Matt4200

They also implied group rates were prevalent as well.

I’d hazard a guess that only 20-30% of the 60 total rooms/suites (meaning 12-18 total including base rooms suites and other non-suite upgraded rooms) are allocated to award stays as the other poster said they upgrade globalists ahead of time to re-sell the base room as they only have 6 of those to get the revenue in from Hyatt.

That means that 70-80% of rooms would have to be sold via group rates, which I would say is most likely, or people spending $2,500 a night which is much less likely, especially when the average stay is 3 nights here.

This property was selling at $600 average cash rate prior to the All Inclusive change. Giving people “free” F&B doesn’t magically give it a $2,000-$2,500 a night valuation as it has nowhere near the quality of even Andaz Maui.

joecool1885

TBH, a lot of hotels are inflated at the moment anyways. GHK, while my favorite North America property, isn't worth 800-1100+ like it's currently listed at. (I'd say value there is 400-550)

Carmel Valley Ranch probably worth 450-500 (considering the standard room has a fireplace and outdoor tub)

Ventana base room without food... I'd put it at closer to 400. Food ups it to probably 750.

Obviously that's all my subjective opinion. I wouldn't pay more than that for any of those places. Thank goodness for points.

Matt4200

The problem with Ventana is it seems inflated now due to other properties prices being inflated.

However, Ventana’s prices inflated ~18 months ago well before any other property and it’s completely unrelated to the current inflation rates which will drop. While others will drop Ventana’s will not because it’s unrelated.

I also don’t believe All Inclusive at Ventana would be worth $350 extra per night. I’ve found several stays at Ziva/Zilara Cancun for $350 per night or less and they are MUCH BETTER in terms of dining options than Ventana.

joecool1885

You're right that it *probably* won't drop.

As to how much the AI aspect is worth, I'm just basing that off how much similar meals would run you in the region. I can easily spend $200-$250 on dinner alone when I'm in Monterey.

drnilescrane

They allocate $600 per villa per day for F&B spend out of the package price. They need to have a number for tax reasons.

Obviously you never see numbers, but we now know that they consider dinner to be worth $95 a head.

invalyd

Every hotel does this.

soartoday

The online dinner menu is back to 4 course sample menu as of a few minutes ago. I thought the $95 was the price with wine pairings?

Anyway, we just completed a stay here, and I'll share some details (positive and negative) a bit later. For now, I will say that there's a difference between "value" as perceived by FTers and cost to run the property. I don't dispute your personal valuations, but it's not really fair to compare the cost structure with Mexico. This is a secluded location with a ton of infrastructure to maintain, supplies and staff need to be brought in from other places, and the number of total staff (between office, F&B, valet, runners, maintenance, housekeeping, garden, activities, etc.) must be 100+ for the 60 room property.

My point isn't that it "deserves" to be $2000+/night or that I would consider that price a reasonable value, but let's be fair with our comparisons.

oc2005

I think there are a few factors going on here sustaining the high prices --

1. this is a fairly unique property with a very small number of rooms they have to fill.
2. prices at high end properties are insane everywhere right now - and in the aftermath of not traveling as much during covid, affluent travelers are willing to pay to stay at desirable properties. We stayed at RC Bacara earlier in the week in SB and the going weekend rate was $1,500 per night, and the much, much larger resort was sold out. Just a year or two ago that would have been $300 to $500 per night. And that didn't include parking, resort fee, and over priced food.
3. They definitely use points guests as a filler to make sure they stay full. I notice often the day or two before, points rooms suddenly become available, and often fairly quickly then sell out.

Value at any hotel is of course very subjective. We used 60k points here (pre category change) for a premium suite which i value the points at $1,100 and personally we enjoyed this property enough that we would definitely spend $1,000 to $1,500+ in points equivolent or cash to stay here and feel it was totally worth it. $3k a night is another story, but I'm sure there are people out there willing and able to do so.

oc2005

The menu that was up 2 days ago said:

Prices Per Person
3 Courses $95
Wine Pairing $95

It was identical to the menu we had onsite one of the nights, but our onsite menu only had the wine pairing price, so understandably they must hand out different menus to resort guests vs. visitors.

jerry2015

Alila Ventana Big Sur has released around 15 standard rewards night just today. Most of them are in November, 2022. And there's a number of standard suite nights available too. You can click Alila Ventana Big Sur to check the details and set an alert on your preferred date if needed. The standard single night availability of this hotel is usually extreme low. Book now before it's gone...

ralphs

Agreed, it's just a high cost area (Big Sur). There's a house up the road that's 3000 sq ft selling for $12.5 million: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Big-Sur/47.../home/14879019

agprint

Thank you so much for all of the helpful dining info and the recommendation of the Falconry. May I ask what day of the week you attended the Falconry session, and how many people attended the session? Many thanks!

Lomic

We hiked up to that house last time we were there, and it was on the tail end of construction. Interesting that someone built it just to sell it, but I guess that's not so uncommon for higher end properties. Looks like they were already over-pricing it before interest rates took off, though I'm sure for the right buyer interest rates don't matter at that level.

The 10 acre lot and full custom build definitely contribute to the cost!

oc2005

No problem! We attended on a Wednesday and there were 5 couples attending (10 guests), and i think they only offer it two days per week. It lasted well over the scheduled 2 hours, was a bucket list activity for us, and exceeded our expectations. I'm not sure if this is the typical format, but for our session, they had 6 birds introduced with educational stories and extremely up close looks at each (a peregrin falcon, kestrel, red tail hawk, great horned owl, saw whet owl, and harris's hawk). Ended with photo/video opportunity where each of the 10 of us could pet/sniff the great horned owl and catch the harris's hawk flying to us on a falconing glove and video the harris's hawk swooping past each couple. The master falconer leading it was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the birds, and it was a truly incredible, once in a lifetime experience for us.

agprint

Thank you VERY MUCH for your most detailed, and extremely helpful recap of the falconry experience. It sounds fantastic! We have decided to enroll for that event during our upcoming stay next month. Thanks again!