# Buy Welk Timeshare to get into Hyatt system cheap?



## Panzerman45 (Jul 27, 2022)

Welk is being merged into the Hyatt Residence Club.  Would it be a good move to buy one of the low cost Welk resales to get into the Hyatt Residence Club on the cheap?  When will these Welk units be merged into Hyatt and how are the Welk points going to be made into Hyatt points? Am I not understanding the situation correctly?


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## dioxide45 (Jul 27, 2022)

Given the pace that Marriott Vacations Worldwide moves on these things, you are probably years ahead of getting any definitive answers to these questions.


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## socaltimeshare (Jul 27, 2022)

Right now HRC can exchange into Welk through II. A 2-bedroom diamond Hyatt yields 2,200 points which can be used to book a top season 2-bedroom Welk at 1,300 points (pending availability).  So I can’t assume Welk properties will one day just exchange on an equal basis with HRC units.   I believe there are too many unknowns / uncertainties to do what you suggest.  For instance, IF ever fully integrated, what season (and thus points) would your Welk unit yield in the HPC realm.  Would your Welk resale unit be in a restrictive tier ( would you have to Hyattize by buying additional HPC points, similar to how HRC owners have been encouraged to).  Answers to these sorts of questions will determine future value of Welk units.  If you want HRC or HPC points, you can currently buy a diamond or platinum HRC at a reasonable price that will most likely hold value, or HPC resale points dirt cheap but you may have trouble re-selling these down the line.


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## RunCat (Jul 28, 2022)

Terms re: Welk point conversion to WOH points were recently announced.  Resale units are not eligible.  I suspect a similar restriction may be in place for booking into HRC units.


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## fishwithwater (Jul 28, 2022)

RunCat said:


> Terms re: Welk point conversion to WOH points were recently announced



WOH the hotel points? What is the conversion rate? I recently purchased a resale, not that I am eligible, just curious.


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## magicjourney (Jul 28, 2022)

fishwithwater said:


> WOH the hotel points? What is the conversion rate? I recently purchased a resale, not that I am eligible, just curious.


3:1, plus $143 transaction fee. I think it's not too bad.


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## fishwithwater (Jul 29, 2022)

magicjourney said:


> 3:1, plus $143 transaction fee. I think it's not too bad.



That's actually not bad, around the price of buying WOH points depending on the size of the contract


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## RunCat (Jul 29, 2022)

fishwithwater said:


> That's actually not bad, around the price of buying WOH points depending on the size of the contract


For our family, it is theoretically a great conversion rate. (Noting that some think going from a timeshare to a hotel is always bad.). But based on the value of a WOH point and our MF cost for a Welk point, it works out pretty good.


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## boraxo (Jul 30, 2022)

Not sure how cheap Welk are but I’d be careful on the conversion rate. You can get Hyatt bronze and silver weeks for next to nothing but those don’t trade into Hawaii and prime ski weeks if you need a 2BR. Diamond weeks are a lot pricier. It’s hard to see Hyatt setting up a conversion system where a cheap week from Welk (points) trades into a HRC Diamond week. Not gonna happen.


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## RunCat (Aug 5, 2022)

boraxo said:


> Not sure how cheap Welk are but I’d be careful on the conversion rate. You can get Hyatt bronze and silver weeks for next to nothing but those don’t trade into Hawaii and prime ski weeks if you need a 2BR. Diamond weeks are a lot pricier. It’s hard to see Hyatt setting up a conversion system where a cheap week from Welk (points) trades into a HRC Diamond week. Not gonna happen.



The listed conversion rate was into WOH points (Hyatt Hotels).  Nothing has been shared about any direct access to HRC resorts.  The current access, with a slightly reduced fee, is through II.


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## ScoopKona (Aug 5, 2022)

I think it is likely that you'll be able to use the Welk-WOH conversion as a guide to what Welk-HRC will be. Just work backwards using HRC-WOH.

They never make it easy.


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## Sapper (Aug 5, 2022)

Welk to WoH is 3:1
WoH to HRC is 41:1
so, 540,000 Welk points are worth 180,000 WoH points are worth 4,390 HRC points. 
540,000 Welk points are apx $2958

My Hyatt maintenance fees are almost $1/point. IF the above ends up being the case, then Welk maintenance fees are at an apx 30% discount to HRC points. IF in 2024 when the systems are scheduled to be integrated, AND the above holds true, then it would be an interesting play to reduce maintenance fees on points.  Of course, my assumptions and math could be incorrect, what Hyatt actually does could be wildly different than the speculation here, and there is risk that MVC decides to rapidly inflate the maintenance fees on Welk points (they certainly did it to HRC fees). RE @Panzerman45 original idea of buying Welk to get in to HRC on the cheap… personally, I would hold off for a couple of years and see how all this shakes out. Too many unknowns at this point to risk being stuck with something that will not work the way you want it to.


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## ocdb8r (Aug 10, 2022)

Sapper said:


> Welk to WoH is 3:1
> WoH to HRC is 41:1
> so, 540,000 Welk points are worth 180,000 WoH points are worth 4,390 HRC points.
> 540,000 Welk points are apx $2958
> ...


Using WoH as a conversion rate is a total folly.  There is no way 540k Welk points will equate to 4,390 HRC points.  At least make some attempt at comparing what 540k Welk points gets you compared to something similar in the Hyatt program.

Take Northstar Lodge as an example (which is useful as it has both Hyatt and Welk units...although Welk has a much more simplified seasons chart).  A Diamond 2-Bedroom week is valued at 2,200 HRC points while in Welk the same week would be 420,000 Welk points (noting that in actuality you should probably compare the Welk week to a blend of Diamond, Platinum and Gold season HRC values given that's what Welk's "Red" season covers).  Maintenance fees on 420,000 Welk points is over $2,200.  No bargain there....and I would argue this is a BEST case scenario for relative values.



Sapper said:


> My Hyatt maintenance fees are almost $1/point. IF the above ends up being the case, then Welk maintenance fees are at an apx 30% discount to HRC points.


I think this is on the high side; most Diamond or Platinum weeks are still well below the $1/point maintenance fee cost. HPP maintenance fees are at 1.07/point and I would guess you're not going to end up being better off than that for what a similar unit would cost you using Welk points (not to mention you are almost certainly going to be at a disadvantage booking window wise).

Short story, while Welk points can be acquired for less than similarly valued Hyatt weeks, the maintenance fees are likely to be the same or higher.  In the end you you likely get some sort of impaired access to Hyatt properties with no ongoing savings (and perhaps at a higher ongoing cost); whatever savings you might realize up front is likely to quickly evaporate over time as you pay the maintenance fees.  It's likely a better bet to buy a quality Diamond or Platinum week (that will retain some value and have lower maintenance fees for what you get) rather than buy Welk points that after transaction costs are likely to result in negative value to dispose of.


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## cdemay (Dec 20, 2022)

Panzerman45 said:


> Welk is being merged into the Hyatt Residence Club.  Would it be a good move to buy one of the low cost Welk resales to get into the Hyatt Residence Club on the cheap?  When will these Welk units be merged into Hyatt and how are the Welk points going to be made into Hyatt points? Am I not understanding the situation correctly?


I have welk points that i can trade in.  I'd like more HRC points.  What would be the cheapest way of getting them?  Do I need to buy Welk directly?


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