My slightly off topic Marriott TS (HH) question of the day...

[Beachclubmum]

So, I'm hoping to realize my dream of living full time in HH in about a year. I believe I recall seeing here at TUG that some of the Marriott resorts there offer complimentary day use to owners.

1. If this it true, and not a dream I made I up, which resorts offer it?

2. Which would be the best bet for facilities and ease of getting there from the Harbour Town area? Ideally, I'd like access to a heated pool year round as well as a fitness room.

3. What is the most cost-effective way to get a qualifying membership and / or what do you think I'd expect to have to pay to do this?

Thank you in advance for the wealth of information here. If anyone else is doing something similar, I'd love to hear about your experience as well.

 

[Luvtoride]

Hi Beachclub, indeed this is true at Grande Ocean which also happens to be fairly close to Harbortown. We bought there with a resale bundle from Marriott. Also, they do have an indoor pool there.
I believe the day passes are at the Discretion of management based on how busy the resort is. I’m not sure if they ever don’t allow the day pass but we’ve used it a few times and it works fine.
Buy the most cost effective resale you can buy. The season and view doesn’t matter if you want to use mostly for the day passes. Good luck.





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[jd2601]

Grande Ocean, Barony, and Surfwatch all offer day use at the discretion on how busy the resort is. A nice perk as all three have a nice indoor pool and great workout rooms.

 

[bogey21]

Just remember that Marriott has a history of changing the rules. I wouldn't buy for the sole purpose of getting Day Usage...

George

 

[Steve A]

I live in Port Royal Plantation a 10 minute bike ride from the Barony where we own a week . They’ve given people like me stickers for our cars good for a year although I now ride my bike over. They’re good except for some holiday weeks although with the expansion of the Barony parking lot that may not be a rule any longer.

I have unlimited daily access to all their facilities. I use the workout space five days a week. The Barony is very generous to its local owners other Marriotts may not be.

You could probably buy a bronze week at the Barony for $500.00 plus the hoa yearly fee.

 

[SueDonJ]

When Marriott was building the HHI resorts that have Day Pass usage they actually used it to market the low-season Weeks to locals as effectively membership to a club with gym, pool, bar/grille and amenities. Granted it's not the same as a premier club but for a cheap buy-in and the price of annual MF's it's a pretty good deal, in some cases a better deal than the gated communities along 278 off-island have arranged with on-island hotels.

When we're at home in Leamington Don bikes daily to use the gym at SurfWatch; he hasn't yet come across any others who live locally and use SW. We could also use Barony as owners but SW is closer. SW gives a parking pass and keycard that are good for 30 days, six wristbands in high season so we can bring guests, and the same unlimited daily access that Steve gets at Barony. We've taken advantage a few times by bringing guests of ours over to enjoy a day at SW.

Last I asked at SurfWatch the GM confirmed that Day Pass use can be restricted based on occupancy but he hasn't had to do it yet. Like George says it's a perk that can be rescinded but I wouldn't expect it unless/until there's evidence that it's being widely abused or that it negatively impacts owners/guests staying at the resort. Right now it doesn't seem like there's any danger of either happening.

Because the topic usually raises more questions:
- Not all resorts offer Day Pass usage
- Where it's available, only Owners of Weeks at that resort are eligible
- Owners of DC Trust Points are NOT eligible

 

[bazzap]

When Marriott was building the HHI resorts that have Day Pass usage they actually used it to market the low-season Weeks to locals as effectively membership to a club with gym, pool, bar/grille and amenities. Granted it's not the same as a premier club but for a cheap buy-in and the price of annual MF's it's a pretty good deal, in some cases a better deal than the gated communities along 278 off-island have arranged with on-island hotels.

When we're at home in Leamington Don bikes daily to use the gym at SurfWatch; he hasn't yet come across any others who live locally and use SW. We could also use Barony as owners but SW is closer. SW gives a parking pass and keycard that are good for 30 days, six wristbands in high season so we can bring guests, and the same unlimited daily access that Steve gets at Barony. We've taken advantage a few times by bringing guests of ours over to enjoy a day at SW.

Last I asked at SurfWatch the GM confirmed that Day Pass use can be restricted based on occupancy but he hasn't had to do it yet. Like George says it's a perk that can be rescinded but I wouldn't expect it unless/until there's evidence that it's being widely abused or that it negatively impacts owners/guests staying at the resort. Right now it doesn't seem like there's any danger of either happening.

Because the topic usually raises more questions:
- Not all resorts offer Day Pass usage
- Where it's available, only Owners of Weeks at that resort are eligible
- Owners of DC Trust Points are NOT eligible

In Spain, for at least one of the MVC resorts they offer day pass usage for weeks owners with restrictions based on occupancy.
A couple of years ago it was getting ridiculous though, as some “rogue” owners were offering selling those day passes to non owners and even selling them on for commercial gain!
So the resort had to tighten up the rules and specified that these day passes would only be available to named owners.

