One Bedroom Ocean View at Marriott's Waikoloa Ocean Club

[JIMinNC]

I posted a photo of our view this week from our fifth floor 1BR Ocean View balcony at Marriott's Waikoloa Ocean Club in the Marriott - View from the Balcony thread, and received a request to post some interior photos. Here they are:

Wide shot of Living Room and Kitchenette:

Close up of Kitchenette:

Close up of Living Room:

Master Bedroom:

Walk-in Shower in Master Bath:

 

[GrayFal]

I thought this was a mythical resort
Looks very nice but it seems odd there is no door on the laundry area. Oops, never mind, it seems there is a door!

 

[pedro47]

Was this once a motel?

 

[1Kflyerguy]

Was this once a motel?

Yes, they converted a section of the Marriott hotel to MVC units. The rest of property remains a hotel.

 

[dioxide45]

Was this once a motel?

It was hotel conversion. Not sure I would classify it as a motel. That sounds like my father-in-law. He calls everything a motel. We will stay at the nicest Marriott Vacation Club property, be out somewhere and he will ask what time we are going back to the motel.

 

[rthib]

Any picture of the view?

 

[Fasttr]

Any picture of the view?

Marriott - View from the Balcony

Here’s our “view” from our first floor Hale 8 unit assignment this week at Waiohai Beach Club on Kauai. Disappointed in first floor, but can’t complain as this is the first time in four stays we haven’t gotten our high floor request. At least we got our request for an interior courtyard view and...

tugbbs.com

 

[1Kflyerguy]

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn...

 

[JIMinNC]

Now that we have been at Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club for almost a week, I thought I would add a little post script to my original photos post.

We really like this location. All of our previous Big Island stays have been using our HGVC points at either HGVC Kohala Suites, HGVC King’s Land, or HGVC The Bay Club. We still like the HGVC locations as they are more condo-like with full kitchens, but for us, the Marriott actually fits us a little better. We rarely cook in the unit except for breakfast, so an oven and cooktop are not that essential, so the MVC mini-kitchen is fine. The Marriott has a washer/dryer, so that is good.

The big thing that sets the Marriott apart though is the location. Far superior for us compared to HGVC. We can walk across the street to Kings Shops and eat at Roy’s. We can walk to the beach at A-Bay. We can walk to Lava Lava Beach Club for dinner. We were able to rent beach chairs right across the street on Kings Shops at Hula Kai. All those things would have meant a drive from the HGVC locations.

So as to efficiently use our various ownerships, we will still use our HGVC points for Big Island in future years (next year for sure), but Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club will definitely be in our future rotation. It is a great resort and location. By adding MVC to our Big Island rotation in some years, it will free up some HGVC points to use in Cabo at their great La Pacifica Hilton Club resort.

 

[GrayFal]

I do a lot of searches on II and have never seen this resort. Assuming you booked with points? How difficult is it to get this location?

 

[mjm1]

Now that we have been at Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club for almost a week, I thought I would add a little post script to my original photos post.

We really like this location. All of our previous Big Island stays have been using our HGVC points at either HGVC Kohala Suites, HGVC King’s Land, or HGVC The Bay Club. We still like the HGVC locations as they are more condo-like with full kitchens, but for us, the Marriott actually fits us a little better. We rarely cook in the unit except for breakfast, so an oven and cooktop are not that essential, so the MVC mini-kitchen is fine. The Marriott has a washer/dryer, so that is good.

The big thing that sets the Marriott apart though is the location. Far superior for us compared to HGVC. We can walk across the street to Kings Shops and eat at Roy’s. We can walk to the beach at A-Bay. We can walk to Lava Lava Beach Club for dinner. We were able to rent beach chairs right across the street on Kings Shops at Hula Kai. All those things would have meant a drive from the HGVC locations.

So as to efficiently use our various ownerships, we will still use our HGVC points for Big Island in future years (next year for sure), but Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club will definitely be in our future rotation. It is a great resort and location. By adding MVC to our Big Island rotation in some years, it will free up some HGVC points to use in Cabo at their great La Pacifica Hilton Club resort.

Thank you for the update. We feel the same way. We have stayed here and Kings Land one time apiece. There is a trade-off on some aspects on the unit, but we really enjoyed the location of this resort.

 

[JIMinNC]

I do a lot of searches on II and have never seen this resort. Assuming you booked with points? How difficult is it to get this location?

