• 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!

Platinum vs Gold - Still Confused or Do I have it right?

theslice

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2019
Messages
24
Reaction score
6
Points
63
OK, I have read and read and I am either confused or correct or a mix of both.

I started out thinking because of kids in school and when we want to travel, and for resale (if we get to that stage) we would want platinum.

But I have been considering other options based on the following, so please correct me if I get this wrong.
  1. Points are color blind. Small legal type says unless you are talking about your home week where you need to book the season of your points, for a week, in the same unit size.
  2. As long as I have enough points I can book in the open season (9 month window) for any season for any size as long as I have enough points to satisfy what that resort requires for that season/unit size for the dates of my travel.
  3. Points per MF is king, think about the lowest cost per point.
So testing this if I were to bundle multiple gold re-sales together it doesn't really matter gold vs platinum if I get a good point/MF ratio and home week is not something I would use.

Another way to say it if I bundle two or more gold deeds together and the points/MF is better than a single platinum deed it is better to go with the multiple deeds.

Are there other fees I need to think about if I own 2 deeds?
 

Remy

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2011
Messages
666
Reaction score
49
Points
239
Location
Kansas
Resorts Owned
Hilton Grand Vacations Club on the Boulevard, Hyatt Residence Club Wild Oak Ranch
Can you give an example of where you are seeing 2 golds as better than 1 platinum? I'm not sure I follow.
 

terces

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2013
Messages
310
Reaction score
84
Points
238
Location
Alberta
Resorts Owned
HGVC LVB x3, Sandos Mexico for RCI points
OK, I have read and read and I am either confused or correct or a mix of both.

I started out thinking because of kids in school and when we want to travel, and for resale (if we get to that stage) we would want platinum.

But I have been considering other options based on the following, so please correct me if I get this wrong.
  1. Points are color blind. Small legal type says unless you are talking about your home week where you need to book the season of your points, for a week, in the same unit size.
  2. As long as I have enough points I can book in the open season (9 month window) for any season for any size as long as I have enough points to satisfy what that resort requires for that season/unit size for the dates of my travel.
  3. Points per MF is king, think about the lowest cost per point.
So testing this if I were to bundle multiple gold re-sales together it doesn't really matter gold vs platinum if I get a good point/MF ratio and home week is not something I would use.

Another way to say it if I bundle two or more gold deeds together and the points/MF is better than a single platinum deed it is better to go with the multiple deeds.

Are there other fees I need to think about if I own 2 deeds?
I believe you are correct although I never considered owning Gold. I found the Platinum 2 bedroom 7000 point unit at the Boulevard to be the best ratio among the HGVC developed and owned resorts, and that is where I bought. The maintenance fees for that exact unit are now $878.10 including taxes. I believe the only fees for ownership are the Club Fees which are around $170 per year which is a one time annual fee regardless of how many units you own. I am in the process of closing on one of these units and my total purchase transaction fees are $2,130. You could expect to pay this for each unit you bought, although it can vary from one brokerage service to another but it is a good number to use for a budget. The other ongoing fees you will pay are a booking fee of around $80 per reservation and an unnecessary cancellation insurance fee of around $80.
 

brp

TUG Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
3,931
Reaction score
2,190
Points
598
Location
Bay Area, CA
First, as noted, two golds will never be better than platinum (as far as I cna tell) for a given room size. More points for platinum, same MF. So 2 weeks will have twice the MF but not twice the points.

Second, just a terminology thing: the "9 month window" is Club Season (as opposed to Open Season). And the reason to point this out is that there is an Open Season which is very differet,

Cheers.
 

Helaine

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Messages
249
Reaction score
76
Points
388
Location
California
Resorts Owned
Playa Grande
Fiesta Americana
The MF for a platinum, gold or silver 2 BR are the same - it's the number of points you get that are different. So you pay the same MF for platinum and get 7000 points or gold and get 5000 points - so the cheapest maintenance fee per point for a given size is always platinum in the same resort.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RX8

Remy

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2011
Messages
666
Reaction score
49
Points
239
Location
Kansas
Resorts Owned
Hilton Grand Vacations Club on the Boulevard, Hyatt Residence Club Wild Oak Ranch
I wasn't reading between the lines. The gold has a lower initial buy in so it's tempting to look at 2x 5,000 points instead of a single 7k or more. Remember to take into consideration the initial cost of buying the week, the season, the room size, the points, the maintenance fees, the resort itself and its rules, and how you'd use the points if you had them.

