Conversion Rates: Hyatt Residence Club Points to Hyatt Gold Passport / World of Hyatt Points1/20/2017
In addition to being an avid timeshare owner, I also am very involved with various hotel points and frequent flyer miles. Hotel points and frequent flyer miles are essential to have in your travel arsenal if you want to travel for free or at least open up destinations that you would not travel to due to the exorbitant costs.
I have shared some basic strategies to get hotel and frequent flyer miles but there are plenty of other interesting and unique ways to get them and use them to travel for free or close to free. Most of the major timeshare brands offer the ability to convert your timeshare points into their hotel loyalty points. Since the Hyatt Residence Club just came out with their 2017 chart, I thought I would start by assessing their conversions.
As shown in the chart above, Hyatt owners has the ability to convert their timeshare week into Hyatt Gold Passport points. These points can be used in various Hyatt hotels around the world. Hyatt has recently announced a material change to their loyalty program and it will now be called the World of Hyatt as of March 1, 2017.
There are some significant changes to the program but the redemption values has stayed the same for the time being. Per the chart, owners of Fixed Weeks and owners of Floating Weeks have different values assessed. The amount of Hyatt Gold Passport Points given will depend on the season of ownership and the size of the unit. For example, owners of a 2 bedroom unit in a Gold Season have the opportunity to exchange their 1,880 Hyatt Residence Club points to 77,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points. I put together the chart below to access the various conversion rates from Hyatt Residence Club to Hyatt Gold Passport.
As you can see, the amounts vary but are generally around 1 Hyatt Residence Club point converts into 40 Hyatt Gold Passport Points.
Also, you should note that owners of Mountain weeks are not given the ability to convert. This is most likely due to the low values associated with those weeks. Hyatt Gold Passport Points are fantastic! They can be extremely valuable if you know how to maximize their value. In regards to the stated conversion rates, it is almost certainly a horrendous deal. For example, if you own a Studio unit in Diamond Season, you are able to reserve one week in a studio at various Hyatt Residence Clubs during prime seasons. If you convert to Hyatt Gold Passport Points, you are given 30,000 points which can give you six (6) nights in many category 1 Hyatt Place’s (lowest tier) or 1 night in a Category 7 hotel (highest tier). While some Hyatt Place's are nice, category 1 Hyatt Places are generally airport hotels, small towns or not in highly trafficed tourist destinations. Additionally, back in September, Hyatt formalized the ability to redeem Hyatt Gold Passport Points into Hyatt Residence Club properties. If you converted your Diamond Studio week (7 nights) and wanted to convert back into a Hyatt Residence Club property using Hyatt Gold Passport Points, (not sure why you do this) you would only be able to stay 1 or 2 nights, depending on the property. The nightly point requirements for Hyatt Residence Club properties are below. Overall, converting you Hyatt Residence Club points to Hyatt Gold Passport points is a horrendous deal. It will generally make no sense to do if you wanted to maximize their value. I think that the Hyatt Residence Club offers the conversion to provide more flexibility since it opens up a vast amount of additional properties and gives the allure of opening up more destinations. However, it does not make a lot of economic sense. There are tons of additional ways to earn Hyatt Gold Passport Points. Hyatt is a transfer partner with Chase Ultimate Rewards so there are many ways to get Hyatt Gold Passport points through credit card signup bonuses, everyday spend with credit cards or various other offers. If you want a good review of how to earn tons of Hyatt Gold Passport Points, I would start here: upgradedpoints.com/how-to-earn-hyatt-gold-points/ I highly discourage any conversions from Hyatt Residence Club points to Hyatt Gold Passport points. There are much better ways to use your Hyatt Residence Club points. Make sure to subscribe below!
A full review of all the fees associated with timeshares are necessary so that you fully understand the financial commitment of owning a timeshare. Each program has various fees that are associated with various aspects of timeshare ownership.
