# Lawai Beach Resort



## chester1122 (May 4, 2012)

I am thinking of buying a 1 bdrm at the resort.  I have stayed there but just in the Alii building through an RCI exchange. 

If I buy a particular building is that the only one I can stay in or can I request another, how does it work to deposit in RCI for exchange (do owe reserve a week and unit and then deposit), how far out do you need to book for high demand week if you purchase a 1-52.

Thanks.


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## Karen G (May 4, 2012)

chester1122 said:


> If I buy a particular building is that the only one I can stay in or can I request another


We used to own a floating week in the Coral building. You own a particular building so that's the building you'd stay in if you choose to use your week rather than deposit it. With a floating week, you  don't have your choice of actual units within that building to stay in.

But, if you deposit your week you could trade back into the resort into whatever week/building happened to be available.

When I wanted to deposit my week, I asked the girl in reservations what would be a high demand week and asked her to deposit that into my RCI account. The earlier the deposit is made, the better its trading power--or at least that's the way it worked before TPU's started. I don't know exactly how that affects things now.

Lawai Beach was always well-managed and easy to work with as an owner. They also would offer extra weeks as rentals to owners for the cost of maintenance fees if available. It's a nice place.


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## PrettyKitties (May 4, 2012)

I wouldn't buy into the Coral building.  You stay in whichever building you buy into-as far as I know you cannot request another.  I own a one-bedroom in the Banyan building and have been satisfied with management, which is directly controlled by owners.  You can reserve 2 years ahead (if fees are paid) so I'm guessing units go quickly for popular times.  

Sorry, I can't remember how depositing exchanges work.

The Coral is the oldest building, it does not have washer & dryers in the units (but there is a Laundromat) and views on lower floors are blocked by the Beach House.  For whatever reason, it seems to be the building where units are for sale more often than not.  

Good luck.


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## chester1122 (May 4, 2012)

*Good information*

Thanks both of you good information.  As well, good to know if an RCI exchange comes up.


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## vacationhopeful (May 4, 2012)

I just came back from exchanging into that resort. Exchangers ALMOST always are assigned the 1st floor in whatever building. I had 2 units in the Alii building and both were renovated (at the same time for family). The Banyan unit for the following week was also on the ground floor, but was NOT renovated - seems they start the renovations on the 2nd floor (according to the front desk manager). I found a unit in Alii and after 30 minutes of discussing it, I moved into that unit. No air conditioning but every LR and BDR had a ceiling fan.

They run a potluck Sunday night dinner at 5PM, give away a FREE resort BONUS week at a drawing 6PM Sunday (must be present but exchangers can win also), and a large conciegnor staff via a private vendor. The resort conciegnor staff runs a Fri, Sat and Sun orientation session at 8:30AM with several giveaways on tours - I won the $104 Luau except I was leaving the day before it started (no trading or swapping, expires at end of week ).

It was a nice place - I would go back EXCEPT for the idiotly LONG airplane flight. Friendly people (employees and guests) - mostly owners who come EVERY year for several weeks with some exchangers.


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## DeniseM (May 4, 2012)

I wouldn't even consider buying in any other building except the Ali'i building, because the other buildings can be loud.  Because there is no AC, you can't close the windows in warm weather.  I love the resort, but had a week of bad nights in a ground floor unit in the Banyan Building between the driveway, public parking lot, and main pool.  Plus the constant foot traffic directly outside the bedroom window.


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## Tiger (May 7, 2012)

We own 6 weeks at LBR. All in Alii. 5 x 2br2ba, 1 x 1br1ba.  On ebay the prices on Alii and Banyan units are similar, have held up, and have recently increased.  The last 2 I saw were $3700 for the 2br and $2200 for the 1br.  Coral units are available for $1 for a 1br.  So according to natural economic common sense their values must coincide with that pricing.  The best times and units book up as soon as they are available 2 years in advance.  Maintenance fees about $900-$1000 are due for the next year every early October.


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## vacationhopeful (May 7, 2012)

I can understand why for the Alii 2bdr ... MBR is with a patio door on the lanai and quiet for foot traffic. Being above the 1st floor is another plus for better breezes and view.


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## northpole (May 8, 2012)

Lawai Beach Resort is a very nice resort, it's very well managed and the board is completely controlled by owners (very rare).

I own a unit in the Coral and a unit in the Ali'i.  I'm very happy with both buildings.  The location of the Coral is such that not every unit has a good view, however, there are some units with excellent views... Just not as nice as the views from the Ali'i.  Since you can reserve 24 months in advance, it's pretty easy to request the rooms with the best views.

The Coral has been completely renovated in recent years - new bathrooms, TVs, kitchen, appliances, paint, lanais, patio doors and curtains... So any older comments about the Coral building may not be accurate.  Having said that, the Ali'i and Banyan are now renovating as well.

We've stayed at several other timeshares in Hawaii, and I think that the views from the Coral are better than most other timeshare properties - it's just when they're compared to the Ali'i views that they don't seem as good.

The Ali'i building is nice, the renovated rooms look very nice (though I haven't yet stayed in one, I've seen one).  

If you own in one building and would like to stay in another building (i.e. Coral-Ali'i) you can deposit it with Hawaii Timeshare Exchange and book right back into it immediately (and pay an exchange fee).  They'll then put a note on the exchange that you're an owner and would like to stay in the Ali'i building (or Banyan).  Then it's up to the front desk, on the day of arrival, to place you into the unit of their choice (based on availability).  I've done this twice (back when I owned 1 bdrm units in Coral only), it worked once (in the fall) and didn't work the other time (March).

This isn't something that I'd do anymore, since we book far enough in advance to get the unit of our choice in the Coral building.  

We've been owners for 4 years and we're very happy with our ownership.  We started out with one Coral unit, then we purchased a second Coral unit (both 1 bedrooms).  We've since expanded our family, so we purchased a 2 bedroom in the Ali'i, and a 2 bedroom in the Coral and we gave away our 1 bedroom units...


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## Tiger (May 8, 2012)

Northpole you are implying that Coral is good buy and I basically agree with you.  If you are going to use the unit yourself, book 2 years in advance (which owners of Alii and Banyan also have to do to get good/great units) and can avoid Alii/Banyan envy then I think Coral is an excellent buy.   But the savings on purchase are one time, just on the purchase price, since the maintenance fees are similar.


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## northpole (May 10, 2012)

If anybody is interested in purchasing a 2bdrm Ali'i, there's one available on the internet for a very good price!  We purchased our Ali'i unit in the past year for an unbelievable price, and I just noticed that there's another one available (I'm not sure the rules for posting the website, and I don't want anybody to get too upset).  We paid over 3x this amount for our Coral 2bdrm a couple of years ago, and we thought that was a good price!


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