Fee for borrowing points?

[Nomad420]

Thanks for the clarifications. While new to the "Hilton Club" which is I guess slightly different to HGVC, I have no "Home Week" but I guess in exchange we get less restrictive booking at the mid town NYC location. I believe the 57th St locations also gets an "exclusive booking window".

 

[alwysonvac]

While I am not supporting the concept of enhanced home week reservation rules from a personal benefit perspective, I can see it as a reasonable enhancement that owners should have. The definition of home week to start on a certain day and end on a certain day is certainly a negative restriction to owning a certain resort. However, owners at a certain resort being able to reserve home week period reservations in unit sizes that they don't own would be infringing on the benefits of the owners that size unit at that resort.

They don't have to take away existing home week benefits. They can continue giving owners the unit size they own during the home week period. They would simply need to add a new enhanced booking window for home resort owners to start just before the existing Club reservation window begins. For example, a 7 day reservation window to book any size, any check-in day, for any number of days based on the number of points owned for that specific usage year at their home resort.

 

[dougp26364]

Thanks for the clarifications. While new to the "Hilton Club" which is I guess slightly different to HGVC, I have no "Home Week" but I guess in exchange we get less restrictive booking at the mid town NYC location. I believe the 57th St locations also gets an "exclusive booking window".

Well, I haven't been to an owners update in quite some time. Largely because A) I'm not about to buy retail from Hilton, B) They haven't been offering anything that interests enough to endure a presentation and C) Our last experience wasn't a good experience.

So the Hilton Club is new to me (forgive me, I don't read every thread on TUG. Only those which are of interest to me). Perhaps the borrowing points charge is something for this "New" Hilton Club concept where owners don't have a deeded week, only points. I'm making assumptions here based on the quoted post. I have no knowledge that Hilton was selling any sort of points only product.

 

[Helios]

It sounds like you want an exclusive booking window to use StarOptions or HGVC points to check-in any day of the week, in any size unit and for any number of days at your home resort before availability is opened up to all members. It's been discussed before.

But I'm just not sure why you only want to exclude members who banked/borrowed. They are only going to impact you in the specific years they use this option. I would be more worried about the non-home resort owner that has 3+ annual weeks and are competing with you at your high demand resorts as soon as the booking window opens. You're competing with those folks annually.

I'm another one who uses banking and borrowing in HGVC, Starwood, Disney and WorldMark. It provides me the most flexibility.

Not really. Home Resort resies are a non-issue (for the most part, I only hope the inventory was released when it is supposed to be released). My problems is with open season in both systems.

I'll focus on SVN since I know that systems better (but the same basic logic applies to HGVC). At 8 months (mid night EST) before check in, anyone SO owner can book online (think about a Shark Feeding Frenzy exponentially). Owners with current year SOs and banked SOs can compete for these resies. Owners who are borrowing need to wait to reserve the next morning (via phone and their future year MFs need to be prepaid). So, all I am saying is that the banker owners should wait to reserve at 9 AM EST. As a workaround, I can reserve 3 weeks using SOs (2 weeks before the week I need) and then drop the 2 early weeks when the time comes. Is this sneaky, of course, but I feel I have to play the game...I only started doing this when I learned my lesson and realized the competition got pretty intense. I partially attribute this competition to banking (and somewhat to borrowing).

I know some HGVC owners start reserving, adding nights, dropping nights, and rolling forward until they get what they need. I've read about this here...

 

[Helios]

They don't have to take away existing home week benefits. They can continue giving owners the unit size they own during the home week period. They would simply need to add a new enhanced booking window for home resort owners to start just before the existing Club reservation window begins. For example, a 7 day reservation window to book any size, any check-in day, for any number of days based on the number of points owned for that specific usage year at their home resort.

How do like the SVN concept of Home Options?

 

[alwysonvac]

How do like the SVN concept of Home Options?

I really haven't looked at the SVN Home Options.

 

[Helios]

It works basically the way you described in your post: "For example, a 7 day reservation window to book any size, any check-in day, for any number of days based on the number of points owned for that specific usage year at their home resort."

