HKB vs HBH (or other low maintenance fee)

[Mushed]

Hi, I’m hoping to get some advice from the TUG hive mind. We’ve visited HRCs (HKB and Beach House) and Westins (WKORV-N, Princeville, Kierland), and like them both. We’re ready to buy (resale only! Lol just finished a Kierland pitch for Flex), but can’t decide how to proceed, Hyatt vs Westin, and resort. For reference, I tried to buy a Diamond Beach House week two years ago, but it got snatched up in ROFR.

Our ultimate goal is to visit Hawaii every few years, with trips to other locations in between. There are so many pros to each, but my husband prefers Hyatt enough that I’m focusing my efforts on that. We’d particularly like to use High Sierra on our off Hawaii years, and we loved Key West.

Bottom line: How hard will it be to trade HBH or other to a HKB summer week? We are limited on travel due to school age and younger kids, so it doesn’t really work even to buy a spring week, since spring break changes, although that would be great sometimes. I know the general advice is to buy the week and resort you want, but how hard is it really to get a HKB summer week if it’s not your home resort? Does it help to get a fixed HKB week that is the ‘wrong’ time for us?

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

Hi, I’m hoping to get some advice from the TUG hive mind. We’ve visited HRCs (HKB and Beach House) and Westins (WKORV-N, Princeville, Kierland), and like them both. We’re ready to buy (resale only! Lol just finished a Kierland pitch for Flex), but can’t decide how to proceed, Hyatt vs Westin, and resort. For reference, I tried to buy a Diamond Beach House week two years ago, but it got snatched up in ROFR.

Our ultimate goal is to visit Hawaii every few years, with trips to other locations in between. There are so many pros to each, but my husband prefers Hyatt enough that I’m focusing my efforts on that. We’d particularly like to use High Sierra on our off Hawaii years, and we loved Key West.

Bottom line: How hard will it be to trade HBH or other to a HKB summer week? We are limited on travel due to school age and younger kids, so it doesn’t really work even to buy a spring week, since spring break changes, although that would be great sometimes. I know the general advice is to buy the week and resort you want, but how hard is it really to get a HKB summer week if it’s not your home resort? Does it help to get a fixed HKB week that is the ‘wrong’ time for us?

It is significantly easier to book Westins in Hawaii than Hyatt though Hyatt is definitely our favorite Hawaii resort.We actually bought at Kierland to get in to Hawaii. We own Hyatts as well and Pinon Pointe has the lowest maintenance fees so is a good trader Hyatt is selling floating weeks now in Hawaii but spring break would be difficult to get.

 

[bdh]

Tusconadventurer is correct in that Pinon Pointe is the lowest MF in the Hyatt system.

If you own HBK you are guaranteed your deeded week/unit. If you own HBK and want to exchange to a different week at HBK (or another Hyatt property) than you own, you get no peferential advantage than any other Hyatt owner.

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

It may make sense to buy a HKB but with the higher maintenance fees I wouldn't advise to trade it. You could rent it out when not using it and then use that income to rent stays elsewhere. We live in AZ where summer starts late May for school vacations so we have been able to get HKB as an exchange using waitlist . We actually have 2 weeks there this summer but it's not something you can count on due to the small size of the resort compared to Westin. With Marriott now owning both Hyatt and Westin it is even more difficult to predict the future of exchanging.

 

[Mushed]

Thanks so much for the response! I assume at Westin you prefer fixed week, if you bought Kierland? They were pushing Flex hard at our pitch last week. I see most of the redweek listings for Westin say floating, so I assume those are Flex? That’s a whole other question, I guess, if Flex owners are finding there is inventory when they want to book.

 

[Mushed]

Tusconadventurer is correct in that Pinon Pointe is the lowest MF in the Hyatt system.

If you own HBK you are guaranteed your deeded week/unit. If you own HBK and want to exchange to a different week at HBK (or another Hyatt property) than you own, you get no peferential advantage than any other Hyatt owner.

Thank you for clarifying that! I read the threads here with background info, but wasn’t sure. Is it at 6 months that an owner at another Hyatt can try to book? That wasn’t clear. I saw the wish list/wait list, which seems like a great concept.

 

[Mushed]

It may make sense to buy a HKB but with the higher maintenance fees I wouldn't advise to trade it. You could rent it out when not using it and then use that income to rent stays elsewhere. We live in AZ where summer starts late May for school vacations so we have been able to get HKB as an exchange using waitlist . We actually have 2 weeks there this summer but it's not something you can count on due to the small size of the resort compared to Westin. With Marriott now owning both Hyatt and Westin it is even more difficult to predict the future of exchanging.

Tucson, we start late May too. I didn’t realize that - the Hyatt seemed huge, but I guess it’s bigger with all three Westin properties together. I’ll tell my husband the idea about renting out.

Are you able to rent Hyatt easily?

