Hilton has an excellent timeshare system. They call themselves The Hilton Grand Vacation Club. We bought into the Hilton system back in 1998, purchasing 7000 points, resale and have used it every year since. Our deeded week is in Las Vegas at the Hilton Flamingo Timeshare. Their resorts are all top quality and located around the United States, Mexico, Scotland and other foreign locations. They do have a number of affiliate resorts, but most of these are on Marco, Captiva, and Sanibel Islands in Florida.
THE SYSTEM
Hilton operates on a point system. You buy a deeded week at a given resort and it is converted to points. You then use your points to reserve time at Hilton timeshare resorts. Larger units require more points and prime seasons cost more points. We recommend you buy the largest unit in prime season because you get more points for the same maintenance fees. Those fees are based on unit size, not on seasons of the year. You can use points to reserve part of the week with at least a three- day- use required.
You can reserve your home resort at 12 months out in your season, or you can reserve other Hilton timeshares at 9 months. You can use cash or Bonus Points for Open season reservations starting 30 days before check in.
You do have the option of turning your Hilton Timeshare points into Hilton Honor Points at which time you can use them to stay at any Hilton Hotel property.
RCI
Hilton is affiliated with the RCI system which allows you to choose from all of their resorts. They have a chart showing how many Hilton points you need for a resort in the RCI system. A 2 bedroom in prime time is 4,800 Hilton points and a one bedroom in prime time is 3,400. Points are adjusted for smaller or larger units as well as different seasons of the year. They seem to have good pulling power in the RCI system.
One of the problems with the Hilton Timeshare system is that they have concentrated their resorts mainly in Las Vegas, Hawaii and in the state of Florida, while other timeshare systems seem to have resorts all over the United States. They also have fairly high maintenance fees, but the resorts are very nice and updated on a regular basis.
The system is easy to use and we have had few problems with getting locations where we want to vacation. Their web site works smoothly and their call center is very friendly and helpful.
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