A lot of owners get disgruntled about ownership due to the fees associated with ownership rather than the quality of the accommodations. Therefore, I think it is important to understand what these fees are and how to minimize them or least accept them when determining whether owning a timeshare makes financial sense. While fees are annoying, the financial benefits of owning a timeshare can be very appealing if you do travel each year and want the extra space and full kitchen benefits, among other things. For this particular post, I will review the fees associated with the Hyatt Residence Club. As discussed in the Hyatt Residence Club guide, there are various options for reserving your home week or reserving a 2,3,4 or 7 night stay at various properties. As discussed in the guide, the Hyatt Residence Club is a hybrid system where owners own a specific week and that week is allocated a certain amount of points. In the event that you want to use all or a portion of your owned deeded week, there is no fee to make that reservation. You can reserve your specific owned week for no additional transaction fees. You must reserve the week 6 months before the beginning of your deeded week. This is the Home Resort Preference Period (HRPP). However, here is a listing of the various other fees associated with the Hyatt Residence Club. As shown below, there are different costs depending on whether you book online or over the phone. ONLINE FEES: Transaction Fee: $41 Cancellation Fee: $51 Gold Passport Exchange Fee: $133 Guest Certificate: $30 Returned Check Fee: $65 Split Week Resort Fee: $39 PHONE FEES: Transaction Fee: $47 Cancellation Fee: $57 Gold Passport Exchange Fee: $143 Guest Certificate: $36 Returned Check Fee: $65 Split Week Resort Fee: $39 As you can see, the fees for over the phone are slightly more than booking online. Generally, you should save a few dollars and book online. TRANSACTION FEE: The Transaction Fee is applied when you make a specific booking using points. This will apply for each transaction that occurs. As explained in the guide, when you use some of your points for a reservation, you will incur a transaction fee for each reservation. Depending on the time period, size of unit and number of nights, there is a potential to make multiple reservations using points. GOLD PASSPORT EXCHANGE FEE: The Gold Passport Exchange Fee applies when you want to convert you Hyatt Residence Club Points into Gold Passport points (soon to be World of Hyatt Points). The exchange rate generally does not make for a favorable exchange and their fee ($133/$143) further makes this type of transaction unfavorable. Unless there is a specific redemption, there are better ways to obtain Gold Passport / World of Hyatt points that to use your timeshare points. Additionally, if you purchased your week on the resale market, the Hyatt Residence Club prohibits you from exchanging into Gold Passport / World of Hyatt points. GUEST CERTIFICATE FEE: One benefit of having a timeshare is the ability to allow friends and family to use it in the event that you cannot use it. Most programs encourage you to show the benefits of timeshare ownership. The Guest Certificate Fee makes sure that the guest is on the reservation upon check in so that the owner will not be liable for any fees or damage that occurs. CANCELLATION FEE: In the event that you cannot use a reservation, Hyatt does allow you to cancel the reservation. If you cancel more than 60 days prior to arrival, you will pay the fee but you will receive your points back into your account. You will not receive a refund of the transaction fee so the entire fee for cancellation is really the Transaction Fee AND the Cancellation Fee. Cancellations made less than 60 days to arrive causes your points to be restricted. You can only make additional reservations with those points for reservations occurring 60 days of the date the reservation is made. Due to this restriction, you should try to cancel more than 60 days prior to check in. Otherwise, your points can be significantly impaired and you will only be able to use those points for that limited inventory. SPLIT WEEK RESORT FEE: The Split Week Resort Fee is charged directly by the resorts for reservations of less than 7 nights. This is annoying fee as you will be charged $39 (same for online or phone) for any reservation less than 7 days. Therefore, you will be charged this fee for a 2, 3 or 4 night stay. The fee is to cover the costs of cleaning the room but I find this fee to be obnoxious. It can significantly add to the cost of the reservation and it does not change whether you have a studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom or larger. You should note that the following properties DO NOT charge the split week fee: Hyatt Main Street Station Highlands Inn Hyatt Grand Aspen Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Northstar Lodge. Basically, 5 out of the 16 properties do not charge this fee which is nice but still annoying for the other properties. Like most fees, they are annoying and wish that they did not apply. However, fees seem to be a part of everyday life as travel is full of fees all over the place. Resort fees, baggage fees, priority boarding fees, upgrade fees, seat reservation fees, rollaway fees, etc. While the fees are annoying, it does help to be aware of them so that there are no surprises. There is generally little reason to make reservations and other transactions over the phone as Hyatt's website is a decent online tool. It most circumstances, it makes sense to save some money and book online. Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe below. Comparison of Marriott, Hyatt and Vistana programs for exchanging in Interval International10/21/2016
As I explained in my other post found here, there are multiple timeshare strategies to utilize in order to maximize ownership and get multiple weeks in very nice resorts. In this post, I want to explain why you can purchase a timeshare solely for exchange purposes and how the different programs compare.
