How to Cancel Hilton Grand Vacation Club Contract

I can guess you know what Hilton Grand Vacation Club is. And if you don’t, it’s a renowned hotel and resort empire that offers you temporary ownership of some of its vacation houses and units (usually smaller ones within their resort). At the same time, you receive a guaranteed amount of points every year.
With HGVC’s vacation system, you can own a property or become a member through its annual payments deal. Now, the headache with these contracts is the mortgage loan payment and yearly maintenance fees that burden members enough to want to quit their membership.
Like many members, you probably want to eliminate the contract that threatens your bank account every year. However, cancelling a club timeshare contract can take time, depending on your chosen route. This article will discuss the how-tos of contract cancellation, the required time frame associated with each type of membership, and other ways to quit your membership.
The HGVC offers a point-based system that gives you access to their numerous resorts. This generally means you must purchase club points to reserve your preferred unit within the seasons — which is not your regular season.
The HGVC has four seasons, including
- The Platinum signifies when the units are in the highest demand (usually during the holiday periods)
- Gold indicates when the demand is almost at the platinum peak
- Silver, which signifies the resale market and off-season vacations; and
- The Bronze is the least expensive season you can get.
There are several ways to purchase your timeshare contracts, such as finding a credible broker that can stand as an intermediary between you and a previous timeshare owner. The best route is to contact Hilton Grand Vacation Club to sort out your contract.
This article comes in handy if you want but don’t know how to cancel your Hilton Grand Vacation Club contract. It will also be an excellent resource if you want to register for the club membership but are concerned about the HGVC cancellation policy.
Can You Cancel the Hilton Grand Vacation Club Contract?
Unfortunately, No. You cannot exactly cancel a Hilton club contract. Here’s how it works, owning an HGVC timeshare contract is like owning a home; you can’t cancel your mortgage or property deeds. You can, however, redirect the ownership, which is more or less like you cancelling your contract.
Alternative Ways To Cancel Your Hilton Grand Vacation Club Contract
Since you can’t walk up to the HGV management and order for a cancellation, you can consider these alternative ways to shift ownership of the club contract:
Consider A Buy-Back Program
Your first step to quitting your Hilton Grand Vacation Club contract is to contact Hilton Grand Vacation Club for a buy-back offer. Buy-backs are the exceptional cases in which the company acquires your shares back. HGV offers you two ways of selling your contract.
- The management helps you arrange your timeshare club contract ownership on the resale market for interested buyers and brokers who can help you sell it.
- The management buys the Hilton Grand Vacation Club membership directly from you.
There are specific clauses to this buy-back program. Your club contract must be eligible for acquisition, meaning that you have yet to incur credits on your timeshare for Hilton’s management to purchase it.
Also, you’ll probably sell your timeshare contract at a lesser value than you got it. This is due to the extra cost the management will accrue trying to resell and the cost of maintenance within those periods. The reality with buy-backs is that you might make losses rather than profits at the end, but at least you’ll stop paying those annual bills.
Sell To Another Hilton Member
Selling your timeshare is challenging, and you should only consider this if Hilton doesn’t accept a buy-back offer from you. Now, it’s easy if you have a direct buyer who wants to purchase your contract from you, but if you don’t, you can employ the service of a timeshare attorney or broker. These experts will be third-party witnesses and middlemen between you and the buyer. Here’s how it works.
- Finance firms will provide you with an agent to help you sell your points and market them to the right buyers.
- These firms will monitor your listing and contact you if there’s a solid buyer.
- They also take care of your documents, provide a trusted company for title transfers, and notify the Hilton Grand Vacation about the change of ownership.
You should also contact the resort to notify them that you have transferred your club contract to another person.
However, you can only stop paying your maintenance fee once you’ve successfully transferred ownership to the buyer, or the resort will hold you responsible.
The hard part of selling your Hilton points is finding a credible broker, attorney, or middleman. Do a background check on your broker, read reviews about their company through review sites that list credible companies, and stay on your toes through the dealings. Timeshare sales have many scam deals under their sleeves, and you should be careful not to get into one.
Gift It To A Friend or Family Member
Gifting your timeshare is easy, depending on the kind of policy you subscribed to. Meanwhile, before gifting your club membership to a friend or loved one, it is important you contact the resort to notify them of your intent to pass your membership to another person. You’ll be given paperwork to complete and sign. The management will transfer your timeshare once the resort approves the documentation, and your transferee can enjoy the luxury for the remainder of your contract.
Can You Change Hilton Grand Vacation Club Reservation?
It depends. Hilton Grand Vacation doesn’t offer the luxury of changing your reservations after you’ve passed your open window when you can cancel your reservation. However, you can change your reservation to another check-in date or location. These also come with certain restrictions and clauses. It’s advisable to contact the HGVC reservation team to determine your best course of action.
Hilton Grand Vacation Club Cancellation Policy
The Hilton Grand Vacation Club keeps its ‘low maintenance fee’ balance through increased occupancy rates. Basically, the higher the members reserve and occupy their units, the lower the maintenance fee each person has to pay. However, because many owners book their units long before the check-in dates, it’ll be difficult for the resort to replace your cancelled reservation with another.
This is why the Hilton Grand Vacation Club has a cancellation penalty, depending on your subscription policy. Some of these policies include
Home Week Priority
You forfeit half of your points used to purchase if you’re cancelling on a home week priority, especially one that includes the fixed event weeks like Christmas and others, within 16-30 days of reservation. On the other hand, you lose all your points if you cancel within fifteen days and none after 31 days.
Hilton Club Priority Reservation
With this one, you lose your reservation fee and half of your club points when you cancel within 16-30 days. Cancelling within the first 15 days will cost you your reservation fee and 100% of your club points used. However, you only lose your reservation fee if you cancel after 31 days (your club points are safe).
Open Season Rental
You only get back half of your paid rental rate if you cancel within 16-30 days. You lose everything if you make a hasty cancellation within 15 days. On the contrary, you won’t lose anything after the first 30 days have passed.
Home Resort Priority Reservation
This is just like the Hilton Club Priority Reservation. You lose your reservation fee and half of your points within the first 16-30 days; then, you lose everything if you cancel quickly before the first 15 days. But you can keep all your points and forfeit only your reservation fee after 31 days.
Can You Ignore Your Timeshare Payment?
The answer is no. You’re responsible for an array of annual maintenance fees as a timeshare contract member. While these fees might be too much, filled with hidden expenses, or downright expensive, you can only stop paying them once you’ve transferred ownership to another member. The consequences of ignoring your payment may result in the resort suing you in court and selling your contract to someone else, which might destroy your credit score beyond repair.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, Hilton Grand Vacation Club Contract Cancellation can be easy or challenging, depending on your chosen path in transferring your ownership. However, you can wrap it up quickly by going through trusted brokers, gifting it to a loved one, and going on a vacation to remember why you chose the plan in the first place. Of course, timeshare contracts are riddled with scams and hidden fees, so you should be extra careful when selling them to avoid falling into any schemed trap.