Check my HRC purchase plan

[ScoopKona]

understood for your points #1. For #2 my concern is I’m going to have to trade most years to get the week after Easter since it’s rather variable. So I’m trying tounderstand the best way to swap for Hyatt too. Primaries would be high sierra or Carmel, possibly Pinon or northstar.

The advantage of the Hyatt system is that it is fairly stress free. I don't really think about it. I have a gold week and always get multiple weeks from it.

But a certain amount of flexibility has to be assumed. Anyone who says, "I must have such-and-such week at such-and-such location" is not going to be happy all the time.

I feel like I'm having to tease information from you -- what is it, precisely, you want to do? It would be easier for you to spell it out and then we can tell you how feasible that is.

 

[Chy]

The advantage of the Hyatt system is that it is fairly stress free. I don't really think about it. I have a gold week and always get multiple weeks from it.

But a certain amount of flexibility has to be assumed. Anyone who says, "I must have such-and-such week at such-and-such location" is not going to be happy all the time.

I feel like I'm having to tease information from you -- what is it, precisely, you want to do? It would be easier for you to spell it out and then we can tell you how feasible that is.

Sorry, I’m just trying to understand the system.

I’m trying to book the week after Easter. It could be Hyatt high sierra or Carmel, but I’m also interested in using the points to get multiple weeks like you so I’m trying to understand the exchanging of points. You are getting multiple weeks at hyatt with a gold week because you are booking hyatt studios or because you swap it over to Marriott weeks at the above mentioned 870 points for a week? I would be happy going elsewhere outside of hyatt too especially if I can get multiple weeks like you.

Thanks a lot for your responses they have been helpful.

 

[ScoopKona]

You are getting multiple weeks at hyatt with a gold week because you are booking hyatt studios or because you swap it over to Marriott weeks at the above mentioned 870 points for a week?

This is a fairly typical year for us -- we're doing a week in Carmel, then a week in Napa, and then a week in San Francisco. Napa and SF are both Interval studios, so 430 points each. And they take the oldest Interval points first, so I still have some leftover points for next year.

A week in a Carmel one-bedroom (Carmel is Gold, Platinum, Diamond only) is 1,240 to 1,450 points. Everything else was paid with Interval points I banked last year and needed to use anyway. And you can't move points back and forth -- you have to have some general idea what you want to do every year.

Last year, we did two weeks in Hawaii, through Interval, both 1bd -- so 870 times two. These were given to relatives so they weren't underfoot at the farm -- it's great when a resort is a few miles down the road.

All Interval properties cost the exact same thing. If you're good with studios, that's 430 points, maximum. Usually we find ourselves with a 1bd and a couple studios each year. Note: There is no "swapping to Marriott," except through Interval.

 

[Kal]

Yes, the week after Easter. But this is very different year to year and doesn’t seem to work well with a fixed week.

Make your focus on using HRC points to get the week you want. If you own one April week that would enable you to use your unit if that week works for you. Otherwise, use points for an alternate week. The best option would seem to be owning the last week of April. If Easter encroaches on that week, use the points to stay in one of the other three weeks.

 

[travelhacker]

You had asked specifically about High Sierra, Highlands Inn, and Pinon Pointe. All three of those should have decent availability at the 6 month mark.

I think you are a good candidate for a Hyatt week.

@Mongoose got a great deal on that gold Sedona week. I think a more typical price for that week would be somewhere between $3000-5000.

A diamond week gives you the most flexibility, but I lean towards getting 2 gold+ weeks if you know that you will travel a lot.

 

[Mongoose]

You had asked specifically about High Sierra, Highlands Inn, and Pinon Pointe. All three of those should have decent availability at the 6 month mark.

I think you are a good candidate for a Hyatt week.

@Mongoose got a great deal on that gold Sedona week. I think a more typical price for that week would be somewhere between $3000-5000.

A diamond week gives you the most flexibility, but I lean towards getting 2 gold+ weeks if you know that you will travel a lot.

Offer this guy $2500 and see what happens. https://www.myresortnetwork.com/Resort/ownerContact.asp?unitid=354446&ResortID=2284

 

[ScoopKona]

In addition, the diamond week gives the most points for one maintenance fee.

I didn't buy something I'd ever use. But if I could trade my deeded week for a deeded week in Hyatt that I WOULD use from time to time, I'd make that trade in a heartbeat.

Also, think long term. When I bought my week, I thought I'd never leave my hometown. Now I live nearly 5,000 miles away. We used to be married to "school holidays." Now we actively avoid that -- less crowds, more us.

If you buy a Hyatt week, you're jumping aboard a moving train (which may or may not derail with this whole Marriott foolishness). After a few years of using your week, all of this becomes second nature. Just ignore all the unnecessarily complex acronym soup. One year out, you get your points and can reserve what you own. Six months out, your week turns into points whether you do anything or not. If you let it go longer than a year, that's bad. At any time before that, you can dump everything into Interval and get another year to use them.

