[2022] Pulse Waikiki

[dioxide45]

They are heavily marketing this property to visitors from Japan. All the staff speaks Japanese and 80% of the guests I saw touring the property were Japanese. I declined the presentation so don’t know if they are offering direct purchases in this property vs. just points. Does anyone know if the property was mapped and recorded (with the county) as fractional ownerships? I’m guessing they did not do that which would prevent them from selling deeded weeks. But maybe they did.

We should know more if/when they ever file conveyances of the inventory to the trust. I looked at the latest trust conveyances that happened in November 2024 and there weren't any for Waikiki. I suspect the property is selling trust points, though probably not points that actually come from the Waikiki property. Just the trust points they are selling already. Not sure who their target demographic is on these New Year's weeks?

Vistana did something similar with certain weeks at the Maui properties. They still sold the Oceanfront and event weeks as deeded weeks. They didn't convey them to the Westin Flex trust.

I thought that there were concerns in Hawaii as many of the Japanese tourists weren't really returning post pandemic?

 

[daviator]

We should know more if/when they ever file conveyances of the inventory to the trust. I looked at the latest trust conveyances that happened in November 2024 and there weren't any for Waikiki. I suspect the property is selling trust points, though probably not points that actually come from the Waikiki property. Just the trust points they are selling already. Not sure who their target demographic is on these New Year's weeks?

Vistana did something similar with certain weeks at the Maui properties. They still sold the Oceanfront and event weeks as deeded weeks. They didn't convey them to the Westin Flex trust.

I thought that there were concerns in Hawaii as many of the Japanese tourists weren't really returning post pandemic?

I think the Oceanfront units in Maui were sold out before the Westin Flex trust came along. The event weeks probably too.

Yes, Japanese tourism has been down in Hawaii and they are trying to figure out how to reverse that. Japanese LOVE Hawaii, but aren't traveling there are frequently as in the past. One problem is that they love Hawaii so much that they've imported parts of Hawaii to Japan. For example, there are now more hula halau (hula dancing groups) in Japan than in Hawaii, meaning there is less need to travel to Hawaii to see or participate in this art form.

Anecdotally, on our last trip to Waikiki earlier this month, there were far fewer Japanese visitors than there used to be years ago. But at the MVC property, there were lots. I think that both the new Waikiki property and Ko'Olina may both be marketing heavily to the Japanese. (None of this is to be construed as anything negative against Japan or its visitors; on the whole they are great people.)

 

[dioxide45]

I think the Oceanfront units in Maui were sold out before the Westin Flex trust came along. The event weeks probably too.

They were, but there have been reaquired weeks in the past that never made it to the Flex trust.

 

[frank808]

Also a lot of the slowdown is due to the weak Yen. At 154 yen to $1 USD it makes it more expensive to travel to Hawaii. Especially when you can get to cheaper countries like Korea, Thailand etc.

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

 

[rthib]

Took some photos from a visit, was staying at Hilton so walked over to look around. Went up to the top floor pool area to see the view.

 

[daviator]

Took some photos from a visit, was staying at Hilton so walked over to look around. Went up to the top floor pool area to see the view.
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We stayed there earlier this month, I wrote a little review and posted it here. Overall it’s a good property though they made a couple questionable decisions in designing the rooms.

 

[rthib]

We stayed there earlier this month, I wrote a little review and posted it here. Overall it’s a good property though they made a couple questionable decisions in designing the rooms.

Talking to front desk and he mentioned that everything was designed to appeal to the Japanese market. Specifically mentioned the shower and toilet arrangement.

 

[dioxide45]

Took some photos from a visit, was staying at Hilton so walked over to look around. Went up to the top floor pool area to see the view.
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You didn't require a room key to get to the top floor or pool area? We will be at Hilton Hawaiian Village in June and I would like to go over and check it out. I've considered renting some points to make a one night reservation to also be able to check out a room.