Westin Nanea and Maui North Updates

[Negma]

We just returned from 3 weeks in Maui, 2 at Nanea and 1 at the North property. A few thoughts.
-Still surprised at the taxes on 2 bedrooms, North 19.34/night. Nanea 17.96/night
-We really like the rooms at Nanea, the pantry is a nice touch
-We found the food to be good everywhere on property
-Happy hour prices have gone up as everyone is adapting to Marriott. The other weird thing is deck service around the pool at happy hour ends at both properties 1 hour into the to the hours of happy hour.
-Free beach chairs will end in two months at Nanea due to original contract agreements ending
-Pool chairs at Nanea easier to find than at the North property. We were also told Marriott believes there are too many chairs at the North property so this probably will not improve. Tagging was in force
-Rooms were all clean and available to us at 2pm (yes we are 5*)
-At the north property you can now rent enterprise cars. Limited hours, basically 8am-11:30am. Quick look showed about $13 more than walking across the street for a 24 hour rental
-We did an owner review, 20K points delivered to my account 7 days later. Focused on the integration and discussed how availability at 8 months out will probably get more difficult (scare, buy now). No buy backs of resale properties and they wanted 30K of new money...blah blah. No pressure. I like many are under the impression they are going to try and get deeded folks to an all points system. Also showed me a chart where they will have advantages for Elite owners. Devil is in the details and there are no details
-Grills were clean as usual and the staff was friendly
-Building 7 not updated yet
-Internet worked well. We used a fire stick with the TVs and it worked very well. At the north property (not at Nanea) our phones disconnected when not using, a little annoying
Great weather and we are spoiled, hope this helps

 

[SGould]

Was there anything interesting on the chart for Elite owners?

 

[Negma]

This is the chart she showed us from Marriott. She "implied" 5* would get the Presidential type benefits.

https://www.marriottvacationclub.com/common/cms/mvcau/pdfs/benefits-at-a-glance-chart-US.pdf

 

[jabberwocky]

I don't think this has been thought of officially and I'm surprised they are hauling out an MVC chart to sell Vistana.

If my estimate of 27.7 SO = 1 DC Point is correct then this means that Vistana owners would be taking a significant haircut if a 5* would only get Presidential benefits.

Min. Presidential is 10,000 DC Points so that would mean that 277,000 SO would be about equivalent. Thus a 3* in VSE would be about the level of Presidential and 4* to 5* would be close to Chairman's club.

 

[Henry M.]

IT doesn't look like there's a big difference between Presidential and Chairman'Club levels - Chairman's gets to bank points for 2 years, vs. 1.5 for Presidential, and they get to convert 75% of their points to Marriott Rewards, vs. 65% for Presidential level. This must be an old chart, since Marriott Rewards Points are now called Bonvoy points, no?

 

[BK2019]

Does that mean MVC could change the banking window of 2 years down to 1 year for SO?

 

[vacationtime1]

Does that mean MVC could change the banking window of 2 years down to 1 year for SO?

MVC can change the SO rules any way it wants; the use of SO's (and the entire SO program) are not deeded rights. MVC would be foolish to eviscerate the program, but beware of any "enhancements".

 

[pchung6]

Does that mean MVC could change the banking window of 2 years down to 1 year for SO?

MVC can do anything to SO rules whatever MVC wants. However, I doubt they will do in the short term.

I see the path of Marriott and SPG integration will be the case for MVC and Vistana. In the short term, MVC will enhance the benefits for the combined programs to ease critics and then slowly taking these away or devaluation the new program over period of time. Just like currently what's happening in Bonvoy.

 

[CPNY]

MVC can do anything to SO rules whatever MVC wants. However, I doubt they will do in the short term.

I see the path of Marriott and SPG integration will be the case for MVC and Vistana. In the short term, MVC will enhance the benefits for the combined programs to ease critics and then slowly taking these away or devaluation the new program over period of time. Just like currently what's happening in Bonvoy.

A lot of people will walk. I know I will, I’ll default and let all of my ownerships go. I’ll stop paying maint fees or maybe I’ll keep enough just to book in the places I like once or twice a year. Or maybe they just keep it all the same. I don’t see many changes or they wouldn’t be selling flex. They would be pushing DC points at Vistana locations.

 

[CPNY]

Does that mean MVC could change the banking window of 2 years down to 1 year for SO?

I can see then screwing SO owners that way

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

In our presentation at North last year they told us that Marriott would boil us slowly so we wouldnt even realize it was happening.

 

[pchung6]

A lot of people will walk. I know I will, I’ll default and let all of my ownerships go. I’ll stop paying maint fees or maybe I’ll keep enough just to book in the places I like once or twice a year. Or maybe they just keep it all the same. I don’t see many changes or they wouldn’t be selling flex. They would be pushing DC points at Vistana locations.

I am guessing you will probably receive some benefits in the earlier stage during the integration and that will make you stay with the new program. You will probably won't notice the devaluation later on, but devaluation will boil us slowly. Just exactly like Bonvoy, but in slower motion.

I am thinking not to renew Bonvoy Platinum next year, and have began slowly shifting my business stays to Hilton and Hyatt. I will get Amex Hilton Aspire card later this year for Hilton Diamond status and will see if Hyatt williing to accept status match for my potential business. If it works well next year, I will cancel Marriott Amex and Chase credit cards, and only keep all travel related expenses to Citi Premier for 3x pts.