For this post, we will compare a timeshare for the Marriott Vacation Club, the Hyatt Residence Club and Vistana Signature Experiences (Formerly Sheraton and Westin Vacation Club). These three timeshare systems all trade through Interval International. In addition, all three of these programs have point components. Marriott is now an all point system whereas the Hyatt and Vistana systems are hybrid systems meaning that you own a specific week that can be converted to points. In this analysis, I want to compare ownership of 2 bedroom units. These are by far the most common in most timeshare systems and provide the most flexibility. Owning a 2 bedroom unit allows you to reserve 2 bedroom units, 1 bedroom units or studios.
Mountain time is one of the seasons that is included in the Hyatt Residence Club program. Mountain time is the lowest season possible in their system. This means that those weeks included in this system are in the lowest demand weeks.
There are currently five properties that have weeks that are included in Mountain time. These are: 1. Hyatt Escala Lodge at Park City in Park City, Utah 2. Residences at Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek, Colorado 3. Hyatt Mountain Lodge in Beaver Creek, Colorado 4. Hyatt Main Street Station in Breckenridge, Colorado 5. Hyatt Grand Aspen in Aspen Colorado As indicated in the Hyatt Residence Club Resorts Points Chart, these Mountain weeks generally occur during week 16-20 and week 40-46. There are a few other weeks included that can be found on the chart above. These weeks generally correspond to weeks in April through May and for the end of September through November. These are definitely not peak weeks and is considered low season. The reason that these weeks are important is that the amount of required points needed to exchange into these week drop materially. For example, during these weeks, you can reserve a 2 bedroom condo for a week for 200 points! A studio unit costs 70 points for the week and a one bedroom is only 130 points for the week. In my previous examples, I discussed how owning a fairly low demand week might be advantageous provided that the week provided at least 1300 points. If you had a 1300 point week, you can exchange into these weeks and stay five weeks in a 2 bedroom unit at one of the properties listed above for only 1200 points! As I explained earlier, my maintenance fees for my Hyatt property costs approximately $1200 per year so I can convert my maintenance fee into five weeks at a 5 star property in a 2 bedroom unit. Basically, you can stay in a five star property for less than $35 per night!!! I personally find these weeks to be tremendously valuable due to their low point requirements. As many people will likely point out, these weeks are definitely low season and there is not much demand to go to the mountains during this time. However, low season can be great time to explore a destination without crowds and simply get away for the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The mountains are beautiful year round and these destinations still have plenty of activities. Skiing or other snow sports will not be one of them but the mountains do have plenty to offer even in those low seasons. Additionally, I have been tempted to simply stay in a five star hotel for these available weeks and live in a hotel for a couple months. There are worse things than having five star amenities at your disposable 24/7. Make sure to subscribe below and follow me on Twitter and Facebook below!
Hyatt Gold Passport is the loyalty program for Hyatt and allows members to redeem points for free hotel nights around the world. Hyatt Residence Club properties have always been treated differently in the program since they are timeshare properties and do not have to follow the same general rules as other Hyatt hotels. Hyatt has just recently made a change to the program that includes the Hyatt Residence Club properties to Hyatt Gold Passport so that Hyatt members can redeem points for stays at the Hyatt Residence Club properties. This is fantastic news as this gives us the ability to add on to timeshare weeks or stays using Hyatt Gold Passport points. In other posts, we can discuss how to obtain these points but this is a positive development. Here are the point requirements for the Hyatt Residence Club properties.
