GEVC Powered by RCI Points - How well has this worked for you?

[Crazyglue]

I’d love to hear about your experience booking resort stays via GEVC Powered by RCI Points. I am genuinely interested, if you have purchased the GEVC membership within the last year, what has your experience been on booking the allegedly cheap resorts? Are there issues booking? Are the resorts nice and at least in a 4 star type of location? Are you finding that you have to plan your travel dates because they only have checkins on certain days? Are there additional fees for bookings and fees for checking in later or checking out earlier? Are you really finding that the additional resort stays (not the 10k points stay) are cheaper and just as nice? I’ve read reviews on this company but haven’t seen anyone with the same plan I have, and those with other plans say they can’t find stays, but they don’t give any info on whether they were trying to find last minute trips in high demand cities or whether they planned months in advance.

Note: Their model has recently changed so that's why I ask for those that have purchased the membership more recently. I saw they had a Hilton resort in Cabo for $600/week that is $5500/week on Hilton’s website. I watched the sales rep pull it up real time with side by side comparison and watched him pull up other cities we were familiar with.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Just checked out their website and it feels…. pretty scammy. I would stay away if you don’t hear from any other members on this board with experience. Purchasing any kind of timeshare retail is almost always a poor decision

 

[jp10558]

Note: Their model has recently changed so that's why I ask for those that have purchased the membership more recently. I saw they had a Hilton resort in Cabo for $600/week that is $5500/week on Hilton’s website. I watched the sales rep pull it up real time with side by side comparison and watched him pull up other cities we were familiar with.

This just sounds like RCI that you can get with many resale timeshares - HGVC and HVC (DRI) have lots of inventory in RCI via trades, bulk deposits, and extra vacations. You probably saw an "Extra Vacation". I think these are often really good deals, but you have to pick from the "menu" RCI presents, not like a Hotel. So there's limited units and dates, and they're almost always a week, starting Fri/Sat/Sun (kind of random based on the deposit). I'm staying on HHI at Coral Reef (not Hilton) via an RCI Extra Vacation right now. 3BR for ~$560 for the week IIRC. Plus resort fees and taxes - always check what those are - usually it's like sub $200, but sometimes it's really high depending on the location.

Anyway, long story short - if you have some up front cash and like Hilton, I'd go get a HGVC resale somewhere you'd like to go on the home week you like, OR if you can plan 9 months out somewhere with mid to low MF/pt - sub $1,600 a year for 11,200 pts. Then you get RCI as well as the week direct via HGVC. If you want to go cheaper, you could look for an independent trader with RCI (or II) access, many of these are available free to near free, but may carry a little more risk for special assessments in the future, and are harder to give away later on if you want to get out.

 

[Crazyglue]

This just sounds like RCI that you can get with many resale timeshares - HGVC and HVC (DRI) have lots of inventory in RCI via trades, bulk deposits, and extra vacations. You probably saw an "Extra Vacation". I think these are often really good deals, but you have to pick from the "menu" RCI presents, not like a Hotel. So there's limited units and dates, and they're almost always a week, starting Fri/Sat/Sun (kind of random based on the deposit). I'm staying on HHI at Coral Reef (not Hilton) via an RCI Extra Vacation right now. 3BR for ~$560 for the week IIRC. Plus resort fees and taxes - always check what those are - usually it's like sub $200, but sometimes it's really high depending on the location.

Anyway, long story short - if you have some up front cash and like Hilton, I'd go get a HGVC resale somewhere you'd like to go on the home week you like, OR if you can plan 9 months out somewhere with mid to low MF/pt - sub $1,600 a year for 11,200 pts. Then you get RCI as well as the week direct via HGVC. If you want to go cheaper, you could look for an independent trader with RCI (or II) access, many of these are available free to near free, but may carry a little more risk for special assessments in the future, and are harder to give away later on if you want to get out.

