On a recent visit to Orlando, we participated in the infamous Hilton Grand Vacations Club tour and while it doesn’t work for our family, the timeshare pitch has come a long way and almost made financial sense. Almost.
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Why We Accepted A Timeshare Pitch
For a specific trip in which I had to be at a convention on the Las Vegas strip, I shopped hotel prices for my stay and found them to be astronomical for my dates even staying away from the convention property. For example, a four night stay was a nosebleed high $500/night at the Conrad, but even the less convenient Hyatt Place was over $300/night and was a pain to get to and from. However, the always loyal Hilton Grand Vacations Club folks called me in my hour of need and offered the entire stay for $199 in exchange for the 90-minute pitch on one of the days of our trip. It was too much value to pass up. For a number of reasons, my wife couldn’t make that trip making us ineligible for the presentation and stay but we were able to move it to Orlando later in the year (a couple of weeks ago.)
In addition to the stay which I reviewed in this post, we recieved 15,000 Honors points and a $100 “stay on us” certificate for Hilton hotels. It practically paid for itself, right? More on that later.
The Financials And Value Never Made Sense
Financials
I have been in sales for most of my adult life and appreciate hearing other pitches – it’s entertaining to me. For my wife and I, who have attended a Hilton Grand Vacations Club presentation in the past, there was no threat of us purchasing so we were just along for the ride. To start the presentation they set the costs very high. They initially proposed 18.99% and a $43,519 purchase price as well as a $1,885 maintenance fee. This initial sticker shock is to make their offer look great in the end. Here are some photos I wasn’t supposed to take but did anyway.
At the conclusion of our presentation, the financials were presented and here’s what it was:
- 5,440 HGV points every other year
- $16,900
- $199 Title fee
- $1,402 every other year in maintenance
- 11,200 bonus HGV points at sign up
Without getting into a very complicated points conversion chart, suffice it to say that 5,440 points would be about enough to deliver a one-bedroom suite for one week every other year.
The offered finance rate (though we could finance through our bank for a better rate) was proposed in the 7.5% range. They never ran our credit, it was just the rate they provide if HGV carries the finance.
Interestingly, they were pitching putting the whole thing on a Hilton American Express credit card at 0% for 12 months to overcome the interest charges and then earn about 92,000 points (75,000 point sign up bonus.) It was a clever approach and one, of course, driven by yet another bonus for the sales staff. A spokesperson for Hilton Grand Vacations responded this week that employees are not incentivized for American Express sign-ups.
The reason we selected the resort we did for our stay was that it was available for cash rate booking for family that might visit. The rate for that nightly stay was $140. A six-night stay would have cost $840 and would have earned between 8,400 and 16,800 Honors points as well as six nights toward Honors status without any special bonuses. While this stay was cheaper than Hawaii would have been, for example, the $1,402 maintenance was on the border of being equal value to the nightly cost in our limited research.
Why part with your future money when the rates are currently cheaper without an HGV membership? Inflation was the answer. In fairness, it’s a hot topic at the moment and true over time as the maintenance fee doesn’t increase but hotel nightly rates likely will. That said, hotel prices are at some of the highest levels ever seen at the moment, so I actually forsee a reduction in costs as the economy has to eventually cool and travel will retreat.
Value
The value is the other isue at hand. If I am “invested” (I used quotations heavily and the word: invested lightly) and have prepaid for my vacations, I am unlikely to stay elsewhere. This limits me to HGV properties and partners like RCI. This forces a sunk cost mentality (I’ve already paid for it so I might as well use it) and doesn’t reflect the best market value for a stay nor the best brand for money necessarily.
Additionally, our experience staying at an HGV property connected with this promotion wasn’t exemplary.
