Hilton Grand Vacations coming to Royal Palm, Flamingo in Q3

https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/hilton-grand-vacations-coming-to-royal-palm-flamingo-in-q3

The Royal Palm Beach Resort in St. Maarten, which www.hiltongrandvacatons.com advertises as a Hilton Vacation Club.

PHILIPSBURG--Hilton Grand Vacations is expected to go live at the Royal Palm Beach Resort and Flamingo Beach Resort in the third quarter of this year.
Hilton Grand Vacations, which had announced in March 2021 that it will be acquiring Diamond Resorts, is already advertising vacation ownerships at Royal Palm and at Flamingo under the Hilton Grand Vacations brand, on its website www.hiltongrandvacations.com. The acquisition has since closed, according to media reports. The website indicates that the acquisition will go live in Q3.

Their reps were there in May giving us owners the dreaded owner updates. Same high pressure tactics to have to pay more to join in their program. Told them what I thought of it and will stay a fixed week owner and use the Destination Exchange program for my trades when I elect to go elsewhere.

Hi. Please don't copy and paste copyrighted material in toto.

I'm not a timeshare owner, but I don't personally see how this benefits the timeshare owners. But I never understood t/s anyway.

I started with the link to the article. Thought that was ok. Sorry

" I don't personally see how this benefits the timeshare owners."
I doesn't unless you buy into their program which wasn't cheap.

Once you do the link, there's no need to copy and paste the whole thing, regardless, but the only way you should use copyrighted material is with the permission of the original owner of the material.

ok

No problem.

Carol, I would like to point out that generally people should not just click on links without context. Spam bots have been known to hit phpBBs like this one and put links which when clicked can give someone malware.
I also administer a phpBB bulletin board and I have luckily intercepted a few of them before it hit the main board.
So, yes, don't post copyrighted material.....but giving context to your link might be helpful as well.

lcote--I don't think I understand your point, in terms of context?

Sorry, I was not clear.

If I see a post that is just a link, I am not necessarily going to trust that it was actually an intentional post. Logins get hijacked. New posters may be spambots.

Now, if I see something like
"Hilton Grand Vacations has taken over Diamond resorts. Poor Diamond Resort owners" And then a link, it is less likely to be a hijacked login or spambot because there is context of what is in the link.

OK, I understand now. In this circumstance, Elaine's post clearly stated what the link was about though.

My daughter-in-law will be staying at Flamingo in the near future, having booked through booking.com. In addition to a daily resort fee, her confirmation mentioned that housekeeping services would only be provided prior to check-in; i.e. no mid-week service. Has anyone else encountered this?

When we were there in Mar/Apr this year for 4 weeks staying in one of their villas we got housekeeping once a week. If your daughter-in-law is only there for 1 week she might not see housekeeping at all. We were always able to change our beach towels daily at the front desk.

The best part of SXM is not seeing Marriotts, Hiltons at every turn, even if this is just a points/exchange deal.
Lilliana

I guess that's a change, as they used to have housekeeping mid week. That's a shame.

Carol when we first stayed at Flamingo pre-Irma we had housekeeping twice a week which was fine but once a week is stretching it a little thin especially in the towel department. We had a washer and dryer this year in the villa so we just washed our own towels.

I suspect most people don't have a washer and dryer (which is a GREAT amenity, for sure!), so a whole week with no clean towels??? No, I'm not down with that..

Either am I. We are staying at Royal Palm this December for 2 weeks in a 1 bedroom and my wife tells me there is no washer and dryer in the room but they do have a laundry room on site. I'm now wondering if we only get clean towels only once a week, because that doesn't work for me. Gee I seem to remember when staying at a hotel or resort you had maid service everyday or maybe I'm dreaming. Oh and when we stayed at Flamingo pre Irma they have a laundry room there in the main building.

Whale Tail--Yes, at most hotels you get maid service every day. Not at timeshares, traditionally. I personally love my maid service at a hotel.

Carol "Not at timeshares". That line explained everything to me. I wasn't thinking that way. Maybe if I attended one of those sales meeting they push you to I would have known.
I haven't attended one yet.

Considering how it ended up I don’t know if I should add this to the thread but what the heck! When we still owned at the Towers we had mid week maid service on Wednesdays where the units were thoroughly cleaned each time they came but the maids took out the trash and replaced the towels daily. Beach towels were offered upon request on a daily basis.

The maids there’s were a wonderful bunch of ladies and I hope they are all doing well, considering the way they were mistreated by the Towers management. And that goes for the rest of the staff as well.

I can’t imagine not having fresh towels daily.

Well said Pat , thanks .

Prior to Irma at Flamingo we had midweek room cleaning, new linens and towels. With Covid protocols they no longer provide that service. All you have to do is request new room towels, bedding and any other room provided supplies and complete sets are delivered to your room at no charge. Room cleaning is once a week at no charge. Beach towels can be exchanged daily at no charge at Front desk. You get 4 very large Beach towels per room. Hope that helps.

We stayed at Royal Palm last month. One mid-stay cleaning was provided if your stay was 8 days or more. Clean towels for the room were always available upon request, and pool towels had unlimited exchanges.

At La Vista, our trash is removed and our towels are replaced daily, and a full cleaning is provided midweek.

Scuba--Obviously you knew that you could request clean towels, but apparently WhaleTail did not. It appears to ME that this is something they can no longer blame on Covid. It appears to be a cost-cutting measure to me. Towels are one thing, I guess I could go to the desk to get towels, but I'll be d*mned if I change the sheets on my bed on vacation.

If you are in that room for more than a week they do a complete cleaning, restocking of supplies and bed change. Changing bed linens once a week works for us.

At home, changing sheets once a week is fine, but on SXM, sand oftentimes gets where it shouldn't be. And it would irk me to have to ask for clean towels. It still seems like a cost-cutting measure, so they can hire less maids and go through less water, electric, etc.

Stayed at the Flamingo 8 weeks Jan - Feb. this year and had mid-week sheet change and full cleaning of room each time. And upon request had more towel change, bath and dish soap, and what ever we needed delivered to the door. More than ever before Irma,

WLE--Interesting.. Not sure why the difference.

Don’t know if it’s the same deal or not but sometimes, when staying as a hotel guest, the services are different than staying as a timeshare owner/user. We would often rent two or three extra days to add to our timeshare weeks and on those ‘extra’ days at the Towers we always received full hotel maid services daily - fresh towels and change of bed linens and the unit cleaned daily and basically anything else a typical hotel might provide.

"when staying as a hotel guest, the services are different than staying as a timeshare owner/user. "
Correct but shouldn't be.

Even hotels have changed their cleaning services. We just stayed at a standard-level hotel in Milwaukee this weekend and there were notices in the room and in the elevator that cleaning would be provided only every 5 days. However, you could request towels and to have your trash emptied at any time, or make special arrangements for a full cleaning. We were told it was a staffing issue and the housekeepers could only keep up with cleaning after check-outs.

Well that makes a tad more sense than the covid reason now....but...I think it's still a decision by the hotel chain to save money. I seem to be in the minority but if I am staying a few days in a hotel (just completed a stay in a Hilton today) I really don't need anyone coming into my room. I fI need stuff I just ask for it. Now a one/two week stay is a bit different....

A,en for us when we rent @ SBR Villas as “ Botel Guests”. Daily. And no $50 tax. Of course we tip room cleaners daily which wipes out the tax 👍😜🤡

'botel guests'???

Direct hotel booking does not pay the $50 TS tax but they do pay the room "tax and fees" of $250-300/week

At Flamingo and Royal Palm those resort fees are $25 a day for rental rooms.