Outside of Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Orlando, are most of the rest only "affiliates". In terms of the Vegas presentation, they indicated that they have 41 resorts. The only ones they indicated were affiliates were the Club Intrawest ones in Canada (ie Whistler, Mt. Tremblant). However, it was not clear to me what benefits one had by being an owner of points of the main Hilton VC properties, vs being an owner at one of the affiliates (eg Intrawest).[/Quote)
The only other resort that I'm aware of that is not an affiliate is the HGVC South Beach Miami, FL. All the others are affiliates with varying degree's of those resorts owners participating in the HGVC program.
[Quote}I do not understand your point about exchanging with RCI. I got the impression that one is automatically a RCI member (ie no annual exchange fees); one can then exchange within the RCI system directly (ie without going through HGVC). Is my impression wrong? Are you saying that one does not get membership with RCI, but one can exchange through RCI by going through HGVC. What do you mean that this process limits your exchange ability through RCI - are the better properties not accessible to exchange, or the poorer properties not accessible to exchange? I was particulary interested in the properties in India (there are at most 2 properties in India accessible through II).
You are automatically a member or RCI. Part of you maintenance fee's pay for the corporate account HGVC has for RCI. It is NOT a full access membership and you will not have online access to RCI. Instead you'll have to call HGVC or go through HGVC's website to arrange RCI exchanges.
You WILL still have to pay RCI exchange fee's. Those are NOT included in your HGVC membership.
The agreement between HGVC and RCI does limit the resorts you can exchange into. There is the RCI book for general members and then there is another book for HGVC members. Salesmen will often show the RCI book that includes all the resorts. HGVC's agreement sets a certain minimum standard that must be met in order for that resort to qualify for HGVC members to exchange into. Foriegn resorts are the most affected. There might be 20 resorts in New Zealand in the general members RCI book but in the HGVC version that number could be much lower (2 to 5).
A few things I liked about Hilton, that Marriott should replicate - it gives you HHonors lifetime membership - silver level if you buy 7000 points, Gold level if you buy 14K points, and Diamond level if you buy (I believe) 35K points. With 14K points, you become an Elite owner - you have additional priviliges, including access to lounges in the HGVC properties (equivalent to the lounges in the Hilton Hotels - available for Gold and Diamond HHonors members).
I was also told that one can get rent a unit at a special discount, if you are a HGVC member. You must rent within 30 days of arrival. For example, one owner rented around the New Year period earlier last year/this year - at $100/1 bedroom unit.
Don't get overly excited about those owners lounges or Elite benefits. In order to gain that level you must buy from Hilton. You can save yourself thousands of dollars buying resale. I've seen the Elite lounge and, IMO it's nothing to write home about. There's no way I can drink that much soft drinks, eat that many pasteries or enjoy that many horsdevores to make up the differenc between developer pricing (think $30,000 and up) and resale pricing (think around $15,000).
Unless you spend a lot of nights in hotels I doubt you'd get that much usage from Silver, Gold or Platinum membership in the HHonors system. I know I don't get a lot of benefit out of it. Yes it's nice to have but, if you take out the Marriott Visa you'll automatically become a Silver Elite member in the Marriott Rewards program and you don't even have to own a Marriott timeshare.
Don't get me wrong. Hilton is a good program. I own both Hilton and Marriott. You ask for my preference and, if I had to get rid of one or the other I'd get rid of the Hilton unit for the reasons I've already stated. Hilton does have a better internal exchange program but, that's where any advantage Hilton has over Marriott ends. Marriott has more resorts that they've built, even if you count the affiliates. Marriott has more locations that Hilton, even if you count the affiliate. Marriott unit quility is just a tad higher than Hiltons IMO. Most importantly Marriott continues to expand into NEW area's rather than expand in the same three area's that Hilton's been stuck in for years.
I take that back Hilton does have one other advantage over Marriott. Their Maintenance fee's are considerably cheaper. But then again I go back to my opinion on quality. Marriott is more expensive to maintain but I feel that they're a little better on quality. However, that is just my opinion. I certain others will differ.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anticipating dumping my Hilton week and buy another Marriott week. I do like the internal exchanges through Hilton and I plan on using that to get into Hawaii. If we ever have grandchildren I'll probably use Hilton to go to Orlando as well. There is also the possibility of using Hilton to get into S. Florida in January or Febuary sometime which is something I'd be hard pressed to do with either of my Marriott weeks. But I don't feel the need to expand in a system that I feel is rather limited for internal exchanges. If only HGVC would have built in more locations than the big three (Hawaii, Vegas and Orlando) I might have been a multiple HGVC owner rather than a multiple week Marriott owner. But they didn't and they don't appear to be planning to build somewhere else and that's the problem with Hilton.
