posted 12-28-2004 16:23               

VERY difficult to get info. I told them I did not want the tour nor the rewards - just to see the 1 BR and get a price sheet. Impossible! I needed a reservation to speak to anyone and there is NO price sheet - the salesman tells you the price, how many points you'll need, etc. If you want to think it over, there was absolutely no literature to look over and review. After purchasing at both Marriott and Starwood, I was astounded.

So now my questions. What is the difference with Hilton between developer sales and resales? How valuable are the points compared to Starwood? How easy is it to reserve the time you want? At the 12 month window, can you really reserve with any start day you want, even if not a weekend? If so, doesn't Hilton end up with lots of unusable single days?

posted 12-31-2004 13:32               

However the NY club is NOT HGVC, is it something seperate that only NY owners can obtain or HGVC Elite (owners owning 14,000 plus points purchased via Hilton at specific resorts) can access at 6 months prior.

posted 03-18-2005 17:08               

Yes I am an elite.

I started calling 3/7 looking for cancellations. I picked up a studio for 3 nights the first time, a second studio for 3 nights the next day. (I have a myself, my husband and 2 teens so I needed 2 studios). I called every day thereafter looking for the days needed to fill out my itin. I made a backup reservation at the hotel in case I could not fill all the days. By 3/16 I filled the last day needed.

Studio point cost was 1400 for Fri, Sat. and 800 for weekdays. I spent 10,400 points for 2 studios for 5 nights. I think March might still be non peak season. I think summer points might be higher.

Somewhere I read that only studios are made available HGVC members and based on my experience I would say this is true. I was never offered a 1 br or 2 br. I don't believe they even show up in the system. The larger units are held for Owners.

posted 04-03-2005 08:00               

My husband and I did not qualify for a full tour(Not that I would want one anyway) being from California, NYC is not licensed to sell to CA residence. We did get a 30 min tour to find out a little about the NYHC and see the larger rooms, 1BR and 2 BR. I have no doubt in my mind that if we had pulled out a checkbook they would have found a repo or ROFR in the back room to sell us, but we were interested but not that interested.

We walked out of the tour with no official published info so if you want more detail report call Seth and he can help you with more specific info. My info is strictly from memory so I am going to give you more of my impressions rather than specifics.

City Points appear to be roughly equivelent to HGVC points as far as price and spending.
One can buy a variety of size point packages depending on needs. The price appeared to be about 3.8-3.9 per point.
City points convert to HH at 1 to 25(HGVC to HH is 1 to 23)
RCI trade of Red 2 br would be 4800 points same as HGVC.
HC has 3 seasons High/Mid/Low.
Maintenance fees are roughly 2 time my LV property on a per point basis. HC has twice daily maid service, Comp breakfast and Manager reception and it is in Midtown Manhatten. Need I say more.
You can make as short as a one night stay within 6 months of check in. There are no fixed check in days. You can check in and check out any day. There are no weeks exchanges. A week is just a 7 day reservation to them.

The big difference is that the HC requires roughly twice the number of points compared to the HGVC resort chart for the same size unit, so to stay the same number of days you would have to buy twice as many points. Or stay half as long on the same number of points.

Who should consider buying at the HC? I would seriously consider buying if I lived within driving distance of NY and liked to go into the city for a few days at a time. I would buy a small package of City points to gain access to Owner privlages like reserving 1br and 2br and use them to send friends and family were you need a guest cert.or need to make a longer term guar. reservation. I would use open season for an occasional 2-3 day stay myself.

With that being said, that last time I was in NYC prior to this last trip was 27 years ago. Travel time this trip was 10-12 hours each way. Its not likely I will be buying unless my son or daughter moved there.

Hope this is helpful.

posted 04-03-2005 10:26               

Thanks for your information - glad you had a good time. Did you have any problem with the wait for the elevator?

I've looked at a few resale numbers on RedWeek and it just doesn't add up to me. Looks like $17,000 gets me about 7,000 points. I've gone to the city for 5 days between Christmas and New Years for 5 years now and am reserved for 2005. We stay across the street at the Rihga Royal on Marriott points. Of course that could change at any time. There's already a rumor on the street that the hotel might be sold.