If you book a smaller size you can reserve more nights and viceversa.

 

[tschwa2]

If they are like other systems, it won't be a simple resale vs retail, on who pays or who pays a discounted fee or no fee. It will be status vs non status. A non status retail buyer will be in the same boat as the resale buyer and the new fees could apply. Gold owners may get a discounted fee and platinum owners may have the fee waived. That way no one has to be grandfathered. The sales people have another angle to use to make the sale, Hilton Vacation club makes more money by adding new fees.

 

[Tamaradarann]

If they are like other systems, it won't be a simple resale vs retail, on who pays or who pays a discounted fee or no fee. It will be status vs non status. A non status retail buyer will be in the same boat as the resale buyer and the new fees could apply. Gold owners may get a discounted fee and platinum owners may have the fee waived. That way no one has to be grandfathered. The sales people have another angle to use to make the sale, Hilton Vacation club makes more money by adding new fees.

Please explain your position further particularly what status versus non status means. Also, are you talking about the fee for borrowing points? If the borrowing fee is in the same general price range of saving points it certainly shouldn't be a very complicated fee schedule.

 

[tschwa2]

That is a new line item on the reservation details, I just looked at a reservation I made last year and it only shows the $55 res fee.

If it is a new fee they will be adding, I think it will be for all owners. HGVC doesn't stick it to resale owners like some of the other systems like Wastegate. The only higher resale fee I can think of is the one time enrollment fee. Resale restrictions are mostly sales BS for HGVC.

By status I mean elite vs non elite as opposed to retail vs resale. Obvious retail would fall under the same category as retail non elite. No need to grandfather resale buyers into anything. They could just add no fees to borrow under one of the levels or reduced fees to borrow. http://www.hgvcelite.com/recognition/at-a-glance/

 

[Nomad420]

Well, I haven't been to an owners update in quite some time. Largely because A) I'm not about to buy retail from Hilton, B) They haven't been offering anything that interests enough to endure a presentation and C) Our last experience wasn't a good experience.

So the Hilton Club is new to me (forgive me, I don't read every thread on TUG. Only those which are of interest to me). Perhaps the borrowing points charge is something for this "New" Hilton Club concept where owners don't have a deeded week, only points. I'm making assumptions here based on the quoted post. I have no knowledge that Hilton was selling any sort of points only product.

I am relatively new to the Hilton TS system as well but yes at the Hilton Club I do NOT have a "Home Week" but do have deeded property at the Mid Town Manhattan location (and of course points). As far as a fee for borrowing points I will need to see if their is indeed one. I would not be surprised if their one, every time I turn around here as a new owner I am getting hit with some kind of "service fee". I guess welcome to HGVC/HC......

 

[Tamaradarann]

They don't have to take away existing home week benefits. They can continue giving owners the unit size they own during the home week period. They would simply need to add a new enhanced booking window for home resort owners to start just before the existing Club reservation window begins. For example, a 7 day reservation window to book any size, any check-in day, for any number of days based on the number of points owned for that specific usage year at their home resort.

That certainly would give a benefit for those owning a resort that they want to vacation in. However, there is a fear in this group about the new independently owned HGVC treating developer purchasers better than resale purchasers. The topic of thread is concerned with the implementation of a borrowing fee and the fear of it being levied only on resale purchasers. In that vein if HGVC implemented an enhanced reservation window for home resort owners it may be only for developer purchasers at the resort not resale purchasers.

 

[alwysonvac]

Well since we're speculating, here are my thoughts...

I don't believe HGVC will levy fees just for resale owners. Any new/updated fees would apply to all owners (BAU) however there might be discounted fees for Elite members.

I don't think HGVC will establish rules that give developer purchases an advantage over resale purchases when it comes to their core product (club resorts) that includes banking, borrowing and the reservation windows.

However it's possible that in the future, HGVC might limit access to specific club features (such HHonors, Club Partner Perks, other partnerships) that goes beyond their core product (club resorts) to developer purchasers only and grandfather existing members.