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Ko Olina - 2BR Master of 3BR Building Question

hangloose

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Aloha

We'll be at Ko Olina soon, using the 2BR OV master portion of our 3BR OV unit. First usage as an MKO owner, so we're excited!

It doesn't appear the "Plan Your Vacation Now" email from Ko Olina requests any information on floor (high/low) or building preference. Instead, it only asks for arrival time, special occasions, and additional tidy or concierge services.

Are most TUGgers just calling Ko Olina directly to make a floor and/or building request annotated onto our reservation? Or will someone from the MKO reservation team reach out?

I believe the 2BR OV master of a 3BR will only be in Hale Nai'a or Hale Moana. While I hear both are good views being in the middle of each building, I'm thinking I may request a high floor in Hale Nai'a given it is closer to the water. Am I correct in my thinking above?

Mahalo
 

GregT

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You are correct that you will be in Hale Moana or Hale Naia. We do call ahead and talk to the front desk about room requests, and I think you should do the same. Good luck and enjoy your trip!

Best,

Greg
 

hangloose

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Aloha,

Checked into Ko Olina. The resort looks great! I'll provide some feedback soon.

However, quite disappointed in room placement. We are staying in the 2BR OV portion of our 3BR. Our first stay as an owner after purchasing our MKO 3BR OV last year. Requested high floor Hale Naia. Got 3rd floor Hale Moana! WHAT!?!? Quite a surprise as an MKO owner with Presidential DC Pts status. The 3rd floor in Hale Moana is actually 2nd floor from the ground, with a smaller enclosed balcony to boot. I expected to at least be above the tree line as an MKO owner in one of the two Hales. While the front desk did look for a higher floor, none were available. Comment was that they had limited opportunity to move me...given I'm in the 2BR of a 3BR. We decided to just accept it this year and get on with vacation. After all, we're in Hawaii! Aloha!

GregT - I think you commented slightly on this last year around why you purchased 2BR OV. Plenty more 2BR OVs at MKO thus allowing better owner placement in building/room preference. The 3BRs (or 2BR Master) have fewer rooms to select from, thus a risk. I hope this room placement is a one-off.
 

TXTortoise

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Just out of curiosity you might ask room control how they prioritize assignments there. We know MOC uses confirmation date, then Marriott Reward Status for legacy weeks. I'm not sure how MOC does DP assignments, after the confirmation date prioritization.
 

GregT

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Aloha,

Checked into Ko Olina. The resort looks great! I'll provide some feedback soon.

However, quite disappointed in room placement. We are staying in the 2BR OV portion of our 3BR. Our first stay as an owner after purchasing our MKO 3BR OV last year. Requested high floor Hale Naia. Got 3rd floor Hale Moana! WHAT!?!? Quite a surprise as an MKO owner with Presidential DC Pts status. The 3rd floor in Hale Moana is actually 2nd floor from the ground, with a smaller enclosed balcony to boot. I expected to at least be above the tree line as an MKO owner in one of the two Hales. While the front desk did look for a higher floor, none were available. Comment was that they had limited opportunity to move me...given I'm in the 2BR of a 3BR. We decided to just accept it this year and get on with vacation. After all, we're in Hawaii! Aloha!

GregT - I think you commented slightly on this last year around why you purchased 2BR OV. Plenty more 2BR OVs at MKO thus allowing better owner placement in building/room preference. The 3BRs (or 2BR Master) have fewer rooms to select from, thus a risk. I hope this room placement is a one-off.

Interesting -- I'm glad you've found the Aloha spirit and I'd not considered the "risks" of locking off a 3BR unit. I can see how that would happen, but it would never have occurred to me. At least you don't have elevator risk if you don't mind going up and down stairs. We love to BBQ and actually found ourselves really enjoying the Moana BBQs over the Kona BBQs. That grass area was great to sit with kids and throw a football during dinner prep (and the wine and cheese wasn't bad too). The Naia grills have the fantastic view, but can fill quickly and patience isn't a strength of mine.

Enjoy Ko Olina -- it's a beautiful property and please post a picture when you can -- I know you're not "above the tree line" but are you "below the palm frond line"? I hope you can at least have a nice view of the grounds?

Best,

Greg
 

brianfox

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Naia tower is mostly non-lockoff 2BR units. Not sure what 3BR offerings Naia has. As a 2BR owner, I reserve a "Full Villa" (Marriott terminology) which means 2BR non-lockoff. So if you wanted to be practically guaranteed Naia, you would reserve your week as 2BR Full Villa as one reservation + studio as another reservation. Not sure if this is an option when you reserve your week online; you may need to call to get them to do it. Just make sure your reservation says "Full Villa" or you probably aren't getting naia.