Hyatt Pinion Point, a Hyatt Residence Club (Sedona, AZ) 15,000 points per night Hyatt Hacienda del Mar, a Hyatt Residence Club (Dorada, Puerto Rico) 15,000 points per night Hyatt Sunset Harbor, a Hyatt Residence Club (Key West, FL) 20,000 points per night Hyatt Coconut Plantation, a Hyatt Residence Club (Bonita Springs, FL) 20,000 points per night Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch, a Hyatt Residence Club (San Antonio, TX) 20,000 points per night Hyatt Mountain Lodge, a Hyatt Residence Club (Avon, CO) 25,000 points per night Hyatt Main Street Station, a Hyatt Residence Club (Breckenridge, CO) 25,000 points per night Hyatt Beach House, a Hyatt Residence Club (Key West, FL) 25,000 points per night Northstar Lodge, a Hyatt Residence Club (Truckee, CA) 25,000 points per night Hyatt Windward Pointe, a Hyatt Residence Club (Key West, FL) 25,000 points per night Grand Hyatt Aspen, a Hyatt Residence Club (Aspen, CO) 30,000 points per night The Residences at Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, a Hyatt Residence Club (Avon, CO) 30,000 points per night Hyatt Siesta Key Beach, a Hyatt Residence Club (Sarasota, FL) 30,000 points per night Hyatt Carmel Highlands, a Hyatt Residence Club (Carmel, CA) 30,000 points per night Maui Ka’anapali Beach (Lahaina, HI) 30,000 points per night Hyatt High Sierra Lodge, a Hyatt Residence Club (Incline Village, NV) 30,000 points per night There are additional points requirements for 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units as the points above are for studio's. Overall, this is a positive development but still remain subject capacity controls which may limit availability.
One of the perks of being a timeshare owner is the ability to make discounted reservations using cash at the the various resorts. Almost all timeshare companies provide this perk including Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott and others. Today, I wanted to take a closer look at Hyatt's owner discount program. According to Hyatt:
As a Hyatt Residence Club member, you can enjoy priority reservations and discounts up to 40% on rental stays using cash instead of points. Reservations can be made at any time, and are subject to availability. According to Hyatt, you can save up to 40% of rental stays. I have personally make reservations using this program and there can be some discounts to be had. In addition, as discussed in various other posts, it is rare that airfares and timeshare weeks line up exactly right. Sometimes, airfare costs differ by so much that it is worth it to arrive a day or two before the timeshare week starts or stay a few days later. Unfortunately, even though a lot of programs provide flexibility for these one, two or three night stays, the cost using points can equal or even surpass a week long stay. In most situations, it makes sense to book using cash. While there are usually various hotels within the same areas as the timeshare, moving rooms or resorts is disruptive and generally a pain. While reserving a room at the same timeshare does not guarantee that you will not have to move rooms, most timeshares have the ability to keep you in the unit provided that the unit is not rented for the following week. However, it all depends on the resort. OWNER DISCOUNT RESERVATION: In order to make an owner discount reservation, you need be an owner with Hyatt. You can login to their portal at www.hyattresidenceclub.com. You can navigate to "reservations" and then you have the ability to choose whether you are looking at a single property or multiple resorts. In order to see what types of discount are really being offering, here are few results for random weeks during the week. FIRST TEST: Residence at Park Hyatt Beaver Creek: In doing a search for a two night stay, I find various open dates in September and October. Most are for three bedrooms but there are a couple of 2 bedroom units. For example, I see a two night stay in a 2 bedroom unit for September 11 - 13th. Hyatt requires a deposit in the amount of $708.12 which is also the cost of the room for two nights. The price per night for the reservation would be $354.06 including all taxes and other fees. In comparison, booking directly with Hyatt showing a room cost of $539.00 per night plus occupancy taxes of $118.47 and resort fees of $44.40 for a total cost of $1240.87. In this