I appreciate your insight and thoughts! You're right-- I saw the "Extra Vacation". The model I bought into is that I have 10,000 pts a year to use on any of their pre-filtered resorts, and I can book unlimited "Extra vacations". I don't have any special assessments-- as told to us, because we didn't buy a timeshare so there is no deed and no special assessment, we bought a membership. I only have the yearly fee of $400. I still have a few more days to rescind the contract. I am nervous because I don't have access to see the quality of the resorts (eg. old, further away from points of interest or outside the city, amenities), any fees that make booking with them just the same or more cost than booking directly, and availibility (they advertised to us that they have all the major hotel timeshares including Disney available for the "extra vacation"). It seems like a good deal because we calculated our break even of the large one time payment for the membership is 3 trips using the Cabo deal they showed us, but I am worried about what we don't know and what they haven't told us. Anything else you would tell someone in my shoes?

 

[jp10558]

I would rescind myself. Until you know all the details, no reason to lock into a membership. Usually the memberships are not worth it vs a timeshare which can be worth it.

Disney isn't in RCI, so maybe they also have II, but I'd want to know FOR SURE before locking in with them and paying.

Also, while I don't have native RCI points, I'm pretty sure from what I've heard, 10,000 is very little. I think many 2BR for instance are more like 40-60,000.

 

[sue1947]

Anything else you would tell someone in my shoes?

Rescind immediately. The sales team will be ecstatic to sell you the same deal later if you so decide. Research and learn about what they are actually selling. That large one time payment isn't worth it. Everybody who has RCI has access to Extra Vacations; it's not a special deal at all. Extra Vacations are limited; off season and lesser resorts. He showed you the exceptions rather than the rule. Mostly it is ski areas in mud season or beach in winter. If you are flexible, they can be a great deal. Sometimes, they will fit into your plans, but not always. If you live within driving distance of a place with an oversupply of timeshares, then your chances of using them go up. Otherwise, if you have to buy airfare, they aren't such a good deal. I booked into GEVC on the Mendocino coast via Extra Vacations multiple times. The units are single wide trailers that are fine for 2 people at most. It's a place to stay to explore the area, not a destination in itself. I paid under $250 per week each time, but they were winter/fall/early spring weeks.

If you like the product, i.e. those Extra Vacations work for you etc, then look at buying a week at a RCI Points resort, like Grandview. You pay a (likely) much smaller one time payment and then maintenance fees. Grandview is popular because of the low MF, but there are others as well. Buy one of those and then book into GEVC via Extra Vacations, they end up there quite a bit.

As stated above, Disney isn't available via RCI anymore, so that's one lie. The other is that no deed = no special assessment. It's a points based timeshare just like all the other ones. Worldmark, which I own, also doesn't have deeds, but just had a special assessment.

 

[Crazyglue]

Rescind immediately. The sales team will be ecstatic to sell you the same deal later if you so decide. Research and learn about what they are actually selling. That large one time payment isn't worth it. Everybody who has RCI has access to Extra Vacations; it's not a special deal at all. Extra Vacations are limited; off season and lesser resorts. He showed you the exceptions rather than the rule. Mostly it is ski areas in mud season or beach in winter. If you are flexible, they can be a great deal. Sometimes, they will fit into your plans, but not always. If you live within driving distance of a place with an oversupply of timeshares, then your chances of using them go up. Otherwise, if you have to buy airfare, they aren't such a good deal. I booked into GEVC on the Mendocino coast via Extra Vacations multiple times. The units are single wide trailers that are fine for 2 people at most. It's a place to stay to explore the area, not a destination in itself. I paid under $250 per week each time, but they were winter/fall/early spring weeks.

If you like the product, i.e. those Extra Vacations work for you etc, then look at buying a week at a RCI Points resort, like Grandview. You pay a (likely) much smaller one time payment and then maintenance fees. Grandview is popular because of the low MF, but there are others as well. Buy one of those and then book into GEVC via Extra Vacations, they end up there quite a bit.

As stated above, Disney isn't available via RCI anymore, so that's one lie. The other is that no deed = no special assessment. It's a points based timeshare just like all the other ones. Worldmark, which I own, also doesn't have deeds, but just had a special assessment.

Wow. Thank you for the info. Super helpful.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I just want to echo the advice that you should rescind immediately.