You can export color out of Houdini into an alembic as a regular point attribute using Cd. Then in maya import the alembic using a command like this one:
AbcImport -mode import -rcs "test.abc"
It won't make any color sets, it just brings the colors straight into the vertex as rgb attributes.
Other attributes come in as arrays on the shape node. Easiest way for me to access to those is with the great SOuP suite.
If you're using vray, on your poly mesh that comes from alembic, add a name to your empty current color set node (in the shape node under the Mesh Controls tab -- just type it in there). I usually call it colorSet1 which is what Maya usually calls it.
Then use a VRayVertexColors node (found under 2D textures in the hypershade), change the type to Set Name and type in your color set name (colorSet1 if you do what I suggested).
That's it, you can now use that VRayVertexColors node to pipe those colors into whatever you like!