example, booking through the Owner Discount Reservation portal would save $532.75 providing a total discount of 42.93%. This discount actually exceeds the stated discount amount. While the room cost is still over $350 a night, this does provide you a reasonable discount off the public retail rates. SECOND TEST: Hyatt Wild Oak in San Antonio Hyatt Wild Oak is a very nice property located in San Antonio, Texas that is close by Seaworld. There are water slides, trails, and tons of kids activities. My family frequents this property a lot as it is a close drive for us and provides a nice little getaway from the everyday routine. Using the same dates as above, (September 11- 13th), I found plenty of availability. September is one of the nicest months in Texas as it is still hot but the crowds have died down. I found availability using the Owner Discount Reservation portal for a studio unit and a 1 bedroom unit: Owner's Discount: STUDIO UNIT: Total for two nights $254.52 or $127.26 per night (including all taxes) 1 BEDROOM UNIT: Total for two night $324.56 or $162.28 per night (including all taxes). In comparison, here are the results for booking directly with Hyatt: Hyatt Rates: STUDIO UNIT: Total for two nights $322.45 including city tax, occupancy tax, and resort fees or $161.22 per night 1 BEDROOM UNIT: Total for two nights $462.55 including city tax, occupancy tax, and resort fees or $231.27 per night As you can see, there is definitely a discount for booking through the Owner Discount Reservation Portal. The savings for the studio unit for this two night stay is $67.93 or a 21% discount. The savings for the 1 bedroom unit for this two night stay is 137.99 or a 29.8% discount. Overall, while these reservations do provide discounts off the regular retail rates, they still can be expensive especially when comparing the nightly rates to the effective nightly rates when using timeshare points or exchanging through an exchange company. However, that is not always feasible so if and when you need a couple of extra nights at the resort, the owner discount reservation can at least provide you with a reasonable discount off the retail rates. Availability differs so even if you see availability at the Hyatt website, you will not always see availability using the Owner's Reservation Discount portal. Make sure to subscribe below to receive up-to-date information!
UPDATED as of February 14, 2017
This post was originally posted in August but there has been some further activity concerning the Hyatt Pure Points program. The program was suppose to officially launch as of February 21, 2017 but new rumors indicate that this date has been pushed back. Basically, based on my sources, it appears that Hyatt is in fact moving to a points only system instead of having a specific deeded property attached to your point allocation. This system essentially mimics what Marriott has done with its land trust. As of now, the details are still scarce but the likely result may actually create a situation where the value of existing weeks will increase on the secondary market. With the current system, owners can choose the resorts with the lowest maintenance fees and pick a week with the highest point allocation. This way you could own a 2,200 value point week and pay the same maintenance fee as someone with a 1,300 value point week. With the new program, you will likely purchase points and the maintenance fee will be based on a per point ownership. Essentially, the arbitrage that was available with deeded weeks will be gone. With the roleout of the new program, Hyatt may be aggresively pursuing its right of first refusal options on resale. This allows Hyatt to have the option to purchase the units for the sale price before they allow any transfer. If you were interested in becoming a Hyatt owner, it likely will be beneficial to purchase a unit now before the rollout of the new program. With the information leaked, there may be a limited opportunity to get in to the program prior to new program being implemented. Details will be provided as soon as they emerge.
There have been some chatter recently concerning a potential move by Interval Leisure Group Inc., the recent acquirer of all Hyatt Residence Club properties, to convert the Hyatt Residence Club into a strict points system instead of the current hybrid system currently in place.