I will still keep my Vistana and MVC Hawaii ownerships. However if I don't like the future devaluation to SOs, I will just walk away from my SVV ownerships.

 

[controller1]

This is the chart she showed us from Marriott. She "implied" 5* would get the Presidential type benefits.

https://www.marriottvacationclub.com/common/cms/mvcau/pdfs/benefits-at-a-glance-chart-US.pdf

At our last update there was discussion of providing 5-Star Elite Marriott Bonvoy status of Titanium, instead of Platinum, similar to Chairman at MVC. Anything about that discussed?

 

[CPNY]

I am guessing you will probably receive some benefits in the earlier stage during the integration and that will make you stay with the new program. You will probably won't notice the devaluation later on, but devaluation will boil us slowly. Just exactly like Bonvoy, but in slower motion.

I am thinking not to renew Bonvoy Platinum next year, and have began slowly shifting my business stays to Hilton and Hyatt. I will get Amex Hilton Aspire card later this year for Hilton Diamond status and will see if Hyatt williing to accept status match for my potential business. If it works well next year, I will cancel Marriott Amex and Chase credit cards, and only keep all travel related expenses to Citi Premier for 3x pts.

I will still keep my Vistana and MVC Hawaii ownerships. However if I don't like the future devaluation to SOs, I will just walk away from my SVV ownerships.

Yeah I completely agree. In the beginning it will be fine but then little by little more restrictions. I actually just cut down on my star options and sold a lockout this week. I did receive notice the new deed for what I bought this week is being sent to be recorded so that’s good. Sold an EOYO 2 bd plat and a plat LO and bought a one bedroom Bella plat. It’s been a busy week. I won’t even get into the RCI unit this week

 

[Negma]

At our last update there was discussion of providing 5-Star Elite Marriott Bonvoy status of Titanium, instead of Platinum, similar to Chairman at MVC. Anything about that discussed?

We did not discuss that because we are titanium for life as a result of all the years at Platinum. My sense is they are doing some high level guessing. They said it should be out by summer. We will see.

 

[SGould]

At our last update there was discussion of providing 5-Star Elite Marriott Bonvoy status of Titanium, instead of Platinum, similar to Chairman at MVC. Anything about that discussed?

They mentioned to me last April that 3 star would likely move to Bonvoy Platinum. They also said it would likely happen June 2019 so you can take that for what it’s worth.

 

[pacman777]

If MVC follows in the footsteps of how Marriott Hotels treated Starwood members, then I have a bit of faith that they will not screw over Vistana owners as there is little to gain from pissing off a big customer base. I was a loyal Starwood hotels member closing in on Lifetime Platinum status that required at least 10 years of Platinum status and 1000 nights (had the nights more than covered but needed one more year of plat status) and was worried they would change the rules or wouldn't qualify in time before the merger completed. I was impressed and pleasantly surprised they left the qualification window open a bit and actually let you count both lifetime nights from both Marriott and Starwood Programs to qualify for Lifetime Titanium status which is their top tier and happy that I was able to get it before they closed it. I don't think its possible now to get lifetime titanium (maybe just platinum) from what I heard back then. I could be wrong as I stopped caring after getting the status.

 

[GKR75]

Pool chairs at Nanea easier to find than at the North property. We were also told Marriott believes there are too many chairs at the North property so this probably will not improve. Tagging was in force

sorry, don’t understand the reference to “tagging”?

We were at North in late January, from what we saw people still race to claim pool chairs by 8am, didn’t notice the pool staff actively discouraging the behavior.

 

[controller1]

sorry, don’t understand the reference to “tagging”?

We were at North in late January, from what we saw people still race to claim pool chairs by 8am, didn’t notice the pool staff actively discouraging the behavior.

We were at WKORVN in September and the staff started tagging chairs right at 8:00 am each day. There would be a yellow tag placed on the chair if it was unoccupied yet had personal belongings on the chair. The tag would show the current time and state if the belongings and tag were still there one hour later the personal belongings would be removed and could be claimed at the pool hut. We saw several chairs emptied of personal belongings each day we were at the pool.

 

[remowidget]

I don't think this has been thought of officially and I'm surprised they are hauling out an MVC chart to sell Vistana.

If my estimate of 27.7 SO = 1 DC Point is correct then this means that Vistana owners would be taking a significant haircut if a 5* would only get Presidential benefits.

Min. Presidential is 10,000 DC Points so that would mean that 277,000 SO would be about equivalent. Thus a 3* in VSE would be about the level of Presidential and 4* to 5* would be close to Chairman's club.

At this point in my life, nothing they could drag out would surprise me. I think the sales people are just trying to make a buck and are willing to say whatever it takes to sell. The sales supervisor at a meeting last month told us that United points transfers were one bonvoy point for two United miles. In reality it is 3 bonvoy for one united.

 

[serendip7]

My biggest take away during our presentation was that they weren’t doing buybacks of resale properties any more. I bought a couple of Bella units for close to nothing and returned 1 for $12k when I bought Nanea and was planning to do the same with the other one. Now I’m stuck with it.

We should definitely take that little trick out of the “guide to 5 star platinum” In the sticky.