A Reasonable, If Not Atypical, Case For HGV
In a surprise move, HGV “owners” have access to $80 hotel nights throughout the Hilton system (outside of some cities like New York, and Washington DC for example) and $90 one-bedroom suites. We travel a lot and rarely pay anywhere near $80-90 or even $110 for a two-bedroom suite. Assuming that I stay in hotels 50 nights annually (pre-pandemic that number was 150-200), and usually pay around $175/night for a comparable room, I save around $4,750/year ($175 avg nightly rate – $80 HGV member rate = $95 x 50 nights.) That puts me money ahead against the purchase price somewhere in between year three and four.
Add back in the other stuff:
- 92,000 Honors points,
- 10,000 HGV points (enough for another two weeks in a one-bedroom for most markets)
- Hilton Honors silver for life
It actually makes sense. There is a use case, especially for a small business owner. In fact, small businesses would be smart to purchase the cheapest possible package (which this one was) just to get access to those cheaper nightly rates.
This isn’t how the (sigh) “investment” is marketed but the miles and points game has trained us all to look for the value that others might miss and in this instance (deeper, audible sigh) it actually makes good financial sense to purchase a timeshare.
Why We Still Didn’t Buy
Hilton grand Vacations can call this an investment, ownership, real estate, and everything else they threw at it all day long but the reality is that it really isn’t. It’s a coupon book, a very expensive coupon book. Further, if you want to be taken seriously on a purchase about the cost of a used car let alone a small house (depending on the package and over the course of a lifetime) then you have to stop acting like it’s a scam.
Why can’t I think about it over night? If it’s a great value, certainly, my attorney or accountant will agree – maybe they would recommend increasing the package. Why can’t I take any printed materials with me to do the math outside of their offices or consider it a little while longer? Why do I have to make a decision right here and now that will cost me about $53,000 over my lifetime? I can sell real estate, and I know you can sell your timeshare too, but how easy or hard is that to do? What prevents HGV from changing the program so that my $80/night hotel rooms remain that cheap in the future?
Once we said no, Kessy, a German-born Orlando transplant visited our table. I name her, because our sales rep, Johnny was great and I can’t rememeber the closer’s name but he was neither bad nor good. Kessy put in front of us an opportunity to buy a week at one of their properties for $1,795 and use it within two years. This was higher than the annual maintenance fee, but allowed us some more time to interact with the brand and decide if it was for us. In addition we would receive another 10,000 HGV points and if we chose to buy our timeshare package after we purchased this $1,795 stay, that amount would be credited to our purchase price making both the points and that week essentially free.
However, I get calls once a week from Hilton making a 5-night offer for $199-399 depending on which destination. It seems stupid – unless you ultimately think you’ll buy the timeshare package – to take this one. We very, politely but clearly, declined. Kessy closed the book sharply, stood up and motioned for us to follow, then walked us toward the front. In a very condescending tone, she was incredulous that we didn’t take her up on her offer and said “take the elevator down and they will give you whatever you were promised.” She disappeared before I could close my dropped jaw.
If it feels like a scam, it probably is.
Downstairs, we were informed that the points would make it to my account in about 6-8 weeks though they were in my account that day. The $100 Hilton stay-on-us certificate requires you to pick your brand in advance and upon reading the terms and conditions is actually put onto a prepaid debit card sent in the mail about 6-8 weeks after checkout. Fun.
Conclusion
I was shocked to find there was actually a case to be made for buying a timeshare. It wasn’t due to the actual timeshare at all, it was a perk that I doubt Hilton has had anyone really game. We were uncomfortable, despite finding value, in the approach – buy now, or get out – and if it were a real estate purchase, would never be rushed in the same way.
What do you think? Have you attended one of these presentations? Were you aware of this perk and could you find value in it?
Timeshares are a very useful travel tool if your travels take you to cities where timeshares are overbuilt (Vegas, Orlando, Myrtle Beach) as their inventory rules were set prior to a lot of modern rules. However Redweek and Timeshare Users Group (TUG) are great places to learn about how the systems work before picking up one resale since those are available for free/pennies on the dollar.
Are you sure the maintenance fee is locked for the term of the time share?
HGVC can and will change maintenance fees, club dues, open season rates, and other fees associated with the timeshare programs.
