twa777

In the fall of 2018 as a Titanium, I was upgraded from an Oceanfront room (booked with cash+points) to a one-bedroom Na Hale Oceanfront Suite, which is one of the nicest categories of rooms at the resort. While not part of the timeshare, I'd say it's nicer, more spacious, and more private / exclusive than the timeshare villas -- so really you should be wishing for one of those suites as your upgrade!

Honestly, over many years of travel, that's the only time I've wished I could just move in and permanently live in my "hotel room".

DELee

Waikoloa Beach Marriott = Marriott Hotel.

Waikoloa Ocean Club = MVCI.

Different companies. Different profit generation approaches.

Good luck.

David

MCO Flyer

What the heck is up with the rates at this resort lately? During normal off peak or standard seasons (I.e not Holidays) the rate is typically $250-300/night before any taxes, resort fees, or parking fees but lately I’ve noticed the rates (even in September/October) be around $600+/night. On some days I saw, the Vacation Club section of the property had cheaper rates than the regular Marriott (and the vacation club has no resort fee or parking fees!)

escapefromphl

Welcome to Hawaii, this is true of most resort properties this year. Make sure you secure your rental car booking before you book flights or anything non-refundable.

HNLbasedFlyer

A lot of properties in Hawaii have taken a new strategy - go with higher rates with a tradeoff of lower occupancy. Most hotels also didn't/couldn't bring back all the staff (stayed on unemployment/found other jobs)

Prior to Covid - rates would drop to keep occupancy high - no longer the case.

DELee

Don't understand this statement.

David

HNLbasedFlyer

Nowadays - Many Hawaii properties keep rates high regardless of occupancy levels.

Pre-Covid, if occupancy started going lower, rates would come down to keep occupancy high

MCO Flyer

I already went to Hawaii last month and I decided to stay in a vacation rental in Waikoloa instead as it was much cheaper than the Marriott for a beautiful newly renovated 3 Bedroom condo. I was looking to help one of my friends who is planning a trip to Hawaii in October for their anniversary and the Marriott Vacation Club section of the hotel had cheaper rates than the full-service Marriott which wanted ~$600/night vs the ~$400 for a One Bedroom Vila at the MVC.

Kacee

Cheap compared to Maui, where Wailea rates start at $800+ and climb precipitously, with base rate at Andaz Maui over $1600 on some days. Even the RI Wailea is priced at $899 on some dates.

As others have noted, it's a different pricing model from what we're used to, and assumes some number of travelers are not price sensitive and will pay whatever the property decides to charge (inelastic demand).

MCO Flyer

Yeah Maui is always more expensive than the Big Island (for obvious reasons) but I don't know how much longer this model of pricing will last. Right now there is so much pent-up demand for Hawaii (seems like everyone and their brothers and sisters are going there based on FT reports) even with albeit the slowly loosing strict COVID restrictions. I'd assume when all the Federal Stimulus money runs out in the fall and Hotels start to get more staff back in, we will see the rates for fall start to drop as demand will fall off a cliff once in-person school starts back up.

Tanic

That hotel used to be the reasonably priced Ren Wailea.

HNLbasedFlyer

Domestic visitor arrivals are approximately the same as pre-covid. With essentially no international arrivals - that means overall visitor arrivals are about 65% of the pre-covid number.

With scarce rental cars - high hotel prices - reservations needed for restaurants (due to social distancing) it seems much more crowded than it is in reality.

