Hilton Grand Vacations Club Whistler

I usually don't go for timeshares, but I got the chance to stay in someone else's. The two-bedroom layout was fantastic, with bedrooms that don't share a wall, so even with kids you can get some privacy. The rooms are great, the balcony is big, and the main bedroom has a large attached bathroom with a jetted tub. The amenities were great too. There's a kids' pool area with a slide, plus an adults' area with hot tubs and a wet sauna. We saw a movie in the theater, which had super comfy seats and usually shows three mainstream Hollywood films a night. I liked the games room too. I'm an expert in that area, and it's pretty decent for a hotel. The machines are set to free play, and the SNES classics are a nice touch. The DDR machine's left pad is in really good shape for such an old machine, but having an Extreme cabinet with DDR 1 in it is diabolical, haha. Why not upgrade it back to Extreme? In my opinion, it's much better, has more songs, including the ones from DDR 1, and has quality-of-life features. Some areas of the resort are really dated. Seeing the old lobby made me nervous, and then I got a hard timeshare sales pitch there, which I'm never going to take. The staff were nice, though, and just doing their jobs. They offered a longer pitch for a $200 gift card, but I couldn't be bothered with at least 90 minutes of that for $200. If the timeshare owner I know offers the space again, I'd totally return. It was a really pleasant stay. The kids' pool faces some rooms, so it can be noisy, but I don't mind a bit of noise.

We've been coming here since 2008, when it was called Club Intrawest, using my auntie's Embarc timeshare, and we've always loved it. The building is away from the village bustle, up in the upper village across from Fairmont. The suites feel very homey, and there's a heated outdoor family pool and a hot tub. The renovations started last year, in 2024, and are now finished. The building seems better and cleaner, and the service is fantastic as usual. We make breakfast ourselves, then go to the village for lunch and dinner. We hope this place keeps giving guests great service and amenities for years to come.

I've been visiting this property for decades, through Intrawest, Embarc, and now HGV, and this was my first bad experience. At check-in, the purpose and length of an HGV/Embarc presentation were either misrepresented or miscommunicated. The staff member involved apologized. Rosie Blaser, who seemed to control HGV timeshare pricing, was aggressive and coercive. Her conduct felt unprofessional and alarming. This isn't a comment on the rooms or regular staff, who are excellent. People considering a purchase should know HGV points can be bought on the secondary market for almost nothing. Current Embarc members should be especially careful, since converting can mean losing Embarc booking priority.

The welcome gift was a bag of microwave popcorn that expired just a month later, and the stay definitely wasn't worth $350. Never again. I smelled cigarette smoke from the night through the next morning. The concierge wasn't available all night, and nobody answered the phone. When I called the front desk, they said someone would investigate, so I asked them to bring an air purifier. Later, when I went to the front desk to exchange for chips, a worker there smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. It took 45 minutes for someone to come to the room, and he brought a fan. I told him someone was smoking inside the building. He said it must be someone passing outside and that it was impossible because the only room next to ours was an office. I explained that the windows were closed, nobody was outside, there was a room directly opposite and another upstairs, and the smell could travel through ducts or elsewhere. He denied it all without a reason. When I asked how he could be so sure, he just said, “physics.” His attitude was rude. The smell stopped right after I called the front desk, so I suspect staff were smoking in the office. I reported the incident to the front desk. He only apologized and offered no compensation.