 

[Beachclubmum]

Thank you!!! A lot to consider here. I can ride my bike 3.5 miles to Grand Ocean but see the pluses of the other properties too. Next time I’m there I will plan to visit in person.

 

[Beachclubmum]

I do have access to a pool in our complex that’s fine for swimming in the summer. So being shut out for capacity during the busiest weeks wouldn’t be an issue (would still hope to use the fitness room though).

 

[jme]

We have been owners at Grande Ocean since 1998....21 years....and in all our years at Hilton Head, and we're there a LOT,
I have never heard of any Marriott resort on the island (and there are 8) not allowing Day Passes at any time. Not sure if some of the smaller resorts even issue them (??).... I think so.....but the bigger resorts do.

It's busy during some summer times, especially around holidays, at the Big Three (GO, Barony, SW), but none of them
have ever shut out owners at any time. I do feel confident that this practice will continue.

Frankly, there are not a lot of owners who are on the island who aren't already staying there, so the situation
doesn't present itself a lot. There are only a handful of folks who are island residents who use the resorts,
but it is minimal and will continue to be so.

The only resort I've heard of the Day Pass "policy of suspension" being enforced has been OceanWatch at Myrtle Beach,
and that is mostly because of the Platinum Plus season during and around July 4th, so they do suspend Day Passes for good reason.
Those owners paid a BUNCH of money for those weeks, and should not have crowds hindering their enjoyment.
We are owners there (not Plat Plus season), so it's a proper rule imho. I totally agree.
Also, that resort has a relatively small footprint, and the pool areas are small, so such a policy which is enforced is a natural
and reasonable outcome of all that.

 

[Fairwinds]

I know I’m an outlier on this one but I don’t like the idea of day passes. I think paying a bunch of money for a week is relative. Those who purchased Plat+ bought a guaranteed access on a popular day/week. It should not count for more exclusive rights to a longe chair at the pool any more than someone who purchased a gold week. Gold season buyers gave up the season not the amenities. And it shouldn’t have anything to do with occupancy levels. Let’s say there are several open lounge chairs at the pool but the best spot, umbrella or natural shade area is taken by a day pass holder (with guests!). Shouldn’t the paying guest have that chair, table or weight bench etc. Similarly, I don’t understand those who assert they should parlay status into villa selection. Each week should be a snapshot in time. If I own one Plat week and use it, I should have the same chance of getting my villa preference as a multiple week plat owner there at the same time.

just my two cents
Dave

 

[SueDonJ]

I know I’m an outlier on this one but I don’t like the idea of day passes. I think paying a bunch of money for a week is relative. Those who purchased Plat+ bought a guaranteed access on a popular day/week. It should not count for more exclusive rights to a longe chair at the pool any more than someone who purchased a gold week. Gold season buyers gave up the season not the amenities. And it shouldn’t have anything to do with occupancy levels. Let’s say there are several open lounge chairs at the pool but the best spot, umbrella or natural shade area is taken by a day pass holder (with guests!). Shouldn’t the paying guest have that chair, table or weight bench etc. Similarly, I don’t understand those who assert they should parlay status into villa selection. Each week should be a snapshot in time. If I own one Plat week and use it, I should have the same chance of getting my villa preference as a multiple week plat owner there at the same time.

just my two cents
Dave

I agree with you COMPLETELY about the villa assignment process which is why I like the rotating placement process that my resorts use - regardless of how many Weeks you own or the date that you booked, if you're given a unit among the "best" within your owned unit/view type one year the next you may be placed into one of the "worst" or something in between. I even think that DC Trust Points owners should be on the same level as Weeks Owners at all of the resorts which have had Weeks conveyed to the DC Trust (effectively making the Trust a Weeks Owner.) But as I understand it that's difficult for the Rooms Controllers to do because with the majority of DC reservations indicating that they were booked via the DC Exchange Company, the resort staff don't have access to the info that differentiates between reservations booked using Trust Points and those using Exchange Points.

I somewhat agree about the potential for Day Pass users to infringe on those staying at the resorts by grabbing the "best" spots but like I said, the SurfWatch GM did tell me there are so few of us that it doesn't appear to be a problem. There aren't any rules but we're mindful of it when we're using Day Passes during busy times, so we take spots in the back.

 

[jme]

Ditto on villa assignments alternating....that's a good and fair policy and eliminates a lot of problems right off the bat,
like owner status influencing villa assignments. We have been on both ends of that at Grande Ocean and it's totally FAIR,
and we are fine with it. Being there at the HH resorts, for us, is good, and in our opinion there are no bad assignments.
A peek at the ocean at HH is just not that important to us, and frankly we're out and about anyway.

