Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I still have status, even though I've never purchased a unit directly from HICV.  Does anybody else who has only purchased units at points resorts and has 300K points or more have status, or am I just lucky?

In fact, another unit was added to my account this week, making my total 614K Annual and 150K Odd - based on odd/even counting at 50%, I thought I would still be Premier, but I am now showing up as Prestige!  And this is an Even year!  This suggest that odd/even might count fully towards status and not just 50%...

Also, my upgrades/free stay did not reset at the end of the year like I thought they might - anyone know exactly what the timeframe for earning and using these benefits is?

Finally, I made an offer earlier in the year to be a market maker for HICV points units with maintenance under $6/1K points.

I'm updating that to be buying for $5-$10/1K and selling for $10-$20/1K based on maintenance costs - lower end is for $6/1K maintenance and higher is for $4/1K maintenance.

Here's an example - 131K annual Gatlinburg unit has $720 annual maintenance, which is $5.50/1K.  I will pay $819 (including closing) for another such unit and/or sell my current one for $1638 (including closing costs).

-Scott

2016 HICV Member Guide

2016 HICV Member Guide
http://holidayinnclub.com/pdf/2016_member_guide.pdf

I was wondering if anyone has paid to roll points from their HICV account into IHG.

I was wondering if anyone has paid to roll points from their HICV account into IHG. I remember that is a "benefit", that there is a cost, and that at the time I didn't think it was a great option. I also remember it's 5 HICV:4 IHG. What does it cost though? It's very disappointing that the actual fee isn't in their member guide or on the website.

Any help would be appreciated.

My status on the website is showing up as Premier now - we'll see how long it lasts this time.

My status on the website is showing up as Premier now - we'll see how long it lasts this time.  I am thinking I should book free stay and upgrades quickly before I lose them...are the upgrades and stays per calendar year based on time of booking?

I was not able to check availability or book online (kept getting errors), so I called and asked HICV to look into it.  Everything is working again and now status is showing up - maybe the two were related?

-Scott

If anyone would like to purchase rentals (2 days+) let me know.  HICV allows me to put the reservation in your name.

I hit 500K+ points this week (all through 3rd party purchases at points resorts)!

I hit 500K+ points this week (all through 3rd party purchases at points resorts)! I called to make a reservation because I was getting an error booking online (I was told online booking could be down several more days), and I was informed that I had Premier status, which is interesting because nothing shows up on the website - when I hit 300K+,  I had status online for a week or two and then lost it.  

Anyway, I booked a reservation for next July and got my 15% discount, but there was no availability for upgrades and I checked a few dates for my free 4-night stay and there was nothing available.

This makes me think that you automatically get status if you purchase from a 3rd party and cross a points threshhold,  but then they manually remove it when they do checks on a regular basis, but another possibility we should investigate further is whether it's only suppressed online?

Does anybody here have 300K+ points purchased from 3rd parties? If so, can you call HICV and see if you have status?

Regarding bulk conversion, I noticed the other day that if you click on special offers for NY and select Hertz, it shows timeshare prices starting at $5250 in the fine print, which is about $2K cheaper than the best offer I've received.  "THE COMPLETE OFFERING TERMS ARE IN AN OFFERING PLAN AVAILABLE FROM SPONSOR." Anyone ever seen a HICV offering plan?

I'm currently considering purchasing 4 units and converting for $8K - if it was $6K, then I might consider converting only 3 units, since $2K per unit is about the most I want to pay.  For a 200K unit, this works out to $10/1K points, which is only $1/1K points over 10 years.  If you buy fixed weeks and convert them, it's pretty easy to save $1-$2/1K point in annual maintenance.

I would want to purchase all fixed weeks before doing a conversion - HICV told me you can only convert one you already own plus 3 new ones, so I would put the extra ones in my wife's name - once I have one in my wife's name, I'm thinking about experimenting with a pair of quit claim deeds to see if I can get the unit added to the main account in my name - that would be a template for doing the same thing with someone who already owns a unit that has been converted to points to try to transfer a units at a non-points resort but still keeping the points.

