It only took one word, and we instantly understood.
 
Among the hundreds of complaints against Hilton Grand Vacations on Reddit, it was a single word of warning that spoke to all the broken promises, underhanded tactics and outright lies that are so easy to find in the timeshare industry.
 
“Beware!”
 
It doesn’t get any more direct than that.
 
“We were swindled by Hilton Grand Vacations.”
 
Or that. 
 
And that’s just the opening line. 
 
“We had a deeded timeshare for over 20 years, but the deed was never recorded and repeated requests for a copy so we could sell it were ignored.”
 
“Last spring we attended a Hilton Grand Vacations presentation just so we could address this.”
 
That seemed like a good idea, except…
 
“We were told there was no way the deed could be produced at this late date, but that without it we couldn’t sell our timeshare and our heirs would be stuck with it.”
 
“Our only option, convert to the points system.”
 
Of course that was the only option. Just what we’ve come to expect from Hilton.
 
“So, for a bit over $10k, we converted to 5000 points a year…a significant downgrade from our tier 5 timeshare.”
 
“That was insulting to start with, considering the issue was our deed never being recorded and them not being able to produce a copy of our deed.”
 
“But they did give us 13,500 bonus points…”
 
Shame on Hilton for raising their expectations.
 
“…WHICH HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE UNUSABLE.”
 
Yup, there is it. The truth.  
 
“Although we had the original timeshare since 2000, in the transition to the points system we are not technically members until January 2025, putting us in limbo for most of 2024.”
 
“The bonus points were for 2024. But we could not get a valid reservation with them because we’re not members until 2025.”
 
We can see where this is going.
 
“So, we tried to get a reservation with them in 2025, but were told they can only be used in 2024.”
 
Wait a minute…that sounds like…
 
“The perfect Catch-22.”
 
“Hilton Grand Vacations scammed us in a big way.”
 
Well, it seems that the one word we started with sums up this horror story very well.  
 
“Beware!”
 
Sadly, at this point, our expectations for Mark Wang, the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, are justifiably low. Nevertheless, let’s email him at mark.wang@hgv.com and ask him to stop scamming owners with non-solution solutions.
 
Let’s also email Chris Nassetta, President and CEO of Hilton Worldwide at christopher.nassetta@hilton.com and tell him we expect better from Hilton.
 
Jason Gamel, the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the trade association that represents the timeshare industry in Washington, DC, should hear from us too. Email him at jgamel@arda.org to ask how he expects to improve the industry’s reputation when Hilton behaves like this.
 
Do your timeshare company’s leaders keep living down to expectations? Use this list of ARDA VIPs to tell them to do better.
  
Had a timeshare experience that didn’t meet expectations in a big way? Let us know at  info@timesharefacts.com.
  
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