1. cFinancial Burden: Purchasing a timeshare often involves a substantial upfront cost, which can be quite high. Additionally, there are ongoing maintenance fees and annual dues, even if you don’t use the timeshare every year. These expenses can add up over time and become a financial burden.
2. Limited Flexibility: Timeshares typically offer a fixed or floating week during which you can use the property. This lack of flexibility can be inconvenient for those who prefer spontaneous travel or want to visit different destinations each year. Changing your vacation plans or selling your timeshare can be challenging and may incur additional costs.
3. Difficulty Reselling: Selling a timeshare can be notoriously difficult. The resale market is often oversaturated, and many owners struggle to find buyers. As a result, some people end up stuck with a timeshare they no longer want, unable to recoup their initial investment.
4. Rising Costs: Timeshare properties may experience escalating maintenance fees and special assessments. These unexpected increases can catch owners off guard and further contribute to the financial burden.
5. Potential for Fraud: The timeshare industry has had instances of fraudulent or misleading sales practices. Some unscrupulous salespeople may use high-pressure tactics to persuade potential buyers into making hasty decisions without fully understanding the long-term implications.
6. Limited Availability: Popular destinations and desirable weeks often get booked quickly, leaving owners with limited options for planning their vacations. This can result in difficulty securing the desired dates and locations for your timeshare use.
i’m chuckling because your experience sounds a lot better than what my wife and I went through but I suspect that’s because you unintentionally played their game back at them. By sounding like you were on the fence but politely said no, they just passed you onto the second round of the woman selling you the trial week. When you declined that, there was nothing more she could do and she got all nasty with you. I’ve gone through a few hellish presentations where they got angry with me perhaps because my wife is so sweet and they thought they could play us against each other, is my theory. Or maybe you got lucky. In general, if you don’t buy, they like to abuse you on the way out the door. They’re scammers and aside from cheating you, they’ll abuse you as a consolation prize.
Regarding resale value: Most of the “coupon book” perks don’t transfer. They tried to sell this as “protecting me” from the secondary market watering down the benefits, but that’s BS of course, they were protecting themselves.
They can raise the maintenance fees and such or even change the terms later, most likely. There’s other perks they don’t mention hence how they to sell more packages later to owners such as their own “resort fees”, housekeeping fees, and so on that are waived at higher “platinum?” levels.
I think I have a good system now for getting in and out of the door with the free week in that we don’t bother buying but just go to presentations which, while hectic, beats fighting them as an owner to use the stuff we “paid” for. Make up a BS story as to why you can’t buy that has nothing to do with financials and they can’t argue with it or get angry. My personal one is that I intend to retire in 10 years to Poland and intend to visit relatives around Europe and won’t use hotels or resorts.
God forbid, if anyone read my comment this far, do NOT buy!!! If you smoked crack the night before and bought, you may have a cooling off period in your state and you should exercise it immediately and cancel. But if you are tempted to buy, do this: Say you want to and they’ll bring out the paperwork (perhaps even crack some champaign to get you drunk and loosened up!!!) and say:
“I need to have my lawyer review these documents. I can’t sign them without first having a professional unless you mind me altering them to suit my own rights.”
They’ll get irked but either they let you take the documents out and you cool off then (and google EVERYTHING!) or they’ll kick you with the gifts. Ask to take the champagne bottle with you!
These are very generic terms for timeshare. And mostly relate to old school exchange programs
We attended a presentation.in Orlando in December. After the agent saw that we would not buy he got very rude. Just plain wrong. We did enjoy the 2 night stay and the free hotel certificate down the road.
Lol what is the evidence that hotel rooms are available for $80 fifty might a year?
While there are limited instances where it’s genuinely worthwhile for people to buy a timeshare that’s not the situation for the vast majority which is why so many people are just desperate to dump their timeshare. A lot of it has to do with fees which are of course on top of the regular payment. If you can somehow keep fees at a specific set dollar amount for the entire lifetime of the agreement it’s a great deal but that’s exactly why the company would never allow it.
