How difficult to book club reservations?

[heyimnotinthis]

I’m looking at a few different options for hgvc resale. I’ve spent weeks reading the forum and the mf$/pt charts, but still have a question. How difficult is it to book Hawaii resorts during platinum weeks starting at 9 months out? Are some resorts impossible? I understand NYC is very hard, but are the any others?

I’m asking because I’m trying to pick between Kingsland (pay more to have it as home resort), or purchase a cheaper Orlando or Vegas property just for point usage.

I will want to use the points 80-90% of the time and have good flexibility on travel.

 

[brp]

Big Island is easy. We've never tried Kingland as the points are higher and we consider the property inferior, but we've done both Kohala and Bay Club with no problem. We own in Vegas. We also own New York (W. 57th), but that's for New York.

Cheers.

 

[heyimnotinthis]

Do you use the Vegas property for points? Do you have trouble trying to book anywhere? Would you have purchased a different property?

 

[SmithOp]

I own Kingsland but never book my owned unit, just use the points. Its not a problem getting a 9 month club reservation there when you know how to work the reservation system.

I have 17 days booked there in May, got it right at the 9 month mark.

Lagoon Tower in Waikiki is the hard one to book in summer high season. Big Island is easy.


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[SmithOp]

Big Island is easy. We've never tried Kingland as the points are higher and we consider the property inferior, but we've done both Kohala and Bay Club with no problem. We own in Vegas. We also own New York (W. 57th), but that's for New York.

Cheers.

Interesting how you rate them. I put KL first then Bay Club, then Kohala last. We dont like the layout at Kohala, the angled wall with the dining table and small kitchen. The pool is too small and usually crowded.


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[brp]

Interesting how you rate them. I put KL first then Bay Club, then Kohala last. We dont like the layout at Kohala, the angled wall with the dining table and small kitchen. The pool is too small and usually crowded.

To be fair, we've never stayed at KL, as I said, but we've been to the resort. For me, it's just too big and sprawling. I like the "smallness" of the Bay Club/Kohala complex. Also, we like the Bay Club quiet pool, which is quite small. Reality is, when we go just about anywhere, we spend very little time just sitting at a pool. Also, I like the area of the lower loop of Waikoloa Beach (below Maintenance) then the upper.

As to the other two, we stayed at Kohala once, and otherwise always at Bay Club. It just didn't feel that different to me, but we're not in the room much. Also, Kohala has Hilton Waikoloa access, which is nice for the lagoon pool (although comments in other threads seem to say that it's sort of public beach and one can walk on). It's often just us, so Kohala (with 2BR min) is too big.

The pool bar at KL is far and away the best, hands down. But I can walk there/stagger back

Cheers.

 

[brp]

Do you use the Vegas property for points? Do you have trouble trying to book anywhere? Would you have purchased a different property?

We do use Vegas in Vegas as well. We own at Flamingo and use there as well as a couple of times at Elara.

We own DVC, but wanted a Seaworld stay once, so used the Vegas points there. For what we've tried to book, I would not have chosen anywhere else (just Platinum instead of Gold units).

Cheers.

 

[Jason245]

I’m looking at a few different options for hgvc resale. I’ve spent weeks reading the forum and the mf$/pt charts, but still have a question. How difficult is it to book Hawaii resorts during platinum weeks starting at 9 months out? Are some resorts impossible? I understand NYC is very hard, but are the any others?

I’m asking because I’m trying to pick between Kingsland (pay more to have it as home resort), or purchase a cheaper Orlando or Vegas property just for point usage.

I will want to use the points 80-90% of the time and have good flexibility on travel.

While I have never used points for hawaii, at 9 months out I have always gotten what I wanted to book (maybe not the exact unit I want, but the resort/location I want). This includes Gulf Coast of FL properties. For overbuilt locations like Orlando, I have had a lot of luck booking pretty much whenever I want (I have even snagged open season in Orlando for high demand times like thanksgiving).

From my observation of US properties, Honolulu, NY, DC and Hilton Head are probably the properties that are hardest to book. I would imagine the new additions in Chicago, and Charleston will also be hard to book. No idea on any of the properties outside of the USA.

All that being said, if there is one particular location/resort you need to go to every year, I would follow the advice of buying where you want to go.

 

[brp]

All that being said, if there is one particular location/resort you need to go to every year, I would follow the advice of buying where you want to go.