It's not clear to owners, but if you have a week reserved as a 2BR lockoff, they are not allowed to put you into a 2BR full villa, or vice-versa.

I'd not be happy with 3rd floor OV Moana especially as an owner. But hopefully the resort and quiet location makes up for it. And you get a slight bonus in getting to avoid elevator waits much of the time. That alone should give you an extra hour of vacation for your 7 nights. Trying to make lemonade here...
 

hangloose

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GregT - Posted a balcony photo here. https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/view-from-the-balcony.231478/page-8#post-2105031 Other thing negative I noticed about this room is that the balcony is smaller. It only has three glass panels (vs four in all floors above me) and it has enclosed concrete walls on both sides (vs open balcony railing with glass). Small positive is that this room is certainly close to the elevator, Moana grills and Lagoon pool. It is also a bit quieter. Given it's been pouring raining this week at Ko Olina, it's a bummer not to have a nice ocean view to sit on the balcony and watch the rain.

TXTortoise - I will certainly be asking about room preference priority at Ko Olina. In future, this villa placement is not acceptable for an owner in my opinion. While I only own 1 MKO week, I own 5 MVC weeks in total, have Presidential/Plat status and submitted preferences in advance (via email and phone conversation with rooms). While I know there are limited 3BRs (Moana and Naia buildings only), I wonder if splitting off further impacts my room placement? Not sure. Given I rented then efficiency, I now wonder what room my renter got as "Ocean View".

brianfox- I think only Moana and Naia have 3BRs OV units in the center of each building. So, if I was using my full 3BR villa (or 2BR Master or Efficiency?) I would get placed into Moana or Naia. The 2BR Master of a 3BR has a slightly different layout than a normal 2BR. As such, I have to be placed into the 2BR portion of a 3BR when reserving the master. I'm not sure if the efficiency of a 3BR is any different, so I'd be curious to know if the efficiency side of a 3BR can be placed into any efficiency location in any building or whether it's required to be part of the efficiency side of a true 3BR unit.
 

GregT

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Hangloose,

Thank you for posting the view pic. I agree, that isn’t the view plane that an owner should get and rain is a drag too. I remember when we got rain a few years ago - not the best.

I’m glad you like the proximity to those facilities and hope the weather clears and you get a complimentary Mai Tai (or three).

Best,

Greg
 

TXTortoise

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TXTortoise - I will certainly be asking about room preference priority at Ko Olina. In future, this villa placement is not acceptable for an owner in my opinion. While I only own 1 MKO week, I own 5 MVC weeks in total, have Presidential/Plat status and submitted preferences in advance (via email and phone conversation with rooms). While I know there are limited 3BRs (Moana and Naia buildings only), I wonder if splitting off further impacts my room placement? Not sure. Given I rented then efficiency, I now wonder what room my renter got as "Ocean View".

When you talk to Room Control there also ask if they separate the weeks vs points inventory, and then ask what priority is, as they could also really limit you. This may be the first case of why locking off a 3BR might not make since if using the 2BR, if the available pool of rooms is so small.
 

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Posted the MKO Rooms Control prioritization here, based on my conversation with them this week -> https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php...na-rooms-control-villa-prioritization.269917/

A few points of interest, which I'm clarifying with them.
  • For MKO OWNERS (top priority), is a Weeks owner reservation given priority over DC Pts reservation. Or the opposite. Stay tuned.
  • For 3BR MKO Owners, it appears Rooms Control blocks all full 3BR reservations first, then moves to 2BR Master of 3BR Unit second. As a result, when locking off a 3BR at MKO, the 2BR Master will be consistently placed at a disadvantage for villa placement, only getting the 'leftovers'.
In my case, two things impacted my villa placement.
  1. Reservation Date - My reservation date was considered very late. It had a date timestamp of July 2017 for a Feb 2018 reservation. Most owners have date timestamps 12+ months in advance. My date was late because I purchased this week resale in July last year. While the owner had an original date timestamp near 12 months, I chose to lock-off upon purchasing in July which modified my reservation date timestamp to July.
  2. 2BR Master of a 3BR Unit - The 2BR Master of a 3BR unit is only blocked a villa location after all other full 3BR units are blocked. Appears this placed me near the bottom of the bucket, behind all full 3BRs. In combo, I checked in on a Sunday. I also wonder if this impacted availability in general, as many owners prefer a Friday or Sat check-in vs Sunday.
While I'm not concerned about reservation date, as I'll book at 12 to 13 months in the future.....I am disappointed that a 2BR Master of 3BR unit will always be at a disadvantage. In hind sight, I'm now wondering if purchasing a MKO 3BR was the right move. I expect half of the years we'll only need the 2BR, thus will lock-off, use the 2BR Master and rent the Efficiency (offsetting MFs). As a result though, this will always place my 2BR Master in a lower villa priority. Bummer.

