posted 03-30-2005 08:20               

I figured I'd ask if changing unit size falls under cancelling (since they'd be cancelling & rebooked). I was told that there was no penalty if I upgraded to a larger unit, so I did. The res agent booked a new unit for me and cancelled the old one and said she was crediting back the original credit card payment to my card (this was a cash Open Season reservation rather than points).

I'm happy, but I guess I just discovered one more new thing about the HGVC system. I expected to be told that I'd forfeit the original payment if I changed to a larger unit. Hilton doesn't explain this type of situation very well (actually ot at all) in the written cancellation policy. They do not say at all that you can make changes without penalty. Since the way that they make changes is to cancel and rebook rather than modifying a current reservation, it implies that you would get hit with the cancellation fee if you attempt to make any changes (like even adding on a day or dropping a day).

posted 03-30-2005 11:07            

Open Season Rates Are A Rip Off in Comparison. I think it's sad that HGVC rips it's members off by charging $100 a night open season for a 2 bedroom and RCI is offering it for $229 for 7 nights.

posted 03-30-2005 11:35               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
George I hope you didn't pay alot for your HGVC open Season reservation. RCI Extra Vacation is listing a ton of availability for HGVC resorts at different times of the year.

Open Season Rates Are A Rip Off in Comparison. I think it's sad that HGVC rips it's members off by charging $100 a night open season for a 2 bedroom and RCI is offering it for $229 for 7 nights.

Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Seaworld
3517 Orlando, FL, USA 8/4 11/13/2005 - 11/27/2005 $229.99

---

I am going to Vegas this weekend and getting a two bedroom at the new property on the Strip for four of us for $120 on Saturday and then $100 for the following nights. I did a quick check with Expedia, the average room rate for a single room(two queen beds in our case) would be anywhere from $85 at the Circus Circus (low end motel part of the hotel and close to HGVC) up to Caesers Palace $180 per night. So even if I were to get two separate rooms, I would still be way over my average cost of $106 per night for 3 nights.

For those of us who live close enough to drive to a HGVC to take advantage of open season, it is a very good deal. I can understand why it may not be as great a deal for those of you that have to fly to take advantage of open season, because then you probably want more than a few nights get away. But for us here in Los Angeles area, Vegas is a simple though boring trip across the desert.

Of course the best deal for me is the comps I get from various hotels in Vegas for FREE rooms, but I don't take my kids when we do that. Because that's the time we can enjoy the casino's more than when we are together as a family.

posted 03-30-2005 11:46               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
George I hope you didn't pay alot for your HGVC open Season reservation. RCI Extra Vacation is listing a ton of availability for HGVC resorts at different times of the year.

Open Season Rates Are A Rip Off in Comparison. I think it's sad that HGVC rips it's members off by charging $100 a night open season for a 2 bedroom and RCI is offering it for $229 for 7 nights.

Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Seaworld
3517 Orlando, FL, USA 8/4 11/13/2005 - 11/27/2005 $229.99

---

Wow that's good to know.. George and Rick are talking about Vegas, do you see the same RCI deals for Vegas?

posted 03-30-2005 12:06               

Hilton Grand Vacations Club 3186
Las Vegas, NV, USA 4/4
05/01/2005 - 06/05/2005 $866.19

posted 03-30-2005 12:40               

Again though, going to Vegas for many of us from LA is usually a last minute thing, it's not something people from LA for the most part, plan out months in advance.

This is one reason that I would like to see HGVC open more clubs in various regions so lots more owners can take advantage of open season get aways. For me the perfect place would be Palm Springs, but I am sure others like Dave would like a SoCal beach side, like at the Hilton Resort at Huntington Beach,
http://tinyurl.com/4w928

Enjoy!

posted 03-30-2005 16:40            

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
George I hope you didn't pay alot for your HGVC open Season reservation. RCI Extra Vacation is listing a ton of availability for HGVC resorts at different times of the year.

Open Season Rates Are A Rip Off in Comparison. I think it's sad that HGVC rips it's members off by charging $100 a night open season for a 2 bedroom and RCI is offering it for $229 for 7 nights.

Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Seaworld
3517 Orlando, FL, USA 8/4 11/13/2005 - 11/27/2005 $229.99

---

I am an HGVC owner and so have access to RCI only through HGVC. Would I have access to the RCI extra vacations? I haven't read this anywhere. I have used open season through HGVC and was very happy with that but the RCI extra vacations sound like a much better deal.

Thanks

posted 03-30-2005 18:00            

In the past I have called HGVC and asked about availability through RCI for a specific location and was told by the Hilton rep that nothing was avilable, even though I was looking right at a few things that were available. Hilton Lies to it's members, if they gave RCI memberships you'd find alot more value in Hilton, especially if you could book into a HGVC resort for a fraction of the open season rate.

Ricoba with RCI Extra Vacations and Last Call which is designed for last minute travel, it would still be cheaper to book for an entire week even if you're only staying a few days.

posted 03-30-2005 18:30            

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
In the past I have called HGVC and asked about availability through RCI for a specific location and was told by the Hilton rep that nothing was avilable, even though I was looking right at a few things that were available.

---

posted 03-30-2005 19:11               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:

Ricoba with RCI Extra Vacations and Last Call which is designed for last minute travel, it would still be cheaper to book for an entire week even if you're only staying a few days.

---

But I like others only have a Hilton so I am unable to do that. Yes, one week for $299 is a far better deal than one weekend at $320. But I have to live with the cards I have been dealt. Are there better systems/programs etc, yeah of course. But right now I am only an HGVC member, and I have to live with that and make the best of it. But I still think that for quick getaways for us to Vegas (again 4-5 hour drive from our home)planned at the last moment, open season is a very good program. As I said in my previous post, if there were more clubs around the US more people could take advantage of it. I don't think it would work as well for people who have to fly to a club. IMHO

Rick

posted 03-30-2005 19:25               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
I should be the one to make the decision, not Hilton. Beside a policy of gold crown only is extremely limiting the options. I will agree that some standard resorts may have quality issues, but that's for me to decide, not Hilton.

---

I agree it with you it should be up to owners to decide. And I too would like access to rci, to do my own searches. But I think as well it may not be a win-win for HGVC or the owner if this occured because not everyone would understand the vast amount of differences in timeshare quality. When I have traded (twice now) I want and got Hilton type quality. But my first time share experience was on our honeymoon where my parents gave us one of their weeks. So on our honeymoon after spending the weekend at a 4 or 5 star resort (Westin Bayshore in Vancouver BC) we ended up in about a 1 or 2 star one bedroon villa in Mexico. Let's just say that we were a wee bit unhappy. Hey, it looked great in the picture!

So how is Hilton supposed to handle this situation? You trade your HGVC for a questionable resort RID or lower(and I know that there are many very nice resorts that don't qualify for GC, so please don't get mad at me if you own one). And lets say you aren't a TUG member so you can't read reviews, so you only see a picture on rci or go by a location. Don't you think there is going to be a lot of owners who expect a HGVC type resort and aren't happy because they didn't get one?

Again, I agree we as owners should be able to decide. But what is the equitable/fair solution to solve this for both parties?

posted 03-31-2005 07:35               

HGVC does give its members full RCI membership. The only thing we can't do is search online. Similar to SFX, you put in a search and wait for a call. HGVC isn't the only one to restrict this with RCI. I wish we had this option too.
You still have access to extra vacations, but you have to call a VC to find out whats avaliable.

Rick, I would have no problem if you wanted to use my RCI account to search online for extra vacations. You can even book them in my account and the guest certificates are free for extra vacations.

The issue of HGVC restricting what you see for trades with RCI, has more to do with RCI than HGVC. RCI does this for ALL timeshares. It's called VEP. Basically your timeshare has a rating and when you search other timeshares, RCI doesn't let you go to much lower in quality than what you own. This is good and bad.
For the average timeshare owner, they don't do all the research that tuggers do to find out about the resort they have matched. So they could be very disappointed if it's not up to the standard they are used to and of course they will blame RCI for there ruined vacation.

