Trip Report Late April Ko'Olina Beach Club (Timeshare Side) on Points
 

Overall a really nice property and a very favorable stay, but it didn't change my opinion that Oa'hu is too crowded and out islands are all a better idea for the money. This will sound more negative than it is, because it was really a good stay, but there are some quirks you need to factor into your booking decision.

THE GOOD

Unit quality and furnishing quality is supurb. New, nice, upscale. Full kitchen. Marble in the bath and granite in the kitchen.

Manmade or not, the aquaculture in Lagoons 1 and 2 (by hotel) is getting established. Lots of fish and even turtles you can walk to snorkle. Good visibility and moderate swim. (Lagoon 3 (by timeshare) is much murkier and much more current in water. Harder to swim and not a good place for children to swim).

Beautiful grounds and physical plant.

THE BAD

Not enough parking spaces and too small. Get a really small car.

As noted above, bedroom size on our one-bedroom unit was small. Not much bigger than the bed. Didn't see an open lock-off side to see if it was better.

Limited on-site food. Standard Marriott restaraunt at hotel. Standard Hawaii beachfront outdoor cafe at timeshare, but short menu, high prices even for Hawaii, quality not special at all. (Closest place to drive for a real slection is Kapolei, which is several miles away. There is a Roy's a few blocks away if you would rather spend money on food than another day in paradise. Of course, if you cook all the time you may not care). Standard Hawaii overpriced pig-out buffet on weekends. (I'm way too old to think about eating enough to justify $34 for warmed-up food).

The west side of Oa'hu was otherwise fully developed years ago. Ko'Olina is the only nice part. Its sandwiched between Barber's Point industrial area to the south, and Wai'anae to the north, which a few years ago was purported to be the high-crime spot of Hawaii. At best its older and and in many places grubby. Lots of traffic and many homeless people perpetually living on the beach.

Rush hour in Oa'hu really sucks.

THE ODD

Mentioned up the thread, the unit layout is just weird. There is a large full bath with shower and toilet. There is another large bath next to it, with a tub but not a toilet. Between the bedroom and the outside wall is this weird little 5x10 room with a strange uncomfortable item of stuffed furniture and no drape on the window. Its big enough to sleep a child, but with no drape its just wasted space. The bedroom is the leftover space in the middle, with a sliding door between it and the drapeless wonder room.

POSTSCRIPT

In answer to question: Would I go back? Oh yes, but not for a whole week. Now if you had never done Oa'hu, that might be different.

Really good summary, jayer. Echoes our analysis of the place exactly!

We had the lock-off... it is extremely narrow - so narrow in fact that with the sofabed out in the bed position there is only about a foot of space between it and the wall. The best way to describe the space is to note that one cannot drag a rollerboard suitcase from one end of the room to the other without partially folding the bed up. There is obviously some design feature on the one-bedroom side that intrudes at this location as the room is a bit wider at the lanai end and the "kitchen" end.

Deleted mistake.

My wife and I stay here every other year for the peace and quiet. When I'm on vacation, I want to get out of bed, walk out to the lanai and take a nap. When I get up from my nap I want to go to the pool and read a book and take another nap. Peace, quiet, and relaxing.

Does anyone have any other suggestions of other Marriotts where I can relax this way? If not, we'll be back again next year.

I enjoyed both the Kauai and Maui Marriotts at least as well. If you are on money rather than points or timeshare, my favorite place in Hawaii is the Hyatt on Kauai.

Ko Olina Beach Club Feedback?
 

I got a call from Marriott the other day offering a 6-day 5 night package with car rental for $658, which I could book anytime during the next 15 months. The catch is sitting through a 90-minute presentation. I always hang up on these offers, but this time I took the bait.....I surprised myself!

The web site is pretty sketchy about the place. It seems to be pretty new with some construction either still taking place, or recently completed. I couldn't find any inside pictures of the Ko Olina Beach Club hotel or the rooms. The surroundings look pretty darn nice though. I've been to Hawaii many times before and usually stayed in Waikiki while I went island hopping.

