Owner update at Westin Nanea, Kanapali

[sfcolliejr]

We attended an owner update at the Westin Nanea yesterday. We own Westin flex. We are staying at the Westin Kanapali North Villas next to the Nanea. Under the Marriott owners level, we are executive level. We recevied a chart showing how many options we have (we knew) and how many Marriottt points that our options would convert to. We are very close to the Presidential level (we are Executive level) so the sales person tried to get us to buy more to reach that level. They gave us two prices: one for 52,000 more options for $26770, and one for 25,000 options for $12,870. These are way more than we need to get to the Presidential level. We declined as we are not going to buy more at this point. Their argument was that we have a "funny number of options. Of course if we bought more we would still have a "funny number." After we declined another sales person came in and tried to get us to purchase something else for about $1000 for a week at 4 different resorts. These are obviously surplus supply at these resorts. We also asked about converting ouur options to Marriott points. Once you convert, you cannot reverse. The sales agent told us to call a the reservation line and confirm that the reservation time we might want at a Marriott property is available for those dates before doing the conversion. Solid advice from my point of view. Overall, we find owner updates valuable as we are unafraid to say no to the sales pitches. The Kanapali North property villas have been updated. I'll post a review about that, generally positive.

 

[kozykritter]

How many points do you need to get to Presidential? You could buy resale Marriott/Abound points for about $7 a point all in with fees, so $7K for 1,000 Marriott points. They are treated the same as developer purchases since you are paying an enrollment fee as part of the sale. You'll be a dual owner but only charged one Club Dues fee between the two programs and speaking from experience, it's much easier to manage and use your Club Points (included those elected from your VSN ownership) from the Marriott side...no passthrough technology that limits your view and often is unavailable/malfunctioning. All your Club Points can be used together regardless of their source.

 

[sfcolliejr]

Thank you! We need just less than 1,000. Not sure that we will purchase additional but that is good to know.

 

[Bill4728]

Just an FYI Even though the salespeople will tell you they will not sell less than 2500 abound pts they will!! We were in the same situation , less than 1000 pts from Presidential. The salesman in Ko Olina happily sold us 1000 pts and gave us the bonus pts (2000) that they said they could only give us if we bought at least 2000 pts. ( 4000 bonus pts for a 2000 pt purchase)

 

[SandyPGravel]

We have 8775 club points (if we chose to convert our Vistana weeks) I can't imagine what they would try to sell me to get that extra 1225 we need to hit the next level. I don't have any actual MVC ownership. I'm planning on avoiding the enhanced sales presentation (OU) at all costs. We'll be at WKOR in December.

 

[rthib]

Thank you! We need just less than 1,000. Not sure that we will purchase additional but that is good to know.

Can confirm resale is way to go, I only needed 1000 and bought resale. After paying the junk fee was at next level.

 

[dioxide45]

The Owner Benevti Levels are really just a carrot on a stick to try to entice people to upgrade. The benefits very seldom outweigh the costs. If there is an Benefit Level to be at without having to buy more, it would be Executivie. This gives you the ability to book 1+ night at 13 months out. The other benefits that are available when you go to Presidential or Chairman's don't offer as much value. Yes, you can get 18 or 24 month banking or a slightly better discount booking with points, but are those worth tens of thousands of dollars.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Can confirm resale is way to go, I only needed 1000 and bought resale. After paying the junk fee was at next level.

I may do this, but I am considering a purchase of a resale week at a high points resort to enroll several of our weeks into Abound with just our Marriott weeks. I just haven't seen any reason to do it, not so far. I keep hoping Marriott will offer to convert what we own without cost, but is it really worth it for high MF's and low point values for Palm Desert and Branson weeks. I doubt it.

 

[rthib]

Resale is way to go for a “top off” of points. A hybrid sale (weeks and points) direct is way to go if you want a bunch of points.
You mentioned resale, but I assume you mean a resale week directly from Marriott.

 

[bazzap]

The Owner Benevti Levels are really just a carrot on a stick to try to entice people to upgrade. The benefits very seldom outweigh the costs. If there is an Benefit Level to be at without having to buy more, it would be Executivie. This gives you the ability to book 1+ night at 13 months out. The other benefits that are available when you go to Presidential or Chairman's don't offer as much value. Yes, you can get 18 or 24 month banking or a slightly better discount booking with points, but are those worth tens of thousands of dollars.

It is a tricky one and it may well just have been exceptional circumstances, but if it hadn’t been for 24 month banking we may well have lost many thousands of dollars worth of weeks bookings during the years of Covid closures / travel restrictions.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Our son is bonkers over Nanea. He wants to buy something on the resale market. I told him to get a 2 bed with mandatory SO's and use both sides of the lockoff for his family. He wants a 3 bedroom at Nanea. I would love to talk him out of it, but he is determined. The only listing I saw on RW was $55K, and the fees are pretty high for that OF guarantee. I hope it's a guarantee.

 

[Ckhawaii]

Our son is bonkers over Nanea. He wants to buy something on the resale market. I told him to get a 2 bed with mandatory SO's and use both sides of the lockoff for his family. He wants a 3 bedroom at Nanea. I would love to talk him out of it, but he is determined. The only listing I saw on RW was $55K, and the fees are pretty high for that OF guarantee. I hope it's a guarantee.

I just booked 6 nights in a 3 bedroom ocean front for January with a combination of bonus options, Aventuras, and Lagunamar . Was not even exactly 8 months out. he can buy a lot of svv mandatory weeks for 55k !!