There are many threads al over tug talking about this issue. The best way to get around the VEP issue, is find a standard resort that has VERY high demand. I have a high demnad GC resort in So Cal and they are many times a South Africa week will see things that I don't. I will see more Gold Crowns, but they might see more total resorts.

From RCI FAQ's

RCI does not rate resorts, however, our members do, and we track that information . We compile VEP scores for the sole purpose of matching resorts in quality for exchanges in our program

VEP scores are used behind-the-scenes to help us determine value-for-value exchanges. When you confirm an exchange vacation, our system has determined that the comment card data of the deposited resort is comparable to that of the requested resort at that time. Because VEP scores change continuously, it's possible that the VEP score of a resort will be higher or lower than it was at the time of confirmation. VEP scores are proprietary and will not be publicly posted. Resorts are at liberty to provide their VEP scores to owners at their discretion, bearing in mind that these scores are subject to change.

I'll have more coming on the VEP topic, but for now I wanted to reassure you that when you request Bonus Vacations, our system will filter for VEP DOWN only. If it's surplus availability, we want everyone to have a chance at it as long as the quality will be at least as high as it is at your home resort -- within a fairly wide range. But resorts of higher quality are still available.

posted 03-31-2005 11:06               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
George I hope you didn't pay alot for your HGVC open Season reservation. RCI Extra Vacation is listing a ton of availability for HGVC resorts at different times of the year.

Open Season Rates Are A Rip Off in Comparison. I think it's sad that HGVC rips it's members off by charging $100 a night open season for a 2 bedroom and RCI is offering it for $229 for 7 nights.

Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Seaworld
3517 Orlando, FL, USA 8/4 11/13/2005 - 11/27/2005 $229.99

---

Well, we're paying $100 a night, but we only have 2 nights to go to Vegas anyway. But if I could get those cheaper through RCI, I'd do it. While it may not be all that great as an owner rate, $100 a night for a 1-bedroom unit on a weekend in Vegas is a steal. When I first looked at Easter weekend and this weekend at hotel rates in Vegas, most were in the $250-500 range for the Strip area. We used open season last April to attend a wedding & rates on the Strip were even higher than that that weekend, so it was a real bargain compared to a hotel room..

This all brings up an interesting question---where are these RCI nights at HGVC resorts coming from? Hilton? If they're coming from Club inventory, then that revenue better be going to the resort's HOA. I don't think I really like the idea of not finding open season availability through HGVC because it's been dumped into RCI...

I find it puzzling that inventory is popping up less than 5 days before use date...The HGVC cancellation policy says that you lose 100% of the "Club Points or Open Season rental rate" at that point. Why bother to cancel if you get nothing back (other than providing the opportunity for some additional cash to the HOA by freeing up that time to be rented again)?

posted 03-31-2005 11:23               

quote:

---

Originally posted by GeorgeJ:

This all brings up an interesting question---where are these RCI nights at HGVC resorts coming from? Hilton? If they're coming from Club inventory, then that revenue better be going to the resort's HOA. I don't think I really like the idea of not finding open season availability through HGVC because it's been dumped into RCI...

I find it puzzling that inventory is popping up less than 5 days before use date...The HGVC cancellation policy says that you lose 100% of the "Club Points or Open Season rental rate" at that point. Why bother to cancel if you get nothing back (other than providing the opportunity for some additional cash to the HOA by freeing up that time to be rented again)?

Is this last minute inventory showing up because Hilton owns those nights but couldn't rent them & is trading them with Club for dates with more lead time for rental? I hope not. It would be interesting to find out the real answer..

---

George,

I have wondered about this too. I book online and I check a few times. It is interesting to watch dates open up/close and then open up again. We thought we would forgo our trip over this Saturday, because there wasn't the availibiltiy we wanted, but then an hour or less later, "poof" there it was. This happened after Christmas too. I kept looking for a two bedroom at the Flamingo Club, nothing, nothing, nothing, then "poof" I grabbed it. My frustration with that was that on Expedia, they were showing availabilty at the Flamingo Club (of course for a much higher rate) whereas there was no availablity on hgvc.com

I like that inventory shows up within 5 days because as you know it's a simple trip over for us, and we can do it as a last minute get away. But I have no idea where this inventory comes from last minute.

