# New to Hyatt; Initial comparison to Worldmark



## Marathoner (Sep 25, 2015)

I recently purchased a diamond week (2200 points) at Hyatt Coconut Plantation.  In purchasing into a new system, it takes time to learn the nuances and options available.  Hyatt has several unique features when exchanging in II.

Similar to other timeshares, Hyatt weeks can be exchanged on II.  However, the manner in which it does so is quite different to other timeshare systems.  When trading your Hyatt points, II requires a differing number of points in exchange depending on villa size and TDI of the resort that you want to exchange into.  When you go to exchange, you choose the number of Hyatt points you want to use in your II search as you can see in the image below.






Analogous to this "feature" of Hyatt is Worldmark, where you deposit Worldmark credits (equivalent to a week), but the actual number of WM credits which needs to be deposited in II varies based upon the size and season that you can select.  As an example, you can deposit a Worldmark 2BR high season week worth 10,000 credits or you can deposit a 2BR low season week worth 6,000 credits.  Within Worldmark, it takes 10,000 credits to book a typical high season 2BR at a Worldmark resort. So using 10,000 Worldmark credits to exchange into a different 2BR in II is logical.

The interesting thing about Hyatt is that you can exchange into far more weeks in II with a single week.  At its extreme, I could choose to exchange into 8 weeks of a low season studio (260 points/week) with my single Hyatt diamond week.  Quite interesting.

Worldmark has features that Hyatt does not.  Within 60 days of the reservation, all exchanges using Worldmark only require 4,000 credits for an II exchange, even a 3 bedroom high season week at a premium Marriott or Westin villa.  Another very useful feature of Worldmark is that you can have dozens of request first searches going in II but no credits will be deducted until the match actually occurs.  This gives you alot of flexibility when you want to put in an ongoing search for specific resorts at specific weeks during the year.

Hyatt has two limitations.  First, a Hyatt week cannot see other Hyatt weeks for exchange in II.  I suppose you can call this the Hyatt anti-preference and Hyatt presumably required this so that owners are incentivized to exchange only through the Hyatt website rather than through II.  Second, Hyatt weeks can only do a search for exchanges in II only up to a year from today.  

I purchased Hyatt knowing the strengths and limitations because I thought it would be a good complement to the capabilities of my other timeshares that I own such as Worldmark.  I intend to use each to maximize their respective strengths when exchanging in II.  It will be interesting to see if the reality of my exchanges match the theory when I purchased the week.  Time will tell.


----------



## optimist (Sep 25, 2015)

The step where you have to select the number of points is completely useless. The search results are not limited to the number of points selected. Whether you say you want to use 430 or 1880 points, the search results show ALL availability so they would do well to skip that step.


----------



## Marathoner (Sep 26, 2015)

optimist said:


> The step where you have to select the number of points is completely useless. The search results are not limited to the number of points selected. Whether you say you want to use 430 or 1880 points, the search results show ALL availability so they would do well to skip that step.



Yes, but I put that image into my post to illustrate the number of Hyatt points that II requires for different villa sizes and TDIs.  The actual week for exchange is where the specific number of points is listed as in the image here:


----------



## optimist (Sep 26, 2015)

While I am not at all familiar with Worldmark, I think your point is that you can deposit a less valuable 2 BR unit and still trade for a high demand one whereas with Hyatt you need to use the corresponding points. 
I think the Hyatt system is fairer than Starwood where if I need a studio, I still need to trade half my lock off side to get it.  But I guess that is the advantage of a point system...
Also, it's nice that a Hyatt trade in II is 1300 points whether that 2br is a holiday week or not whereas trading within Hyatt, that week would set you back all your 2200 points.


----------



## Marathoner (Sep 26, 2015)

optimist said:


> While I am not at all familiar with Worldmark, I think your point is that you can deposit a less valuable 2 BR unit and still trade for a high demand one whereas with Hyatt you need to use the corresponding points.
> I think the Hyatt system is fairer than Starwood where if I need a studio, I still need to trade half my lock off side to get it.



Yes, you can do that within Worldmark and some WM owners do it, although that is not the type of strategy that interests me.

I think that the concept of "fair" is not really accurate when it comes to timeshare exchanges.  I think that every timeshare system has different advantages and disadvantages.  To get the most value out of your ownership, you have to put in the time to understand all the rules of exchanging with that timeshare system and then maximize your exchange capability.  In the case of Starwood week ownership, the obvious benefit is their preference period within II to exchange into other Starwood resorts.


----------