Hgv has gone up a total of 17% in 30 years. This comment is laughable. Sorry. It’s always people that don’t own one making assumptions instead of asking questions.
Had a very similar experience with HGV in DC. Was impressed by the presentation, but still not interested because I place too much value on my own flexibility and I don’t trust Hilton’s QC over the long term. The closer was laughable. I found it somewhat offensive that they think a strongarm approach is a good way to approach customers. If anything, that soured me even more on the product.
As others have noted, the majntenance fees definitely change over time.
But lifetime Silver status at Hilton. That alone must be worth $53,000!
Never buy from HGV directly. get it from the resale market. same product, 10% the purchase cost.
Unfortunately it’s not the same product anymore…. resale is hgv legacy direct is hgv max which is non transferable.
So much of what you wrote is incorrect. I work for this brand and would love to help you get the correct info so you can amend this article.
Approved to comment. Feel free to write what our rep should have communicated.
My wife and I have been HGVC owners for almost two decades, and we had upgraded and bought more since, not from the resale market but with the front office. We never treat our timeshare as properties or investments; they are luxuries that we don’t intend to resell. I always say timeshares are like luxury goods: Gucci dresses, Ferragamo shoes, Porsche 911, etc. Who would buy those things for “flexibilities, investments, or their resale values”?
Hilton Grand Vacation acquired Diamond Resorts, known for high-pressure deceptive sales. The AZ AG received over 1,000 complaints and in 2017 issued an Assurance of Discontinuance. Instead of being told you must give up your deeded timeshare and buy Diamond points, agents are saying you must buy into Hilton or lose what you have with Diamond. That is not true. Thank you for your remarkable and balanced report, just saying, Buyer Beware.
I don’t know why my comment keeps getting deleted but as a hgv sales person myself your article is full of inaccurate information. Maybe you should have been more worried about retaining accurate info than sneaking pictures.
@David – First comments await approval by an admin, they weren’t deleted but rather, just weren’t approved. There are hundreds of comments daily so sometimes approval takes longer than others.
To your point, feel free to offer corrections in your professional capacity. However, my account reflected our experience. If something was misrepresented, it wasn’t by me, but rather by our rep or inadequately explained.
You have the floor.
No comments have been deleted. The author is traveling and will approve and respond to comments as time permits.
How long was the presentation? My wife and I are going to Kona later this year and have to endure this experience, just curious what to expect?
90 minutes though we went a little longer because we genuinely considered it for the ancillary benefits.
Exactly the same approach we experienced at Hilton Hawaiian Village in January.
Ok.. without being able to type this and reference your article I may do this in several posts. First the cash rates are very specifically explained that they are for the hgv properties not hotels. 2nd we do not get paid for ofdeeing credit cards and assuming in an article as a reporter is not reporting. Also a studio where you toured right now is 238 a night, plus parking ..5440 points would give you 14 nights peak season. Way more than your maintenance. You mention the timeshare has no value but at the beginning of the article you mentioned that you intended to use it for 500 dollar a night rooms in Vegas. Hmm so what your saying is if you had this you would have been able to use prepaid points for that? But then you give an example for the cheapest hotel off peak in orlando as a reason not to need it. Sir!!! You did a timeshare presentation for a discounted trip even though you clearly are a points guy and could have stayed somewhere using points for free… interesting. Why didn’t you skip the presentation and just pay full price of that’s not a problem. You mention the hotel in Hawaii was the price of maintenance for 1 night. So wouldn’t you use your hgv for that??? I mean we can’t really help people that think a vacation is using 40k honors points to stay with their family at a hampton inn at the airport. The Hilton ocean tower is 2500 a night for a 2 bedroom or 1.1 million honors points per night. Hiw many points do you have? Also you mention you worked in sales. I’m curious why you would risk a sales person’s job to come in without an open mid or intending to purchase anything? Hgv has 730,000 owners and 400ish negative