Hilton Grand Vacations Club
Reviews and Complaints

I was a satisfied Hilton Rewards member utilizing them whenever I could for both personal and business related travel until I was misled into paying for the Orlando Vacation promotion. Normally I politely decline and move on but on this day the sales associate made the offer sound too good to pass up. I was told I could pick a guest suite at any Hilton property in Orlando as long as I completed my reservations in the next 6 months and the only caveat was the two hour presentation for their timeshare and room availability. Once we attempted to make reservations I was told we could not get a suite at the hotel we selected but only a guest room and would need to select another hotel. I had verified with the hotel before I attempted my reservation that the suite we wanted was available so this was definitely a bait and switch. Cramming 4 people into a small room and then having to sit through a presentation is not my idea of a vacation. Hilton has lost my trust and my business. Buyer Beware! Here are my accommodation details.

Reservations are on a space-available basis. Please reserve high-season travel in advance to avoid disappointment. Savings and available accommodations may vary by season. The retail value of the accommodations featured in this vacation package is $199-$599/night. Upgrades may be available at an additional cost. Package includes accommodations and named gifts only. All other charges, sales taxes, expenses, and the cost of travel are your sole responsibility and not included in this special rate. Holiday, high season or weekend rates may apply. Written confirmation required at check-in

My husband and I used to consider ourselves fairly responsible, intelligent people. I indicated "used to" because after the major scam also know as Hilton Grand Vacations (HGVC), I feel quite ignorant. The sales staff is very good and very pushy. The tactics are similar to but more effective than a car salesman.
After they convince you on paper how it makes sense to buy in to the HGVC, they quickly send in the manager to give you even better deals if you pay in cash/up front etc.
They also told us that the timeshares are so valuable that if we ever decided to sell, we would have no problem getting our money back as Hilton will buy them back since they are SO VALUABLE! What they don't tell you is that the depreciation is FAR WORSE than a new car. Our timeshare ownership that was purchased for over $15, 000 a couple of years ago is now worth $[protected] according to the HGVC sales/buy back staff.
So, in addition to ~ $700 per year for maintenance (which by the way would rent a lovely place for a week somewhere of equal or greater quality than our points for the year...you have to pay a fee to book the stay ~ $85 each time. I could go on and on but basically RUN FAST away from this scam and save yourself the shame. It is a well run scam by high pressured sales personnel that should have a hard time sleeping at night given their horrible unethical tactics.
NEVER sign, it is the same as throwing thousands of dollars out the window in addition to a lot of frustration!
I plan to file complaints with anyone and everyone I can find including the BBB and social media.
I want my money refunded by HGVC now but that is not an option

I take this opportunity to express my extreme disappointment with the Hilton Grand Vacations and misrepresentation of facts, which has led us to the purchase of a timeshare vacation rental property at South Beach, FL. We have come to realize that this purchase has no benefit to us from a monetary perspective or even from a vacationing perspective.

• My wife and I had availed of a HGVC sponsored promotional offer to stay at the HGVC suite at Las Vegas, NV between August 16 to 20, 2012. As an integral part of the program, we attended the promotional event organized at the HGVC location at 2650 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109 on August 17, 2012. We were attended to by Mr. Jeremy Wilson and Ms. Susan Lera.

• During this time, we were told that if we purchased the timeshare vacation rental property, we had access to Hilton properties worldwide at discounted rates. My wife and I spoke about our plans to visit Paris in the summer of 2013. Both Mr. Wilson and Ms. Lera confirmed that we could avail of our HGVC credits (converted to Hilton HHonors points) and stay in Paris for free. Little did we know that even if we accumulated ALL points (Bonus points, current year and future year allotments), we would not have enough Hilton HHonors points to stay at a Hilton hotel in Paris, for even one night.

• Naturally, we were elated and decided to proceed with the purchase of the timeshare property. We made the full purchase with 100% cash. It was communicated to us by Ms. Lera that the annualized maintenance costs would be approximately $800.00. Little did we know that the effective price with the add-ons would balloon to $ 1157.00 per year. Although the details may be documented in the contract, we were not provided with adequate time to review the contract in details. The majority of the discussions are completed verbally and the number that the sales personnel repeat is what we used for computation of affordability at the time of purchasing.

• The next aspect that we discussed was the selling process should we decide to sell the timeshare property that we have purchased. Ms. Lera very promptly said that HGVC reserves the right of first refusal to purchase the property at any time should we decide to sell it. My obvious question was the differential from purchased price. Her response was that usually there was no gain and no loss in such transactions.