Five nights at the Hilton Club, including the weekend, would cost 6,600 points, so the 7,000 point sale works. For this I would pay a maintenance fee each year of $1,400, or $280 per night, almost as much as the 1 bedroom suite in the Rihga Royal. Figure 5% earnings on the $17K and you have another $170 per night. Buying resale usually decreases loss of principal, but this timeshare expires! I have to imagine the price must go down as the years progress. Seems to me that when all is considered, you're paying over $500 per night and there are a number of nice places in NY that will get you a suite for that amount. The frightening thing is that my calculations are based on RESALE - imagine what the numbers look like for purchasing from Hilton. I did the numbers and it brings the 1 bedroom up to $650 - 700 per night!

posted 04-03-2005 13:21            

Steeves397,
how is the Rhiga - is it set up as a BR with a separate LR ? - are there 2 beds or only a king bed with a LR sofabed?- how many can it sleep? I plan to stay in NY this august and would like to stay in either hotel.

posted 04-03-2005 13:53               

I priced your Royal Ringa for the 5 days between Christmas and New Years and it was $395 plus room tax or approx $450. The studio I was in was available on hiltons website for for the time I was there for $525 plus room tax makes $600 per night. I figure my cost(my HGVC points have a much lower cost and MF) was about $275 per night.

Per the salesman the Hilton Club is a 5 star while the Hilton Ny hotel is a 4 star. I do not know what the Royal Ringa is. The HC has 42 inch plasma TV's DVDplayers,etc so it caters to the upscale market. Perhaps this would account for the difference.

As I said previously, if I lived closer I would only buy a small points package to gain access to the Club. Use the points for hard to get reservations and us open season for a couple day jaunt to the city every other month or so.

posted 04-03-2005 14:30               

Are you saying that you could buy 1 night in a 1 bedroom (say 1800 points)? What rights would that then give me to book rooms? When could I do it? My sense is that times like when I go between XMAs and New Years would not have much availability close to the date.

posted 04-03-2005 18:50               

Seriously, I do not think your example would work the way I envision. If you really want a specific time slot you probobly need enought points to book your entire stay because the week between Christmas and New Year might be the highest demand time and probobly would never appear as open season. In my example you need to be more flexable or have enough points to reserve the exact high demand days and unit you need.

In my case I would not be limited to Christmas and New Year and I could afford to gamble either go or no go if the days do not come up during open season. My example assumes a much less rigid time requirement for reservation needs. In theory, I think points package might be as low as 3400 but this is just a guess. I did not ask nor was it offered what the minimum was. A couple in the lounge said they were offered a package costing 10,000 to 12,000 at the end of there presentation. This might be an every other year arrangement. The lowest for sale on redweek was 5000 points.

If you do not have a flexable schedule or only go the days you mentioned my plan most likely would not work well for you.

posted 04-05-2005 05:05               

I think I'll continue to book the Jersey City Hyatt for under $50/night....While I've never gone into Manhattan from the Hyatt, it seems like it would be pretty convenient with both the PATH train 2 blocks away and that water shuttle the crosses the river from right up the street..

posted 04-06-2005 07:35               

If you've got a hotel that works for you then stay with it. I considered trying to priceline my stay but with a family of 4 to plan for and only going to NYC once every 25 years, I wanted to make sure we got just the accomadations we needed. Most people do not seem to do 5 night, 2 room stays. There was no way I wanted to spend a day changing hotels when I was only there 5 days total.

I am more interested in getting the most eff. use of my time so generally go for location, location, location.

posted 04-06-2005 08:02               

quote:

---

Originally posted by GeorgeJ:
Short, what kind of Open Season rates does Hilton Club offer to owners? $100 a night for 1-br weekends like HGVC?

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there is an open season but for HILTON CLUB owners ONLY not HGVC Elite. It is at the 15 day mark. I just glanced at the chart but I think a weekend rate in a studio was $150 a night. Obviously 1 BR and 2 BRs, which there are not very many of, are more.