Wyndham Hawaii availability

[sueann3]

HI - I'm considering Wyndham points and am wondering how difficult it is to secure time in their Hawaii properties. We always end up going to HI for two weeks. I own one week at Westin Kaanapali and while I love it, the annual fees are insanely ridiculous so I'm looking for another option.

Seems like they have a lot of Hawaii properties, however I am concerned about ability to book them, since it seems as though there are a zillion members in the Wyndham points system and a ton of resorts. The way Westin is organized I never have trouble getting into my home resort, even on somewhat short notice and it is really easy to figure out.

To sum it up, we will be trying to align the two timeshare programs to spend two weeks in Hawaii (doesn't matter which island)- probably during peak timeframes.

I've seen the points chart and it looks like if I want to stay at their nicest 2Bdrm places for a week in prime season I'd need 325k or 400 for the Shearwater.

Anyone have insight on how hard/easy it is to book into Hawaii in peak season?

Is the chance of being able to stay at Shearwater worth the extra 75k points?

 

[sueann3]

one more question

Can anyone give me a ballpark of what annual fees might be on that many points?

 

[learnalot]

Hawaii availability

HI - I'm considering Wyndham points and am wondering how difficult it is to secure time in their Hawaii properties. We always end up going to HI for two weeks. I own one week at Westin Kaanapali and while I love it, the annual fees are insanely ridiculous so I'm looking for another option.

Seems like they have a lot of Hawaii properties, however I am concerned about ability to book them, since it seems as though there are a zillion members in the Wyndham points system and a ton of resorts. The way Westin is organized I never have trouble getting into my home resort, even on somewhat short notice and it is really easy to figure out.

To sum it up, we will be trying to align the two timeshare programs to spend two weeks in Hawaii (doesn't matter which island)- probably during peak timeframes.

I've seen the points chart and it looks like if I want to stay at their nicest 2Bdrm places for a week in prime season I'd need 325k or 400 for the Shearwater.

Anyone have insight on how hard/easy it is to book into Hawaii in peak season?

Is the chance of being able to stay at Shearwater worth the extra 75k points?

Hi,
When you ask about peak times, do you mean summer or winter break times? I haven't tried to book Christmas week so I can't speak to that. We have booked in summer without any difficulty inside the standard reservation period - actually inside the express reservation period. One reason is likely that because the Hawaii resorts cost so many points, that automatically limits how many people have the points to book there.

Shearwater is pretty spectacular. If you want that stunning view, that is the place, but it will cost you. Shearwater has more limited availability because many of the units there were sold originally to fixed week owners who have not converted to Wyndham points. Still I have seen it come up fairly regularly in Wyndham's system.

There is usually plenty of availability at Bali Hai because they have so many units. We stayed in a presidential unit in July and it was very nice. We have also stayed at Waikiki beach walk, which was very enjoyable and well appointed as well. We haven't been to the Big Island, but there are several Wyndham properties there to check out and which I usually see as having at least some availability. Moana Loa tends to book first because it costs the least amount of points in Hawaii for Wyndham.

In short, from what I have seen, you should not have any trouble getting reservations somewhere in Hawaii, especially if you are flexible about which island except Christmas week which is a tougher reservation, although I haven't ever checked it right at the 10 month window, mostly because I always have a Christmas Eve service to play on Christmas Eve anyway, so we usually go when we can get a longer bang for the airfare. If you decide to purchase Wyndham (resale!), I'm sure you can get to Hawaii. You could also look into renting from someone on the TUG board first if you want to check out the properties. Happy browsing

 

[learnalot]

Can anyone give me a ballpark of what annual fees might be on that many points?

Hi Sueann,

400K points could run you anywhere from 1000 - 1800 annually depending on where the deed/RTU is held. Maintenance fees are based at each resort, and then there are some additional program fees which are common. The ballpark figure I gave you would include both.

 

[sueann3]

Thanks for the info - any advantage to being deeded in a favorite Hawaii property? Does it give us any sort of advance reservation priority in that particular timeshare?

 

[learnalot]

Thanks for the info - any advantage to being deeded in a favorite Hawaii property? Does it give us any sort of advance reservation priority in that particular timeshare?