reviews online as well as an owners community on Facebook (I’m sure none that are smarter than you) who find tremendous value. But let me ask you this… if after doing 7 nights at 150 a night (super nice trip) and spend 13k in 10 years and someone said as a thank you for your hilton commitment, I know every trip wasn’t with us, but for 1200 a year you can do 4000 to 12000 dollars of vacations every year forever and your kids will only pay a maintenance that has gone up 289 dollars in 30 years IF they choose to but they are not required to would you take it. As far as the urgency to do it today if you look at the page you took a picture of it says 1st visit incentive meaning Noone told you it was the last car on the lot. They simply explained dye to the cost of marketing and touring 200 people a day there is an incentive to join TODAY. If you had any intention of not just saying no you would have done research ahead of time. Talked to your attorney ahead of time. And guess what? Hgv doesn’t care if you don’t join that day. Johnny was the only person affected by your narcissism and closed mindedness. We genuinely sell 600k every day just out of parc soleil. For you it’s a simple choice vacationing is a 100 percent financial loss. Your financial advisor should be fired if he says keep paying for vacations one at a ti.e and pay inflation every year for rooms that get older??? Asking an attorney is a common excuse for people. Does your ego make you also believe that you have the best attorney ever and he’s going to find the scam from a multi billion dollar publicly traded company?? And when you make a real estate purchase you are rushed your real estate agent says this is an amazing deal and if you want this house we NEED to put in an offer NOW. Also kessy by your account did nothing wrong. She is very busy so she showed you the elevator down because her office is in that hallway. Not rude at all. Just more of your narcissism showing again. And you got emails from us to do tours a lot because you declined. Hilton will not allow you to continue to tour with us if you don’t buy. Kessys deal was to lock in the discounted price. The retail option after your first tour is 36980 for 5440 every year. Because just like you think you can keep doing it hilton isn’t stupid . I have more but this is already a lot for you to process. Let me know if you or anyone has questions. Thanks.
@David: This response was invalidated initially because you were unregistered when it was made. I have comments to many aspects but for brevity, will focus my attention on just a few areas.
1) This is clearly an opinion piece but we do aim for accuracy. I have reached out for comment from HGV as to whether there is any compensation in any way for staff at HGV (including management) for American Express sign-ups and will adjust the article accordingly if inaccurate. It was on the counter and pitched thrice during our meeting so if there’s no compensation (including bonuses, meeting quota, points, or giveaways) then I will happily correct it. I suspect there is some sort of compensation (even if it’s not directly apparent to you or your level within the company) but will confirm should I get a response.
2) I never said it didn’t have any value. As a matter of fact, in the first lines of the post I said, “…while it doesn’t work for our family, the timeshare pitch has come a long way and almost made financial sense. Almost.” I later conclude, “it actually makes good financial sense to purchase a timeshare.”
3) Replacing a Conrad experience with an off-Strip HGV room is not the same $500/nt room.
4) You’re right, I could have stayed whereever I want with my points, but didn’t want to spend them on the trip, what’s wrong with taking the opportunity presented? Hilton knows this and still calls me relentlessly. In fact, it’s because of my status and point balance that Hilton offers me so often. I don’t see them as mutually exclusive.
5) You suggest I have an unreasonable expectation of costs and use the example of a Hampton Inn at the airport for a family vacation. Since you love research, I suggest you peruse the more than 1,500 articles I have written online – many of them some of the finest properties in the world – before you suggest I don’t know what they cost. However, let’s look a little deeper at your claim. The “airport” portion of your comment is no doubt directed at a poor location, suggesting HGV are in better locations, but I would posit this is not necessarily the case. In Las Vegas, the major HGV property is at the end and off of the Strip, in Orlando where the presentation was held was surrounded by fields, no theme parks in site. They may not be airport locations, but they also aren’t in prime locations for the most part.
