For those of you that missed it - HICV got rid of cleaning fees in 2015. Booking fee went up $10 to $59, but it's well worth it, and makes the costs of those shorter stays a little more manageable.
An unintentional side affect is that the effective cost per point went up, since now your maintenance fee doesn't include a free cleaning fee. Cleaning fees complicated cost/point analysis, so things are nice and simple now. I've been doing a little analysis on cost per points, and have the following for reference:
Borrowing Points: $4/1K Points Maintenance Prepay
Renting Points: $10/1K Points
Renting Points (Elite): $5/1K Points
My Average Maintenance Cost: $5.52/1K Points
Since Elite members can rent points at $5/1K, this puts a good bound on the fair cost of maintenance. Timeshares at a lower cost/point should be at a premium, while timeshares at a higher cost/point should be at a discount.
When calculating your average cost, remember to divide your biennial points in half!
-Scott