You might find it is worth dropping $14k to get 9,600 points a year with a $1,000 MF at a HGVC owned resort instead of paying for two weeks at $5k for 10,000 points a year with $2,400 in MF where you're making calls to turn your weeks into points every year and have to prepay MF to borrow from future years.

There's a lot going on when you buy in a system like this. Heck, you can trade into II if you buy the right location.
 

GT75

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
Moderator
Joined
May 30, 2016
Messages
4,276
Reaction score
2,753
Points
598
Location
Gig City in Tennessee
Resorts Owned
Legacy HGVC
FAVC-Cabo
OK, I have read and read and I am either confused or correct or a mix of both.

Except for the terminology (Club booking at 9 months vs. open season which is booking at < 30 days using cash), I think that you understand.

Are there other fees I need to think about if I own 2 deeds?
You will pay two set of activation/deed transfer fees, but these will be one time fees. For yearly fees, of course you will have two set of MFs but only 1 club dues.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RX8

Mr Smith

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
67
Reaction score
38
Points
78
Resorts Owned
HGVC- Lagoon Tower Platinum 2B Premeire
HGVC - Elara Platinum 1B Grand Plus
You might find it is worth dropping $14k to get 9,600 points a year with a $1,000 MF at a HGVC owned resort instead of paying for two weeks at $5k for 10,000 points a year with $2,400 in MF where you're making calls to turn your weeks into points every year and have to prepay MF to borrow from future years.

I agree with Remy, the single platinum unit is a better deal.

Short term the investment is cheaper but you have to consider all the fees as well over time.

2 gold units mean you would pay 2 closing costs. You get hit with another $1k making the initial buy in (15-7) an $8k difference. If you only keep the unit 5 years you are going to pay an additional (5x1,400) $7k in maintenance fees with the gold, only staying $1k ahead. Assuming you would sell the unit/s, the platinum will still hold more value as you may get that $8k additional back from the platinum unit, putting the platinum $7k ahead.

If you plan to keep the unit 20+ years you would end up paying (20x1,400) $28,000 in additional maintenance fees with the 2 gold units.

Every way I try and break it down the platinum always wins. The only way I can think the gold would win is if you had to finance the purchase but I’m still not sure you would be paying less than $1,400 in finance fees per year unless the interest rate is 20%.

If you are a good investor you would have to get that $8k initial buy in savings to produce more than $20k over a 20 year span.

I could be missing something so please double check my numbers.
 
Last edited:

RX8

TUG Member
Joined
May 5, 2011
Messages
4,106
Reaction score
4,452
Points
449
Resorts Owned
HGVC and DVC
Another way to say it if I bundle two or more gold deeds together and the points/MF is better than a single platinum deed it is better to go with the multiple deeds.

You are spot on with the exception of this paragraph. Platinum will always be a better Points/MF ratio than gold because you will always get more points with platinum. You mention 5000 points - Gold 5000 points pays the same maintenance fee as Platinum 7000 points so a worse points to MF ratio. Buying another gold gets you more points but you also double your maintenance fee, something I think you aren’t realizing in your analysis.

Using a rough example in dollars, three 5000 Gold’s will get you 15,000 points and $3600 in MF ($1200 X 3) or .24 per point. A 7000 Platinum has the same MF as one 5000 Gold at $1200 MF or .17 per point.

As mentioned by others above, there are many who take the initial purchase price into their analysis and may find it a good deal to pay the higher point per MF because they can get into multiple Golds with a much cheaper buy-in than buying a big point Platinum. That upfront savings helps “pay” for the higher MF but at some point those “savings” will be gone and then you are just paying more in MF.
 
