Talk to me about Aulani

TeamRiley

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 10, 2019
I am not a poster, but read here from time to time. We do not fit the standard DVC member profile. We live in the West, and have owned at VGC for years. Not a ton of points, just a short trip in the Spring, and a longer one in the Fall usually. Rarely go to Florida.

Lately I have been kicking around buying points at Aulani. Most likely will go every other year or every third year. Since we live in the West it is much cheaper and simpler for us to get to Hawaii.

My main question, for those of you that have Aulani points, is if it is relatively easy to rent points there if I decide not to use them? Do you ever get stuck not being able to rent them? I don't think we will ever really rent them, but I thought I would ask before I make any offers.

Thanks
 
I've owned Aulani since 2011, and I've only been there once in 2012! I know, it's a travesty. We've done a few trips to VGC and one to AKV, but I think we've rented our points half the years so far, always through David's Vacation Club Rentals. They rent really quickly, and we've never been concerned or near expiration or lost any points. I was just looking at my last emails because the Aulani reservations I rented out for September and November are starting to get canceled. I signed my agreement on 12/19/19, got a reservation for 57 pts on 12/20, 34 pts on 12/21, and 57 pts on 12/30. I had 9 pts remaining, which was fine with me since I didn't give them permission to borrow from 2021 points (which you can). This is my typical experience... all points used up within a few weeks of posting them. If you have expiring points, I understand you can rent them at a discount. The rental more than covers MFs.

That said... I am holding my recommendation for renting them out through David's right now. Hopefully, everything will go back to normal, but a lot of people are really angry with them right now because of how they're handling resort closures and such. There's a huge, nasty thread. I hopefully won't have to rent out my points in the future as much as I have in the past, but if I do, I will try renting them out myself, so I can be in charge of the contract and work directly with my renters if situations like this arise. David's does make it extremely easy to rent, and I've never had problems or complaints until now. (For example, I'm returning the 70% that the renter paid upfront, but the full refund isn't going back to the renter, and I wish it would. That's why many renters have disputed the charges on their credit cards and WON. Now, that doesn't hurt owners like me, because it is the intermediary's merchant account that gets the hit, but it doesn't look good for the future of their business. But who knows?) All that to say, there are many ways to rent them, and I think both owners and renters will be more cautious in the future.
 
Renting is fairly easy, if you are mainly looking to cover MF, plus some of the buy-in cost. Especially if under 100 left over points. Price low enough, like $14 - $15 a point, it will usually rent fairly fast. It gets a little bit harder at $17 - $18 a point, the usual going rate that under cuts broker rental pricing, who charges about $19-$20 a point.

Great3
 
We have some Aulani points along with our OKW/HH/AKL points and we really don't consider where we own being a plus/minus. Renting Aulani points shouldn't be any better/worse than other DVC locations.
 


We have some Aulani points along with our OKW/HH/AKL points and we really don't consider where we own being a plus/minus. Renting Aulani points shouldn't be any better/worse than other DVC locations.
I was going to say the same thing. If OP is already an owner at VGC, could always just use Aulani points there instead or could rent them out. Doesn't really matter where they are for. And fwiw, we own Aulani points. I know a lot of ppl, historically, have wanted to rent pts for Aulani, b/c the cash price is so high; however, as PP mentioned, given the recent fiasco due to the pandemic, I have a feeling renting may not be as popular going forward.
 
This is not a good time to get tied up with timeshare points in Hawaii, imo. Some rental companies might end up going out of business, making renting more difficult. Aulani has no projected reopening date & Hawaii in general is really dragging its feet on reopening tourism. Many Hawaiian travel vendors are going out of business. The overall travel industry, including the travel industry-dominated state of Hawaii, will be crippled by Covid & associated economic downturn for years. Fewer people will be able to pay to fly across an ocean to stay at an expensive Disney resort, etc. Be careful.
 
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If you’re looking at only going every few years or so, why tie yourself up with buying more points? You could rent from an owner, or use some of your DVC points to book there (If possible).
 


This is not a good time to get tied up with timeshare points in Hawaii, imo. Some rental companies might end up going out of business, making renting more difficult. Aulani has no projected reopening date & Hawaii in general is really dragging its feet on reopening tourism. Many Hawaiian travel vendors are going out of business. The overall travel industry, including the travel industry-dominated state of Hawaii, will be crippled by Covid & associated economic downturn for years. Fewer people will be able to pay to fly across an ocean to stay at an expensive Disney resort, etc. Be careful.
That is why I am considering this. We will always use all our VGC points. It is cheaper for us to get to Hawaii, and I can buy a small contract and just go every two or three years. I am hoping Aulani prices fall in the coming weeks.
I was just wondering about renting in case we don't go to Hawaii for some reason.
Thanks for all your advice.
 
That is why I am considering this. We will always use all our VGC points. It is cheaper for us to get to Hawaii, and I can buy a small contract and just go every two or three years. I am hoping Aulani prices fall in the coming weeks.
I was just wondering about renting in case we don't go to Hawaii for some reason.
Thanks for all your advice.

I live in the SF Bay Area and own at both BWV and Aulani. We rent out our points (if we aren't using them) through the Rent/Trade board and have never used David's. It's been very good and as long as you set some rules regarding who you rent to (established DIS'ers and Pre-Pay), not problematic.