• Since the package that we purchased does not provide financial or even logistical sense, Dana and I took a joint decision to sell the property. So, I sent an email to Ms. Lera and was given a 1-800 contact number to call for resale. I was subsequently re-directed to Ms. Lara Rose [protected] x 1018) from Grand Vacations Realty located at the South Beach property. I was astonished by the information she communicated:

o The chance of selling is very low unless we were willing to sell for approximately $6000.00. We purchased the property on Aug 17, 2012 for $ 12000.00.
o Grand Vacations Realty will charge an additional 25% of the selling price as fees which basically means that for a property for which we paid $ 12000.00, 3 months back, if sold for $ 6000.00, we are eligible for $ 4500.00 less other charges and legal levies.
o Notwithstanding, Grand Vacation Realty is making no commitment on the price at which they will sell the timeshare property. Mr. Rose very promptly sent me the listing agreement.

I also take this opportunity to affirm the following:

1. We have never utilized this timeshare property since the outright purchase on Aug 17, 2012.
2. We have paid all our dues – 2012 and 2013.
3. The costs (annual maintenance and conversions etc) are so prohibitive that I can actually prove that we can make alternate accommodation arrangements at a vacation location of our preference at much more flexible and affordable rates.
4. The facts presented by the HGVC sales personnel were misleading and did not represent the real facts.
5. The offer from Wyndham was superior and we were well within the State of Nevada statute on cancellation of the HGVC contract within 5 days of purchase. We did not proceed with Wyndham since we trusted the Hilton brand.

However, trusting the Hilton brand has put us into a loss-making situation; we are currently in a conundrum. If we stay with HGVC, we will keep racking up annual maintenance costs without utilizing this property or other properties. If we choose to sell at any cost, based on the discussions with Ms. Lara Rose, we end up losing 70% of the capital amount of $ 12000.00. Is that a fair proposition?

This entire experience has left a very bad taste and has shaken our confidence in the Hilton brand and group overall.

I needed to change by a couple of days the stay for reviewing the plans and tried to communicate via the email that they contacted me on and time past to the 14 days where there was a $120.00 penalty for changing. I just wanted to change it by one or two days and I was told there was no availability. So I would have to pay the penalty. After a long conversation I was told that I could just cancel the package and they would keep my deposit. I was more willing to lose $163.00 since there was not a snowballs chance in Hades I would be interested in dealing with these people I thought it was a better deal.

Hilton Grand Vacations makes offers for you to look at their timeshares. I flew- my cost- to Las Vegas just for this purpose. It was not at all what I expected. At the end they gave us a "gift receipt" for Delta Sky miles. It has been 11 months and we still have not received them.

I accepted an offer to stay at the Hilton in Las Vegas in December of last year and I will never make that mistake again. First when we arrived we went to the hotel named on our paperwork and were told we weren't booked there. they sent us out the back door, thru an alley, behind the parking garage to their old run down hotel a couple blocks off the strip. It was disappointing after all the advertising they had sent us then after walking thru the nice hotel, with the casino, etc, and ending up at the end of the spectrum. It could've passed for a Super 8 motel in tinbuk tu. Then we went to the hotel listed for our presentation. it also had the wrong hotel listed- Hilton has at least 4 different hotels in Vegas. We took a taxi to the correct hotel, that we of coursed paid out of our pocket for. After viewing the property- it was much nicer than the hotel we were in- we decided we didn't like Vegas enough to buy a timeshare there. The salesman then filled out the paperwork that would entitle us to rewards for taking the time to listen- coupons at the spa and delta sky miles. It has been 11 months and many phone calls and we still don't have any points to show for our trip. We keep getting the run around. Call back, we are taking care of it. Blah Blah Blah. I have been very patient and I am done with the BS. I will be contacting and commenting on the Hilton Grand Vacations everywhere I see their name.

The sales representative who sold us the packet was really good at convincing us to buy into the time share to the point that we signed the contract under duress.

Ever since we have had the time share(4 yrs), we have only been able to use it once because there is no availibility, it is always booked. The one time we used the time share, there was a fee of $70 dollars. Basically, we are better off paying for a hotel on our own. As a matter of fact, when we called to make a reservation for a trip, the representative said we are better off paying out of pocket then using our "points".

On another ocassion, the representative charged me a $1 dollar to complete an extensive search of our desired destination and will refund the money if there is no space availiable. I never heard back from the representative. The loss of my dollar is not a big deal... it is the principle. It is bad enough the time share packet is costly, as a member one is still being nickled and dimed throughout. In addition, there are annual costs too.

To all consumers, learn from my mistake. Do not buy into Hilton Grand Vacations Club. It is a costly mistake. One is better off using vacation packages(airline tickets/hotel combo).