Last week, I received a surprising phone call from a  representative of the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch.  They indicated that they were offering a free 2 night stay at the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio for the month of January and February in exchange for taking a tour of the newly constructed building on premises and learning more about the Hyatt Portfolio program. 

Many of these timeshare offers usually require some upfront free such as one of their current offers that was found on my facebook feed which is for a studio unit at a rate of $130 per night.  

In contrast, this offer is completely free and the offer is for any size unit!  Many of these offers are very restrictive in that they only allow a certain size unit or block out weekend nights.  However, I was able to book this offer in a 2 bedroom unit for a Friday and Saturday night stay.

The total cost: $0.00!  No resort fees, no deposits, no credit card. 

While I will have to attend another timeshare presentation, (you are welcome yet again) hopefully I can find out some more good information on the Portfolio program that I can share with my readers. 

Targeted

As I mentioned, this offer appears targeted to current Hyatt owners who live in or around San Antonio.  This may apply to those existing Hyatt owners who live in the State of Texas.  However, if you could potentially use this offer, I would simply call the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch and see if they can accommodate. 

They have a new building and appear anxious to get new owners acclimated to the Portfolio Program so even if you were not targeted, you may be able to take advantage of this offer.  

Here is their direct phone number:  210-647-9500

Wild Oak Ranch

If you have not been to the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch, it is a spectacular property.  The rooms are fantastic, they have tons of activities going on, they have water slides, a lazy river, fire pits and more. 

While January / February will be slightly chilly, it is a great property and there should be enough activities in and around the resort to keep you busy for two days.  Also, the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort, a full service hotel, is about a 2 minute drive from this property and guests at Hyatt Wild Oak can use those facilities. 

Overall, this is a great offer and definitely worth 1 1/2 hours of my time to see the new buildings.  I am curious to see if they are the same or better than the existing units.  The existing units are very nice so we will see how much of an improvement, if any, the new units will be.
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Have you been to the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch?

If you can use this offer, please post below on your success or failure!  It will be helpful to see whether this offer is really targeted or open to anyone who can use it.
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UPDATE:  Apparently, there has been some issue with these certificates and Interval has removed them from member accounts.  They have indicated that they will be redeposited at some point soon.  

Interval International just released an additional accommodations certificate to Interval members.  This may be targeted so it may or may not show up in your account. 

In order to look in your account, you need to go to "Exchange" and go to "My Units". Hopefully, you will see the accommodations certificate listed. 

As you can see in the above, I currently have 2 certificates in my account - one that expires in mid July and this new certificate. 

This new certificate is valid for travel from June 6, 2017 to January 16, 2018.  Take a look at this post for additional information about the Accommodations Certificates. 

You can reserve up to a 3 bedroom unit which sleeps up to 8 people.  Inventory changes daily as does the available destinations. 

As discussed elsewhere, these certificates generally provide weeks in very low demand seasons or low demand resorts but there have been some stellar finds with these certificates.  I have personally seen desireable Hyatt weeks, Marriott weeks and even the brand new Westin Nanea resort in Maui.  

The fee to reserve a week with these accommodations certificates is $274 for the entire week with no timeshare presentation requirements or usage of your points and/or weeks.

Please post in the comments below if you received a new certificate as well as any great sightings!
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A timeshare purchase is a significant financial decision.  Even if the initial purchase price is not large, the ongoing maintenance fees can be significant and it can be difficult to sell your timeshare down the road. 

Before you jump into a purchase, you need to review the various programs and see what works best for your vacationing style, budget and family.  There are material differences between various programs and timeshares so you should not jump into any purchase without thoroughly reviewing the options. 

One of the best ways to get information is through the timeshare presentation.  If you vacation at all, you most likely have been targeted to participate in a timeshare program in exchange for gift cards, events, activities, diners, etc. 

As I recently described here, almost all of the major timeshare developers offer some type of heavily discounted vacation packages in exchange for sitting through a 90 minute presentation.  

Some timeshare presentations can be difficult to sit through but some can be very casual and provide you good information on the programs.  There is no obligation to purchase and I highly recommend that you take time to think over any purchase and do your research before committing to anything at these presentations.   

If you are interested in potentially owning a timeshare, these introduction packages can be an absolute steal.  In order to begin the search, you should request information from the various programs.  By providing your e-mail address and indicating that you are interested in more information, you will likely begin to get targeted for these types of offers.   

A new offer that just arrived is for Diamond Resorts.  Diamond Resorts is a large timeshare developer but perhaps not as well known as Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott or some of the other companies that have more notoriety.  I have stayed at one Diamond property and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The Point of Poipu in Kauai, Hawaii is one of their nice properties but they do have many others.

​In other posts, we can go through their program in more detail but this offer that I received is for 3 nights in Sedona, Arizona or Scottsdale, Arizona. 

For this offer, you can stay Stay at Arabella Hotel Sedona  or Best Western Cottonwood Inn and tour Sedona Summit or The Ridge on Sedona Golf Resort  Sedona, Arizona.                                                                                                                                                                     As you can see by the reviews below, both properties are highly rated.       

