New Costa Rica club in the future?

[BigMac]

Someone mentioned a while ago that they had heard there might be something opening up in Costa Rica . This is a MVC design team in Costa Rica this week. @BPilaDesign

 

[GregT]

I heard that they were going to expand to Los Suenos, but who knows????

Best,

Greg

 

[kds4]

I think putting a property in Costa Rica would be awesome. Sign me up.

 

[dioxide45]

While the destinations may be great, don't consider me overly excited for any of them. Marriott certainly won't purpose build new resorts in these types of places. They will buy a hotel or resort and convert the hotel rooms to timeshare. Which usually doesn't work well in my opinion.

 

[kds4]

While the destinations may be great, don't consider me overly excited for any of them. Marriott certainly won't purpose build new resorts in these types of places. They will buy a hotel or resort and convert the hotel rooms to timeshare. Which usually doesn't work well in my opinion.

I agree retrofitting is unlikely to be able to produce the same results as new construction. Although, I could see taking 3 hotel rooms and using the plumbing/electrical connections in the middle room bath to turn that into a kitchen area and replace the bedding with a sitting/dining area. The rooms on either side could remain as bedrooms with baths. You would just need to add/eliminate connecting doors for each tri-plex of rooms. Not as good as a purpose built 2BR, but it could do in a pinch.

 

[JIMinNC]

I agree retrofitting is unlikely to be able to produce the same results as new construction. Although, I could see taking 3 hotel rooms and using the plumbing/electrical connections in the middle room bath to turn that into a kitchen area and replace the bedding with a sitting/dining area. The rooms on either side could remain as bedrooms with baths. You would just need to add/eliminate connecting doors for each tri-plex of rooms. Not as good as a purpose built 2BR, but it could do in a pinch.

That's essentially what they did with Maui Ocean Club original towers, except they didn't do what you suggest with the middle room bath. They left that bath in place, making the units 2BR 3BTH and just did the mini kitchen. I think they should have spent the money to do what you suggest.

 

[dioxide45]

That's essentially what they did with Maui Ocean Club original towers, except they didn't do what you suggest with the middle room bath. They left that bath in place, making the units 2BR 3BTH and just did the mini kitchen. I think they should have spent the money to do what you suggest.

I think it had more to do with fire code than cost. THough getting it up to fire code would have required more cost. Adding a full kitchen means an oven and stove top. With proper ventilation and perhaps a fire barrier behind the kitchen. The hotel wasn't built with that in mind and adding it in the retrofit probably wasn't practical. We don't see it in any Marriott conversions, do we?

 

[JIMinNC]

I think it had more to do with fire code than cost. THough getting it up to fire code would have required more cost. Adding a full kitchen means an oven and stove top. With proper ventilation and perhaps a fire barrier behind the kitchen. The hotel wasn't built with that in mind and adding it in the retrofit probably wasn't practical. We don't see it in any Marriott conversions, do we?

I'm not aware of a Marriott conversion with full kitchen, but I do believe some HGVC and Vistana conversions do have at least cooktops. I'm taking specifically about the Westin Los Cabos and the HGVC Ocean Tower in Waikoloa.

 

[echino]

Marriott St. Kitts is a conversion with full kitchens.

 

[turkel]

Marriott St. Kitts is a conversion with full kitchens.

Are you sure? They certainly didn’t look like a conversion to me. Timeshare, not hotel, has mostly 2 bedrooms and some 3 bedrooms.

 

[bazzap]

Are you sure? They certainly didn’t look like a conversion to me. Timeshare, not hotel, has mostly 2 bedrooms and some 3 bedrooms.

Yes, we own there.
The resort is co-located with the Marriott hotel, which originally had one main building and many smaller buildings.
Buildings 3 to 10 to the right of the main pool in the site plan were each converted from some 30 hotel rooms to 11 MVC units.
They are excellent conversions and very large units.

 

[Davey54321]

I believe The Aruba Ocean Club was a conversion as well - or so we were told when we owned there briefly over 10 years ago... And that has full kitchens (it can be done)...

 

[Dean]

Marriott St. Kitts is a conversion with full kitchens.

The original section at Crystal Shores was a hotel conversion, from a kitchen standpoint Maui and Kauai were done poorly and the worst part is there is plenty of space and plenty of options to do it far better.

 

[dioxide45]

The original section at Crystal Shores was a hotel conversion, from a kitchen standpoint Maui and Maui were done poorly and the worst part is there is plenty of space and plenty of options to do it far better.

Maui and Kauai?

What about the Big Island, Bali, any of the Pulse locations?

 

[Dean]

Maui and Kauai?

What about the Big Island, Bali, any of the Pulse locations?

Yes, I think autocorrect got me and given the short message, I didn't proof it. I'm not sure about the others as to how they turned out or what the options were. Independently for a different reason I had looked at the BI kitchen and read the description. It looks to be roughly the same and would be a big detriment for us. Anything less than a convection microwave, mid sized fridge and a 2 top burner is a significant compromise for us. For Maui it's less of an issue than Kauai because of the proximity to whalers village and all the options there. I think the issue that gets me the most personally is there is plenty of space to do a LOT more than they did for Kauai and Maui even a W/D combo since they don't need vents, just hot/cold and a return line. If we do Pulse we'll vacation differently than we would for HI, esp if just the 2 of us, so it'd be less of an issue. But if I know I can make choices, that's why we never intend to stay at KBC again and would skip a week rather than doing so.

 

[jimf41]

In Los Suenos there are several condo units on the north side of the hotel property. They might be talking about acquiring and remodeling those units. The hotel has a great pool but a lousy beach.

 

[BigMac]

I heard that they were going to expand to Los Suenos, but who knows????

Best,

Greg

Could be - The hotel has 201 rooms so not sure they can do too many conversions per se at the hotel. There are not a lot of hotels in the area other than the Marriott but a ton of condos - some quite near to the resort.

 

[BigMac]

Here is the announcement about Los Suenos
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/marriott-vacation-club-announces-proposed-110000982.html

 

[bizaro86]

Here is the announcement about Los Suenos
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/marriott-vacation-club-announces-proposed-110000982.html

24 units plus a new and unique sales centre. Quite the addition to the portfolio.

I suppose it's more than the bare minimum - they need one unit for a model, and probably at least one more unit to actually have some bookable inventory. Be interesting to see what the points chart is for this.

 

[StevenTing]

My wife is excited for this addition. We plan to rent our Maui weeks for 2021 and will try for Costa Rica when available.

 

[turkel]

We would go to this resort, as weeks owners though it’s an iffy proposition. The points only resorts tend to be few and off season.

 

[Fairwinds]

View attachment 13056

They are excellent conversions and very large units.

They sure are. We are going back for our second time this year. Can’t wait,

I’ve been wishing for a MVC in CR for a long time. But like dioxide45, we don’t like conversions. We want a kitchen. Unless they build kitchens I’ll stick with the Hotel Punta Islita. We loved it there