Just had a sales presentation with a DRI rep confused..

I sure hope this is the place to ask this... I am a HGVC owner (bought resell market), Dri rep says I can keep my HGVC and use the points towards vacation rentals in DRI... The buy in (to me) is a little pricier since I bought resell pricing.

They claim MF's are consistently low, but he was talking about having a $2500 per year MF and keeping a roughly 5 week vacation cycle per year..

Well I can't vacation 5 weeks a year but... and the MF is more than double my HGVC MF. Now in all fairness IF I had as many points as he wanted to sell me the HGVC MF would probably be at least equal.

Of course they threw a lot of numbers and scenarios at me.. But couldn't grasp the whole concept (It takes me a while to process this).

So as to what "Level" "precious stone" I would be at when purchased and why do I need to be at a certain level?

So I guess has anyone switched from HGVC to DRI, and experienced a more better experience (to your pocket book, as well as on vacation)?

Thanks all..

I have no idea what the sales person was talking about, but if it sounds confusing and it doesn't make sense, don't sign a contract and don't pay anything. Overall, I think the HGVC owners are happier than the Diamond owners, but I am just going by threads that I've read here over a few years.

You can exchange your HGVC for Diamond in RCI and you don't need to buy anything or pay higher MFs to do that. If your Hilton is a Grand Pacific affiliate, you can rent weeks at many Diamond resorts for $999. or less for a 2 bedroom.

what sort of "buy in" are you looking for here? you can have your pick of DRI intervals for literally free on the resale market at any time.

Ive never heard of being able to use Hilton points to reserve DRI intervals...other than perhaps through a 3rd party exchange company. Certainly nothing you would have to pay a salesperson to make available to you that im aware of!

TUGBrian said:

what sort of "buy in" are you looking for here? you can have your pick of DRI intervals for literally free on the resale market at any time.

Ive never heard of being able to use Hilton points to reserve DRI intervals...other than perhaps through a 3rd party exchange company. Certainly nothing you would have to pay a salesperson to make available to you that im aware of!

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The only way that works that I am familiar with is if the HGVC is included in DRI's Club Combinations or Club Select programs, and that can only be done when one is purchasing retail points from DRI and you negotiate to obtain that benefit.

I that case, an owner can deposit a week into Club Select and receive DRI points in their Club account that can be used just like points from a DRI ownership.

It's basically like a PFD (in RCI points terms) or PIC week (in Wyndham terms). The salesman forgot to add that on top of the $2500 in MF and club dues for the new points, you would still own and pay MF on the Hilton week you already own in order to get the total number of points mentioned. The buy in was likely in the neighborhood of $25,000-$50,000. Dollar amounts which just stagger the mind consider how many people are clambering to give away or give back their DRI weeks and points for free.

tschwa2 said:

It's basically like a PFD (in RCI points terms) or PIC week (in Wyndham terms). The salesman forgot to add that on top of the $2500 in MF and club dues for the new points, you would still own and pay MF on the Hilton week you already own in order to get the total number of points mentioned. The buy in was likely in the neighborhood of $25,000-$50,000. Dollar amounts which just stagger the mind consider how many people are clambering to give away or give back their DRI weeks and points for free.

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Both MF?

I am HGVC Elite and DRI Gold Elite. I plan to use my DRI points next year and then either sell my DRI weeks or try and give them back via the deedback process. IMHO - HGVC is a better org and I prefer HGVC over DRI. And I REALLY dislike the sales slugs at DRI and their approach to up-selling owners.

Ty1on said:

Both MF?

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Yes. With the Club Combo, you get point values for your brought in weeks that you keep control of plus your DRI points. Example. You own 5,000 DRI points (regular membership) and 25,000 somebody else points or fixed/floating weeks valued at 25,000 points. In the DRI system, you are the equivalent of a Gold member (30,000 points) because of the combination but you still have to maintain your 5,000 point DRI MF and the whatever else MF. It's a way to make your DRI membership more valuable without giving up your memberships elsewhere. If someone decides to take their other week and turn it into more DRI points in a given year (for $99), those weeks end up in Club Select. Club Combo is a modification to the original Club Select program.

TheWizz said:

I am HGVC Elite and DRI Gold Elite. I plan to use my DRI points next year and then either sell my DRI weeks or try and give them back via the deedback process. IMHO - HGVC is a better org and I prefer HGVC over DRI. And I REALLY dislike the sales slugs at DRI and their approach to up-selling owners.

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One is never required to attend an "Owner's Update".

friedshrimp said:

One is never required to attend an "Owner's Update".

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Agreed and well aware of that. They offered us three days/nights of freebies in Vegas a few years back for Elite owners staying at Polo ("Diamond Elite Event"), e.g. free Vegas shows, dinners, tours, etc., so we took it and kept telling them (for 3 days!) we were happy with our 30K DRI points and didn't need/want anymore points. Our 30K points was converted to DRI Points and we kept our deeded weeks back when you could do that for $3K. We actually had more points via DRI Points that we gave back several years ago when you could do that as we didn't need them. I told them that too so they would know we were content w/ the 30K points. They were so kind and fun to be around for the first two days/nights. Almost human. Then on the last day after breakfast, they did the hard press and questioned our mental capacity for not taking their generous offer to sell us another 20K points for $30K to get to Platinum.

After that, we decided never again no matter how many free meals and shows they offer. Lesson learned...