That's the whole system in 15 seconds.

 

[Kal]

You had asked specifically about High Sierra, Highlands Inn, and Pinon Pointe. All three of those should have decent availability at the 6 month mark.

I think you are a good candidate for a Hyatt week.

@Mongoose ... I lean towards getting 2 gold+ weeks if you know that you will travel a lot.

2 Gold weeks = 2 maintenance fees

 

[ivywag]

Offer this guy $2500 and see what happens. https://www.myresortnetwork.com/Resort/ownerContact.asp?unitid=354446&ResortID=2284

That’s an every other year unit.

 

[Mongoose]

2 Gold weeks = 2 maintenance fees

And 3760 points. If you need that much it’s a great way to go.

 

[Kal]

And 3760 points. If you need that much it’s a great way to go.

I guess I'm old school where owning 2 weeks would only give me one 2200 point reservation. And then paying the same M/F as the 2200 point week owners makes my wallet hurt.

 

[Chy]

I guess I'm old school where owning 2 weeks would only give me one 2200 point reservation. And then paying the same M/F as the 2200 point week owners makes my wallet hurt.

reaistically, what’s the cheapest to get a diamond week? $13k? If you can get a gold weeks for 3k each, that’s a LONG time for the annual fees to be anywhere close to the higher purchase price. 2 gold weeks seems smart.

 

[Kal]

reaistically, what’s the cheapest to get a diamond week? $13k? If you can get a gold weeks for 3k each, that’s a LONG time for the annual fees to be anywhere close to the higher purchase price. 2 gold weeks seems smart.

It will take effort to manage the two week points to get a 2200 point reservation. The weeks need to be close together to get the leverage. Then too, you need to see what week and resort you will get for gold weeks. It might put you at a disadvantage given the actual weeks owned. Now if you don't want any 2200 or 2000 point reservations, then it's a different story.

 

[ScoopKona]

reaistically, what’s the cheapest to get a diamond week? $13k? If you can get a gold weeks for 3k each, that’s a LONG time for the annual fees to be anywhere close to the higher purchase price. 2 gold weeks seems smart.

Assume maintenance fees of $1500 to $2000 per week. And copper pays the same MF as diamond. That's not a long time, at all. Six years. I've owned my week for nearly 20 years. It adds up. The beauty of leveraging one week into multiple weeks is that the fees sting less. Take this year: with two interval trades, the MF and one Hyatt trade, let's round it up to $2,000 in total fees for 2021/2022 -- 21 days of travel.

That's less than $100 per night to stay in Carmel, Napa and San Francisco. There is no other way possible to accomplish that. This is why if they ever monkey with the system to the point I'm out, I'll just walk away. I got my money's worth out of my week.

Do what you think is best. But I 100% agree with Kal to keep the MFs to a minimum.

 

[Kal]

And M/F increase every year. Mine have more than doubled over time.


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[travelhacker]

I’ll add my two cents. If you get two gold (or better) weeks you can get full weeks in diamond weeks, and you’ll have 1550 left over points that you can do some serious damage with.

Let’s reduce it down to a single gold vs a single diamond week. If the price of a diamond week is 11k, and a gold week is 2k, once you factor in opportunity cost (say 6% return on 9k which comes out to $540) you are way better off with the gold week.

 

[ScoopKona]

(say 6% return on 9k which comes out to $540) you are way better off with the gold week.

I think your math is way off.

Diamond: 11K plus ten years of MF, starting at $1,500 per year and going up by 7% (doubles roughly every 12 years): $11,000 + $20,700 = $31,700

Two gold weeks at $4K total and two fees over the same 10 years: 2x $20,700 = $41,400 = $45,400

I would instead buy ONE gold week -- so long as I didn't have my heart set on mostly Diamond Hyatt week trades. If I was buying to do some Hyatt trades and mostly Interval, a single gold would be a good toe in the water. I don't expect timeshares to cover 100% of my vacation needs. So I don't want to be scrambling to spend points. (Or be in a real bind if nothing I want is available, with a ticking clock.) If it's New Year's ski weeks every year, buy a Diamond.

 

[dsmrp]

Also consider a platinum or diamond week is easier to sell or get rid of when you don't need or want them anymore.

I have 2 "gold" type weeks in Vistana system,
and while MFs are among the lowest, I hope to be able to deed back to Marriott when the time comes. Gonna to keep longer to average what we paid into it. Fortunately, we still find some value in exchanges.

 

[travelhacker]

I think your math is way off.

