Thinking of buying hyatt

We currently own Hilton, but not a lot of Hilton resorts. We're considering trading our Hilton for a Hyatt (of course there will some cost). We're thinking Beach House or Coconut Plantation. I've been to both. 1400 pts should get us 2 bed in summer. How well does this trade outside Hyatt in your experiences? Is there a Hyatt forum anywhere? THANKS!

We currently own Hilton, but not a lot of Hilton resorts.

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There's not a lot of Hyatt resorts either. Why not keep the hilton and take advantage of the RCI online access through Hilton, for when you want travel outside of the Hilton resort areas.

I bought our Hyatt with the idea of trading. My experience with searching using Hyatt has been that if you can travel off season, it's fabulous. You can get into most any resort. However, if you want to travel when everyone else is, the preferential window that both Marriott and Starwood gives their owners, eats up pretty much everything.
So because my kids are still in school and I am tied to school holidays, Hyatt is great if you want to go to one of their resorts but not the best as far as trading.

We own Hyatt and RCI weeks, we have had good luck with Hyatt trading. About the only think I had a problem with was a Disney Vacation Club search last year, searching for Thanksgiving of 2009. I now know why this was an issue, Disney was switching from II to RCI. Now, I see much more Disney availability with RCI.

With Hyatt points, we have gone skiing in Colorado and Whistler during spring break. I always sweat the spring break snow skiing for obvious reasons. We invested in a Condo in Summit County, Colorado last summer - so this is not an issue any longer. But, once our son gets out of High School, we will more then likely want to use the Hyatt points to ski other spots. But, we will not be fixed by the school calendar.

Moral of the story - if you are NOT looking for winter high season, Hyatt will do just fine. You may want to find a nice, week - lots of great buys out there. Keep the Hilton for a year or so and see how it works. I find it very useful to own time in both II and RCI.

Bottom line we love Hyatt, the resorts are beautiful and we find them to be very customer friendly. Anyway, I would look at where Hyatt is located. It made sense to our family since we own homes in Colorado and Florida - this is where most of the Hyatt properties are located. Easy to use the points last minute or for a quick weekend get away if you can drive!

My thought is that I would use Hyatt exclusively. I love Beach House and Coconut Plantation. I would just use Hyatt. Tough trades get on my nerves - I'm not patient enough for the game - would rather just rent.

I was thinking of just renting period - but honestly -owning something makes sense. Hilton has fewer places than Hyatt - I really like some of hyatt's areas/properties.

Zac495 said:

Hilton has fewer places than Hyatt -

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I though Hilton had something like 40 properties and Hyatt had 11?

optimist said:

I though Hilton had something like 40 properties and Hyatt had 11?

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A big chunk of those are "affiliated" resorts, like the ones in SW FL. Some owners participate in the Hilton point system and others don't.

One of the Sanibel resorts kicked Hilton out, there was a long thread about it here on TUG.

Twinkstarr said:

A big chunk of those are "affiliated" resorts, like the ones in SW FL. Some owners participate in the Hilton point system and others don't.

One of the Sanibel resorts kicked Hilton out, there was a long thread about it here on TUG.

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And those affiliated aren't easy to get into. I've tried - there's probably a trick - ask ahead, wait, etc. I just am sick of that trading game. I know that timesharing is probably cheaper in the long run than renting, and I'm nowhere close to quitting timesharing or vacationing, but I can't stand worrying about an exchange.

LOVE the Hyatts- I'd be happy to put an exchange first with them - wait and see - and just go to one of their resorts if I didn't get what I wanted quickly.

I like 2 weeks in the summer - so one could be Hyatt and the other could be a rental wherever I felt like going.

Hilton is also nice (nice resorts) but not quite as classy - and Orlando zzzzzz I don't want to go back there.

Zac495 said:

And those affiliated aren't easy to get into. I've tried - there's probably a trick - ask ahead, wait, etc. I just am sick of that trading game. I know that timesharing is probably cheaper in the long run than renting, and I'm nowhere close to quitting timesharing or vacationing, but I can't stand worrying about an exchange.

LOVE the Hyatts- I'd be happy to put an exchange first with them - wait and see - and just go to one of their resorts if I didn't get what I wanted quickly.

I like 2 weeks in the summer - so one could be Hyatt and the other could be a rental wherever I felt like going.

Hilton is also nice (nice resorts) but not quite as classy - and Orlando zzzzzz I don't want to go back there.

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I looked at the Hyatt for our CO ski week. It isn't the easiest system and it took me a lot of reading to figure out the basics. The problem was our Spring Break floats and a few realtors told us that a floating plat ski season would probably work better for us.

So I ended up with a Starwood unit, it's worked out well. Haven't had a problem getting a unit booked.

Did you go to Orlando in summer? Yuck! my cut off is Nov-May for Orlando. I'm breaking my own rules and heading down in October for a "mom only" trip to go to Epcot Food & Wine Festival.

Zac495 said:

And those affiliated aren't easy to get into. I've tried - there's probably a trick - ask ahead, wait, etc. I just am sick of that trading game. I know that timesharing is probably cheaper in the long run than renting, and I'm nowhere close to quitting timesharing or vacationing, but I can't stand worrying about an exchange.

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And here I am, a Hyatt owner, wanting to trade to european resorts and about to bid on a Hilton. Go figure! I guess the grass is always greener! So based on your experience, it looks like it will be a mistake.

optimist said:

And here I am, a Hyatt owner, wanting to trade to european resorts and about to bid on a Hilton. Go figure! I guess the grass is always greener! So based on your experience, it looks like it will be a mistake.

