Unit Assignment Bias @ SOK

Can anyone tell me whether SOK is biased in their assingment of units to owners who bought their units on the resale market? We've heard that they only assign Garden view units in this case. Thanks, Brooke

Not that I've encountered. We bought a 3 bedroom resale in 2002 and have been assigned ocean view units every time that we requested them (can't request them every time as they keep track of your placement, but get ocean view even when not requested, on early arrival). Have also gotten the Penthouse Unit.

Hope this helps.

Tony Alanis

tonya336 wrote:

Not that I've encountered. We bought a 3 bedroom resale in 2002 and have been assigned ocean view units every time that we requested them (can't request them every time as they keep track of your placement, but get ocean view even when not requested, on early arrival). Have also gotten the Penthouse Unit.

Hope this helps.

Tony Alanis

Sounds encouraging! Thank you Tony, Brooke

tomm332 wrote:

Can anyone tell me whether SOK is biased in their assingment of units to owners who bought their units on the resale market? We've heard that they only assign Garden view units in this case. Thanks, Brooke

Not true...I bought a unit on eBay this year and they give first year buyers Ocean Front and then it rotates every year to Ocean View then Garden View and then back to Ocean Front every third year.

tomm332 wrote:

Can anyone tell me whether SOK is biased in their assingment of units to owners who bought their units on the resale market? We've heard that they only assign Garden view units in this case. Thanks, Brooke

I own 3 units there (2br) and my brother owns 3 units as well. We bought them on the resale market several years ago and have been able to get reservations in all 3 categories (ocean front, ocean view, and garden). I was also able to upgrade to a 3 br one year. What I don't like is that I believe that there is a man that owns a lot of units there and it seems that he gets priority assignments. He is a realtor and rents his out and I think they have certain ocean front units set aside for his use....that way he is able to command higher prices for his rentals. You can find out who he is by searching condo rentals in Kahana (outside Redweek). It should be pretty obvious who he is.

stevef26 wrote:

tomm332 wrote:

Can anyone tell me whether SOK is biased in their assingment of units to owners who bought their units on the resale market? We've heard that they only assign Garden view units in this case. Thanks, Brooke

I own 3 units there (2br) and my brother owns 3 units as well. We bought them on the resale market several years ago and have been able to get reservations in all 3 categories (ocean front, ocean view, and garden). I was also able to upgrade to a 3 br one year. What I don't like is that I believe that there is a man that owns a lot of units there and it seems that he gets priority assignments. He is a realtor and rents his out and I think they have certain ocean front units set aside for his use....that way he is able to command higher prices for his rentals. You can find out who he is by searching condo rentals in Kahana (outside Redweek). It should be pretty obvious who he is.

I believe that this guy owns these units and that they are outside of Consolidated's care and upkeep. The units are shown in bldgs 2 & 3 as off Consolidated's inventory. Consolidated has a color coded map of all four buildings and the available units are clearly marked as timeshare while the private units are marked too. You can get this map at their front desk.

Some units are timeshare, some are private residences, some are investors that rent outside of Consolidated's control.

Hope this helps. Mike

We bought in the resale market a few years ago and have had no problems with getting the ocean front/view every other year as promised.

Our friends bought 3 units directly from the developer and last year had unit oceanview unit 341.

We bought ours at a really low resale price and just got back from staying in unit 341.

They say they rotate, one year it's a garden (parking lot) view, then ocean view then ocean front. From what I've seen, that is exactly how it works.

Hi Tommy. Man I sure hope that's not so. My family has owned there since 1994.

My experience has always been that even if I am assigned a Garden View (Because we all {I think} have to take turns yearly with an ocean front, ocean view, and garden view), when you do show up and ask for a better view, the preference is given to us as owners as opposed to Inverval International exchangers.

I find that the same is true when I exchange FROM our place to other places. Owners always get preference I make certain that as I am giving up my beautiful Maui, the resort i'm exchanging to guarantees me a like view room.

Also, don't forget that you are always able to call the Sands direct and request specific room numbers. You can do this 30 days before your arrival. The desk manager always tries to accomodate. Remember though, he/she can only do what they can do, and if it's not available, you may have to take the garden view.

Let me know if you find this to be different once you've taken a trip there okay?

We own four weeks at SOK. Our first week was purchased from SOK in 2002. Our next two weeks were purchased on the resale market. Our fourth week was purchased as a resale but with the SOK sales group in an owner-update sales presentation. So I guess we cover the spectrum. We go to SOK for two weeks every year and have never experienced any bias in unit assignments. There really aren’t many true garden-view units anyway at SOK. It’s a very good place to own reasonably-priced time-share on Maui. Hope this helps.