Diamond: 11K plus ten years of MF, starting at $1,500 per year and going up by 7% (doubles roughly every 12 years): $11,000 + $20,700 = $31,700

Two gold weeks at $4K total and two fees over the same 10 years: 2x $20,700 = $41,400 = $45,400

I would instead buy ONE gold week -- so long as I didn't have my heart set on mostly Diamond Hyatt week trades. If I was buying to do some Hyatt trades and mostly Interval, a single gold would be a good toe in the water. I don't expect timeshares to cover 100% of my vacation needs. So I don't want to be scrambling to spend points. (Or be in a real bind if nothing I want is available, with a ticking clock.) If it's New Year's ski weeks every year, buy a Diamond.

Reread my post. I boiled it down to a week by week comparison. Yes you get 320 fewer points but you will earn $540 by investing your 9000 in cash.

You can’t not take into account opportunity cost of tying up cash in a diamond week.

If you get the right price, a diamond week is preferable, but prices are high right now and there is a significant premium on higher point value weeks.

I think we are on the same page that a single gold week is preferable unless the OP wants to regularly try to exchange into diamond weeks.

 

[travelhacker]

Also consider a platinum or diamond week is easier to sell or get rid of when you don't need or want them anymore.

I have 2 "gold" type weeks in Vistana system,
and while MFs are among the lowest, I hope to be able to deed back to Marriott when the time comes. Gonna to keep longer to average what we paid into it. Fortunately, we still find some value in exchanges.

This is a great point and particularly true with Vistana.

However, the difference in points isn’t nearly as pronounced in the Hyatt system. A gold week gets 85% of the points of a diamond week.

In Vistana, a gold week gets about 55% or the staroptions of a platinum week.

 

[ScoopKona]

Yes you get 320 fewer points but you will earn $540 by investing your 9000 in cash.

And pay $21,000 more in maintenance fees over 10 years. I'd rather have $21,000 than $540.

 

[Kal]

The poster needs to provide some further details on the unit size he wants to occupy. His preference is Carmel and Maui. Maui takes 2200 points so unless he owns 2200 points, Maui is off the table. A 2 BR in Carmel during April takes 2000-2200 points. So that is questionable. That leaves Carmel with a 1 BR. The availability of a 1 BR unit further limits success.

With two Gold weeks, there will be considerable points to manage during the year. That would mean the poster would have to plan multiple trips during the year. Coupled with his other non-Hyatt holdings, vacation planning could consume lots of time and energy. All the while hoping for available units. Then remember, the only reasonable way to success is using the Waitlist where you add your name 18 months in advance. Some folks rely on the concept of KISS (Keep it simple stupid). This whole process is far from simple. Life is too short, just get a 2200 point week and enjoy.

And by the way, the M/F for a Gold week is the same as a Diamond week. Gold week owners are paying more per point at a resort than Diamond week owners.

 

[travelhacker]

And pay $21,000 more in maintenance fees over 10 years. I'd rather have $21,000 than $540.

You missed the part where I boiled it down to a single week.

 

[ScoopKona]

You missed the part where I boiled it down to a single week.

But that assumes the new owner is OK never getting a Diamond 2bd. We don't know the answer to that.

I'm fine with a single gold week -- and I said so above. But I also don't ski. And I don't want to be around crowds of people for New Years or any of the heavy tourist crush seasons which are typically Diamond.

If someone wants to ski Colorado with two kids on a school vacation week, it's Diamond or pay a lot more in maintenance fees.

 

[travelhacker]

The poster needs to provide some further details on the unit size he wants to occupy. His preference is Carmel and Maui. Maui takes 2200 points so unless he owns 2200 points, Maui is off the table. A 2 BR in Carmel during April takes 2000-2200 points. So that is questionable. That leaves Carmel with a 1 BR. The availability of a 1 BR unit further limits success.

With two Gold weeks, there will be considerable points to manage during the year. That would mean the poster would have to plan multiple trips during the year. Coupled with his other non-Hyatt holdings, vacation planning could consume lots of time and energy. All the while hoping for available units. Then remember, the only reasonable way to success is using the Waitlist where you add your name 18 months in advance. Some folks rely on the concept of KISS (Keep it simple stupid). This whole process is far from simple. Life is too short, just get a 2200 point week and enjoy.

And by the way, the M/F for a Gold week is the same as a Diamond week. Gold week owners are paying more per point at a resort than Diamond week owners.

A couple of points of clarification. For the full week a 2 bedroom in Carmel in April is 2680 points.

Carmel 2 bedrooms are hard to get because there are just 3 units.

Gold week and diamond week owners do pay the same in maintenance fees. You will absolutely pay less per point with a diamond week.

It isn’t as clear cut when you factor in opportunity cost. If the rate you think you can earn elsewhere is 0%, it’s clear cut to get diamond, if it is anything above a few percent it isn’t as clear cut.

This is ignored in almost all posts on the subject and that’s why I specifically called it out.

KISS principle is a good point to call out here, Diamond wins hands down.