Hyatt Hacienda del Mar- Update

[grevas1]

For those interested, looks like Hyatt is using the COVID-19 pandemic to extend their grand re-opening to November 20, 2020.

 

[PerryKing]

OK. So that's to be expected! Right ? Do you see something questionable about this new development ?

and thus ALSO I now have 3 new SEP and OCT 2020 reservations cancelled at Hacienda Del Mar , that were made with Credits and Comps from 5 prior reservations canceled twice because of the hurricanes 2 years ago. I just hope that Hyatt does not loose track of all the Comp reservations I have coming some day, sooner than later I hope. So now I will try again to make 6 reservations for Hacienda del Mar after November 22. .

 

[grevas1]

OK. So that's to be expected! Right ? Do you see something questionable about this new development ?

and thus ALSO I now have 3 new SEP and OCT 2020 reservations cancelled at Hacienda Del Mar , that were made with Credits and Comps from 5 prior reservations canceled twice because of the hurricanes 2 years ago. I just hope that Hyatt does not loose track of all the Comp reservations I have coming some day, sooner than later I hope. So now I will try again to make 6 reservations for Hacienda del Mar after November 22. .

What I find questionable is there is yet another delay to reopening and Hyatt is using the pandemic as an excuse. With construction workers going back to work, means there is approximately a 60 day delay, however, a November opening is an additional 4 month delay since the resort was supposed to open May 22. Tells me they were behind schedule to open May 22 without a pandemic.

 

[Tony.Hipszer]

What I find questionable is there is yet another delay to reopening and Hyatt is using the pandemic as an excuse. With construction workers going back to work, means there is approximately a 60 day delay, however, a November opening is an additional 4 month delay since the resort was supposed to open May 22. Tells me they were behind schedule to open May 22 without a pandemic.

I completely agree! I am currently disputing the 2020 maintenance fees because of their deception tactics. If we band together, there is a class action suit opportunity.

 

[alexadeparis]

Yikes! This resort hasn’t been open at all since Irma/ Maria? If you own there I am definitely sympathetic. I owned at Westin St John that was closed over 1 1/2 years, and it felt like forever.

 

[ivywag]

It is a problem for all Club members as those owners who can't use their units are taking inventory from other resorts without putting in their units for everyone else.

 

[echino]

Looks like 2021 fees are going to be about $3,600. The largest component of that - $717 - is bad debt.

 

[alexadeparis]

Double Yikes!

 

[grevas1]

The 2021 proposed fees for Hacienda del Mar-
Maintenance Fee- $2587.47
Special Assessment (Deficit Recovery)- $334.77
Special Assessment (Reconstruction)- $541.68

 

[echino]

Maintenance Fee- $2587.47

$2721.42, no?

 

[grevas1]

$2721.42, no?

According to the letter I received yesterday, the proposed maintenance is $2587.47. The $334.77 deficit recovery is due to the bad debt of $717 per unit/week. Non-paying members in 2019 was 17%! Imagine this will only increase in 2020 and 2021.

 

[scootr5]

When I was looking at getting in to Hyatt a couple of years ago I almost made an offer on a week there. Glad I passed...

 

[echino]

According to the letter I received yesterday, the proposed maintenance is $2587.47. The $334.77 deficit recovery is due to the bad debt of $717 per unit/week. Non-paying members in 2019 was 17%! Imagine this will only increase in 2020 and 2021.

I am reading it as the total 2020 fee is about $3,600.


Total maintenance fee $2,721.42
Special assessment - deficit recovery $334.77
Special assessment - reconstruction $541.68

Total due $3,597.87

 

[grevas1]

I am reading it as the total 2020 fee is about $3,600.


Total maintenance fee $2,721.42
Special assessment - deficit recovery $334.77
Special assessment - reconstruction $541.68

Total due $3,597.87

Where are you getting the $2721.42 number? I have reviewed the proposed statement and I cannot derive that maintenance fee number.

 

[echino]

Where are you getting the $2721.42 number? I have reviewed the proposed statement and I cannot derive that maintenance fee number.

I am not an owner there, but in the process of buying a diamond week for cheap (should I walk away maybe?) An owner sent me this screenshot. It's not final, and I don't know how to reconcile "total" and "average", but the way I read it it's proposed at $3,600 with special assessments.

Edit: could it be that the "average" means average for all unit sizes? Were 1br sold there? If so, then the total fee for a 2br will be $3,754.87, including $157 club fee.

 

[alexadeparis]

Honestly their MF has always been high. This is like almost double. I wouldn’t take it for free.

 

[grevas1]

I am not an owner there, but in the process of buying a diamond week for cheap (should I walk away maybe?) An owner sent me this screenshot. It's not final, and I don't know how to reconcile "total" and "average", but the way I read it it's proposed at $3,600 with special assessments.

View attachment 27008

Edit: could it be that the "average" means average for all unit sizes? Were 1br sold there? If so, then the total fee for a 2br will be $3,754.87, including $157 club fee.

My total fees in 2020 was that $2340.31 number listed in the Average Maintenance Fee Including Club Dues row. Also, in the same letter, they have a table explicitly stating the proposed maintenance is $2587.47 plus the special assessments. Where is the $420.10 disaster recovery charge from 2020 line item? Appears to have been rolled in as a maintenance fee increase.