Last edited:

brp

TUG Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
3,931
Reaction score
2,190
Points
598
Location
Bay Area, CA
Definitely a bunch of answers primarily repeating the prior answers. Seems we all agree :)

Cheers.
 

dayooper

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
3,945
Reaction score
3,401
Points
349
Location
The Land of Ice and Snow
Resorts Owned
HGVC: The Flamingo, The Boulevard
I will add this on. I know it’s not directly asked, but I believe the divesting of a timeshare needs to be taken into account. If bought correctly, it’s much easier to sell or even give away a platinum unit. Life happens and if you have to get rid of your TS, a platinum 2 bedroom will be easier than it’s gold counterpart. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, that platinum unit is much easier to get rid of.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RX8

brp

TUG Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
3,931
Reaction score
2,190
Points
598
Location
Bay Area, CA
I will add this on. I know it’s not directly asked, but I believe the divesting of a timeshare needs to be taken into account. If bought correctly, it’s much easier to sell or even give away a platinum unit. Life happens and if you have to get rid of your TS, a platinum 2 bedroom will be easier than it’s gold counterpart. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, that platinum unit is much easier to get rid of.

Among the very-well-versed, yes. But I wold argue that there are plenty of people who, even knowing of the advantages of resale, will look at the lower buy-in of the Gold week as a good deal and buy it (this said by the guy who, in fact, owns two 5000 point Gold weeks in Vegas instead of the one Platinum week :))

Cheers.
 

dayooper

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
3,945
Reaction score
3,401
Points
349
Location
The Land of Ice and Snow
Resorts Owned
HGVC: The Flamingo, The Boulevard
Among the very-well-versed, yes. But I wold argue that there are plenty of people who, even knowing of the advantages of resale, will look at the lower buy-in of the Gold week as a good deal and buy it (this said by the guy who, in fact, owns two 5000 point Gold weeks in Vegas instead of the one Platinum week :))

Cheers.

I actually think that a gold 2 bedroom at The Boulevard is one of the few gold units I would purchase. The MF per point ratio is roughly $0.17 which is better than the platinum units in many places. The Place is great and it seems that everyone wants a piece of those low MF’s. Some of the 1 bedroom grands and grand pluses at Elara is another of the gold units that seem worthwhile to purchase.
 

Sandy VDH

TUG Review Crew: Elite
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
9,848
Reaction score
4,227
Points
648
Location
Houston, TX
Resorts Owned
Wynd VIP Plat GF, HGVC Elite, WM, HICV, +
Agree with the above that Platinum is a better long term purchase.

You can do whatever you would like however, and buy 2 gold weeks if that is what you want to do.
 

Sandy VDH

TUG Review Crew: Elite
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
9,848
Reaction score
4,227
Points
648
Location
Houston, TX
Resorts Owned
Wynd VIP Plat GF, HGVC Elite, WM, HICV, +
I actually think that a gold 2 bedroom at The Boulevard is one of the few gold units I would purchase. The MF per point ratio is roughly $0.17 which is better than the platinum units in many places. The Place is great and it seems that everyone wants a piece of those low MF’s. Some of the 1 bedroom grands and grand pluses at Elara is another of the gold units that seem worthwhile to purchase.

So wouldn't a platinum unit at Boulevard be even better MF / Pt? Or course it would.

At Elara you need to buy the highest unit type in the category, as a similar room sizes have the same MFs but obviously not the same point allotment, 1 BR Grand Plus as @dayooper says is a good choice.

Ultimately you buy what you find and when you need it. It may take a while to actually find those harder to find sweet spots within the HGVC system.
 

theslice

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2019
Messages
24
Reaction score
6
Points
63
First, as noted, two golds will never be better than platinum (as far as I cna tell) for a given room size. More points for platinum, same MF. So 2 weeks will have twice the MF but not twice the points.

Second, just a terminology thing: the "9 month window" is Club Season (as opposed to Open Season). And the reason to point this out is that there is an Open Season which is very differet,

Cheers.

Yes, screwed up the terminology.
 

theslice

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2019
Messages
24
Reaction score
6
Points
63
You are spot on with the exception of this paragraph. Platinum will always be a better Points/MF ratio than gold because you will always get more points with platinum. You mention 5000 points - Gold 5000 points pays the same maintenance fee as Platinum 7000 points so a worse points to MF ratio. Buying another gold gets you more points but you also double your maintenance fee, something I think you aren’t realizing in your analysis.

Using a rough example in dollars, three 5000 Gold’s will get you 15,000 points and $3600 in MF ($1200 X 3) or .24 per point. A 7000 Platinum has the same MF as one 5000 Gold at $1200 MF or .17 per point.

As mentioned by others above, there are many who take the initial purchase price into their analysis and may find it a good deal to pay the higher point per MF because they can get into multiple Golds with a much cheaper buy-in than buying a big point Platinum. That upfront savings helps “pay” for the higher MF but at some point those “savings” will be gone and then you are just paying more in MF.