Hi Sueann,

I sent you an email. You have the ability to reserve 13 months out at your home resort (ARP - Advance Reservation Priority in Wyndham logo). Everyone else can begin making reservations at 10 months. I suspect the only time this could be a significant issue would be week 52. (FYI, I just did a search for week 52 of THIS year and still see availability at a couple Hawaii properties). Conventional wisdom on the board seems to be that there are very few places anyone would have trouble getting a reservation if they made it promptly at the 10 month window and often that is not even necessary. (Myrtle Beach in the summer would be the possible exception to this, along with special event weeks such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Daytona 500, etc.).

Currently Bali Hai (on Kauai) has some of the lowest maintenance fees in the system, but the developer is still developing there so it remains to be seen what will happen when the developer finishes (and perhaps is no longer artifically supressing the fees). Most would counsel you to look somewhere that has an established history of relatively low maintenance fees.

If your home resort is in Hawaii, you do have access to additional Outrigger Resorts you would not otherwise have access to - Kapalua Villas, Royal Kahana, Kiawahu Plantation, Outrigger Waikiki. Be aware though that the points required on these Outrigger resorts is very high (450-588K).

 

[vacationhopeful]

Just be SURE that the Wyndham points you are buying resale are UDI points and NOT converted fixed weeks. Converted fixed weeks ONLY have the underlying deed as their ARP at the 13 month mark...

 

[learnalot]

Just be SURE that the Wyndham points you are buying resale are UDI points and NOT converted fixed weeks. Converted fixed weeks ONLY have the underlying deed as their ARP at the 13 month mark...

Yes, thanks for clarifying Linda.

 

[Goofyhobbie]

Welcome To The Wyndham Forum

Sueann3,

If you choose to have your point ownership at a particular Wyndham Resort, you will have the first day of the 13th month prior to check-in and until the first day of the tenth month from check-in as your Advanced Reservation Priority (ARP) period. If you have not already done so, please allow me to recommend that you review the Wyndham Information and Advice Articles which are posted as a Sticky at the top of this forum.

The Introduction Page of the Wyndham Points Articles should respond to most if not all of the questions you might have about Wyndham purchase and ownership of points.

Here's hoping you enjoy your Wyndham Points ownership.

 

[JimMIA]

400K points could run you anywhere from 1000 - 1800 annually depending on where the deed/RTU is held. Maintenance fees are based at each resort, and then there are some additional program fees which are common. The ballpark figure I gave you would include both.

Unless I'm doing the math wrong, I think that ballpark may be low. $1,000/400K = $2.50 per K MF; $1,800/400 = $4.50 per K MF.

I've only seen a few Wyndham UDI MF's in the $4.50 range and none in the $2.50 range.

I'm new to all this and I could be wrong, but when I was purchasing a couple of months ago, I saw mostly MF's above $5 and many WAY above $5...like $7-8.

 

[learnalot]

Unless I'm doing the math wrong, I think that ballpark may be low. $1,000/400K = $2.50 per K MF; $1,800/400 = $4.50 per K MF.

I've only seen a few Wyndham UDI MF's in the $4.50 range and none in the $2.50 range.

I'm new to all this and I could be wrong, but when I was purchasing a couple of months ago, I saw mostly MF's above $5 and many WAY above $5...like $7-8.

True that nobody is at 2.50. Bali Hai is at 2.88 (for now). Many are below 4.50, including Sedona, Oceanside, Canterbury, Steamboat Springs, National Harbour, Tahoe, Grand Desert and the Smoky Mountains. It makes sense that you would have seen a lot of listings for places with very high MF's - because of the high MF's people were trying to get rid of them.

 

[JimMIA]

True that nobody is at 2.50. Bali Hai is at 2.88 (for now). Many are below 4.50, including Sedona, Oceanside, Canterbury, Steamboat Springs, National Harbour, Tahoe, Grand Desert and the Smoky Mountains. It makes sense that you would have seen a lot of listings for places with very high MF's - because of the high MF's people were trying to get rid of them.

Well, you have to watch out for new properties (Oceanside, Canterbury, Steamboat Springs, National Harbour, Grand Desert) which may be highly subsidized and might soon go up.

