Just too many variables to answer. I stay on all points, but then I never pay big for a hotel room as I have points and like doing VRBO for vacation spend (Makena Surf is awesome). Among variables:

- are you the room or location type? rooms here are not special, location is.
- do you love a "resort" or do you prefer a quieter type setting
- do you snorkel (reef is awesome here)
- are you a pool or beach person (actually, this property has best of both)
- kids?
- do you plan to be out of the room all day anyway?
- how important is breakfast?
- would you self-park (cuts fees from $70 to $40 basically)?

I'm not asking you to post answers, I'm just saying your question can't be answered by others, it's really to each his/her own type of thing.

Without noting variables, I'll say that I prefer this property to any other in Wailea area, any in Kaanapali... the only other place I really consider an equal (but very different by some variables) is condos at Makena Surf.

Four Seasons - mountain side room is $679.

Maybe I've gotten cheap or am out of touch with rates, but the rates seem high.

If I were able to apply a DSU, then I'd have no problem booking.

I'll probably end up booking anyway. I've wanted to stay at this property and it seems the only way is cash without points or DSU.

ERQ

No, I always stay here on points only, doing it again next month. I booked months in advance, and had to book different reservations of different lengths, extend and shorten and combine and rebook and cancel while moving dates a number of times before finally arriving with my end result (which is like a three night followed by an nine night, which I'm sure at check in, if not at blocking, is just made into a single 12 night stay).

Now, maybe they changed something since earlier in the year when I last tried to book (maybe they created the new class "loading dock view" below "parking lot view" below "garden view" which award stays must be booked into), and point stays really are impossible now - but I'd guess not. I'm not saying it's easy (it's not, it's a pain), but it is possible.

How do you know that you can't use a DSU? Those won't be available until March 1st, 2017 for the dates you are looking at. That's along time though to wait and see IF you get a suite. I would definitely have a backup plan in the works.

Same here Leo, but it appears they have gotten much worse. I can't find any days or combination of days available to book with points. Garden view rooms are readily available as part of Costco Travel packages but not on the Hyatt site.

Hmm. That's interesting. I just put in my dates and sure enough there are garden rooms available. Does Costco buy room inventory?

The reasonable conclusion is that Costco pays more for the Garden View room than HGP.

In a year of low moves by properties evading obligations under HGP rules, this may be the lowest of all.

Do rooms book through Costco qualify for elite status nights?

And you're only looking for minimum 4 consecutive nights (i.e. 4 nights, 5 nights, 6 nights), trying all sorts of dates, maybe having to book 4 nights here and 4 nights there in attempt to later link them and truncate the ends, etc.? That's the effort I've always had to do since they invented "Garden View" as a subset of "Mountain View".

I haven't done a full deep dive into it since last month, but yeah. Tried all kinds of combinations across April and May of 2017. Even called the Diamond line a couple times and tried to get the agent to dig around. What you describe has worked for me in the past and I've stayed there in April for the past 2 years, but this Costco thing seems to be new.

Costco thing is not new... I noticed it almost a year ago and I even complained about it... I agree that this is a very low move to avoid award nights (maybe it's a hedge against when the hotel isn't 90% occupied, where they get pennies on the dollar for award nights but it sure seems like they really want to limit free nights here).

Well, something new or not, it's really low how this property scams the award inventory program, and it says something that HGP doesn't nothing about it (mostly is says "too bad, market dictates and in this booming hotel market it's sellers not buyers with all the leverage... and let's face it, our competition is down to a single Marriott/Starwood company and a suck program Hilton which can one really trust not to devalue AGAIN?").

We must all sit back and wait for the next travel and hospitality recession, when we can have our freebies again.

I just got my two free nights from my Hyatt Card.
When I search online, like everyone else, there's zero award availability for the 2 nights I want. But when I search for cash rates, garden view King, Which I believe are the lowest base rooms they have, are available. Per the Award Night rules, I should be able to call in and have them book the rooms since they are available right? Or do these fall under the same rules as the points?

That's my understanding... in fact when I search availability I start with just looking for Garden King as opposed to award inventories.

There are two things that you need to be aware of here. 1) You can only book award nights one night at a time. You can call HGP to book both in one reservation.
2) Search each day separately and make sure there is no 2 night minimum. Even though you are booking two nights, you may run into issues when you call in HGP. They will require manager approval from the hotel to book the two "separate" award nights.