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Owner Update: Ocean Oak Resort, my experience

GMan82

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Hi everyone,
So some months ago, I took advantage of a "Would you like to hear an exciting new offer" phone-bait for 500 Honors Points and got hooked up into an owner update. I chose Hilton Head Island and then used some points to tack on an Ocean Oak Resort stay since I'd never been. Unfortunately, with Dorian's first path leading in this direction, I ended up canceling the resort stay but was locked into the owner update. So here's my experience and everything I remember from this morning.

Price: $112.25
Gifts: $100 have a night on us certificate (expires in 6 months) and 15,000 Honors Points.
Total time commitment: 2 hours, of which about 1 hr, 20 mins was used.

Lodging: Home2Suites, 2-Queen studio
--2-star hotel on Google search.
--Can hear EVERYTHING around you in surrounding rooms, like neighbor snoring, kids running above you, alarms at 7 am, etc.
--Bike renter just outside and rents for $12/day.
--Location a bit far from the beach, so you'd need to drive to get there.
--Other options would be a Hampton Inn and a Hilton Garden Inn, both of which are further away than the Home2Suites from the resort.
--Saleslady said they would never use the actual resort to lodge people in a sales package because the owners should get exclusive access.

Owner Update: Overall, very pleasant, no-pressure situation.
--Very pleasant lady
--Chatted about life, the island itself, and the perks about visiting it, restaurants, beach life, hot places to visit, etc.
--Asked me about my vacationing habits, how much I think I spend, what places I've been, if I use honors points, if I used my prior bonus points, etc.
--Spoke to me about RCI and how I should look at gold-crown only to achieve Hilton quality. If elite, I get exclusive access to select inventory. Also mentioned I should call into the club to better utilize RCI.
--Mentioned some new developments including one in San Francisco that would be HGVC. She implied that HGV is going to do what they did in Chicago and convert top floors of existing hotels. Other cities also planned, but no details.
--She then showed a video about the island and after that we took a tour of the place. Showed me the beach access, the pools, and also the rooms.
--I asked about the Apollo thing and she said it was very unlikely. Even if they did take over, HGV just manages Ocean Oak, and if the HOA wanted to, it could search for a new manager.
--After that, she realized I was more interested in points than the actual location. She explained that Ocean Oak is very exclusive and it's often hard to exchange into the place since a lot of owners tend to utilize their home week.
--Inventory almost sold out
--New building opened in June, and ready. Just not yet in the inventory pool.
--After tour, she spoke to me about elite access benefits: separate phone line, cheaper reservation fee, waived reservation fee for 7-day stays, access to RCI select, etc.
--Said that if I spend $100k in traveling in 20 years above my existing point balance, that putting a piece of that money into another HGV property might be to my benefit.
--Said the MFs are about $11-1200 at ocean oak, so low across the board. But per her, that would have been for a 7000 points Gold Season 2BX, I think. I believe in platinum that's 9600 points. If that's so, then MF not bad. We didn't get into pricing.
--Said no other sales center is permitted to sell Ocean Oak Resort
--She then offered me a 7000 point package at Vegas (unclear what resort), but MF would have been about $1900, since I was looking for points only.
-- Cost? $36,000, already on sale from $39,000. Since this would make me elite, they'd try for the 5% elite discount.
--25,000 Bonus Points offered. She pegged the value of each bonus point at $1, so my overall cost would have been about $11,000 out of pocket. Not sure I believe that.
--I brought up that bonus points expire in 2 years and was corrected that it was 2.9 years and that at expiry, whatever wasn't used can also be converted into Honors or extended by using RCI.
--EDITED to ADD: She also said I could rent out my week, but I said that was limited to home week. She said that's not true. Maybe she meant guest certificates to strangers, but I think that's against the rules.
--I mentioned I have other ways of elite status and they'd unlikely be able to match that offer.
--She asked why I hadn't jumped on that offer, but I told her I wasn't yet ready for more points.
--Asked why I rescinded at an Orlando resort. My response was that it was a high pressure situation, that I thought about it and was barely 2 months into my initial purchase and wasn't ready. Then I also pointed out that it was a Hawaii property for 8400 points and 36,000 bonus points, but the MF was close to $2k and that I'd be paying $3k a year in MFs. So that was why.
--Offered me a VIP package of 7200 points for $1695. Was tempting, but I decided against it.
--Overall amicable. She asked if there was any way she'd be able to obtain my business, and I said unlikely. We ended there. I took my honors points and my doubletree cert that I'll use in San Diego in December. Then I changed into my workout gear, got a bike, and spent the next 6 hours roaming the island.

What do you guys think? was there a lot of lies in there? To me it seemed rather pleasant and informative. I wonder if I'll be blacklisted now: Initial purchase, 1 rescission before realizing the ins and outs through TUG, and now a hard pass at an update just about a year after my initial purchase.
 
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hurnik

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The one that comes blatantly to mind is the bonus points.
Per the Club rules (2019) on page 8:

Any unused Bonus Points expire two (2) years from the date of issuance and cannot be reinstated once
expired.
 

GMan82

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West 57th by Hilton Club
The one that comes blatantly to mind is the bonus points.
Per the Club rules (2019) on page 8:

Any unused Bonus Points expire two (2) years from the date of issuance and cannot be reinstated once
expired.
Yeah, that's what I thought. But she'd mentioned 2.9 years … whatever that means.

Also, edited my post to add in something about renting out my time there, which I don't think was right too.
 

brp

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--EDITED to ADD: She also said I could rent out my week, but I said that was limited to home week. She said that's not true. Maybe she meant guest certificates to strangers, but I think that's against the rules.