I hope you plan on adding on though 3rd party, like The DVC Store, a sponsor on these boards. You will get a much better deal than directly from DVC, although you will have to wait for the right size contract/use year to come to market.

Also, if you don't need the 11-month window (for peak season/holiday periods), you could always add-on at VGC or even a WDW DVC. Maintenance Fees at Aulani are on the higher side, unless you find a subsidized DVC-subsidized contract.

We love Aulani and taking advantage of the great fares on SWA now that they fly to Hawaii.

Good luck with your decision!

Steve
 
I own at Aulani, VGC, BLT and SS. The first points I bought were at Grand Cal because they were the cheapest. I didn’t buy them to stay at DL, just to be able to use them to stay other places (RCI, DCL, ABD). I only use those points for Grand Cal when I want to go to DL so that I can book at 11 months. Likewise, with Aulani I only stay there every 2-3 years. When I decide to go to Hawaii, it’s nice to have the 11 month booking window and not have to worry that I can get the room I want when I want that far in advance.

If you’re interested in buying Aulani points so that you can use the 11 month booking window, go for it. As OP have said, you can probably also rent points from an Aulani owner. Only you know what works for you. Just remember that you can use your points at another DVC resort, you just have to wait until the 7 month booking window to do so. The cost of Aulani points has increased about $30 since I originally bought them. If you’re interested in buying them, I wouldn’t count on the direct price decreasing.
 
I assume you have stayed at Aulani before? If not, I would suggest a scouting trip first before pulling the trigger. We love Aulani, but find the isolated location of Ko Olina to be a drawback for us. For that reason, we would only stay at Aulani in conjunction with a split stay elsewhere on Oahu or on another island. I tend to agree with PP that if you're only planning to visit once every couple of years that you may not want to be tied down to staying at Aulani every time. I also agree with PP that you may want to wait and see when Aulani re-opens and how Hawaii is handling tourism going forward.
 
I will also say that, unless you have a very specific time of year and type of villa need, you really don't need the 11-month booking advantage for Aulani, so....
 
I'm noticing when booking at Aulani they have rooms that say ocean view, but then disclaimers that say it can be a partial ocean view from balcony. Is there a way to confirm a full ocean facing view room? We haven't tried Aulani yet, but we certainly want yo experience the ocean view. Any suggestions or feedback would be great. Thanks.
 
I'm noticing when booking at Aulani they have rooms that say ocean view, but then disclaimers that say it can be a partial ocean view from balcony. Is there a way to confirm a full ocean facing view room? We haven't tried Aulani yet, but we certainly want yo experience the ocean view. Any suggestions or feedback would be great. Thanks.
If you look at an aerial photo of Aulani, you'll see that its essentially U-shaped, and the ends of the "U" are what would be true ocean facing. The rooms on either side of the "U" will have ocean views from the higher floors and be angled outward, but its not ocean facing. To my knowledge, there not many rooms on the ends of the "U" and I think most of the ones that are may be grand villas? Don't quote me on that though. There's an Aulani villas and views sticky at the top of the Aulani forum that should have more information, but I think it would be difficult to get room (if there are even any) that is true ocean facing without booking a grand villa. All of that said, some of the high floor rooms near the ends of the hallways still have great views and there are photos of that in the sticky as well.
 
If you look at an aerial photo of Aulani, you'll see that its essentially U-shaped, and the ends of the "U" are what would be true ocean facing. The rooms on either side of the "U" will have ocean views from the higher floors and be angled outward, but its not ocean facing. To my knowledge, there not many rooms on the ends of the "U" and I think most of the ones that are may be grand villas? Don't quote me on that though. There's an Aulani villas and views sticky at the top of the Aulani forum that should have more information, but I think it would be difficult to get room (if there are even any) that is true ocean facing without booking a grand villa. All of that said, some of the high floor rooms near the ends of the hallways still have great views and there are photos of that in the sticky as well.
Thanks for the great info
 
If you look at an aerial photo of Aulani, you'll see that its essentially U-shaped, and the ends of the "U" are what would be true ocean facing. The rooms on either side of the "U" will have ocean views from the higher floors and be angled outward, but its not ocean facing. To my knowledge, there not many rooms on the ends of the "U" and I think most of the ones that are may be grand villas? Don't quote me on that though. There's an Aulani villas and views sticky at the top of the Aulani forum that should have more information, but I think it would be difficult to get room (if there are even any) that is true ocean facing without booking a grand villa. All of that said, some of the high floor rooms near the ends of the hallways still have great views and there are photos of that in the sticky as well.
If you're strategic, you can even get an ocean view room in the "island garden" category, which will save you points.
 
We have VGC but did use some points at Aulani when we need to spend some points. He go to Hawaii a lot and we really thought it was a great resort, really better that the Grand Wailea which we considered the best family resort before visiting Aulani. Buying a small amount for a 2-3 year trip is a great idea, not an every year place. Get the Alaska Credit card and get 1 $100 ticket per year. Aulani is was easy to find rooms in the non school periods. Hawaii is busiest during California school breaks so I would assume those times are more difficult.

The other thing if you live in California do not think you have to stay a week. 4-5 days works fine, not that long of a flight. We do a lot of 4s.
 

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