6) Sir, your valuation for the Hilton Ocean Tower is without merit. Throughout July (today is July 7th) rates range from $263-334/nt with a single exception of $500. Of the 16 available nights, 75% are under $300/nt. For the most expensive two-bedroom oceanview suite just two nights from now is $890/nt or 401,000 – and while you suggest a price that is more than 150% higher than that for cash you also don’t point out how many nights I would have for 5,400 points. I suspect it’s not many if any at all. The standard Waikoloa village gets closer to those rates but doesn’t offer and two-bedroom rooms so it couldn’t be a room at the larger property. This inflated cost structure builds distrust among timeshare presentation attendees and is quickly proved wrong by those opening their phones and searching. For what it’s worth, Waikoloa Village (the connected property to Ocean Tower – which is under construction at the moment) is about $493/nt compared with Ocean Tower’s basic room at $263 on the same night.
7) You mention 730,000 owners and just 400 negative reviews online. I am calling BS. I can’t believe you’d even write that – there’s no company in the world that has just 400 negative reviews with 730,000 successful customers, especially in this industry. With a quick Google search I was able to prove that wrong instantly, Trust Pilot gives HGV a 1.6 out of 5 rating on 51 reviews alone. As there are HGV Facebook groups full of enthusiastic owners there are also groups with thousands of angry owners that are looking for ways to cancel (two groups I found on a quick search yielded more than 10,000 members.) Further, your point ignores confirmation bias. If you suggested that 1,000,000 people bought Kia Rios when they first came to the US market and pointed out a group of happy Kia Rio owners, that doesn’t mean that 200,000 owners didn’t regret their purchase decision, it means you have a group of people who purchased it and enjoyed it. It’s not reflective of the wider market. I’d also argue that not all of your customers are well-informed. When I mention that the same property could be purchased online for the cost of maintenance (and use basic Hilton searches to support it) many are shocked but they simply didn’t know the market before they bought. I suspect many still don’t know the market because they are inside the ecosystem. That, too, doesn’t make it a good decision, it makes it a delightfully uninformed one.
8) You place an offer that’s hard to follow, but the offer assumes, again, that you only want to stay at properties that are within the ecosystem and outside of the prime areas. You’re not comparing it to all offerings, just whether your better deal than before is indeed better. Sure it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s even competitive across the hospitality space more broadly.
9) To suggest that I “do my reaseach ahead of time” is a ridiculous notion, mostly because I’d have no idea what the terms (that can change from meeting to meeting) are. If we liken it to a real estate purchase, you walk through a home, and if you like it, then you determine if it’s a good value. You have time to evaluate, put it through the paces, and explore exits. Timeshares don’t offer that and the information from research would be invalid until you’re in the room. Further, you liken the rush of a realtor to put in an offer “NOW” but ignore the hand money and standard 30-45 days to evaluate it where you can walk away with very little commitment. For example, if you get to the hand money stage, it’s less than 1% of the sales price. If I could pay (in my example) $169 to secure it and consider it for 30 days, maybe that would be applicable, but as it stands it is not comparable.
9b) Selling $600k out of Parc Soleil doesn’t validate the value at all. It simply says you have customers (likely uninformed) and good sales people in a high pressure environment. It proves nothing. Heavy pressure car lots that move cars doesn’t make the buyer more informed nor the seller less nefarious. It just means they close business.
10) Hilton won’t continue to offer me? I’ve gotten two calls this week alone. Also, this is my second tour and the price was cheaper this time at first pencil than last time.
11) You repeatedly use the term “vacation” as a general term. People can buy their vacations in advance – got it, but it doesn’t reflect that people might want flexibility beyond the brand or product type. There are hundreds of thousands of hotels in the world and hundreds of millions of rooms – HGV and RCI don’t reflect nearly the whole picture. The question you’re proposing is “Do you want to ensure you have some place to stay in exchange for a fee in perpetuity” but ignores almost the entire market. Is the work in figuring out exchanges, and compromising where you want to stay worth it? For some it might be, for me it’s not.
12) This post was an effusively positive piece about HGV finding value and recommending it for small business owners. The fact that you see it as negative is astounding and unrealistic.