Yeah, that's what I thought. But she'd mentioned 2.9 years … whatever that means.

Also, edited my post to add in something about renting out my time there, which I don't think was right too.

You are correct, and she is not. What you suggested can be done but is, as you say, against the rules. Then it's up to the individual to decide.

Cheers.
 

CalGalTraveler

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Thanks for sharing. Good job avoiding a $36,000 hit. Overall accurate to a degree. She might get the 2.9 years of bonus points because you can extend the 1 year expiration for another 2 years by sending to RCI, which would bring it close to 3. But not sure. Perhaps they changed the rules.

Glad she played down the Apollo rumor but the likelihood of any HOA defecting is low with HGVC controlling the board. What could she say? Only the senior execs know what's going on.
 

SmithOp

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What she means is Bonus points ability to reserve expires in 2 years, but since you can reserve 9 months out for club season, that adds the .9

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 

brp

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What she means is Bonus points ability to reserve expires in 2 years, but since you can reserve 9 months out for club season, that adds the .9

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

Of course, 9 months equals 0.75, or 0.9 = 10.8 months. But I can forgive errors in the maths :)

Cheers.
 

GT75

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Thanks for the update and glad that you didn't jump on the offer.
 

GMan82

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Thanks for the update and glad that you didn't jump on the offer.

Definitely not. And Vegas, too! And those maintenance fees! I should have asked how much the Ocean Oak package would be. I’m betting a LOT more than $36k though.
 

GMan82

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My husband and I recognized many years ago that on every tour we did they were “almost sold out.”
Haha I think all places are ALMOST sold out. Every deed is flying off the shelves in the timeshare industry lol
 

amycurl

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You got a better hotel for your stay than we did over July 4th. We were in an unbranded hotel across the street, that, while close to the beach and resort, was just...not up to snuff. I was really shocked and let it fly in the review/veal email I was sent.


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RX8

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--She then offered me a 7000 point package at Vegas (unclear what resort), but MF would have been about $1900, since I was looking for points only.

--25,000 Bonus Points offered. She pegged the value of each bonus point at $1, so my overall cost would have been about $11,000 out of pocket. Not sure I believe that.

7,000 Vegas points for a maintenance fee of $1900 sounds like two 3500 point deeds, both of which are worth close to zero on the resale market making it difficult to get out of when and if one wanted to dispose of them.

The salesperson way overstated the value of bonus points. I would put the value closer to 25 cents per bonus point.
 

dayooper

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7,000 Vegas points for a maintenance fee of $1900 sounds like two 3500 point deeds, both of which are worth close to zero on the resale market making it difficult to get out of when and if one wanted to dispose of them.

The salesperson way overstated the value of bonus points. I would put the value closer to 25 cents per bonus point.

I believe you are correct, 2 silver 2 bedroom units (MF’s are around $850 there). Not sure you could give those away without any incentive.

Every time there is an owners update, I’m just floored at the things that are said. Love the piece on if you are going to spend $100,000 over the next 20 years, you should make HGVC a part of that. Then she tries to sell something that she knows the owner will want to be rid of and eventually want to trade in. Great job not picking that contract up.
 

PigsDad

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--25,000 Bonus Points offered. She pegged the value of each bonus point at $1
I would have loved to have asked her how she figured bonus points are worth $1 each when, if used to pay maintenance fees or for a cruise, HGVC only gives you $0.10/point. :ponder:

And then watch her squirm. :D

Kurt
 

CalGalTraveler

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I believe you are correct, 2 silver 2 bedroom units (MF’s are around $850 there). Not sure you could give those away without any incentive.

Every time there is an owners update, I’m just floored at the things that are said. Love the piece on if you are going to spend $100,000 over the next 20 years, you should make HGVC a part of that. Then she tries to sell something that she knows the owner will want to be rid of and eventually want to trade in. Great job not picking that contract up.

LOL perhaps the$1/pt bonus points was HER sales bonus if she sold these worthless units!
 

dayooper

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I would have loved to have asked her how she figured bonus points are worth $1 each when, if used to pay maintenance fees or for a cruise, HGVC only gives you $0.10/point. :ponder:

And then watch her squirm. :D

Kurt
LOL perhaps the$1/pt bonus points was HER sales bonus if she sold these worthless units!

Even more to her. If you use those bonus points, you get used to traveling more than your points allow. So what do you need? More points, of course. Unless you discover the resale market, where do you go to get more points? The developer!

They can tell you how lousy your purchase was and you can “save” so much money a year buy buying this nice shiny “new” unit for more points with a lower MF. We’ll even throw in more bonus points!
 
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GMan82

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I would have loved to have asked her how she figured bonus points are worth $1 each when, if used to pay maintenance fees or for a cruise, HGVC only gives you $0.10/point. :ponder:

And then watch her squirm. :D

Kurt
I didn’t have the heart to ask. She was unlike one of the usual sales people and didn’t try to pressure me. But the $0.10 value did run through my mind.
 

GMan82

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7,000 Vegas points for a maintenance fee of $1900 sounds like two 3500 point deeds, both of which are worth close to zero on the resale market making it difficult to get out of when and if one wanted to dispose of them.

The salesperson way overstated the value of bonus points. I would put the value closer to 25 cents per bonus point.
Ugh 2 deeds at 3500 points each. That sounds awful. Yeah, those MFs seemed high for Vegas. My 8400 point Elara unit is $1185.

I figure she wanted to get me up to elite the cheapest way possible and I’m 5600 points away. So maybe that was the solution? If only she told me what the units were, because now I’m curious.
 

GT75

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I didn’t have the heart to ask.
Good plan because questions just make the pain (eg. "Owners Update", aka. really sales presentation) last longer.
 
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