My name is Syed Sarmad and I’m the Principal Broker for Advantage Vacations. Advantage Vacation is a licensed real estate company in Hawaii and we specialize in timeshare resales. In particular, we specialize in timeshare resales of name brand properties such as Hilton timeshare resales, Marriott timeshare resales and Westin timeshare resales.
Hilton Bay Club at Waikoloa Beach Pool
Today I would like to talk about the Hilton Grand Vacation Club. The Hilton Grand Vacation Club has two separate types of club membership programs. One is called the Hilton Grand Vacation Club, or often abbreviated as HGVC. The second is the Hilton Club New York program. Today I would like to talk about the Hilton Grand Vacation Club program.
There are 58 resorts affiliated with the Hilton Grand Vacation Club program. There are three classifications of resorts in the program:
- HGVC owned and managed resorts
- Affiliate resorts that are managed by HGVC
- Affiliated resorts that are not managed by HGVC (in this category there may be limited inventory because many of the owners in that resort may not have elected to participate in the HGVC club membership program).
To view a list of the 58 Hilton Grand Vacation Club resorts, click on: Hilton Grand Vacations Resort List
The HGVC program is a deeded ownership program where you purchase a Hilton timeshare resale in a particular size of unit and in a season which entitles you to use that week at your home resort in the season of your ownership or use your Club membership program at other affiliated resorts. You also have the option to exchange through RCI or another exchange company or convert it into hotel points.
The HGVC is a floating week program. However, there are some fixed weeks in properties like Hawaii, Las Vegas and Park City where you have event weeks like Christmas week, New Years week, etc.
The Hilton Grand Vacation Club owner has the ability to make use of their home resort or they can use it through the Club membership program at any affiliated HGVC resort or use an external exchange company like RCI or San Francisco Exchange Company or Interval International. The owner also has the option to convert it into Hilton HHonors points that can be used for the Hilton family of hotels, car rentals, airline tickets, some yacht programs or houseboat vacations, cruises, safaris, etc.
Open Season explanation: As a Hilton Grand Vacation Club member you also have access to “open season” reservations. These reservations can be made 30 days to 1 day in advance which are cash purchases where Hilton rents rooms at discounted prices and you pay cash for it. This is over and above your week of ownership.
Elite Status explanation: There is also what is called the Elite Status, which is made available to people that purchase a minimum of 14,000 points (or more) directly from Hilton Grand Vacation Club. There are currently three HGVC Elite levels: Elite requires 14,000 points, Elite Plus requires 24,000 points and Elite Premier requires 34,000 points.
To review a detailed explanation of the Elite levels and the benefits associated with each level, click on: Hilton Timeshares Elite Status Defined.
How the reservation system works:
- The home week reservation: You can make a reservation in the size of unit and for the entire week in the season of your ownership – you can make that from twelve months to nine months in advance.
- Then starting from nine months to one day in advance the Club reservation window opens where you can book at any resort in the HGVC system and you can book in any size unit, depending on the number of points you have available, or any season including your own home resort. There is a minimum of three nights you can stay.
- You also have the “open season” reservation that is separate where you can make reservations or book additional time by a cash purchase.
You can also exchange it through an external exchange program like RCI, Interval International (if that is applicable) or San Francisco Exchange and you also have the option of converting to Hilton HHonors.
Changing reservations:
All Home resort and Club season reservations using Club Points may be modified in location and length of stay, the size and type of accommodations and dates (for travel within the same year) without incurring any additional transaction fees. Note: Home resort and Club reservations using Bonus Points are not changeable. Some changes may be subject to a cancellation policy.
Converting Club Points into Hilton HHonors:
To convert your Hilton Club points into Hilton HHonors you can make those in the year prior so you can do it for the coming year – you get 25 Hilton HHonors points for each Club point and those Hilton HHonors points are then allotted in the year of your usage. If you convert your HGVC club points in the year of your usage for Hilton HHonors then you get 20 Hilton HHonors points for each Club point.
Some additional benefits (and fees that apply) available to HGVC members are:
- You can borrow points from the coming year for a $76 fee when you do it on line or a $99 fee if you borrow points over the phone. You’d have to use the points allotted for this year before you use your borrowed points and you can only make these reservations a maximum of 9 months in advance. You cannot convert them into HHonors points.
- You can also deposit your points or bank your points for the coming year (a $99 Club Fee applies) for a maximum of another twelve months. For example, you can bank your 2015 points by December 31, 2014 and you’ll have until December 31, 2016 to use them. Those Club points can only be used to reserve up to a maximum of nine months in advance and you cannot convert those into Hilton HHonors points.
- You also have the option to “rescue” your points for a $76 fee on line or a $99 fee by phone. If you have points in the allotted year of your usage and you have not used those points by the end of that calendar year then you can “rescue” those points, which means you have the following year to use those points. Again, you can only make those reservations nine months in advance and you can’t use them for your home week reservation or convert them into HHonors points.
Membership fees explanation:
There’s an annual Club membership fee that you pay regardless of whether you own an annual or bi-ennial Hilton timeshare with Hilton Grand Vacation Club. Currently in 2014 the fee is $136 for domestic Hilton timeshare members and for Hilton timeshare international members it is $174.
I hope this information has been beneficial to you.
View the video below:
Blog articles:
What Hilton Grand Vacations Club benefits are available when you buy Hilton timeshare resales.
Syed Sarmad, Principal Broker for Advantage Vacation
