rylan

While I don't have experience at Ko Olina, I know typically the vacationclubs do assign better rooms/views to owners... however if you rented a room in a certain category with paid for the view type I would certainly expect to get that room and view. Saying it is an 'ocean view' room and giving you a courtyard/pool view is not the same room and not what you paid for. Other locations you will get the room type you rented... for example at Aruba Surf Club if you rent an oceanside or ocean view, you will get that although it may not be on the upper floors, but you will actually have a view of the ocean from the balcony.

Horace

Around 20 years ago, I booked an ocean view suite at Marriott's Maui Ocean Club (a Marriott Vacation Club) on Marriott.com. When we got to the room, we discovered our room's primary view was the roof of the bar & grill that served to the pool area and all the mechanical equipment on that roof. The aroma on our balcony was the smell of french fries, not the salt air of the ocean. Oh, yes, we could also see the ocean, but that's not what dominated the view. We returned to the front desk, explained our disappointment, and asked for a real ocean view room. The front desk could not provide a different room because there were no unassigned rooms, but they dropped our rate from the ocean view rate to the island view rate. I would have been happier with a decent ocean view at the original rate, but I thought the rate reduction was a reasonable solution.

I can also speak with experience about at Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club as a guest and timeshare owner there. Because it operates on a timeshare model, it's typically at full capacity. The room blockers work the room assignments according to an unpublished priority structure. Of course, some views of the ocean are better than others. My understanding it that owners have priority over Marriott.com guests, who have priority over Interval International timeshare exchange guests. Within each of these groups, the oldest reservations have the highest priority. Length of stay, tier within the MVCI program, and elite tier (for Marriott.com guests) may also affect prioritization, although I have no idea of the finer points of this process.

Every guest at Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club wants the best possible view. Not everyone can be assigned to that perfect villa on the second highest floor of the Naia building. It makes sense that the room blockers have a process that prioritizes people who have spent tens of thousands of dollars to become owners and who have an annual financial obligation (which keeps going up). Not every owner can get the best possible view either.

CoconutTree, You booked a 1-bedroom ocean view villa. You will be assigned a 1-bedroom ocean view villa. It probably won't be on a high floor, but you won't be on a side that faces away from the ocean. If you made your reservation a long time ago, you should have priority over other Marriott.com guests. And you'll have priority over Interval International exchange guests. There are three buildings. You will probably get a nice villa in the Moana or Kona building, because the Naia building consists primarily of dedicated 2-bedroom villas (and its relatively few 1-bedroom villas are in great demand by owners).

Exchange guests are not guaranteed a particular view They can wind up with a Mountain View or the worst Ocean View room, even if they look up the code for their exchange and it shows up as Ocean View.

CoconutTree, the good news is that you should not be at the bottom of the priority list. There are plenty of very nice views from the ocean side of the bottom half of each building.

CoconutTree

Thank you! That is awesome information and I appreciate it!

SacTownGuy

We love KOBC and a couple times had non-OV rooms (I don't recall if they call them mountain view or island view there) but we could still see the water. Yes, there are some units that don't see the water at all but an amazing percentage of rooms have some peak-a-book view at least. It's a great property. The one pool is closed for 6 months or so so that's a bummer. Enjoy!

eternalX

Does anyone know if they have completed upgrades of all the towers at Ko Olina? Last I was there only 2 of the 3 had been done. Thanks for any info!