- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
- Messages
- 32,058
- Reaction score
- 9,110
- Points
- 1,049
- Location
- The Centennial State
- Resorts Owned
- Wyndham Founder; Disney OKW & SSR; Marriott's Willow Ridge and Shadow Ridge,Grand Chateau; Val Chatelle; Hono Koa OF (3); SBR(LOTS), SDO a few; Grand Palms(selling); WKORV-OF ,Westin Desert Willow.
Soleil Management used to be Consolidated Resorts Management. They sold and managed all of the properties. The two entities separated into Soleil Management and Kainoa Properties for selling RCI Points and vacant units. Kainoa is not doing a good job of selling, I can tell you that. Soleil controls/ manages Sands of Kahana, Kahana Beach, Kahana Villas, Gardens at West Maui, a bunch of Kihei properties, and they manage our Hono Koa, which we love.
The housekeeping staff is good. I didn't lose my mid-week housekeeping service for staff shortages (or whatever the reason other resorts have done that). The place is always clean, except the patio but that's outside, so I don't really care that my feet get dirty out there. My fault for not wearing shoes.
Many of the units sit empty for much of the year. Whale season is booked solid, but summer and fall, and even April-May almost always shows availabiilty for our unit type.
Some of the issues are obvious to me, but maybe not so obvious to Soleil because they continue to collect money from owners and don't listen when we tell them our concerns.
Are they having problems with collections? It's older, and I have to guess that owners are older and just want out but cannot get out because this company probably won't let them deed back.
How many people are paying each year and not staying or using their units. I have no clue because Soleil doesn't tell us anything. Their newsletters are full of unimportant information and nothing about the resort's budget issues. Meanwhile, our fees go up 5-10% a year at Hono Koa, which is hurting owners who are paying.
Issues I see that many Soleil higher-ups don't quite get:
1. As far as I know, Soleil didn't fight Maui on the property tax increase. We pay about $280 in property tax each year for each owned week (we own 3). How many people were shocked by those increases over what we paid before?
2. Fees go up with no explanation as to why they increased $200 in one year at HK. I am worried about the fees for 2023 with current inflation. We now pay about $2,200 for our 2 bed, 2 bath oceanfront unit in MF's/ taxes.
3. We had a special assessment at Hono Koa to fix the wall that was deteriorating from the constant surf. Sands and Kahana Beach are looking at expensive beach erosion solutions currently. So are other resorts along that Lower Honoapiilani Road.
4. No AC is becoming a big problem because owners at Sands of Kahana and Hono Koa are miserable in their owned units during summer. I won't take an exchange at even Sands during summer because of the heat (especially August!).
5. The furniture is so old at Hono Koa. Sands looks good. I don't know if they had a special assessment for their update, but Sands looks great. Hono Koa furniture doesn't just need the cushions changed, which are terrible on the sofa and loveseat in the living room and have never been replaced, but the case goods all need to be replaced or refinished. Not only are the pieces old, but the "rattan" is dirty. It needs to be power washed and maybe stained and varnished or replaced entirely. Wyndham Shearwater (we own there as well) has nice rattan furniture, and I think it's the same stuff that was always there, looks brand new, plus they replace the cushions often. I think they clean and varnish the rattan because it has a nice shine to it.
6. The kitchen cabinets need repainted or replaced at HK because the insides are yellowing and they don't look as nice as they did 12 years ago. I am sure they look dirty to exchangers.
7. Pools are just okay, hot tub is okay at both resorts (Kahana Beach hot tub and pool are tiny!).
8. The parking lot at Hono Koa has been decreased in size because the maintenance crew never made sure owners got that part of the parking lot back after the update to the retaining wall. The equipment was sitting there much of the time, and now they just put trash dumpsters in those spaces. They cut back on a lot of parking we once enjoyed. It can get crowded during whale season, which is about the only time of year the place is at near-full occupancy.
The positives with our Hono Koa units, specifically, are the view, and the nice big lawn they added to the top of the retaining wall with picnic benches and lots of places to sit and enjoy the property for other owners without our balcony oceanfront views. In other words, I am not planning to sell our weeks anytime soon. I love the shower, it's a great shower. I love the unit size, and the kitchen is very good for cooking and has things other timeshares don't have, like crockpots. A call to the housekeeping staff will get us things that we cannot get otherwise, like an electric mixer. I love the breeze that goes through our unit when we open our interior door. There are two doors going out to the hallway, and the one is a security door, but the one we open allows fresh air to come in because of the openness of the wall on the side.
The hot tub is very nice for visiting with other owners (who all have some of the same complaints I do). I talked to a family who chose to put their Hono Koa weeks into RCI Points. What a mistake. The cost on those is about 2.5 cents PP in MF's. They did it the year before and I kept my mouth shut. I also talked to a person who has a camping timeshare deal that traded into Hono Koa for about $300/ week, but he got the worst unit location in the resort. That made me feel better about his bragging about his cheap week. He told us that he would never pay to even have oceanfront anywhere. He can sit on the lawn in front of the ocean all week. I just found him quite annoying.
As much as I complain about Soleil, I still almost bought another week in an oceanfront unit that was just on Redweek a few weeks ago. It was sold but the buyer had not paid, so I asked the seller to let me know if they do not pay because I would. I hope a TUGger got it.