If I were rooms control, I guess this makes sense.?.?

My future hope is that if and when building 4 is developed, that they include more 3BR units, thus increasing opportunity for a good villa placement. I'm not sure why there are no 3BR villas in Hale Kona? Perhaps MVC didn't think they could sell that many 3BRs, so they skipped including them in Kona.
 

frank808

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Posted the MKO Rooms Control prioritization here, based on my conversation with them this week -> https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php...na-rooms-control-villa-prioritization.269917/

A few points of interest, which I'm clarifying with them.
  • For MKO OWNERS (top priority), is a Weeks owner reservation given priority over DC Pts reservation. Or the opposite. Stay tuned.
  • For 3BR MKO Owners, it appears Rooms Control blocks all full 3BR reservations first, then moves to 2BR Master of 3BR Unit second. As a result, when locking off a 3BR at MKO, the 2BR Master will be consistently placed at a disadvantage for villa placement, only getting the 'leftovers'.
In my case, two things impacted my villa placement.
  1. Reservation Date - My reservation date was considered very late. It had a date timestamp of July 2017 for a Feb 2018 reservation. Most owners have date timestamps 12+ months in advance. My date was late because I purchased this week resale in July last year. While the owner had an original date timestamp near 12 months, I chose to lock-off upon purchasing in July which modified my reservation date timestamp to July.
  2. 2BR Master of a 3BR Unit - The 2BR Master of a 3BR unit is only blocked a villa location after all other full 3BR units are blocked. Appears this placed me near the bottom of the bucket, behind all full 3BRs. In combo, I checked in on a Sunday. I also wonder if this impacted availability in general, as many owners prefer a Friday or Sat check-in vs Sunday.
While I'm not concerned about reservation date, as I'll book at 12 to 13 months in the future.....I am disappointed that a 2BR Master of 3BR unit will always be at a disadvantage. In hind sight, I'm now wondering if purchasing a MKO 3BR was the right move. I expect half of the years we'll only need the 2BR, thus will lock-off, use the 2BR Master and rent the Efficiency (offsetting MFs). As a result though, this will always place my 2BR Master in a lower villa priority. Bummer.

If I were rooms control, I guess this makes sense.?.?

My future hope is that if and when building 4 is developed, that they include more 3BR units, thus increasing opportunity for a good villa placement. I'm not sure why there are no 3BR villas in Hale Kona? Perhaps MVC didn't think they could sell that many 3BRs, so they skipped including them in Kona.
The kona building was the first. Maybe it is as what you said did not include 3br in this tower.

Also studio portion of 3br is exactly the same as a 2br. Just the 2br of 3br unit is different than standard 2br villas.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

TXTortoise

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Posted the MKO Rooms Control prioritization here, based on my conversation with them this week -> https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php...na-rooms-control-villa-prioritization.269917/

A few points of interest, which I'm clarifying with them.
..... (deleted content)
In my case, two things impacted my villa placement.
  1. Reservation Date - My reservation date was considered very late. It had a date timestamp of July 2017 for a Feb 2018 reservation. Most owners have date timestamps 12+ months in advance. My date was late because I purchased this week resale in July last year. While the owner had an original date timestamp near 12 months, I chose to lock-off upon purchasing in July which modified my reservation date timestamp to July.
  2. 2BR Master of a 3BR Unit - The 2BR Master of a 3BR unit is only blocked a villa location after all other full 3BR units are blocked. Appears this placed me near the bottom of the bucket, behind all full 3BRs. In combo, I checked in on a Sunday. I also wonder if this impacted availability in general, as many owners prefer a Friday or Sat check-in vs Sunday.
Something to try if you have to rebook your original reservation if you are just deciding to lock off. See if room control will place a note re: the original date for placement purposes.
 

hangloose

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The kona building was the first. Maybe it is as what you said did not include 3br in this tower.

