Top hospitality brands have found a new way to compete with each other in recent years: vacation clubs. If you are a frequent traveler, then you either have heard or have been offered this contemporary timeshare during one of your trips, or perhaps after!
Regardless, vacation clubs do tend to share an interesting mechanic where you can purchase timeshare points. But instead of going to the same resort every year, you can now book a different place each time as long as its within the club portfolio.
What is a Vacation Club?
Vacation clubs and timeshare are sometimes used interchangeably, and it's no coincidence since the concepts are rooted on the same idea. But to emphasize the difference, vacation club offerings tend to come from top developers themselves.
Unlike traditional timeshare where owners get to own a property for a fixed week or period every year, clubs offer timeshare points, which members can spend to access or exchange accommodations other than their home resort.
Simply put, you get access to the entire portfolio of the developer instead of just repeating the same vacation scheme every year.
Vacations clubs, in essence, are your modern timeshares.
Who is the Biggest Vacation Club in the World?
With access to over 240 vacation club resorts worldwide from the Wyndham portfolio and affiliates, Wyndham Destinations is the largest vacation ownership business that offers timeshare.
What is the Highest Rated Timeshare Company?
Wyndham and Hilton own some of the highest-rated timeshare properties in the industry. Although Disney Vacation Club and Marriott Vacation Club are also notable sought-after resorts that offer timeshare ownership opportunities.
Wyndham Destinations
Wyndham Timeshare is one of the most sought-after luxury vacation clubs among those who are simply passionate about travel. This is mainly because of Wyndham's sheer access to hundreds of international destinations worldwide via Club Wyndham Resorts and Club Wyndham Access Resorts.
Pros: Wyndham Timeshares grants you access to multiple vacation clubs offered by Wyndham Destinations, which means you get diverse options by default. You can use your points at your home Wyndham resort or bank or borrow points to visit other destinations within your club’s portfolio. Finally, Wyndham vacation club timeshare owners can exchange on RCI, the world’s largest vacation exchange platform with thousands of affiliated resorts worldwide.
Cons: Wyndham enforces some tough restrictions on points purchased on the resale market. For example, points that are acquired through resale don't count towards your goal of earning a VIP status. Also, despite the advantages that come from the backing of the world's biggest vacation club, Wyndham points lacks a steady market and doesn't do well as an investment opportunity.
Disney Vacation Club
The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a type of timeshare program run by The Walt Disney Co. This scheme is mostly targeted to frequent guests of Walt Disney World or Disneyland who stay on Disney during their visit.
Pros: DVC points usually retain its value and has a relatively active resale market. Also, you get membership perks such as dining and shopping discounts, exclusive event access, backstage tours, early ticket purchases, etc. in most Walt Disney events and properties.
Cons: Due to the brand's popularity, most desirable dates and Disney timeshare resorts tend to fill out fast. The timeshare locations also suffer from lack of diversity, since the resorts are often just within the same familiar environment offered by Disney theme parks. Lastly, DVC is essentially a luxury vacation club that is more expensive that other timeshares with more flexible options.
Marriott Vacation Club
Marriott Vacation Club (MVC) or Marriott Vacations Worldwide is one of the most storied hospitality brands in the world. MVC has been around for a while and has seen two types of ownership programs during its run: legacy with fixed week or floating arrangements, and the current points-based destination program.
Pros: MVC owners can book any number of nights, meaning they get more flexibility than a traditional fixed-week owner. While there's noticeably fewer locations available to MVC owners, the vacation club membership remain valued because they are among the highest-rated timeshare properties you'll find in the market.
Cons: MVC's entry-level options tend to be expensive, so they are rarely ever ideal for a timeshare investment. There is also a tricky restriction that makes purchasing your MVC ownership in the resale market complicated: Marriott's ROFR (right of first refusal) clause. Essentially, your resale purchase isn’t final until MVC clears it. At worst, the developer can void your purchase and secure the property for itself by matching the price set by the seller.
Hilton Grand Vacation Club
Hilton Grand Vacations Club (HGV) ClubPoints offers flexible vacation opportunities for would-be owners. Instead of being tied to one resort at a time, you can spend your HGV points at any Hilton Grand Vacations resorts within the developer's portfolio and make each succeeding vacation more memorable and unique than the last.
Pros: HGV is credited with Hilton Honors loyalty reward program, so if you're an avid guest, then you only stand to enjoy more perks and discounts in the future. There is also a system in place that lets you bank and borrow points, which is most useful if you're taking a hiatus or suddenly planning to set a more extravagant vacation.
Cons: Hilton has a bigger timeshare resale market than average, though timeshare in general is not great at retaining its peak value.
Hyatt Vacation Club
Hyatt Vacation Club owners tend to champion HVC for their focus on delivering quality experiences for vacation goers. As a matter of fact, Hyatt even has a name for it: Inspired Activities and Experiences program. The activities prepared by Hyatt follow the core themes of Explore, Engage, and Express; all associated with the HVC.
Pros: The Inspired Activities and Experiences program is definitely a bold concept that adds to the prestige of HVC. Another notable advantage of this vacation ownership scheme is that it offers two types of vacation ownership programs: The Hyatt Vacation Club Heritage Collection and the Hyatt Vacation Club Platinum Collection, each with their own perks and highlights.
Cons: There are limited resorts that qualify to the HVC membership and ownership can be quite expensive upfront. Therefore, we generally don't recommend HVC to individuals who just travels a lot.
Holiday Inn Club Vacations
Holiday Inn Club Vacations (HICV) is known for having many themed luxury villas with all essential amenities typical of an American resort, particularly the iterations located in Florida. But without a doubt, the biggest selling point of HICV is its more affordable cost.
Pros: HICV points are cheaper in comparison with other club memberships from this very list. Even better, HICV timeshare is affiliated with RCI, so you'll have the opportunity to exchange your stay at your home resort for any of other RCI-affiliated resorts worldwide.
Cons: HCIV don't have as many resorts in its portfolio, although its ties with RCI does provide avid travellers that added flexibility.
Why Choose Timeshare and Luxury Vacation Club
Timeshare is excellent for families and individuals who are avid travelers and frequent guests of world class resorts. Unlike before, the timeshare industry is now more flexible as its well beyond those days where staying in the same resort during the same week each year was the norm.
Adventurous vacation clubs now offer more perks and lodging options. Plus with the trendy points-based timeshare system, you can now have access to different sought after vacation destinations during a single year.
There's also an established vacation exchange program via Resort Condominiums International (RCI) where timeshare owners of affiliated resorts can trade their timeshare points.
All things considered, it's more favourable to secure a timeshare at this day and age, especially through the top the best vacation clubs we've listed above. If that's not enough, you can also consider Colorado's famed Breckenridge Grand Vacations Resorts as well as the Bluegreen Vacations Resort, a Hilton subsidiary.
