jerseygirl

[QUOTE=anonymous54321;15415799]I am staying at Marriott Ko Olina right now. I left the balcony door open overnight. The wind blowing from the direction of the oil refinery stank so much that it woke me up, and I got up to shut the door so the A/C would automatically turn on. When the sun came up this morning, the wind was (and is) still coming from that direction. It still stinks.

The industrial section is that - there is NO refinery!! and I'm from NJ so know what a refinery is
there are only some oil storage tanks

HoustonConsultant

[QUOTE=jerseygirl;15416631]No doubt a Jersey gal would know a refinery when she sees one, but Chevron does have a small refinery across the bay from Ko Olina. That is where folks stay when visiting the refinery. As the crow flies, it is less than a mile away from the timeshare resort, but 10 minutes by road.

Have been to the refinery and Ilihani a couple of times and have never smelled the refinery from the resort, but it undoubtedly would depend on wind direction.

Mr. Vker

Bad news for two Marriott properties:

Ihilani
Ko Olina Beach Club

State Department still has the lagoons closed through Thursday (as far as I can tell).

Article

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/h...cal_waste.html

Thread on TUG:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138459

SacTownGuy

It sounds horrible. How can they be sure they got all that crap out of there!?

bubba99

Trying to plan a family trip for next summer. I've checked from April-August and can't find anything at Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club using points, although there is plenty of availability for paid rooms.

Anyone know if some rooms will eventually be opened up for points? I've never stayed at a MVCI propoerty on points so this might be a common issue.

baccarat0809

You can always turn 100k points into $1000 gift cert and use that to pay for the rooms. The added bonus is that you earn points + nights on what is essentially a free stay.

hhoope01

Given that Ko Olina is an MVCI property (timeshare), award rooms can be very hit or miss. Marriott doesn't "own" the property or the weeks. The owners do. If they "sell" their weeks back to Marriott for points, then Marriott may have some weeks to offer for awards. If the owners use the weeks themselves, try to rent the weeks themselves or through Marriott, then Marriott won't have the rooms to offer awards with.

The end result is that at some properties owners are more likely to trade back for points (i.e. low cost, low rental option properties) and less likely at other properties (i.e. high cost, high rental option properties).

So to answer your question, it really depends on the owners and when they decide to pull the plug on trading their weeks for points.

hhoope01

While this can be a very good approach in some situations, it probably won't work as well for the OP in this case. The Hawaii MVCI properties probably have something in the neighborhood of $300-$400/night rates for the lockoff/studio portion of a unit. If the OP wants to actually have a 1, 2 or 3 bedroom unit, the prices rise pretty quickly to the $500, $600 or even more per night rates.

The end result is the OP probably won't get too many nights for their $1000 gift certs. (Also, I think the award is 135K points for a $1000 cheque, but I could be mis-remembering.) If the OP really only needs a regular hotel room, Marriott may have some with much lower per night rates, thus making your suggestion a more appealing one.

LakersFan_2008

I stayed at Ko'Olina last year in a 2 bdrm/2 bath on a family vacation, and am staying there again in a couple of months. Last year I did points, and it was 360k points for 8 nights. This year, I decided to contact a timeshare broker, and got 7 nights for $2k and NO parking fees, as you are treated as an "owner". Much better deal in my opinion...especially when Marriott is charging $580/night + parking for the same room.

tdfxman

yeah I rented from an owner this coming Feb, a 2BR OV, for $1895 with no parking fees like ya say.

We did a Friends and Family rate for a studio OV and got the first floor and a view of some nice green foliage. We hope to be higher in early '12.

Spin2win

Great Forum - much to learn, much to do.

First time traveler to Hawaii. Booked AAA rate at this property, 6 nights. A lower rate, but still a lot of money. Not able to use points for style of room desired (2 Room Villa), but able to offset trip cost using points for airfare and car rental.

What negotiating questions / tactics are prudent toward lowering the rate?

Thank you for your help.

Spin2win

SacTownGuy

Rent from redweek.com and you will get an ocean view unit for much cheaper than your current parking lot view unit. Be careful before you send money to a stranger of course but otherwise redweek is MUCH better. You will spend half the money as you would direct from Marriott! You will even get the elite night credits if you rent from an owner.

crazyhorse

If you have >135K points and have elite status you can probably redeem $1000 worth of Marriott checks which you can then use to pay for the hotel room. Do a search and you'll find a bunch of threads related to Marriott Checks.

Another option is to find a lower rate on another site and do a LNF claim to reduce your cost by 25%.

In fact, you can do both!

So Pang

Then check out my latest post: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17930664-post938.html

unavaca

I'm looking at the 1 King + Sofabed room for 4 adults... is this going to be too much of a squeeze?