Also, we do not avail ourselves of Day Passes because we're usually at GO anyway, but when we're not,
like renting extra time at other HH resorts, which we do frequently, we do not visit GO at all, or avail ourselves of the facilities.

To us it's a pain to drive over, park, walk, and then get out, so we just don't do it, so altho I like the idea of Day Passes,
we don't do it. To be honest, I'm not so sure it's common at GO or any other Hilton Head resort anyway----if anyone is at GO,
I think they're staying there as owners.
I do not believe GO owners come from Ohio, PA, NY, NJ, etc and stay at other resorts, so I don't see Day Passes being a big necessity.
And if by chance there are random owners visiting HH and staying off-site, a few passes aren't going to make much difference.
I just don't think it's common, as SueDonJ rightly says.

 

[SueDonJ]

... To us it's a pain to drive over, park, walk, and then get out, so we just don't do it, so altho I like the idea of Day Passes, we don't do it. ...

In Leamington we have a basic large outdoor pool, direct beach access and beautiful pavilions with gas grills at both. But the pool isn't nearly as large or feature-rich as at the Marriott resorts, and we don't have poolside bar/food service. Every once in a while it's worth driving over to pamper ourselves and our guests with a special day at SurfWatch or Barony.

 

[jme]

In Leamington we have a basic large outdoor pool, direct beach access and beautiful pavilions with gas grills at both. But the pool isn't nearly as large or feature-rich as at the Marriott resorts, and we don't have poolside bar/food service. Every once in a while it's worth driving over to pamper ourselves and our guests with a special day at SurfWatch or Barony.

Hey, I think it would be closer if we left the "other" resort and just dropped by your place at Leamington.
What do you think?

 

[SueDonJ]

Hey, I think it would be closer if we left the "other" resort and just dropped by your place at Leamington.
What do you think?

One of these years we're bound to be there at the same time!

 

[BocaBoy]

I agree with you COMPLETELY about the villa assignment process which is why I like the rotating placement process that my resorts use - regardless of how many Weeks you own or the date that you booked, if you're given a unit among the "best" within your owned unit/view type one year the next you may be placed into one of the "worst" or something in between. I even think that DC Trust Points owners should be on the same level as Weeks Owners at all of the resorts which have had Weeks conveyed to the DC Trust (effectively making the Trust a Weeks Owner.)

This comes up every now and then and I have to say again that I completely disagree with you. I absolutely hate the idea of rotating villa assignments. Number of weeks owned or date stamp on the reservation are far better approaches in my opinion. I also do not believe points owners should have the same priority as weeks owners at a particular resort as their ownership at that resort is far less than a week.

 

[bazzap]

This comes up every now and then and I have to say again that I completely disagree with you. I absolutely hate the idea of rotating villa assignments. Number of weeks owned or date stamp on the reservation are far better approaches in my opinion. I also do not believe points owners should have the same priority as weeks owners at a particular resort as their ownership at that resort is far less than a week.

I agree with you and whilst I accept that day passes can be a valuable benefit for owners, if there is any risk at all of owners staying at the resort missing out on any facility or amenity as a result of non staying owners with day passes using those very same facilities or amenities that cannot be right or fair.
The resort has to manage any day passes with priority access to staying owners.

 

[JIMinNC]

In Leamington we have a basic large outdoor pool, direct beach access and beautiful pavilions with gas grills at both. But the pool isn't nearly as large or feature-rich as at the Marriott resorts, and we don't have poolside bar/food service. Every once in a while it's worth driving over to pamper ourselves and our guests with a special day at SurfWatch or Barony.

My wife and I were debating just this point this week. We closed on the purchase of a 2BR condo at the Villamare property in Palmetto Dunes. At Villamare, we'll have a bit of an ocean view from our fourth floor unit, both indoor and outdoor pools, direct beach access on-property, an exercise room, gas grills, and outdoor dining/deck areas, so it's a similar set up to what we're used to at the HHI MVC properties. Like you, however, we'll lack the poolside bar/food service. We were debating whether, in the future, we would ever opt to walk over to the pool bar right next door at the Marriott hotel to pick up a sandwich or drink and bring it back to Villamare, or whether we would ever opt to use a day pass at Barony for a change of scenery and to have access to the pool food/bar there. We didn't come to a conclusion, but it was an interesting discussion of the pros and cons of on-site food/bars.