We booked it without difficulty at the 12 month Abound Club Points release day. We haven’t used II in years, so can’t help there.

 

[dioxide45]

I think a small handfull of deposits showed up in II when the resort first opened, but I haven't seen sightings in a long time. It is a pure trust points resort, so Abound Club Point inventory should be fairly decent.

 

[GrayFal]

We booked it without difficulty at the 12 month Abound Club Points release day. We haven’t used II in years, so can’t help there.

Good to know. All other Hawaii Marriotts are obtainable in II but this is the unicorn. I am Abound member so do have an option to book that way.

 

[vacationtime1]

We've stayed at the Marriott Waikoloa 3x and our impressions are similar to @JIMinNC and @mjm1. My detailed thoughts were posted as a review a few years ago. The resort is underrated, especially compared to the alternatives on the Big Island.

The problem is that you have to use Club points to reserve there, so at $0.81 or even at $0.70 per point, it's not cheap.

I have also only seen this on Interval only once -- and that was years ago.

 

[JIMinNC]

The problem is that you have to use Club points to reserve there, so at $0.81 or even at $0.70 per point, it's not cheap.

If you compare the Abound Club point cost at $0.81 to the nightly Marriott.com rental rate of $700-$900 per night, Club points still offer significant savings over straight cash.

 

[ljmiii]

We really like this location. All of our previous Big Island stays have been using our HGVC points at either HGVC Kohala Suites, HGVC King’s Land, or HGVC The Bay Club....We rarely cook in the unit except for breakfast...so the MVC mini-kitchen is fine. The Marriott has a washer/dryer....

The big thing that sets the Marriott apart though is the location....

By adding MVC to our Big Island rotation in some years, it will free up some HGVC points to use [elsewhere]...

We completely agree with everything you wrote...it's like I wrote this review. After many years of staying at Bay Club or Kingsland we stayed at the MVC Waikoloa for the first time early last year and we were blown away by how much more pleasant it was to stay at the MVC. "Location, location, location" is the answer to the old real estate joke and it is amazing how a mile or two difference changes the vacation experience at Waikoloa.

And so our HGVC points have been reassigned and we're now looking at Barbados for the first time (probably paired with the MVC St Kitts).

 

[chunkygal]

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn...

Sugar Hill forever

 

[CVC]

I do a lot of searches on II and have never seen this resort. Assuming you booked with points? How difficult is it to get this location?

I just booked 7 nights for March 2026 yesterday without any issue. There was a lot of inventory (1 bedroom) available except for one week. We are doing Maui prior to the Big Island so the dates worked great. I had been checking for a few months. Feb inventory filled about a week ago (again for 1 bedroom) because I saw end of Feb availability as late as April 17-18 timeframe.
It’s a wonderful location and we are HGVC owners as well. Wanted to see if we like the Abay location. The Big island is our favorite and this was a nice option (HGVC Ocean tower is not an ideal location for ocean property and the cost to park is outrageous) to Kingsland and Kohala.

 

[ljmiii]

I just booked 7 nights for March 2026 yesterday without any issue...we are HGVC owners as well....Wanted to see if we like the Abay location.

EDITED: Oops...I just realized that this is an old thread and I wrote the same thing back in February. ;-)

We happily stayed at the HGVC Waikoloa resorts for many, many years (Bay Club and Kingsland...we avoided Ocean Tower as well). And then about two years ago we tried the MVC Waikoloa and were were amazed at how much better the vacation experience was.

Just a mile or so away from the HGVC resorts, staying at the MVC meant that the restaurants, groceries, and other stores of the Kings' Shops and Queens' Marketplace were all quite walkable as are some other wonderful local haunts like the Lava Lava Beach Club. And while A-Bay and its beach have never been confused with Hapuna it is perfectly fine for getting wet with some tiny waves before swapping to the pools.

And MVC Waikoloa itself is a wonderful resort. The villas are quite nice with good to great ocean views and while the onsite dining doesn't really compare with the other walkable options, it was good enough to get our business for a meal every other day or so. The one caveat is that some people don't like that the villas lack a full kitchen, but the kitchenette (with 'apartment sized' refrigerator) was more than sufficient for our needs and there is a W/D in the unit.

And so...we've shifted to only staying at the MVC Waikoloa (we'll be there again early next year) and using our 'Waikoloa' HGVC points elsewhere (we're trying the Crane in Barbados in the fall). Obviously, YMMV.