Vacationing is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and dreaming up your next vacation can be half of the fun of traveling. Unfortunately, there are many Hilton Grand Vacations owners that make some common booking mistakes that prevent them from getting the most enjoyment out of their ownership.
To make sure that you have the best vacation possible, here are the top 3 mistakes Hilton timeshare owners make when booking their vacations and how you can avoid them.
Not Making Reservations Early Enough
The most common mistake that many Hilton timeshare owner make is waiting too long to book their reservations for their planned trips. It is important that as soon as know where you want to go and for how long, start making reservations if you’re trying to book hard-to-get reservations during peak times of the year.
The fact that there is often plenty of availability at many HGV resorts throughout the year can lull some owners into a pattern of booking last-minute trips. This is a totally fine option for those who are flexible on where to go and travel dates, but if you have your heart set on a Hawaiian vacation in the summer, it’s best to book your reservation online as soon as you can. For your home resort, thats starting 12 months prior to your check-in date, for Club Season reservations at resorts outside of your home resort, many can be booked 9 months prior to your check-out date.
If you want to learn everything there is to know about how far in advance you can book your Hilton vacations, check out our article here: Hilton Grand Vacations Booking Windows: How Far In Advance Can I Book?
Not Optimizing Travel Dates
Another common mistake is not choosing the most optimal travel dates for your vacation. To explain this example, let’s take a look at the points charts for Hilton SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida.
As you can see below, if you’re thinking about traveling to Orlando on week 43, this would put you in Gold Season, which would cost you 8,000 ClubPoints for one week in a 2-bedroom villa. Moving your vacation by just one week forward to week 44 puts your vacation time in Silver season, which costs just 5,600 ClubPoints for one week in a 2-bedroom villa. That’s a savings of 2,400 ClubPoints, that could be used for another small trip or saved for next year to book a bigger unit size or at a more expensive resort.
| Unit Size | Mon-Thurs Nightly |
Fri-Sun Nightly |
7 Night Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 352 | 704 | 3520 |
| 1 Bedroom | 768 | 1536 | 7680 |
| 2 Bedroom | 1120 | 2240 | 11200 |
| 3 Bedroom | 1344 | 2688 | 13440 |
| 3 Bedroom Plus | 1536 | 3072 | 15360 |
| Unit Size | Mon-Thurs Nightly |
Fri-Sun Nightly |
7 Night Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 256 | 512 | 2560 |
| 1 Bedroom | 544 | 1088 | 5440 |
| 2 Bedroom | 800 | 1600 | 8000 |
| 3 Bedroom | 928 | 1856 | 9280 |
| 3 Bedroom Plus | 1120 | 2240 | 11200 |
| Unit Size | Mon-Thurs Nightly |
Fri-Sun Nightly |
7 Night Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 176 | 352 | 1760 |
| 1 Bedroom | 384 | 768 | 3840 |
| 2 Bedroom | 560 | 1120 | 5600 |
| 3 Bedroom | 656 | 1312 | 6560 |
| 3 Bedroom Plus | 768 | 1536 | 7680 |
Of course, this is easier said than done if you don’t have the flexibility to book whenever you want, but there are times in the planning stages of your next vacation where one week forward or back on the calendar can be a huge savings and can still fit with your travel plans.
Not Using The Right Points To Make Your Reservation
Thankfully, Hilton’s online booking tools are pretty good at using a block of ClubPoints that will expire the soonest to book your reservations, but there are cases where things can go awry. There are cases where Hilton owners will have multiple reservations planned, then need to cancel a reservation that was using ClubPoints that would expire before the ClubPoints that are still tied up in the reservation they are keeping.
When this happens, knowing how to shuffle your HGV ClubPoints can be a great way to ensure you are always using ClubPoints with as little life left as possible. If you’d like a deep dive on how to accomplish this you can read our article here: How To Shuffle Expiring ClubPoints Into An Existing HGV Reservation.
Conclusion
By taking these points into consideration, Hilton timeshare owners can make sure that they will have a smooth experience with every single vacation they take! We hope this information has helped you get one step closer to being an expert timeshare owner.
If you’re in the market to buy Hilton Points, check out our wide selection of Hilton resale listings, and feel free to contact us to get a free consultation to walk you through the process of saving thousands by buying on the resale market.
