Differences between new Marriott Lahaina tower and Original villas

I'm trying to decide between buying the new Marriott Lahaina Tower or the original Marriott Maui Ocean club units.

I notice in some listings that the older units say they are 2 bedrooms/3 baths, with other saying 2/2. Which is it, two or three bathrooms? I understand the older units are converted hotel rooms, but I know they've been updated and may be more spacious than the Lahaina towers.

Are the views (I want mountain) better in the old or the new towers? Any other things I should think about?

Thanks in advance!

barbarak156 wrote:

I'm trying to decide between buying the new Marriott Lahaina Tower or the original Marriott Maui Ocean club units.

I notice in some listings that the older units say they are 2 bedrooms/3 baths, with other saying 2/2. Which is it, two or three bathrooms? I understand the older units are converted hotel rooms, but I know they've been updated and may be more spacious than the Lahaina towers.

Are the views (I want mountain) better in the old or the new towers? Any other things I should think about?

Thanks in advance!

the original building shoud have 3 bathrooms. 1 in each bedroom and 1 in the main room. the garden views may be better in the original building. in the newer building some of the garden views overlook the parking lot of the hyatt next door. i have an ocean view in the orig building and a garden view in the new building.

the newer building has washer and dryer inside the unit. the unit is very nice. full kitchen.

it all comes down to $$ and do you want a full kitchen. we like the option of cooking to minimize our expenses.

good luck!!

Thanks for the response. I was thinking of buying one in each, like you have. Guess I'm not crazy! Have you tried reserving both units at once (both buildings) for a large group? If so, was it easy to get them for the same week?

Do you have recommendations on what floors/locations to ask for when booking the new tower to get the mountain view, not the Hyatt parking lot view?

barbarak156 wrote:

Thanks for the response. I was thinking of buying one in each, like you have. Guess I'm not crazy! Have you tried reserving both units at once (both buildings) for a large group? If so, was it easy to get them for the same week?

Do you have recommendations on what floors/locations to ask for when booking the new tower to get the mountain view, not the Hyatt parking lot view?

have not tried to get both at the same time as of yet. our family is growing and we are being proactive for future events.

ask for the pool side in the new tower. garden views are floors thru level 3 with 1 garden view unit on the 4th floor. if you can get on the pool side, you will have a very acceptable filtered ocean view (i am talking about a 2 bed unit). not sure about 3 bedrooms.

we have a 1 bed ocean view in the orig building and a 2 bedroom garden in the new tower. going to replace the 1 bed ocean view in the orig building for a 2 bed garden view in the orig building. we like both buildings. also like the fact that marriott purchased the hyatt next door.

Marriott purchased the Hyatt next door? That's interesting. I had heard that Hyatt was trying to get permits to build their own timeshare. What will Marriott do with the property?

Also, regarding the garden/mountain views in the new tower...when I went on the tour, the unit they showed me was considered a mountain/garden view, but it was higher up. Maybe it was the 4th floor, but I thought it was higher. Any thoughts on that?

barbarak156 wrote:

Marriott purchased the Hyatt next door? That's interesting. I had heard that Hyatt was trying to get permits to build their own timeshare. What will Marriott do with the property?

Also, regarding the garden/mountain views in the new tower...when I went on the tour, the unit they showed me was considered a mountain/garden view, but it was higher up. Maybe it was the 4th floor, but I thought it was higher. Any thoughts on that?

i was following a salesperson with clients. i heard him tell the potential buyers that marriott had acquired the hyatt next door. i then called the sales office to confirm. they did confirm that marriott had acquired the hyatt. they indicated that they are not sure if they will leave it a hotel or timeshare it.

with the big lot between the new tower and the hyatt, i am sure that they will go thru the entitlement process to build more units. maybe they will leave the hotel a hotel. which i am ok with either plan. my first stay at maui was at the hyatt.

as far as higher up. whe were just there. the check in desk told me that they only have 1 garden view unit on the 4th floor. we were on the second floor and had a great view.

last year we were in the orig building on the top floor pool side. the view (ocean view) was unbelievable.

the rooms in the new tower are so nice, you may not care where you are. they are very nice.

I used to own at the "old" Marriott, 2 bedroom ocean front, with 3 bathrooms. On our recent visit, we upgraded to the new Lahaina Villas - oceanfront corner unit #4206, 3 bedrooms -- it is Beautiful; it makes the "old" building feel like a Motel 6. We're excited about the full gourmet kitchen with stainless appliances, granite counters, travertine floors, and our own laundry facilities... I don't have to walk thru the pool area! I believe our family will enjoy the new villas.

alicen12 wrote:

I used to own at the "old" Marriott, 2 bedroom ocean front, with 3 bathrooms. On our recent visit, we upgraded to the new Lahaina Villas - oceanfront corner unit #4206, 3 bedrooms -- it is Beautiful; it makes the "old" building feel like a Motel 6. We're excited about the full gourmet kitchen with stainless appliances, granite counters, travertine floors, and our own laundry facilities... I don't have to walk thru the pool area! I believe our family will enjoy the new villas.

i can assure you that you will love the new building. we were there in july. we still have a unit in the motel 6 building, but are thinking of picking up a 2 bed unit in the old building so we can accomodate our growing family. how did you get a 3 bedroom unit. when we purchased ours there were no 3 beds left. we purchased a year ago this month.