I don't really want this post to turn anyone off from owning anything Soleil manages, but I do think you should go into the ownership with your eyes wide open.
I am not a big Wyndham fan, but they would do well to take over all of the Soleil properties.. I would be happy to have Wyndham manage Hono Koa because they would keep costs down and make sure improvements are made. They would do that because Wyndham could sell whatever is not owned currently, and they could convert current owners to Wyndham points. It would be a win-win for most owners. I just want to stop the ridiculous increases each year.
The housekeeping staff is good. I didn't lose my mid-week housekeeping service for staff shortages (or whatever the reason other resorts have done that). The place is always clean, except the patio but that's outside, so I don't really care that my feet get dirty out there. My fault for not wearing shoes.
Many of the units sit empty for much of the year. Whale season is booked solid, but summer and fall, and even April-May almost always shows availabiilty for our unit type.
Some of the issues are obvious to me, but maybe not so obvious to Soleil because they continue to collect money from owners and don't listen when we tell them our concerns.
Are they having problems with collections? It's older, and I have to guess that owners are older and just want out but cannot get out because this company probably won't let them deed back.
How many people are paying each year and not staying or using their units. I have no clue because Soleil doesn't tell us anything. Their newsletters are full of unimportant information and nothing about the resort's budget issues. Meanwhile, our fees go up 5-10% a year at Hono Koa, which is hurting owners who are paying.
Issues I see that many Soleil higher-ups don't quite get:
1. As far as I know, Soleil didn't fight Maui on the property tax increase. We pay about $280 in property tax each year for each owned week (we own 3). How many people were shocked by those increases over what we paid before?
2. Fees go up with no explanation as to why they increased $200 in one year at HK. I am worried about the fees for 2023 with current inflation. We now pay about $2,200 for our 2 bed, 2 bath oceanfront unit in MF's/ taxes.
3. We had a special assessment at Hono Koa to fix the wall that was deteriorating from the constant surf. Sands and Kahana Beach are looking at expensive beach erosion solutions currently. So are other resorts along that Lower Honoapiilani Road.
4. No AC is becoming a big problem because owners at Sands of Kahana and Hono Koa are miserable in their owned units during summer. I won't take an exchange at even Sands during summer because of the heat (especially August!).
5. The furniture is so old at Hono Koa. Sands looks good. I don't know if they had a special assessment for their update, but Sands looks great. Hono Koa furniture doesn't just need the cushions changed, which are terrible on the sofa and loveseat in the living room and have never been replaced, but the case goods all need to be replaced or refinished. Not only are the pieces old, but the "rattan" is dirty. It needs to be power washed and maybe stained and varnished or replaced entirely. Wyndham Shearwater (we own there as well) has nice rattan furniture, and I think it's the same stuff that was always there, looks brand new, plus they replace the cushions often. I think they clean and varnish the rattan because it has a nice shine to it.
6. The kitchen cabinets need repainted or replaced at HK because the insides are yellowing and they don't look as nice as they did 12 years ago. I am sure they look dirty to exchangers.
7. Pools are just okay, hot tub is okay at both resorts (Kahana Beach hot tub and pool are tiny!).
8. The parking lot at Hono Koa has been decreased in size because the maintenance crew never made sure owners got that part of the parking lot back after the update to the retaining wall. The equipment was sitting there much of the time, and now they just put trash dumpsters in those spaces. They cut back on a lot of parking we once enjoyed. It can get crowded during whale season, which is about the only time of year the place is at near-full occupancy.
The positives with our Hono Koa units, specifically, are the view, and the nice big lawn they added to the top of the retaining wall with picnic benches and lots of places to sit and enjoy the property for other owners without our balcony oceanfront views. In other words, I am not planning to sell our weeks anytime soon. I love the shower, it's a great shower. I love the unit size, and the kitchen is very good for cooking and has things other timeshares don't have, like crockpots. A call to the housekeeping staff will get us things that we cannot get otherwise, like an electric mixer. I love the breeze that goes through our unit when we open our interior door. There are two doors going out to the hallway, and the one is a security door, but the one we open allows fresh air to come in because of the openness of the wall on the side.
The hot tub is very nice for visiting with other owners (who all have some of the same complaints I do). I talked to a family who chose to put their Hono Koa weeks into RCI Points. What a mistake. The cost on those is about 2.5 cents PP in MF's. They did it the year before and I kept my mouth shut. I also talked to a person who has a camping timeshare deal that traded into Hono Koa for about $300/ week, but he got the worst unit location in the resort. That made me feel better about his bragging about his cheap week. He told us that he would never pay to even have oceanfront anywhere. He can sit on the lawn in front of the ocean all week. I just found him quite annoying.
As much as I complain about Soleil, I still almost bought another week in an oceanfront unit that was just on Redweek a few weeks ago. It was sold but the buyer had not paid, so I asked the seller to let me know if they do not pay because I would. I hope a TUGger got it.
I don't really want this post to turn anyone off from owning anything Soleil manages, but I do think you should go into the ownership with your eyes wide open.
I am not a big Wyndham fan, but they would do well to take over all of the Soleil properties.. I would be happy to have Wyndham manage Hono Koa because they would keep costs down and make sure improvements are made. They would do that because Wyndham could sell whatever is not owned currently, and they could convert current owners to Wyndham points. It would be a win-win for most owners. I just want to stop the ridiculous increases each year.