Lastly, this initial dissertation of a comment was only further elongated by an email with attachments of 6 hand-written pages. I can appreciate your enthusastic and that your initial comment was trapped because you hadn’t prior registered on the site and you want to make your voice heard. I would encourage you to put all of your comments online, but would note that you work for the company, are an owner of this product yourself, and are not looking at this holistically nor fairly reading the post as written.
The elara is on the middle of the strip across from the bellagio. You mentioned no option for under 500 you could have stayed at the elara using your membership. As a matter of fact that was your plan right? Is the orlando doubletree Airport not 40,000 points per night? Is the elara, parc soleil more? Why? We all know a top hotel in Thailand is beautiful and less points also less dollars. I wish I could provide a screenshot but peak season 2 bedroom ocean view at the ocean tower is absolutely!!! 4000 a night!!! 100 percent. I looked it up prior to writing. You argue flexibility for paying as you go? But again with a purchase price of 16,000 how many trips would it take through our 4700 properties to break even. My disney vacation club was 20k.. based on your logic I never should have bought it because I also vacation outside of disney. So right now the 8k dollars worth of disney trips I get per year are not worth my 2k maintenance because I also visit nyc every year? The 600k sold out of parc soleil speaks to the idea that you believe we need to chase you personally for your starter package and would misrepresent an entire brand name to earn your starter package. If the 600k that buy are pressured then why didn’t you join? Where was your account of pressure? Actually you were upset kessy didn’t spend more time with you. Question what about the 1.2 million a day in upgrades just out of orlando. Also side note parc soleil is 12 minutes to disney sea world I drive and universal. There is also an area 15 being built across the street. Just like our las Palmeras resort is right next to the new epic universe theme park. We are simply ahead of the curve. Our myrtle beach is ocean front.. all 3. Our nycs are in Manhattan overlooking the macys day parade route. Our Chicago is on the magnificent mile. Our marco, Sanibel and Captiva Island are all ocean front, we covered elara, and so on and so on. What kind of lifetime value do you expect for 16k??? I mean 7 nights at 250 a night over 30 years is 114,000 dollars? With just a 3.7% inflation. Why do you expect so much out of a 16k dollar timeshare. Sure it’s front loaded but if you can do a weeks vacation in a 1 bedroom 1 bath for ONLY 1500 a year in maintenance where would you go. Maldives, dubai, Acapulco, park city ski season? The value is up to you and for a vacation journalist focused on value shopping how you could not see this is astounding. Timeshares offer a 10 day recission period just like your house example the idea you couldn’t get a starting price online ahead of time is untrue. Should I attach a link to the research you could have done? So did you not buy because it’s not a good value or because it’s a scam and you need an attorney. ??? I’m confused.
@David – Most of these things I have answered before. You suggest that I wasn’t open-minded *though I made a case for actually purchasing a timeshare from HGV* yet you don’t appear to be open-minded to counters that it may not be for everyone. I have answered your responses at length, You can continue to comment but I won’t continue to respond.
Two notes:
1) A spokesperson for Hilton Grand Vacations responded this week that employees are not incentivized for American Express sign-ups. I corrected the post leaving the initial inaccuracy in as it was but crossed through and with this note.
2) Nothing that traverses I-4 is 12 minutes away.
I believe I submitted a response to the inaccuracies of your article and it wasn’t posted. I could be wrong and didn’t submit it.
Thank you for the informative article. The condescending attitude presented by David as a representative of HGV has guaranteed that I will never consider purchasing a timeshare from them.
Hands down the WORST investment ever. Just use your own $ look for vacation deals and don’t pay someone 60K upfront and 3K a year in Maintenance fees. put that 60K in bank…. make interest and grow it.. spend your 3-4K a year on vacation and never worry about spending all your points or your Maint fee going up for something that is WORTHLESS and can only sell for pennies on the $1 if that.. DO NO BUY.. .NO NO NO.. these people are fucking Vampires.