In general, I agree with this, However, for places like Big Island, Vegas, Orlando I would feel comfortable not buying where I wanted to stay even if I felt I wanted to go to any of these annually...provided that I had some date flexibility and could book close to 9 months. I really feel very little risk from these,

Cheers.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Interesting how you rate them. I put KL first then Bay Club, then Kohala last. We dont like the layout at Kohala, the angled wall with the dining table and small kitchen. The pool is too small and usually crowded.


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If you are ranking by Resort Amenities I would rate as above. KL would win for the pool complex alone.
If you are ranking by Rooms then Bay Club would win. BC has the biggest rooms of all the locations in Waikoloa.
I don't like Kohala, and I don't always want a 2 BR, so KL and BC give me choices.


Oahu you must book as close to the 9 month if NOT the day of. There is just much more demand.
Big Island you have way more flexibility in timing the booking.

Most limited events are hard anywhere: Specific Holiday or Event weeks or anything the the timing is limited (ski season). Any of those are going to be hard to reliable get in Club season.

Have some flexibility with timing and can world around the highest demand, then Club season is just fine to obtain.

 

[brp]

If you are ranking by Resort Amenities I would rate as above. KL would win for the pool complex alone.
If you are ranking by Rooms then Bay Club would win. BC has the biggest rooms of all the locations in Waikoloa.
I don't like Kohala, and I don't always want a 2 BR, so KL and BC give me choices.

True. If the pool complex, i.e.the pool bar, were the primary draw, then KL is very good. For the ambience of the overall grounds and location, the BC/Kohala complex beats KL on both fronts. I'm not sure if KL also has a more intimate "quiet" pool complex like BC, but that's a big draw for us.

Cheers.

 

[Tazzik]

King's Land did have an adults only pool near the main one, but we never went over there (even though it was very close). My kids loved the main pool there; it was fantastic. As for availability, it seems pretty easy to get if you can book somewhat in advance (i.e. it doesn't need to be right at 9 months). If you plan on wanting Christmas week, I'd expect you might need to own there. That's simply a guess though, as I've never tried to get that yet. I can imagine staying in the buildings farther from the pool / bar could make KL less of a draw, but I was able to book the exact room location I wanted, using the info found on these boards. Given the ages of my kids (9 and 13), and how much they like the pool, I don't think we would have liked any of the big island resorts more than KL.

 

[brp]

Given the ages of my kids (9 and 13), and how much they like the pool, I don't think we would have liked any of the big island resorts more than KL.

And we don't have kids, so therein lies part of the difference.

Cheers.

 

[Tazzik]

And we don't have kids, so therein lies part of the difference.

Cheers.

Yeah, they really change the dynamic of a vacation. I swear, half of my time planning each trip is figuring out ways to keep them entertained so that I can relax...

 

[Tamaradarann]

Yeah, they really change the dynamic of a vacation. I swear, half of my time planning each trip is figuring out ways to keep them entertained so that I can relax...

By the way I don't know how old your kids are or what they like to do but we have taken our Grandchildren to Smugglers Notch in Vermont in the summer a few times. It is a huge property. When they younger they loved all the activities and various pools. Now that they are teenagers they love the specific Teen Center and Teen Activities as well as the free resort shuttle so that they can come and go on the property by themselves which leaves you free to do other things as well as not worrying about picking them up at night by car after a few drinks. (We don't drink and drive, but we do drink so this is a benefit) While we are not cold weather people if you like snow and skiing what I heard that this resort is even better for those that go for that in the winter.

 

[Tazzik]

Thanks for the tip. We've definitely considered Smuggs in the past, but have not pulled the trigger on it yet. My wife still prefers a beach destination for the summer, but we're getting closer to thinking about a mountain based vacation to change it up.

 

[Tamaradarann]

Thanks for the tip. We've definitely considered Smuggs in the past, but have not pulled the trigger on it yet. My wife still prefers a beach destination for the summer, but we're getting closer to thinking about a mountain based vacation to change it up.

I don't know where your located but Vermont is 8 hour drive able for us so it works nicely for a Summer Vacation. My husband and I do a flying beach vacation in the winter in South Florida or Hawaii.
There are lots of other great timeshares off the beach for young kids. However, this is the only one which I can say really focuses on Teenagers and has specific activities that they loved as well as provides a certain degree of independence which Teenagers always strive for. I believe the Teen Center runs from about 6 PM until 10 or 11, and the shuttle runs past that time. When our oldest Grandchild was 13 and the youngest 11 they went together, even though the youngest was "underage". He was a mature 11 so no one said anything. If I recall my Son-in-Law did pick up the 11 year old when he called him around 9 since he didn't stay up that late and was getting tired. They were 13 and 15 last August and they closed the place. We were already in bed sleeping so we didn't know what time they came home.