Considering Hyatt Purchase

[Keksik]

I am a current Starwood owner and considering purchasing Hyatt Platinum (2200 points) on resale. I have a couple of questions.

- Does Hyatt program work the same way as Starwood when purchased on resale?

- Even though I am mostly interested in traveling to the resort I am considering to buy, how easy is it to make reservations in other Hyatt locations such as Maui and Carmel during school holidays?

- Does Hyatt allow to split the reservations (e.g. 3 days and 4 days)?

Thanks.

 

[DAman]

1. I don't know Starwood.

2. Maui is a tough/impossible reservation at any time of the year. Highlands Inn is possible. In past years I have had reservations during school breaks in both 1 and 2 bedroom units(I think there are only 5 two bedroom units). If you plan ahead school breaks(Presidents' Day week, Easter week, Summer, and Christmas vacation) are possible.

3. Hyatt has 2, 3, and 4 night stays for split reservations.

You have to spend some time learning the rules in Hyatt. Once you do that you will find it is a good system.

 

[optimist]

- Does Hyatt program work the same way as Starwood when purchased on resale?

If by this you mean that the privileges that come with developer purchase do not transfer, the answer is yes. When you buy Hyatt resale, you cannot convert your points to Hotel points.
There is no voluntary/mandatory distinction in Hyatt and purchases at any resort will give you access to 'insider trading'.
As to your last question, I think you can't split 'holiday weeks' until 60 days out.
I sold my Hyatt but if you live in California, I think it's a great compliment to Starwood.

 

[hcarman]

We own Hyatt Carmel - maintenance fees are kind of steep - as housekeeping and water fees have risen as of late. If you can buy elsewhere and just trade into this property - I would suggest it. However, it is a tough ticket to get into. So, I don't know about your chances of trading in during a prime week?

I will say that we own Marriott, Bluegreen, and Hyatt. Hyatt has been a bit of a hassle compared to the other two. There is still a fee for everything and we were spoiled by not having a lot of fees with the other two. If you split your home week there is a fee to do that. When you go to use the other part of the split - there is often another fee to do that. When they bill for the maintenance fees - even if the fees aren't due for a month, once the invoice is issued, you can no longer make reservations until it is paid. We are also having trouble even getting Gold Passport credit for incidentals we buy at their property when staying at the Residence Club. Lastly, we recently upgraded our unit and were not able to get into our unit for this year - but the property said they would still get us the week. Find out just today - one week out - that there are stipulations associated with this week - that it was a "bonus week" - while we were under the impression they managed to just get us a different unit for our block of time this year - after all, we paid maintenance fees.
So - the upshot is, Hyatt has great properties and good flexibility. But, they have lots of fees and have been a bit tricky to understand and pretty rigid.

 

[lizap]

We own both Westin and Hyatt. No the systems are completely different. I find the Hyatt system more difficult to learn, in terms of rules. I strongly suggest you read the rules on Kal's site before you make a decision. It has been much easier to recoup our Hyatt original investment than that of Starwood, mainly because we paid a lot less. Love the Hyatt system and Hyatts are very nice. They are excellent traders in II. Have traded into Marriotts multiple times. Regarding Hyatt's internal system, really depends on where/when you want to go. If you want to go to Colorado during ski season, it's going to be tough, but not impossible. Still too soon to know how Hawaii will pan out; right now, it's very difficult to get. You are right to buy a unit with 2200 pts. This will allow you to get into Hawaii if/when you can. I would take a close look at Pinion Pointe or High Sierra because of price/MF ratio.

 

[Beaglemom3]

I am a current Starwood owner and considering purchasing Hyatt Platinum (2200 points) on resale. I have a couple of questions.

- Does Hyatt program work the same way as Starwood when purchased on resale?

- Even though I am mostly interested in traveling to the resort I am considering to buy, how easy is it to make reservations in other Hyatt locations such as Maui and Carmel during school holidays?

- Does Hyatt allow to split the reservations (e.g. 3 days and 4 days)?

Thanks.

Here is the best information on the Hyatt system. KAL is a great source.

http://www.bywindkal.com/HVC.htm

-

 

[MaryH]

Some very good points already but some additional

1. II' parent bought out HVC so the system could change.
2. Hyatt is good traders in II but everything is strickly size / season based and you don't get any discounts in the flexchange window like club intrawest, etc.
3. you usually get a decent bonus week for Starwood deposit but not the case for Hyatt. The AC we get for Hyatt account is pretty sad on a very restricted grid.
4. One of my biggest complain is that you would have to pay a II fee for each Hyatt week you own not just one as in the case of Starwood.
5. If you want to book a 5 days stay even for your home week, you have to pay 2 sets of booking fees for a 3 day weekend and 2 day week. Same thing if you are gifting a 5 day stay to family you would have to pay 2 booking fee and 2 guest fees.. You can book 7 days weeks, 3 day weekend, 4 days weekdays and 2 day weekdays but not a 5 day (3 days weekends + 2 day weekdays)....They can easily change the compuater system to allow booking of 5 days since they just have to check both ways around the weekend.

 

[hcarman]

I am frustrated by number 5 in the list above as well. We wanted to stay for 5 nights of our home week - had to book as two separate reservations with the two fees. And, we used the points from the extra 2 days to stay at another Hyatt resort - which resulted in another fee. So three sets of fees.

Whereas with our other two timeshare brands we could book six reservations using our points and never pay a fee - other than the club dues and maintenance fees which we always pay.

We used to own two every other years with Hyatt - one odd year and one even year - yet we still had to pay two club dues every year. So we had to convert to one annual to avoid that.

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

I agree with #5 as well but we still bought a second week after reviewing all the other programs out here. We LOVE the flexibility of being able to put short term reservations together to be able to save points in the process. Our 2000 points go a long way because of that. We bought an additional 1880 points that we can start reserving on in a few days. I think the benefits fall exceed the short falls with Hyatt. We have had very good luck trading and have as yet only used inventory on line.