 

[PerryKing]

What I find questionable is there is yet another delay to reopening and Hyatt is using the pandemic as an excuse. With construction workers going back to work, means there is approximately a 60 day delay, however, a November opening is an additional 4 month delay since the resort was supposed to open May 22. Tells me they were behind schedule to open May 22 without a pandemic.

Well not to long before the May 22 date, I did get information from Hyatt that the new opening date was going to be late November 2020. So I knew it since may. Thus I have no problem with the NOV 2020 date , hoping that it will happen and even around mid summer they opened up reservation availability for Oct and November 2020 on the club web site. I managed to grab a reservation for early Oct, but it was canceled. a few months later I called and was able to reserve 3 weeks Nov 28th 2020 through Dec 19, I just hope I will be able to use them . I did call the resort manger early this month and he was optimistic that they would make the l3 week of November opening date, and that they were currently in the process of placing all the new furniture in the newly rebuilt rooms.

Main problem I see is that Per the resort manager Puerto Rico is requiring a negative Molecular type COVID - 19 done test within 3 days of arrival. This is going to be a problem. but could change either way at any time.

TO: Grevas:

All units are 2 bedroom. (1 bedroom and one attached lock off studio ) the maintenance fee this year (2020) include about special charge of $1000 for an insurance shortage of about 1 Million dollars. as I remembered it. Maintenance fee should be around $1400 otherwise. So for 2021 it should go back down to around to $1400 hopefully. (Or so I thought !) Maybe wait and buy in 2021. Or get the current owner to absorb the approx. $1000 special charge. (Since it relates to when he owned it, and not for your ownership in 2021. ) And he should have already have paid it , it was due January 1, 2020. Point of negotiation I suppose !

I own at Hacienda del Mar: , two units, and it is a nice place, great beach .and should be all the more so after the complete rebuild !

Hacienda Del Mar is located on the Cerranar beach, next to the old (Hyatt) Cerramar Beach hotel first developed by Laurance Rockefeller and opened in 1958, but currently abandoned (almost) and waiting to be tore down and redeveloped. As was the Dorado Beach Hyatt Hotel up the beach, on the other side of the golf course , which was redeveloped a few years ago into the the 6 star Ritz Carlton Dorado Beach Resort and residences.

 

[PerryKing]

I wrote the above last night. And this morning I opened the proposed 2021 budget just received for Hacienda Del Mar. I was shocked to see an increase in the "average (?) maintenance fee" of $247.16 instead of an anticipated reduction due to the payment of what I understood to be a one time charge for the "insurance coverage short fall " of about $1,000 that was included in last years fee.

So for 2021 the proposed Maintenance fee is $2,587.47 ( which is about $1200 more than before the hurricanes) PLUS two special Assessments this year : one for "Deficit recovery" of $334.77 and one for " Reconstruction" of $541.68. Bring the total proposed maintenance fee and special assessments for 2021 to $3463.92. WOW ! (Not to mention the $1000 or so in the "insurance shortfall" assessment built into the 2020 maintenance fee that we paid last year)

 

[PerryKing]

Where are you getting the $2721.42 number? I have reviewed the proposed statement and I cannot derive that maintenance fee number.

On the budget work sheet $2587,47 is labeled as the "Average Maintenance fee including Hyatt vacation club fees ," and $2,721.42 is labeled as the "Total Maintenance Fee " (with no explanation of the difference between the two.)

However , In the Board of Directors letter they say the Proposed 2021 Maintenance fee is: $2,587.47 .. plus the special assessments, of $334.77 and $541.68. TOTALING: $3463.92

 

[PerryKing]

When I was looking at getting in to Hyatt a couple of years ago I almost made an offer on a week there. Glad I passed...

Which Hyatt? Hacienda Del Mar ? or other ?

 

[scootr5]

Which Hyatt? Hacienda Del Mar ? or other ?

Yes, I came very close to purchasing a week at Hacienda del Mar (well, really being almost given it), with the thought that perhaps the fees would come back down after the initial higher year of fees for the hurricane damage.

 

[PerryKing]

Yes, to bad because it's such a nice property and beach setting., and now will be a much nicer property. BUT at $3400 MF next year I could be two weeks at the Coconut Plantation in Florida (another great place). Check that one out ! )

and FYI for my second at Hacienda Del Mar purchase just 1 year before the hurricanes someone basicaly paid me to take it and at a mainanece fee at the time of about $1300. In any case $3400 is unbareable !

 

[alexadeparis]

I know earlier I said yikes on the maintenance fees, and I still say a huge spike of over $1,000 isn’t fair. At all. I do not own at Hacienda Del Mar.

However, I do own at Westin St John, where MF is about $3,200 and Harborside at Atlantis where MF is around $3,350. So I apologize for saying yikes, because really, at the end of the day, I suspect that it really isn’t all that out of line for a high quality resort in the Caribbean. Hell, even the Hyatt in Hawaii is probably very similar to the $3,000 plus range. I know the corner units in the Westin Hawaii resort are $3,400 because I was just looking at those. This is just the way it is now For island resorts I think. EVERYTHING is expensive on islands, especially on remote islands (like STJ especially). At some point if it’s too expensive for me I will downsize. If you love HDM, just know you are paying similar to what other owners of “similarly situated“ high quality, remote location, crown jewel of the system units are paying.

 

[Sapper]

In any case $3400 is unbareable !

I’m wondering how many folks will just default. This will lead to responsible owners having to pick up the slack (unpaid maintenance fees by the defaulting owners), which further increases the maintenance fees. Vicious cycle.