GMan82
TUG Member
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2019
- Messages
- 191
- Reaction score
- 121
- Points
- 154
- Resorts Owned
-
Elara, a Hilton Grand Vacations Club
West 57th by Hilton Club
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.
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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