Sedona, Arizona is a very nice destination and great for a three day trip.  In this particular offer, you receive 3 nights and a $100 Restaurant.com gift certificate for $199.  

The issue with this particular offer is that they are not putting you up in the actual resort that they are trying to sell.  I think that this is very unfortunate.  However, despite this downfall, a long weekend for $199 is cheap by any means. 

Additionally, this offer is providing you with an opportunity to tour the Scottsdale Villa Mirage.  They will put you up  at Holiday Inn Express & Suites Phoenix North - Scottsdale or Hampton Inn & Suites Phoenix/Scottsdale.  Again, unfortunate that they will not put you up at the actual property but still a potentially good deal.  The reviews are fairly good for this property.  

​Scottsdale is a great city and home to spring training.  If you can grab a time slot during spring training, it can make for a fantastic trip. 

In order to participate in this particular offer, you need to have an annual income of at least $50,000.  If married, both spouses must attend.  This may be targeted but you can call and give them your information and see if they will offer you the same deal or something else. 

You can call 1.844.952.9030 for more information on this offer and see if you are able to participate. 

These types of offers come around regularly and can provide you with a great deal on a very affordable vacation.  The timeshare presentations can be pushy but I have generally found that most people are nice.  I have found that presentations in the states are less pushy than elsewhere in the world.

If you are potentially interested in a timeshare, these are great opportunities to get a very affordable vacation while learning about the programs. 

Some of these types of offers are much better than others.  This particular offer discussed above is not great since they are putting you up in a lower quality hotel.  There are many offers for Hyatt, Hilton, Westgate, Marriott and others where they put you up in the particular resorts that they are selling.  

If they want you to buy into a resort, I would think that they should at least give you the opportunity to stay at the resort for a few days.  

I will post these types of offers in the Guru Deals section as they arrive.  As mentioned, some are better than others so you need to be choosy on which ones to participate with.  Most offers prevent you from doing multiples presentation offers so you can likely only do one a year with each company.  

​ If you are potentially interested in timeshare ownership, I think that these types of offers are very worthwhile to get an introduction to the properties and the various programs. Again, do you research before committing to anything.  There are no shortage of timeshares so learn as much as you can before purchasing!  Make sure to subscribe below!

I just received notification of contest being run by Westgate Resorts for a chance to win a 5 night / 4 day vacation package.  We routinely stay at the Westgate Park City during ski season which is a very nice property.

I figure that it cannot hurt to enter for a chance to win.  No timeshare presentation required!

Here is the entry form.

Here are the rules and regulations.

Contest runs through October 5th.

Good luck!

Hilton Grand Vacations have some very nice properties and their Hilton Grand Vacation club is very popular.  I have my guide to the Hilton Grand Vacations here. 

I just received the following promotion to purchase directly ClubPoints directly from Hilton Grand Vacation.

"For a limited time, you’ll also earn 600,000 Hilton HHonors™ Bonus Points when you purchase a minimum of 7,000 annual ClubPoints through the Hilton Grand Vacations Direct Department – the easiest, most convenient way to become a Hilton Grand Vacations owner. Use points toward resort stays, cruises and more!"

More details of this promotion are found here:

Here are the Details of Participation.

A couple of things regarding this promotion.  If you purchase 7,000 annual ClubPoints, you are given 600,000 Hilton Hhonors Bonus Points. Hilton states that the "Prices range from $8,940 - $377,300. Prices subject to change."

I am a big fan of hotel points and frequently flyer miles as you can use them in luxurious resorts around the world to give you free vacations.  600,000 Hhonors points is a decent amount of points so this offer got my attention.   

According to Hilton, they value 600,000 Hhonors points as worth $6,000. 

From their details of participation:

"Retail value of 600,000 Hilton HHonors Bonus Points is $6,000. Hilton HHonors Bonus Points do not count toward tier qualification."

One of my favorite blogs about how to use and maximize points is the The Points Guy.

Another good one is Upgraded Points.

Although The Point's Guy values are just estimates, he values Hilton Hhonors points at .5 cents per point providing a value of $3,000.  

Based on my prior use, I would generally be able to use 600,000 Hilton Hhonors points for about a 2 week vacation at a very nice resort.  You could also stretch these points for multiple weeks at lower end properties.  I used points at the Grand Wailea in Maui and have plans to use points at the Hilton Los Cabos.  Depending on the season, 600,000 points would get you a week at each resort during high season or even more during lower seasons and would value that around $4,000 depending on the season.

I do not receive any compensation from Hilton or any other timeshare company so my intent on posting this is just to provide the information.  If you do not already own a timeshare or are interested in purchasing one, you need to do some significant research.  These types of promotions are definitely worthwhile if you were about to make a purchase but I would not jump into a timeshare purchase specifically based on this or any promotion.   I believe that timeshares are very worthwhile if you know how to maximize their use but they are definitely not for everyone!

Do you research before you buy!  Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe below!