The only way rates will drop is if this new model of high rates with lower occupancy fails - it may become the new normal.

msp3

All these years we’ve been worried about Marriott’s devaluation of points, when we should have been far more concerned about the US government’s massive devaluation of the fiat dollar…

sincx

Competition theory suggests this is unlikely in the long run (semi-commodity product, medium barriers to entry, multiple competitors), where prices stay far above marginal costs, unless there's an actual cartel fixing prices (and even those collapse after a while).

msp3

I'm finishing up a week's stay at the property, and had a few thoughts you may find useful at your next stay. At check in, was informed that the place is sold out with no complementary upgrades available, but was placed in high floor with a view away from the center of the property (such that you can actually see something). There are two towers here, a "U" shaped hotel tower and an "I" shaped timeshare tower. The two ends of the "U" point at the ocean and called oceanfront, rooms on the bottom of the U called ocean view rooms, the sides of the U pool view, and outside of the U resort view. There are 6 floors, so you have to go high-floor to get a clear view, and I would consider only the oceanfront or Na Hale rooms to be truly ocean views. Offered upgrade eventually through the stay to the middle of the U and low floor, which I did not take. What really got my blood boiling was once seeing some women at the front desk with a sob story, dragging out the manager, talking about how on The Point Guy she read about people getting free upgrades at this property and may have gotten an ocean view if not oceanfront unless I misheard. Late checkout was accommodated to 2PM, as room cleaning is only until 4PM and they're trying to turn them around before then.

Generally, the property was pleasant, but some of the renovation was already wearing thin. Not all rooms have tiled showers with large glass panels. I got a bathtub (that drained slowly and designed in such a way water collects and does not evacuate quickly) with shower curtain, in a bathroom with wood flooring and most irritatingly wall trim made of wood. I was most strongly reminded of the bathroom of the King Kamehameha Courtyard in Kailua-Kona pre-renovation which had all the same problems. It's almost like the renovation stopped short of throwing out the old parts of the bathroom and they just (literally) washed their hands of it. The pool area was very nice, but again some weird quirks including no poolside showers, little sharp pebbles of sand tracked all over, the ground being exceedingly hot under the sun (made worse by having no poolside showers), no umbrellas anywhere except one or two fixed ones in the far corner so if you want shade you need a cabana or have to go under a tree. The fish pond area was very nice also, and A-beach is nice for what it is.

At breakfast, I truly got a sense of what a mockery of breakfast the free breakfast has turned into. For two people, you literally got four small pastries (rotates daily from croissants, turnovers, to banana bread) and some fruit. There's included coffee and juice. Someone earlier posted a video of their stay and the continental breakfast is literally the to-go box put in a basket and served on a table in the restaurant. You can upgrade of course, but in the process it reveals your continental breakfast is worth just $6/person (up to 2) based on menu prices. There is a very nice cafe with seating area with a beautiful view of the pools, fish pond, and the ocean beyond, but the cafe closes after lunch so you can't sit there and enjoy a coffee into the afternoon. Overall, the employees were very pleasant to deal with and nice all around. They do appear however, seriously understaffed. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a Courtyard with a skeleton crew. Thank the feds for paying people not to work (and causing rampant inflation).

If I come off as irked, that was not the intention. I had a good time overall and am quite relaxed from spending the week here. The location inside the Waikoloa resort is a blessing in disguise as the National next door in the Hilton is literally the only place you can get cars anywhere right now (and the only place to use up expiring National free days on Big Island). However, looking at cash rates for my dates, the Waikoloa Marriott (Cat 6) was about $800/night, the Vacation Club (Cat 7) $750/night, Westin Hapuna Beach (Cat 6) is $800+/night, and Autograph Collection Mauna Kea Beach (Cat 7) is $900+/night. Having stayed before at the Westin and being over at the Autograph Collection for an activity this trip, there is absolutely no reason to pick the Waikoloa Marriott over the superior properties up the Kohala coast (you can take a gamble with the Hertz there). In fact, you should expect what you can always expect in Hawaii: way too many other people with status (so yours is meaningless), but now with insane occupancy rates and astronomical rack rates. With the government-induced material, parts shortages, price explosions on everything, I feel like it's only a matter of time before you'll need wheelbarrows of cash to pay for a stay. This ironically makes holding Marriott points a better deal (even with the constant devaluations) than ever before...