It probably doesn't help that I was working off a unicorn example. Getting better at this, now just need to do the hunting for the correct sale.
 

dayooper

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
3,945
Reaction score
3,401
Points
349
Location
The Land of Ice and Snow
Resorts Owned
HGVC: The Flamingo, The Boulevard
So wouldn't a platinum unit at Boulevard be even better MF / Pt? Or course it would.

At Elara you need to buy the highest unit type in the category, as a similar room sizes have the same MFs but obviously not the same point allotment, 1 BR Grand Plus as @dayooper says is a good choice.

Ultimately you buy what you find and when you need it. It may take a while to actually find those harder to find sweet spots within the HGVC system.

Obviously, it would be. I’m not saying that I suggest buying a gold over platinum. My point was that the gold 2 bedroom at the Strip would be one of the only gold units I would look at. The price is still way less than many platinum units with just as good or better MF ratios.
 

Tamaradarann

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
3,368
Reaction score
1,297
Points
548
Location
Honolulu, HI
Resorts Owned
HGVC South Beach, HGVC Las Vegas, HGVC Las Vegas on the Strip, HGVC Sea World, Misner Place
Agree with the above that Platinum is a better long term purchase.

You can do whatever you would like however, and buy 2 gold weeks if that is what you want to do.

I believe that the Bold statement above is the key to this argument. If one is only planning on keeping the timeshare for a few years a Gold could be a better purchase. It gets you into the system and some nice vacations at a low buy in price. If you are planning to keep the timeshare for an extended period, perhaps forever, the Platinum is the better purchase.
 

Vee Ts

newbie
Joined
May 2, 2019
Messages
12
Reaction score
7
Points
13
So in this example:
- 4,800 pts. which is 1 Bedroom in Platinum
- 5,000 pts. which is 2 Bedroom in Gold

The 4,800 pts. would have a lower point/MF ratio and therefore is a better buy even if the initial investment is lower?
 

Talent312

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
17,461
Reaction score
7,277
Points
948
Resorts Owned
HGVC & GTS
So in this example:
- 4,800 pts. which is 1 Bedroom in Platinum
- 5,000 pts. which is 2 Bedroom in Gold

The 4,800 pts. would have a lower point/MF ratio and therefore is a better buy even if the initial investment is lower?

Yes. What I've suggested in the past is taking the cost if acquisition (price + CC) and adding 15/20/25 years of MF's to get a total cost of ownership.
 

Ianneyan

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2012
Messages
257
Reaction score
52
Points
239
Location
Beautiful San Diego!
Resorts Owned
HGVC and Vistana
So in this example:
- 4,800 pts. which is 1 Bedroom in Platinum
- 5,000 pts. which is 2 Bedroom in Gold

The 4,800 pts. would have a lower point/MF ratio and therefore is a better buy even if the initial investment is lower?


I agree with most to purchase platinum season if you can fork the upfront costs. I was able to find my unicorn about 1.5 years ago-> a 1 bedroom penthouse in LV on the Blvd in platinum season, 6,200 annual points, for $4,500 (a steal!) Breaks down to .10/pt, not including club dues, as I pay those with my LV Paradise MF. .13/pt including club dues. Some people prefer to pay less up front and a little more in annual MF... I have a couple friends who chose to purchase gold for this reason. Whatever floats your boat and works with your budget. In the end, you will still get a much better deal by going resale vs. through the developer.
 

rdw95

Guest
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
78
Reaction score
73
Points
78
You also have to figure in exactly what you want to own. We are in the process of buying two platinum weeks at resort because it is where we want to go and is in high demand so having the ability to reserve one year ahead of time in a platinum season is attractive to us and worth paying more for the platinum season than gold.
 

Tamaradarann

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
3,368
Reaction score
1,297
Points
548
Location
Honolulu, HI
Resorts Owned
HGVC South Beach, HGVC Las Vegas, HGVC Las Vegas on the Strip, HGVC Sea World, Misner Place
This is true you don't need to own Gold Season to be able to book your time a year ahead of time since Gold is usually periods of low demand as opposed to Platinum which is usually periods of high demand. However, while this is not true for our vacationing pattern I have heard of people intentionally looking to book Gold Season to stretch their points because it is less points per night.
 
Top