As detailed in my complete guide to the Hyatt Residence Club, Hyatt currently operates a hybrid system where owners generally own a deeded week at a specific resort that equates into a certain number of Hyatt points. This system provides the best of both worlds in that owners can either elect to use their specific deeded week or convert it into points and exchange within the Hyatt system or through its exchange company Interval International. In 2010, Marriott's Vacation Club underwent a complete restructuring where it went from a deeded week program to a points based program. As detailed in my guide to the Marriott Vacation Club, new Marriott owners purchase points and use those points to trade within the Marriott system. New Marriott owners no longer have specific deeded weeks associated with their points. According to the ILG conference call at the beginning of August, Craig Nash, the President and CEO of Interval Leisure Group, Inc. responded to a question from an analyst concerning the conversion of Hyatt to a pure points club. He stated: "Yes, there are a lot of legal and technical initiatives going on around it. We are on track right now to move forward with that. The closing with Vistana is helpful, their Sheraton Flex is very similar to what we are going to be doing with HVO. The thing about the transition we don't expect lots of issues with the transition obviously there are learning curves. But they've always sold a points-based system even though it might have been a preference product where you got (inaudible) specific product, a location. You were still getting a points-based program which was part of the sales. So this just provides them with ownership at a group of properties as opposed to one but the movement around the system is very similar so I think that might be a difference between others that have had more difficulty." In addition, in response to the question concerning whether existing members will be allowed to stay with the existing hybrid product or being forced to convert, Craig Nash said the following: "... the beauty of having the system already sold where you can go around the system through the exchange program -- and I mean the proprietary branded exchange program -- is that a new product can be sold and people that had bought the other do not have to convert in to move around the system. They already are moving around the system." In addition to this conference call, there have been various tidbits of information being leaked regarding the new program. The potential name will be Hyatt Pure Points. Based on this, the key takeaways appears as follows: 1. Hyatt will be moving to only points systems that will be similar to the Marriott system and the Sheraton Flex system. 2. Existing members will likely be able to stay with their existing product but may be motivated or encouraged to migrate to the new system. 3. If Hyatt does move to this new system, it is possible that Hyatt will be aggressive in exercising its Right of First Refusal in order to increase its available inventory in the new points program. While this is all preliminary information, the key questions that remain are as follows: 1. Will existing owners be penalized if they do not migrate to the new system? 2. Will there be a conversion fee or other fee to participate in the new program? 3. ILG also owns the Aston properties, Vistana timeshares (formerly Starwood properties) and Sheraton timeshares. Will these properties be included in the new Hyatt system as a complete re-branding or will this just affect Hyatt properties? There is sparse information at there at the moment but it appears that change is underfoot. As more information is available, I will update this post. Stay tuned for new developments....
I hope I don't scare away too many people with this economic analysis but I hope that I can clarify some of the mystery around timeshare ownership and the economics of ownership.
First, my analysis will avoid discussing the initial purchase. In economic terms, I view the initial purchase price as a sunk cost. According to investopedia, a sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and thus cannot be recovered. The purchase price of the timeshare should be considered a sunk cost. In other posts, I will explain why this is the case but the majority of fees incurred by timeshares are not the initial purchase price but rather than ongoing maintenance fees. In this post, I discussed some of the basics of maintenance fees. While ignoring the purchase price as a sunk cost in my analysis may be controversial, I argue that this is the proper way to assess timeshare ownership. In this post, I want to examine the economics of a Hyatt timeshare. While Hyatt has a small footprint, the quality of accommodations are generally excellent and most units are able to exchange into very high quality units through Interval International. As discussed in my guide to Hyatt found here, Hyatt's are sold in week intervals and are based on the amount of points. Generally, the strategy is to purchase the highest point week with the lowest maintenance fees. The maintenance fees will be same for each same sized unit regardless of the season so you get the most bang for your buck but getting the highest point week. However, as with most purchases, getting the top tier product is not always attainable. In this post, I will explore the economics around a 1300 point week. 1300 points is provided for a 2 bedroom unit or 1 bedroom premier unit during bronze season. This is fairly low season as the only other two seasons are Mountain and Copper. I am picking this type of week because these weeks are generally priced well and 1300 points is able to be exchanged through Interval International for a 2 bedroom unit during high season. Therefore, without much analysis, an owner of a low demand 1300 week can exchange through Interval International and receive a high demand week for the same 1300 points. THE FIRST SCENARIO: While maintenance fees vary by