-Scott

Reached back out to HICV and was offered $8K with closing for 68K odd unit with $707 maintenance in use year to...

Reached back out to HICV and was offered $8K with closing for 68K odd unit with $707 maintenance in use year to bring over 1 owned unit and 3 units in next 60 days.  Previous offer was $11K with closing for 45K annual unit with $267 maintenance.

If you were an owner of a fixed week before HIVC changed to the points program your week has a trade in value.

If you were an owner of a fixed week before HIVC changed to the points program your week has a trade in value.  For example I have a week which I purchased before HIVC switched and I can trade in the value $6200 towards the price of a points unit.  For example if you want to signaturize your account you could buy an every other year unit for around (15K-6k) and then bring in a couple of units you own and then anything you can purchase in the next 60 days.  I have been  told there is a limit but I have not seen it yet.

I would highly recommend that people look at the yearly cost of the maintenance fees when they are buying HICV.

I would highly recommend that people look at the yearly cost of the maintenance fees when they are buying HICV.  The costs can very between $550 per week to over $1200 per week.  If you are converting to points.  There is no advantage to paying more for the same amount of points.

If you can reach the higher status levels and get free upgrades you can almost double your vacation time by booking a one bedroom and upgrading for free to the 2 bedroom.

Another advantage to getting to the higher levels is Points Sheild.  It makes the program so much more flexible.  You can reserve all of the weeks you may want to book and simply cancel them 48 hours in advance if you change your mind.  Which brings up my final topic you really need to book your vacations out as far as possible.  There seams to be very little availability at most of the resorts you want to go unless you book them as far out as possible.

Thinking again about purchasing 1M points in fixed weeks and paying to convert and get elite status at an estimated...

Thinking again about purchasing 1M points in fixed weeks and paying to convert and get elite status at an estimated cost of $10K ($8K to HICV and $2K for the units).  Would anyone be interested in investing $1000 upfront + $500 each December per 100K annual points with elite benefits? (25% advanced booking savings before 8 months, unlimited upgrades, signature 9 months out, non-signature 12 months out, unit-specific reservations, free point shield)?  We'll call it fractional elite ownership.  

Assuming it takes a year to complete purchase, you'd pay $1000 now, $500 in December, and get 100K 2016 points in mid-2016.  We'd put together some kind of contract - fractional owners would get no refunds for canceling but could drop out at any time and would have the ability to renew indefinitely.  If I dissolved the program for any reason, then you'd get your $1000 back plus a refund on any unused points.

I'm on the fence with buying up a bunch of units and doing a conversion - having a few people to go in with me would make it a lot easier.  I'd be looking to sell 500K-1000K annual points (if I sold the full 1000K, then I'd just rent additional points for myself at the same $500/100K).

-Scott

I made a call today to do a reservation for williamsburg and the agent told me the new holiday inn club in Arizona...

I made a call today to do a reservation for williamsburg and the agent told me the new holiday inn club in Arizona is open but they are not taking reservations yet. if you haven't see it yet here is the link http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnclubvacations/hotels/us/en/scottsdale/phxcv/hoteldetail it will show by the end of the year.
http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnclubvacations/hotels/us/en/scottsdale/phxcv/hoteldetail

Hey Scott

Hey Scott, 

Just won a bid on ebay for $10 for another 107,000 points.  That will put me at 272,000 all with resales.  I'm wondering if I could buy 30,000 from HICV and get preferred status?  Any thoughts?

Hi Guys!

Hi Guys!  New to the Community.  I have a deeded two bedroom at South Beach which converted to 150,000 points, and I bought 15,000 points at Lake Geneva.  I'm looking at a deed back for a DRI 3br lockoff and to expand my HICV, but was doing so on the idea that I could get Preferred status at 300,000.  Now I'm not sure if this will work.  

Also, I have heard, not sure if its accurate that odd/even count as half points each year.