Does anyone know the current Marriott pricing on the Lahaina Villas?

edp20 wrote:

Does anyone know the current Marriott pricing on the Lahaina Villas?

I purchased 2 oceanfront 8th floor fixed week units in the Lahaina building as soon as they went on sale. I traded in my 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom oceanfront in the old building for them. They gave me the full price I had paid on the old ones to apply towards the new ones which were $70000 ea. You pay extra for the fixed week. The units are unbelievable and the view fro the 8th floor is amazing-also I'm on the corner, so I have mountain view too! My salesman told me that the Lahina Bldg. was sold out and they have started selling the Napili Bldg. It's much further back from the ocean and I believe the pricing starts where the other building left off. Nothing gets any cheaper in Maui.

We just returned from a week at Maui Ocean Club during Thanksgiving week. We own 2-bedroom Mountain View in the original building. This is the first time we have visited the resort since construction of the new Lahaina Tower. Some observations ...

First the Good: The new health club facility is great - we love it. It is well used in the early morning hours when sometimes every machine is taken. The rest of the day you can have your pick of the equipment. The locker rooms have showers, sauna and steam room. Spa treatments (facials, massage) are available at normal resort prices ($100 per hour seemed average). Even with all the hotel rooms gone from the resort, there are still hotel services available. Valet parking, bellman service, on-site shops and restaurants are all still available. We are happy to see that.

Now the Bad: There is indeed an overcrowding problem at the central super-pool. With one more tower still to go, pool overcrowding will only get worse. That part is very disappointing. Pool-side lounge chairs get claimed at 7:00am with books and towels. Marriott has a posted sign saying that vacant lounge chairs will be reclaimed after 45 minutes, but there is no enforcement. So we started doing our own enforcement. If we saw a desirable lounge chair go unoccupied for a long time, we simply put the belongings in neat pile and took over the spot. It is unfortunate that we had to take this approach, but the problem is not of our making. Marriott does seem to do a good job of enforcing wrist bands to ensure that non-guests don't crash the pool.

The new Lahaina Tower is very nice indeed, but it has a distinctly different feel from the original building.

Biggest Positives: - Full size kitchen - Washer/dryer in the unit - Beautiful lawn area facing the ocean with palm trees and many lounge chairs - No overcrowding problem at the Lahaina Tower pool

Biggest Negatives: - Expensive (higher purchase price, higher annual maintenance fees) - Feels much more like an apartment complex, less like a resort - Tile floors in the living/dining area (cold/sterile) - Only 2 bathrooms with a 2-bedroom unit - Sleepy, feels detached from the rest of the resort (some may prefer this) - Smallish pool next to Lahaina Tower is under-utilized, boring (some may prefer this) - Towel service but no food service at the Lahaina Tower pool - Very imposing parking garage structure looms over the Lahaina Tower pool

It all boils down to personal taste as to whether the benefits of the Lahaina Tower justify the higher price you will pay. Overall, we still much prefer the hotel conversion units in the main building. We understand if others feel differently. We like the hotel services (valet parking, bellman service) and the resort feel of the main building. We like the feeling of being in the center of activity. We also really like having 3 bathrooms with our 2-bedroom unit. We don't use a kitchen much while on vacation, so the smallish kitchenette is fine for breakfasts and lunches. And using a communal laundry room enables us to do several loads at once to get it all done quickly.

Marriott was offering 100% trade-in value of our original purchase price if you upgrade to the new Lahaina/Napili towers. They were also offering 100% trade-in value of our original purchase price to upgrade your view category within the original building. They are also reselling some weeks in the original building from those who upgrade. Not sure how long the 100% trade-up promotion will last though. Given current elevated pricing, there seems to be plenty of profit for Marriott to offer these upgrade promotions.

Hi! I am planning my honeymoon in Hawaii and am soooo confused with all the towers and villas. Are the Napili and Lahaina villas the same as the Napili and Lahaina towers or are these two separate locations? My future inlaws have timeshare in the original hotel. Do you know what our options would be if we wanted to stay in the Lahaina villas using that timeshare....?

Thanks!!!!

Napili and Lahaina (towers/villas) are the newest buildings. The units were designed and built to be timeshare with full kitchen and washer/dryer in the unit.

The original building (Molokai, Lanai, Maui wings) was originally built as a Marriott hotel and the rooms were later converted to timeshare units. The units are very nice and spacious, but have only a kitchenette instead of a full kitchen (that's the biggest drawback of the original building for most folks).

If your father-in-law is offering you a honeymoon with his timeshare in the original building, I can confidently say that you will have a wonderful time. Don't worry about trying to change to the new towers/villas - that would be very difficult if not impossible. I actually prefer the original building over the new towers/villas for a number of reasons (as you can read above).

Go, stay in the original building, and have a great honeymoon. One suggestion: Request a room in the Molokai wing of the original building if possible - you will like that better.

Alicen,

I found an old post that indicated that you owned Unit 4206 in the Lahaina Villas -- I was curious which week you own?

I own Week 24 in Unit 4206 and I'm trying to locate the owners of Weeks 22, 23 and Week 25 in the same unit, just for future reference.

Please advise and thanks!