Can anyone give me some feedback about this place? I'll probably be going late January 2008. I recall seeing one description that the rooms have a kitchen and laundry facility. Is that so? How are the rest of the ammeneties?

Nice place
 

We had a chance to stay there last June, for one night, on the way to Maui. It is a really nice place, pretty much up to the standard of the Marriott Hotels where we have stayed. The one-bedroom condo we rented cost about $280 for the night, but we had $200 in Marriott Certificates, so the out-of-pocket cost was about $80. We chose the Ko'Olina as I wanted to check it out to see if it was worth returning to in the future. We would definitely return! The condo was nice and new, with a full kitchen, washer and dryer. It is possible the unit you get may be smaller, without a kitchen or laundry facilities, if they only give you a studio. Still, the price you are getting would still be a good deal, even if it is only a studio. The location is away from the hustle and bustle of Waikiki and feels like a resort at one of the neighbor islands. The pools are nice and there are protected beach lagoons that look really nice. Unless you are looking for nightlife or shopping, this place is superior to a lot of the hotels in Waikiki. There is only one casual restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, located on the beach, but the food is decent for what it is (sandwichs, salads, etc.) and reasonably priced. If you want something fancy, you can always eat at the nearby JW Marriott Resort.

You might want to check the fine print on your package. Quite often you won't be put into the MVCI property, but in a "hotel accomodation" close by, which would probably be the JW next door. If available, though, you can pay "more" and get a 1 or 2 bedroom suite in the MVCI property. Though I seem to remember some posts about the Ko Olina property in the past where others were able to stay there, so you may be OK with this one, but it doesn't hurt to check. If you do get to stay there, you will probably want to ask about whether the room is a "mountain", "oceanview", or "oceanfront" (if you haven't already).

We stayed at the Ko Olina property a couple of years ago. The property itself is very nice and the rooms were spacious. As PDX Duck mentions, the property is a bit away from the hustle of Honolulu and not very close to all the night life there. So if you are looking for a little more "relaxing" stay, you will probably be happier than if you are looking for lots of night life. Also, on one side of the property is a refinery. If you get a room with the balcony on that side, it can kind of put a "damper" on the view. So when you check in, you might ask about a room on the JW side of the property.

One last thing, the Ko Olina area is on the drier side of the island, so don't be surprised if things are a little more "brown" there than you were expecting. But since you have a car, you should be able to drive around to the other parts of the island and see all the nice Hawaiian island sites. :)

Overall, though, you will enjoy your stay there.

I agree with PDX Duck. To give you a bit more perspective. Ko Olina is an area comprised of 4 large man-made lagoons, with wide beaches, grassy areas and a walkway spanning the length of the lagoons.

At the northern most lagoon is the Ihilani JW Marriott Resort and Spa which has a very nice Spa, 3 restaurants and a pool bar/restaurant.

The Ko Olina MVCI is at located 2 lagoons to the south and has 2 pools and a restaurant overlooking the ocean/lagoon. Two of the four buildings that will eventually comprise MVCI at Ko Olina are complete and used for occupancy. A third is under construction. When I was there last year the construction was ongoing, but unless you walked around the building from where the pools and restaurants were, you would not notice it.

On the piece of property just north of MVCI they are selling and probably have started building MM$ Condos.

The hotels, new condos, and MVCI are located between the main road into Ko Olina and the lagoons. On the inland side of the main road into Ko Olina are the Ko Olina Golf Course and Roy's Restaurant.

At the southern most lagoon is a marina.

For the price you can't beat this location and as previously mentioned it gets you away from the touristy hustle and bustle of Waikiki, which IMO is good. YMMV

As a point of reference go look at the nightly rates for the JW Ihilani.