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Firm believer the grass is always greener in another system.

Are you looking at the Hilton's in Scotland? I think Ellen was trying to get the "affiliate" resorts in SW FL(Marco Island, Sanibel etc).

Twinkstarr said:

Firm believer the grass is always greener in another system.

Are you looking at the Hilton's in Scotland? I think Ellen was trying to get the "affiliate" resorts in SW FL(Marco Island, Sanibel etc).

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I was thinking of buying a Hilton to trade into the Scotland and Portugal properties. My problem with timesharing is that there is no place that I want to go to over and over again, so for me "buy where you want to go" never made any sense. I want to go somewhere different every time.

optimist said:

I was thinking of buying a Hilton to trade into the Scotland and Portugal properties. My problem with timesharing is that there is no place that I want to go to over and over again, so for me "buy where you want to go" never made any sense. I want to go somewhere different every time.

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Yes, I agree - it is a big problem with timesharing. I think Scotland is easier - I can look for you if you want (in other words - i can go into the Hilton website and see what I see).

How many points are you thinking of purchasing? I have 5000 - if you want 2 beds, get 7000 pts IF you buy.

optimist said:

I was thinking of buying a Hilton to trade into the Scotland and Portugal properties. My problem with timesharing is that there is no place that I want to go to over and over again, so for me "buy where you want to go" never made any sense. I want to go somewhere different every time.

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I would love to get to Scotland, I've been to London and done some business trips in other parts of England. I'm a huge anglophile.

I like how the Hilton system works, but other than the European locations, I don't really need more points in Vegas and Orlando. Got those covered with Wyndham and DVC.

Zac495 said:

Yes, I agree - it is a big problem with timesharing. I think Scotland is easier - I can look for you if you want (in other words - i can go into the Hilton website and see what I see).

How many points are you thinking of purchasing? I have 5000 - if you want 2 beds, get 7000 pts IF you buy.

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I was thinking of a platinum 1 BR which has 4800.
I already have a high point Hyatt so I don't really need much more. Even though I would prefer a two bedroom, I don't really want to pay the higher maintenance.
Can you check availability for Portugal for summer 2010 for me with those points? Thanks a lot!

optimist said:

I was thinking of a platinum 1 BR which has 4800.
I already have a high point Hyatt so I don't really need much more. Even though I would prefer a two bedroom, I don't really want to pay the higher maintenance.
Can you check availability for Portugal for summer 2010 for me with those points? Thanks a lot!

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I'm seeing June 12th for 7 nights. I can't go further out since I can only search 9 months out. So indeed, it looks as though Portugal is a possibility.

Thanks so much for checking Ellen. That's great to know because I have put in a request for the week of June 18th with II for the Four Seasons in the Algarve.

As far as buying Hyatt, I think they hold their value pretty well so I don't think you will be sorry if you buy one. Good luck with your search.

Zac495:

I am not that familiar with the Hyatt system as I do not own there. However, I have seen some of their resorts and they are quite nice. Hilton makes it very easy to trade into Club Intrawest and Grand Mayan resorts. We have had very good experiences with this option. Hilton also has the advantage in that the points of a person who purchases resale are treated the same way as the points of a person who purchases directly from Hilton except for the Elite benefits. This cannot be said of Marriott or Starwood. I do not know about Hyatt's policy. I think you may want to check into that before you sell your Hilton TS.

Do you participate in Hyatt Gold Passport? I have been to several meetings at Hyatt facilities and the convention facilities were excellent. Hyatt has two excellent Golf resorts in the Texas Hill Country that are quite popular. There is plenty to do even if you are not a golfer.

Hyatt Gold Passport

As a resale buyer you cannot participate in the Gold Passport program with Hyatt. Consensus among Hyatt owners is that its not a good way to use your points anyhow, so no real loss in value.

mesamirage:

Thanks for providing the information. I do not own at Hyatt but I do participate in Gold Passport. It's a nice way to stay at a Hyatt Hotel or resort as a non owner and earn points towards free stays and upgrades.

Does purchasing resale at Hyatt permit one to participate in Hyatt's internal exchange program?

pianodinosaur said:

mesamirage:

Does purchasing resale at Hyatt permit one to participate in Hyatt's internal exchange program?

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Yes, resale owners participate in the Hyatt internal exchange program the same way as someone purchasing from the developer.

Just for clarification... the only benefit you lose by purchasing resale vs the developer (besides the 4x higher price!!) is the option to convert your Hyatt Vacation club points into Hyatt Gold passport points. You can still independently participate in the Hyatt Gold passport it just will not be linked to your Hyatt ownership. Again this is not seen as a real loss of any benefit by most Hyatt owners.

As far as internal exchanges and all other benefits with the Vacation club you keep ALL of those benefits when you purchase resale.

If you own less points than you need for year X, can you borrow ahead from year Y (like you can with Hilton)? Can you then save the points from year Y and combine them with year Z? Or do unused points need to be deposited? THANKS

If you only own a single unit, for all practicable purposes, you cannot readily combine Year 1 points with those issued in Year 2. There are a few twists around this restriction, but points move into different use limitations every 6 months over an 18 month period. By the time the Year 2 points are available, Year 1 points have moved into the most restrictive last 6 month period. In that period the points can be combined, but you must occupy the unit within 60 days of the reservation. Thus no long term planning for such a stay.