Also studio portion of 3br is exactly the same as a 2br. Just the 2br of 3br unit is different than standard 2br villas.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Thanks Frank. MKO Rooms Control also indicated the studio portion of a 3BR will always be placed into the villa location of the 3BR unit even though it is the same general layout.

Another odd MKO question. Do you know why some of the MKO balconies have glass on both sides of their railing, while some have glass on only one side...with the second side being some type of privacy blind insert? It doesn't appear this is consistent across the buildings...for the OV units.
 

frank808

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Thanks Frank. MKO Rooms Control also indicated the studio portion of a 3BR will always be placed into the villa location of the 3BR unit even though it is the same general layout.

Another odd MKO question. Do you know why some of the MKO balconies have glass on both sides of their railing, while some have glass on only one side...with the second side being some type of privacy blind insert? It doesn't appear this is consistent across the buildings...for the OV units.
Might be. When I have gotten the 2br of a 3br I have always gotten that. Also when i have the same view the following week and I get a low floor anyway they have never kept me in the same room for longer than the week. Seems the inventory is so limited that they always move you if your next room is not a portion of the 3br.

Other times when we have multiple 2br or 1br weeks they will let us day in the same villa as it makes it easier on housekeeping and us.

I have wondered about the shutters on the villa also. Makes no sense as some are on the left side and some on the right. I huess they were installed to protect against the rain coming in from the mountains but that is not the case. Maybe just decoration.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

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Given such a low amount of 3BR available, if room control knows you’re locking off, why wouldn’t they just find regular 2BR (lock off or not) and studio elsewhere in the resort to give the owner locking off. This would then allow you to get a better view as you’re not locked into the limited availability AND there is now a full 3BR that the resort can utilize via points? Worst case they dump it into II.

Am I over simplying this ?





Posted the MKO Rooms Control prioritization here, based on my conversation with them this week -> https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php...na-rooms-control-villa-prioritization.269917/

A few points of interest, which I'm clarifying with them.
  • For MKO OWNERS (top priority), is a Weeks owner reservation given priority over DC Pts reservation. Or the opposite. Stay tuned.
  • For 3BR MKO Owners, it appears Rooms Control blocks all full 3BR reservations first, then moves to 2BR Master of 3BR Unit second. As a result, when locking off a 3BR at MKO, the 2BR Master will be consistently placed at a disadvantage for villa placement, only getting the 'leftovers'.
In my case, two things impacted my villa placement.
  1. Reservation Date - My reservation date was considered very late. It had a date timestamp of July 2017 for a Feb 2018 reservation. Most owners have date timestamps 12+ months in advance. My date was late because I purchased this week resale in July last year. While the owner had an original date timestamp near 12 months, I chose to lock-off upon purchasing in July which modified my reservation date timestamp to July.
  2. 2BR Master of a 3BR Unit - The 2BR Master of a 3BR unit is only blocked a villa location after all other full 3BR units are blocked. Appears this placed me near the bottom of the bucket, behind all full 3BRs. In combo, I checked in on a Sunday. I also wonder if this impacted availability in general, as many owners prefer a Friday or Sat check-in vs Sunday.
While I'm not concerned about reservation date, as I'll book at 12 to 13 months in the future.....I am disappointed that a 2BR Master of 3BR unit will always be at a disadvantage. In hind sight, I'm now wondering if purchasing a MKO 3BR was the right move. I expect half of the years we'll only need the 2BR, thus will lock-off, use the 2BR Master and rent the Efficiency (offsetting MFs). As a result though, this will always place my 2BR Master in a lower villa priority. Bummer.

If I were rooms control, I guess this makes sense.?.?

My future hope is that if and when building 4 is developed, that they include more 3BR units, thus increasing opportunity for a good villa placement. I'm not sure why there are no 3BR villas in Hale Kona? Perhaps MVC didn't think they could sell that many 3BRs, so they skipped including them in Kona.
 

hangloose

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Given such a low amount of 3BR available, if room control knows you’re locking off, why wouldn’t they just find regular 2BR (lock off or not) and studio elsewhere in the resort to give the owner locking off. This would then allow you to get a better view as you’re not locked into the limited availability AND there is now a full 3BR that the resort can utilize via points? Worst case they dump it into II.

Am I over simplying this ?

The 2BR Master of the 3BR has a different layout and bed sizes than a standard 2BR. :(. Otherwise, I’m sure they would!
 
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