FWIW, I was given a 1 bedroom unit for a package stay similar to yours. Now it might have something to do with my plat status, but my guess is that it had more to do with trying to sell me a time share than anything else. It only makes sense for them to put you in a 1-bedroom unit if one is available so you can get a good look at a unit similar to the ones they are trying to sell you.

I appreciate the input from everyone! They aren't yet booking January 2008, so I can't confirm exactly what I'll be staying in. They are trying to sell me the time share, so hopefully they will put me up in one of the nicer rooms to help sell their packages. I've spent probably a total of two months in Waikiki on business over the last 8 years, so it will be nice to get away from the crowds.

Last May, we did the Ko'Olina package. I would definitely opt for a one bedroom if you can. The 90 minute presentation was actually only about 20 minutes. It consisted of a tour of the units and sitdown with a sales agent. She explained the cost and point rewards of purchasing a time share then gave us a folder and her card and said "Call me if your interested."

The area is still developing, I understand that a Ritz and a Trump property are planned. As long as we avoided rush hour drive times, we had no problems touring the rest of the island. We spent time on the North Shore and even ventured to Laniakai beach for a day.

We like it!
 

We just returned from there a couple of weeks ago, and it is a beautiful property! It is a bit away from Waikiki, which is one of the reasons we like it. We go to Hawaii to relax, so we enjoy the quiet atmosphere at Ko Olina. The villas themselves are very nice. The doors and trim are mahogany (I think), and the furnishings are quite nice. I understand that the Ritz Carlton design team did the interior work. The grounds are beautiful--Lagoons, koi ponds, and waterfalls abound.

They do have a nicer restaurant that opened recently. It's Chuck's Steakhouse. The food is pretty good, and the views of the ocean are outstanding! There is also a Marketplace where you can get Starbuck's, etc..., and a beach bar. There are several dining options at the JW down the beach, and also a Roy's at the golf club.

As you can tell, my wife and I are big fans of the Ko Olina Beach Club. Your problem may not be liking it, but figuring out how you're going to buy it. :)

Ko Olina Beach Club room and view questions
 

I recently traded my MVC week through Interval for a week at Ko Olina beach Club. We stayed there two years ago and really liked the property. The lagoons are great for snorkeling and the area allows you easy access
to Honolulu and the North Shore.

My question is related to room / view requests. When I checked with interval I was told that I traded for an Island view. when I called the property to inquire about requestingan Ocean view the front desk person said this was not possible. When I asked further questions
she rather rudely told me that there is absolutley no way to request or move rooms / views

Any tips on how I might request / receive an ocean view room?

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of good news here. The issue with rooms at any MVCI property is that Marriott doesn't "own" the rooms there. Each owner purchased a specific room and view type and that is what they would get if they used their week. And unfortunately for you, that is what you will get when you stay there. The issue is that Marriott doesn't really have any "inventory" of rooms to play with like they do with a hotel. So they can only give you the room type that was purchased.

With that said, it is possible that owners have turned over to Interval (or Marriott) a number of different types of rooms and views. In that situation, Interval would trade someone who has something comparable (or at least has a similar trading "strength".) Marriott, if they actually did have better view rooms, would probably not just give them away to someone who is trading in, and believe it or not, they wouldn't even "upgrade" a local owner either. What they would do is try to rent the room with the better view or size. In doing so they would maximize their profits and they are in the business to make money.

My understanding is that should they be in a situation where they didn't rent those "better" rooms, they are very unlikely to upgrade an owner or someone trading in through Interval. They would be more likely to upgrade someone who is renting that time.

The best advice I can offer is that when you check-in be as nice as you can, smile a lot, and if the check-in person tells a joke, laugh. Maybe you'll get lucky and they might be able to do something for you. But don't expect anything because I do believe the odds are stacked against you.

Thanks for the insight.
Room views seem to be one of the unwritten issues with Interval trades. The Ko Olina property is at the MVCI Platinum level and while I traded a Platinum level room there is no option to request a particular view for a property request. Therefore you are subject to the "match" that Interval makes with your particular property.

We will attempt the "charm" option!!