 

[jme]

My wife and I were debating just this point this week. We closed on the purchase of a 2BR condo at the Villamare property in Palmetto Dunes. At Villamare, we'll have a bit of an ocean view from our fourth floor unit, both indoor and outdoor pools, direct beach access on-property, an exercise room, gas grills, and outdoor dining/deck areas, so it's a similar set up to what we're used to at the HHI MVC properties. Like you, however, we'll lack the poolside bar/food service. We were debating whether, in the future, we would ever opt to walk over to the pool bar right next door at the Marriott hotel to pick up a sandwich or drink and bring it back to Villamare, or whether we would ever opt to use a day pass at Barony for a change of scenery and to have access to the pool food/bar there. We didn't come to a conclusion, but it was an interesting discussion of the pros and cons of on-site food/bars.

JIM you could avail yourself of the Day Pass privilege at Barony and use it as you please,
in addition to using the facility there at Villamare.
Sometimes a change of scenery is a beautiful thing, and you will be very fortunate to have both available.
As you probably know, you'd receive a seasonal Day Pass and then could visit without having to go through
the process each time. The convenience of that is priceless.
There aren't that many people who use them on a daily basis at the resorts, that point echoed by SueDonJ as well,
so it's really a non-issue in my opinion. For those who live at or near Hilton Head it's a fantastic perk.

 

[SueDonJ]

My wife and I were debating just this point this week. We closed on the purchase of a 2BR condo at the Villamare property in Palmetto Dunes. At Villamare, we'll have a bit of an ocean view from our fourth floor unit, both indoor and outdoor pools, direct beach access on-property, an exercise room, gas grills, and outdoor dining/deck areas, so it's a similar set up to what we're used to at the HHI MVC properties. Like you, however, we'll lack the poolside bar/food service. We were debating whether, in the future, we would ever opt to walk over to the pool bar right next door at the Marriott hotel to pick up a sandwich or drink and bring it back to Villamare, or whether we would ever opt to use a day pass at Barony for a change of scenery and to have access to the pool food/bar there. We didn't come to a conclusion, but it was an interesting discussion of the pros and cons of on-site food/bars.

Oh, how exciting, congratulations neighbor - you're just around the corner! Our first stays years ago were at the Windsor Court properties along that same stretch of the beach and they're the reason we knew we'd eventually land there.

Leamington's beach pavilion and access is at the southern/eastern-most point of Palmetto Dunes, with the next abutting property being the Sonesta Hotel in Shipyard. Like the Marriott, Westin and other hotels on the beach they allow walk-ins to their bar/grille and we do use it when hanging on the beach. While having bar/food service at our pavilions would be nice, it's also very nice to not have the associated costs in our annual dues.

We now have three grandbabies who will hopefully be able to appreciate the feature-rich pool areas on special days at both SurfWatch and Barony for years to come. Again, it'd be nice to have that in Leamington but not with the associated costs.

 

[Big Matt]

Susan, I assume that you are living on HH six months to avoid the crazy out of state millage rates, correct? I'm really interested in HH, but can't do it full time yet. Did you have a transition?

BTW, buying a cheap HH Marriott just for the day pass is a huge bargain, IMO.

 

[amycurl]

Day use is a great way to attract buyers of "off-season" weeks that might otherwise make the resort unsustainable. It's been great at the resort I own in. I've met some day-users at the Marriott HH resorts; they were all Silver Season owners, and were mostly taking advantage of the classes, pools, etc. And never more than one family at a time, at least when I've been there.

Don't knock day use. For highly seasonal resorts, it can be a real resort-saver.

 

[SueDonJ]

Susan, I assume that you are living on HH six months to avoid the crazy out of state millage rates, correct? I'm really interested in HH, but can't do it full time yet. Did you have a transition?

BTW, buying a cheap HH Marriott just for the day pass is a huge bargain, IMO.

There's no rhyme or reason to how often or for how long we're staying at either HHI or MA, yet! Don's retiring as of 7/31 next year and probably then we'll spend far more time on the island than up here, but I'll always need to at least visit every couple of months to see the grandbabies.

Still, it's been a transition for sure. Back in 2014/2015 when Don spent that time in India and it was just me and the dawg left in the home we'd raised our kids, I came to realize that it was just too much space, too much work, too much everything for just the two of us. Once Don got back it took him almost a year but despite loving our 20+ years there, it was time to go. So we sold that and not wanting to infringe on either of our kids and their growing young families, bought a 2BR condo in a 55+ community. Our Leamington home will eventually become where we spend most of our time (and we purposely bought big enough for family/friends to stay with us) but it's nice having a carefree place up here that lets us just lock the door and not worry about a thing while away. Bonus, we have lovely new neighbors and are developing friendships in both places.

Honestly, right up at the top of a short list of what I most miss about our old life are our stays at SurfWatch - it really does have a special place in my heart but as Don keeps telling me, it'd be foolish for us to stay fifteen minutes from home when we can do other things with the timeshares! Fine, but it's why I hope Day Pass usage never ends and I still plan on occasionally booking a night now and then for old time's sake.

(Thanks, again, for letting TUG be the place where I write my books!)