• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Meeting with Richard McIntosh

Blues

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,482
Reaction score
496
Points
443
Location
Monterey County CA
My wife and I are at Craigendarroch now, and had coffee this morning with Richard McIntosh, president of HIGVC. We've maintained a pleasant email correspondence with him over the last 10 years, ever since we purchased a resale week from him, and found him to be an especially pleasant and personable gentleman.

He told us the back story of our purchase. I bought the unit on eBay, though my bid was less than the reserve. When the auction closed, I was stunned to be dealing with the head of HIGVC. The back story is that he had the idea at that point to use eBay for resales, and took personal charge of the program to demonstrate to his sales staff the benefit of using eBay. Apparently it was not as good an avenue as he expected, as we were only one of 5 or 6 purchasers using that avenue. Perhaps we drove too hard a bargain? ;) In any case, we've maintained the email connection, and he has always been very helpful to us. We had jointly decided that we wanted to put faces to names during this visit.

Re the conversion of the Hilton Craigendarroch Hotel to timeshares -- although there's a press release, they haven't yet even notified the current Craigendarroch owners of the conversion, though they will do so shortly. He proposed this conversion 10 years ago, and it was approved in principle then, though never funded. Hilton corporate has finally funded it, and they will close the hotel in January to begin the conversion. I asked him the reasoning, and apparently the hotel, at just 45 rooms, doesn't have the economies of scale to be very profitable. Also, since it's so small, they have trouble making a case for capital funds for improvements. But the conversion is fully funded, and they'll upgrade the country club and other facilities at the same time. He described it as a win-win for the company and the owners.

He also shared with me, in confidence, some other plans for HGVC expansion. But I promised not to reveal them; so I'll wait until they're public, and comment at that time.

Some of you old-timers on TUG may recall that, in the past, I've noted that the Scottish affiliates are not treated the same as full HGVC owned properties in the US, vis-a-vis when the points are available, etc. Richard told me that, since HIGVC merged with HGVC, the properties are now supposed to be on equal footing in all respects. But, he said, computer systems problems have prevented them from fully merging the accounts. Hence, I (and many others) still have two different accounts with HGVC. Points should be credited in similar time frames, though he acknowledged that we would have to call in to make that happen. I shared with him the fact that most first-line HGVC reps don't know how to deal with the Scottish properties (no longer "affiliates"), and that we usually have to escalate it to a supervisor. I admit that I've never tried to get my points credited a year in advance; now I'll have to call and see if it works.

All-in-all, a very pleasant conversation with a very pleasant gentleman. I've always been impressed that Richard has always made the time to respond to my emails and help in whatever way he can, despite his many responsibilities.

Also, we're enjoying Craigendarroch very much.

-Bob
 

GregT

TUG Member
TUG Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Messages
7,128
Reaction score
1,886
Points
599
Location
Carlsbad, CA
Resorts Owned
Marriott: Maui Ocean Club Lahaina Villas (3BRx5), Ko Olina, Shadow Ridge II, Willow Ridge, Aruba Ocean Club, DC Points HGVC: Flamingo, Sea World, I-Drive, Starwood Bella (x4), SDO, TradeWinds, Worldmark
Blues,

That is a great story and very interesting to hear. Thank you for it and I will look forward to hearing the details of expansion unfold. I was happy to see the changes in Scotland and Tuscany, and will hope for more.

Best,

Greg
 

markf

TUG Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2012
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Brisbane Australia
We purchased a gold week at Craigendarroch last year through ebay for a bargain price. We are very happy with the purchase. Interestingly as soon as we purchased our week we called Craigendarroch to join HGVC. Their representative, John Pringle, was extremely unhelpful and it was clear that he (or Hilton) were not actively encouraging purchasers to join HGVC, which I was very surprised at. Anyhow we did join HGVC and are using our points at Christmas and New Year in Orlando staying at Sea World and I-drive. We had no problem making the booking or importing points from next year.

As a matter of interest earlier this year we bought in Fiesta Americana at Cabo and again had no issue with using our points to swap into HGVC Orlando in January.
 

Blues

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,482
Reaction score
496
Points
443
Location
Monterey County CA
Resurrecting Old Thread

Another post I made in this forum reminded me of this thread that I had started last August. So I thought I'd revisit it, to further comment on HGVC expansion.

When I posted this (shortly after my conversation with Richard), neither the Elara or Trump Towers expansion had been announced. Thus I was sworn to secrecy. The veiled reference I made in my original post was to these two acquisitions.

Richard was excited about the Las Vegas expansion. I was sorely disappointed that they were again putting their resources into one of the "Big Three" HGVC locations. And I said so to Richard. I tried to emphasize that the main drawback to HGVC, both from personal opinion and the consensus on TUG, was the lack of diversity of locations. He accepted that, but had no real comment to make about it.

So, I tried to get that message out to "management". I really tried. I encouraged him to tell the US head office to expand to other locations, including other Hawaiian islands (Maui, anyone?), the Carribbean, other European locations, etc. I don't know if my comments had much, if any, effect. We'll see.

Other than that exchange, though, I have to emphasize again what a pleasant conversation I had with a very pleasant gentleman.

-Bob
 
Top