owners have paid the membership fee to become part of HGVC and many of those resorts have limited availability, including most (if not all) or their foreign resorts. It is a bit of an illusion Hilton puts on to make them look as if they have more locations that Orlando, Vegas and Hawaii.

To date we've exchanged twice into Branson and have been offered only two resorts for exchange. By comparison our Polo Towers units through I.I. will pull 3 pages of resorts online with Interval. We have exchange our unit twice for cruise exchanges through HGVC and recieved a little less than our MF's in value for doing this and we have spent 4 nights at HGVC LV strip.

This year we'll spend our full week at our resort. Next year I plan on trying to exchange our week for a week at the Wyndham in Nashville, TN. After that we'll either go back to Vegas or see about doing and internal exchange through HGVC to go to Hawaii.

I can't say that I've been overly impressed with the Hilton product vs the Marriott's we own. HGVC is considerably more flexible but, Hilton keeps on building in the same three locations (Vegas, Orlando and Hawaii) while Marriott keeps adding new locations. I prefer Marriott's location choices to Hiltons flexibility but that's just my personal opinion.

[rajesh79 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rajesh79]

Yes, we own 7000 points (Plat. 2 bedroom) at the HGVC LV Strip. We purchased this unit to use and not exchange but, because we've purchased a few more units since purchasing this one, needs changed and we've actually only stayed HGVC once since our initial purchase in 2002. This year will be our first regular usage of this resort since we purchased.

The entire reason for buying into HGVC for us was it's flexibility. However, the resorts they list as member resorts are often affiliate's under Hilton management and not Hilton built resorts. As such not all unit owners have paid the membership fee to become part of HGVC and many of those resorts have limited availability, including most (if not all) or their foreign resorts. It is a bit of an illusion Hilton puts on to make them look as if they have more locations that Orlando, Vegas and Hawaii.

To date we've exchanged twice into Branson and have been offered only two resorts for exchange. By comparison our Polo Towers units through I.I. will pull 3 pages of resorts online with Interval. We have exchange our unit twice for cruise exchanges through HGVC and recieved a little less than our MF's in value for doing this and we have spent 4 nights at HGVC LV strip.

This year we'll spend our full week at our resort. Next year I plan on trying to exchange our week for a week at the Wyndham in Nashville, TN. After that we'll either go back to Vegas or see about doing and internal exchange through HGVC to go to Hawaii.

I can't say that I've been overly impressed with the Hilton product vs the Marriott's we own. HGVC is considerably more flexible but, Hilton keeps on building in the same three locations (Vegas, Orlando and Hawaii) while Marriott keeps adding new locations. I prefer Marriott's location choices to Hiltons flexibility but that's just my personal opinion.

Thanks for the information doug.Now please correct me if iam wrong.You said with marriott you have I.I ,doesn't hilton have RCI tie up from which i can book a resort with points.With hilton and RCI don't you think they should equal the choices of marriott and I.I..Also i thought with hilton you don't exchange unlike marriott.It is all points based right.Please advise me.Your feedback is really appreciated.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Thanks for the information doug.Now please correct me if iam wrong.You said with marriott you have I.I ,doesn't hilton have RCI tie up from which i can book a resort with points.With hilton and RCI don't you think they should equal the choices of marriott and I.I..Also i thought with hilton you don't exchange unlike marriott.It is all points based right.Please advise me.Your feedback is really appreciated.

IMO, not really. It seems people either love RCI or hate them. I don't exactly hate them but when exchanging into Branson, where I believe RCI has more resorts than I.I., I'm offered far fewer choices. Besides, you're really talking exchanging your unit through RCI and you can do the same through I.I. with Marriott. While I.I. does have fewer resorts that RCI I still consider that a wash.

What I meant was, as far as internal exchages Marriott (or most any other system like Starwood, Wyndham, Sunterra or Bluegreen) has FAR more choices. HGVC has so few internal choices compared to any other system but all the other systems share the exchange companies of either RCI or I.I.

With HGVC, if you go to a non-Hilton affiliated resort you are exchanging through RCI, just as any other resort would. You're just using using points to make the exchange and calling HGVC directly to do it rather than reserving a week and depositing that week with RCI. You'll still pay the RCI exchange fee. It's not as if every resort in RCI would be considered an internal Hilton exchange.

[rajesh79 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rajesh79]

IMO, not really. It seems people either love RCI or hate them. I don't exactly hate them but when exchanging into Branson, where I believe RCI has more resorts than I.I., I'm offered far fewer choices. Besides, you're really talking exchanging your unit through RCI and you can do the same through I.I. with Marriott. While I.I. does have fewer resorts that RCI I still consider that a wash.

What I meant was, as far as internal exchages Marriott (or most any other system like Starwood, Wyndham, Sunterra or Bluegreen) has FAR more choices. HGVC has so few internal choices compared to any other system but all the other systems share the exchange companies of either RCI or I.I.

With HGVC, if you go to a non-Hilton affiliated resort you are exchanging through RCI, just as any other resort would. You're just using using points to make the exchange and calling HGVC directly to do it rather than reserving a week and depositing that week with RCI. You'll still pay the RCI exchange fee. It's not as if every resort in RCI would be considered an internal Hilton exchange.

Thanks for the feedback Doug.Now did you use RCI for any other place like in europe or caribbean.You are right about the hilton resorts...they have limited choices.I was kind of betting my timeshare purchase on RCI usage.Because with marriott i have to do the exchanging process with II and iam not comfortable with that idea.any comments would be really appreciated.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Thanks for the feedback Doug.Now did you use RCI for any other place like in europe or caribbean.You are right about the hilton resorts...they have limited choices.I was kind of betting my timeshare purchase on RCI usage.Because with marriott i have to do the exchanging process with II and iam not comfortable with that idea.any comments would be really appreciated.

I really haven't used RCI much for exchanges. We didn't purchase our HGVC to exchange through RCI and to date have only requested weeks in Branson as it's a drive to destination for us. When we did I was less than impressed in that I had to call a HGVC rep and he told me we have resort A available. When I didn't want that resort he told me that they only had one other resort available. For there to only be two resorts available at any given moment in Branson is unacceptable to me when I can always see at least a half dozen with I.I.

I also don't like that the Hilton account is a corporate account and I don't have online access to RCI. With Marriott I can go online and search exchanges, request exchanges, make deposits and essentially manage my entire account. With Hilton I'm pretty much stuck calling Hilton. They do have an online reservation system but I have always ended up having to call a represenative to get anything done as far as exchanging outside the Hilton system.

While HGVC's point based reservation system is extremely flexible I just don't find it all that user friendly. I'll be requesting an exchange of our HGVC unit into a Wyndham unit in the coming weeks for Sept. of next year so I'll have to see how that one goes. If it were one of my Marriott weeks with I.I., I'd already have a week deposited and have an ongoing request for exchange into the system and would have done it all online. In fact, I currently have a request for an exchange into Key West, FL that I did without having to call anyone.

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

I would take the HGVC Flamingo because of the location.