Also, I saw many resorts on the TUG spreadsheet below $4.50, but when you look at the actual contracts for sale, very few of them are in that range. The Smoky Mountains contract I bought was <$4.50, but not a whole lot of others.

Real life is not as easy as that spreadsheet, and the data there is for 2009.

There are contracts available with decent MF's, but my experience was you have to really look for them.

A couple I would add to the list of decent MF's are Edisto Island, SC and Sapphire, NC.

 

[lily28]

I looked at the Kona Hawaiii property in big island last yr. A fixed week for a 2 bedroom costs about $900 but UDI points of 230000 for a week stay is about $1050 to 1100. A peak week there requires 230 k.

 

[sueann3]

thank you!

Thank you all so much for the input - I especially appreciate the info about the fees at the different resorts and which are still developer subsidized.

Also appreciate the advice on the UDI vs. converted fixed weeks. What does UDI stand for?

One last question - if I bought a small amount of points in a HI property and more in one with cheaper fees can I use them all at the HI property in the advance reservation window?

For example - Say I have enough points at home HI resort for a weekend - the rest of the points I would use for the other 5 days are from say, Sedona. Would I be allowed to reserve an entire week at the home resort HI during the advance priority window?

 

[WeLovetoTravel]

You can only use ARP at your home resort, sorry!
-Deb

 

[learnalot]

Thank you all so much for the input - I especially appreciate the info about the fees at the different resorts and which are still developer subsidized.

Also appreciate the advice on the UDI vs. converted fixed weeks. What does UDI stand for?

One last question - if I bought a small amount of points in a HI property and more in one with cheaper fees can I use them all at the HI property in the advance reservation window?

For example - Say I have enough points at home HI resort for a weekend - the rest of the points I would use for the other 5 days are from say, Sedona. Would I be allowed to reserve an entire week at the home resort HI during the advance priority window?

Hi Sueann,

UDI stands for Undivided Interest. Basically it means floating points within Wyndham's system which have advanced reservation priority (13 months to 10 months + 1 day) at the home resort. You can only make an ARP reservation that uses up to the number of points you own whereever you are trying to use your ARP. Once the reservation window reaches 10 months out, you can book anywhere in the system with your points and they can co-mingle regardless of where the contract(s) are based. However, as I was trying to explain in a previous post, unless perhaps you are trying to reserve week 52, you rarely need ARP to make a direct Wyndham reservation in Hawaii. Even for week 52, as of today, there are still a few weeks available (less than 3 months out).

 

[Trollair]

Sorry to detract from the original question, but since this is about Hawaii I thought I'd ask....

Are any of the Wyndham properties in Hawaii located right next to the beach?

 

[siesta]

kauai beach villas is only wyndham property on the beach.

 

[randyz]

Multi-year Hawaii owner here:

Availability is good at most resorts at 10 months. If you need certain time like Christmas week owning at the resort gives you the 13 month ARP already mentioned.

Not mentioned - Owning UDI points in Hawaii comes with the Outrigger Club which allows for 12 month ARP at all Hawaii resorts (Points have to be Hawaii owned points only).

Most of resorts are not beachfront, Royal Sea Cliff is oceanfront. Of course Wyndham is lower cost MF compared to most beach front.

Availability is poor all year round for Kauaii except for Bali Hai which is good. (Few owners have converted to points in places like Shearwater).

Kona Hawaiiand Resort has good MF, but also harder to buy resale then RSC which is considerably higher MF.

Hawaii is no harder to book than elsewhere in Wyndham, but then it does cost more points than other places. Basically Hawaii points start at the equivalent of Bonnet Creek and go up from there.

Randy

 

[MichaelColey]

I don't know about availability within Wyndham, but availability on RCI for Kauai Wyndham properties has been very good for at least the last few months, even at 45 days (when trading power doesn't matter). I see availability to exchange into 2BR units at (in order of highest number of units available) Bali Hai, Kauai Beach Villas, Ka'eo Kai, Makai Club Cottages and Shearwater. Prime times might not be available, but quite a few other dates are. I can't imagine a bad time to go to Hawaii.

 

[siesta]

i wouldn't buy at hawaii, the MF are high. I would buy points with the lowest MF attached. Unless you need to go to hawaii on holiday weeks all the time, then its not worth it.