 

[bizaro86]

Thanks so much for the response! I assume at Westin you prefer fixed week, if you bought Kierland? They were pushing Flex hard at our pitch last week. I see most of the redweek listings for Westin say floating, so I assume those are Flex? That’s a whole other question, I guess, if Flex owners are finding there is inventory when they want to book.

The floating weeks at westin Kierland get staroptions based on size/season. As an example, the 2 bedroom plat season gets 148,100 staroptions. It is a floating week, so can book weeks 1-21, 51-52. There aren't fixed weeks at Kierland, or if there are they are very rare. Kierland will be much cheaper than Westin Flex, both upfront and on the MF, but doesn't come with any priority for Hawaii - you can only book at 8 months.

 

[Mushed]

The floating weeks at westin Kierland get staroptions based on size/season. As an example, the 2 bedroom plat season gets 148,100 staroptions. It is a floating week, so can book weeks 1-21, 51-52. There aren't fixed weeks at Kierland, or if there are they are very rare. Kierland will be much cheaper than Westin Flex, both upfront and on the MF, but doesn't come with any priority for Hawaii - you can only book at 8 months.

Thank you! I’m trying to figure out if the resales are Flex or just the regular float Westin weeks. There’s probably something I’m missing. I guess if the listing has a specific resort, it’s not Flex. Yup, definitely made that harder than it needed to be!

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

Thank you for clarifying that! I read the threads here with background info, but wasn’t sure. Is it at 6 months that an owner at another Hyatt can try to book? That wasn’t clear. I saw the wish list/wait list, which seems like a great concept.

You can for sure exchange earlier than 6 months but most inventory shows up around the 6 month mark and then closer to the week if folks cancel

 

[SteelerGal]

Thank you! I’m trying to figure out if the resales are Flex or just the regular float Westin weeks. There’s probably something I’m missing. I guess if the listing has a specific resort, it’s not Flex. Yup, definitely made that harder than it needed to be!

Most resales tend to be regular float weeks. You can book during specific periods.

 

[capjak]

Does anyone own a Floating Week at HKB? and....how easy/difficult is it to book springbreak (March) or Jan/Feb?

 

[vacationtime1]

Thank you! I’m trying to figure out if the resales are Flex or just the regular float Westin weeks. There’s probably something I’m missing. I guess if the listing has a specific resort, it’s not Flex. Yup, definitely made that harder than it needed to be!

Westin Flex resales will be listed as Westin Flex, not a particular resort. The secondary market has not yet stabilized on these units. Remember that Westin Flex is voluntary, so you cannot reserve properties not in Westin Flex except through Interval exchanges.

 

[Mushed]

These recent replies reminded me that I should update. We made an offer on a WKORV unit with a deeded summer week. I was so excited to find one! It’s an EOY, listed on eBay. I’ll update the ROFR thread with our results once we know if it’s passed.

We really love Hawaii, and determined that it’s worth the higher MF to us to ensure we can use what we buy.

 

[dagger1]

Does anyone own a Floating Week at HKB? and....how easy/difficult is it to book springbreak (March) or Jan/Feb?

I didn’t know there were floating weeks at HKB. I assume Jan/Feb would be relatively easy to book if you do so early. Spring Break might be competitive.

 

[Pathways]

Does anyone own a Floating Week at HKB? and....how easy/difficult is it to book springbreak (March) or Jan/Feb?

I didn’t know there were floating weeks at HKB. I assume Jan/Feb would be relatively easy to book if you do so early. Spring Break might be competitive.

I'm not sure any Tugger's own floating weeks. They are all 2 BR's, virtually all of floors 4,8, and 12, and half of floor 7 and 11. Total of 33 units. (x 50 I think, as I believe they are selling wk51/52 as fixed in these units)

No idea how many of them have sold

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

I'm not sure any Tugger's own floating weeks. They are all 2 BR's, virtually all of floors 4,8, and 12, and half of floor 7 and 11. Total of 33 units. (x 50 I think, as I believe they are selling wk51/52 as fixed in these units)
We were able to get a week spring break using hotel points so I assume it would not be too hard but you can't count on it . I am leary of the floating weeks in Hyatt in general . It would be different if the whole resort was sold as floating as in the Westin resorts .

 

[vacationtime1]

These recent replies reminded me that I should update. We made an offer on a WKORV unit with a deeded summer week. I was so excited to find one! It’s an EOY, listed on eBay. I’ll update the ROFR thread with our results once we know if it’s passed.

We really love Hawaii, and determined that it’s worth the higher MF to us to ensure we can use what we buy.

Although there are some fixed week units at WKORV, most "deeded summer weeks" are floating weeks 1-50; the deeded week number and unit number are for inventory purposes only.

The best way to verify that it is in fact a fixed summer week would be the estoppel ("Resale Information Sheet") issued by Vistana (NOT issued by a broker) that you absolutely should obtain as part of your purchase escrow. The estoppel will also verify the payment of past MF's and assessments, unit size, unit view, etc.