Hilton Grand Vacations Company LLC — Blatant lying by sales staff

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.