I think though with the ongoing building in Vegas that it is going to become increasingly easier for us as club owners to get last minute open season. Isn't the new property when finished with 4 towers supposed to have over 1000 rooms?

You are very correct in pointing out that spring break week and easter weekend were costing top dollar(well over $200 per night at most of the nicer places) at hotels on the strip and even downtown. Vegas is becoming a spring break destination. Though there was some open season, but not as much, we decided not to go simply because it would be too busy.

Rick

posted 03-31-2005 13:10               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
I called HGVC and asked if I have access to RCI Extra Vacations and the rep told me NO!

---

Did you happen to ask why or why not? Or ask if it will ever become available to us? Or ask if we will ever be able to do our own searches?

posted 03-31-2005 14:44               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:
I called HGVC and asked if I have access to RCI Extra Vacations and the rep told me NO!

I further called RCI and asked if guest certificates are free on Extra Vacations and they said NO! $49 for guest certificates.

---

Thats suprising..

I have never asked, but I remember a while back that Madge said HGVC member have the same privelages. I will ask her again.

I booked a bonus vacation for my brother in Nov .. back when they were called bonus vacations and the Guest cert was free. Possibly they changed the policy with the name change to Extra vacation.

check ask RCI.. I will post the Question

posted 03-31-2005 18:05            

quote:

---

Originally posted by calihockey33:
Thats suprising..

I have never asked, but I remember a while back that Madge said HGVC member have the same privelages. I will ask her again.

I booked a bonus vacation for my brother in Nov .. back when they were called bonus vacations and the Guest cert was free. Possibly they changed the policy with the name change to Extra vacation.

check ask RCI.. I will post the Question

---

Calihockey33

I called RCI and talked to Amy in the Canada call center. Amy said guest certificates are $49 and were free until January when they start charging for them.

I called HGVC and talked to Ryan in the St. John Canada call center. Ryan said HGVC members do NOT have access to RCI extra vacations. Ryan said Hilton reps do NOT have access to the RCI system. Ryan said he can access a "EXTREMELY Limited Inventory" of rentals that is based on Hilton set criteria. Ryan said they don't have much success on rental matches and therefore don't do alot. Ryan said he had no idea what Last Call was.

posted 04-02-2005 09:24               

quote:

---

Originally posted by sb1070:

Open Season Rates Are A Rip Off in Comparison. I think it's sad that HGVC rips it's members off by charging $100 a night open season for a 2 bedroom and RCI is offering it for $229 for 7 nights.

Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Seaworld
3517 Orlando, FL, USA 8/4 11/13/2005 - 11/27/2005 $229.99

---

SB1070

You are comparing wrong dates at different resorts.

The open season cash rate discussed in this thread is for Vegas staring April 1st you are comparing it to Seaworld, in Orlando in November. This week-end in vegas at $100 per night in a 1 bedroom suite is a bargain since any comparable hotel would easily charge over $150 per night.

Go back to RCI vacations and try to find the same $229 deal during the same times mentioned in this thread ( April 1st, 2nd and 3rd). Good Luck.

For comparison Callihhockey found dates in vegas starting on Monday April 4th at $866 per week. Same dates with HGVC open season cash 2BD is $740 for the week.

Now we’re comparing apples to apples.

Also you mentioned that “Hilton lies to it’s members” b/c the rep could not confirm RCI units that you could clearly see were available with your other timeshare. RCI makes that determination via their VEP filter not Hilton. If you do not like the results of the VEP filter call RCI and make your point, but don’t accuse someone or something of being liars if you do not understand the process. I think RCI maybe overprotective by trying to ensure that Hilton members only get the best resorts in the system, however, you have the advantage of confirming resorts of lesser quality with you other timeshare, so that is a great benefit you have.

posted 04-02-2005 10:33            

Ryan further indicated that Hilton's criteria which he stated was more than just gold crown made successful rental searches difficult and therefore they don't do alot. Ryan said he knew what extra vacations were but when they do rental searches they don't do them through RCI's system, Hilton has there own LIMITED AND BIAS database of exceptable resorts.