different resorts, one of my Hyatt units is a 1300 week and has a maintenance fees of $1,207.46 for 2015. In my earlier example, I am assuming that I simply pay my maintenance fees and instead of exchanging through Hyatt, I exchange through Interval International in order to take advantage of the high demand week. In fact, I did do this in 2015 and we ending up staying at the Londoner at the Morritt's Club in Grand Cayman island in a newly constructed 2 bedroom unit. In this example, I paid 1,207.46 for my maintenance fees and a fee of $179 to Interval International (online exchange fee instead of a phone fee) for a total of $1,386.46. Based on this, I paid a price of $198.06 per night for a 2-bedroom unit. Not exactly a bargain per night but the same accommodations through an online travel agency was $430.97 per night. Therefore, simply using my timeshare instead of booking with an online agency resulted in a 54% savings. THE SECOND SCENARIO: While I have two young kids at the moment, my wife and I purchased the timeshare before kids. At the time, a studio unit was more than sufficient for a couple. Studio's units are basically hotel rooms but are slightly larger and usually have a microwave, fridge and sometimes a hot plate. For a couple who are comparing timeshares to a hotel room, a studio is perfectly fine. Exchanging through Interval International requires 430 points for a studio unit it high season. With 1300 points, I can reserve three high season weeks (430 x 3 = 1290) and still have 10 points leftover. Again, with my maintenance fees of $1207.46 and 3 exchange fees for Interval International ($179 x 3 = $537), I can reserve a total of 21 nights in studio units during high season. My total cost per night for a studio unit is $83.06. At just over $83 per night, it is hard to find comparable hotel room properties. Additionally, since these are high season weeks, these weeks can be during prime season. For example, here a few of my historical transactions where I was able to utilize this strategy. Four Seasons Residence Club Aviara in November Marriott's Kauai Beach Club for Christmas week Marriott's Aruba Ocean Club for Thanksgiving week. These are all very luxurious accommodations that I reserved during peak season at a cost of just over $83 per night. In reviewing the current rates for the same seasons for this year, I find that these stays would cost the following when reviewing the times and dates on Priceline. Four Seasons Residence Club Aviara (November 5-12, 2016): Total cost: $2,164.68 Marriott's Kauai Beach Club for Christmas week: Total cost : $2,033.64 Marriott's Aruba Ocean Club for Thanksgiving week: $2,499.90 These three weeks would have cost me approximately $6,698.22 instead of $1744.46 saving me approximately 74% off the regular cost. THE THIRD SCENARIO: Exchanging through Interval International provides some significant advantages especially when trading with a 1300 point week. Due to the favorable exchange rates, a 1300 low season week can result in many weeks through interval as discussed above. The problem with the above strategy is that you will never be able to stay at Hyatt properties. This may or may not be a problem but Hyatt's do have some very nice properties and I think that they are worth a visit. In this next example, I assume that you can trade your 1300 points week within the Hyatt system instead of using it at your owned week. For example, you can use 750 points to stay at a Hyatt during Diamond season (the top tier season). Hyatt charges a fee of $39 for each reservation. As I have done in the past, we have reserved one week at the Hyatt Mountain Lodge in Beaver Creek. Diamond weeks are ski weeks and this was a very nice property. In reviewing the upcoming ski season, a week in a studio for January 7 through 14 is $659 per night for a total price of $5,314.22. After using 750 points, I still have 550 points to use for additional nights. Hyatt's system favors 4 night midweek stays which go from Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday through Thursday. We have used these 4 night stays various times as the points values are usually great. For example, a stay in a studio unit at the Hyatt Coconut Plantation in Bonita Springs, Florida only costs 140 points. Week 21 is the start of Bronze season for Hyatt Coconut Plantation. A reservation for May 23 through May 27th, (Tuesday to Saturday) would cost a total of $1849.36 for the 4 night stay. After both of these trips, you would still have 410 points to use. You can use 400 points in many ways but in my example, we have used points for a long weekend for a 3 night stay. A three night stay in a studio during Platinum season can be used at Hyatt Wild Oak in San Antonio, Texas. For example, a 3 night stay for March 31 - April 3 in a Studio would cost a total of $1,218.32. With the above examples, we would still have 10 points left over which actually can be used for a 2 night stay in Mountain season but we will assume that all points have been extinguished for these examples. Using these examples, we were able to book a total of 14 nights in a Studio unit during fairly high season. The total cost for these reservations would have cost $8,381.90. In comparison, using the Hyatt timeshare, I paid my maintenance fees of $1207.46 plus $39 for each reservation fee for a total of $1324.46 for a total of 14 nights or $94.60 each night. The various computations are almost endless but there are tremendous ways to maximize the value of the timeshare instead of purchasing hotel accommodations or purchasing directly. The examples above are dependent on availability and availability tends to be the biggest issue. However, with enough advance planning, flexibility, and diligence (not to mention following me on Twitter, Facebook and through e-mail), you can also score these types of weeks and exchanges. Make sure to subscribe below for further updates, travel deals and exchange opportunities. |
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