ILG Takeover Delayed until [UPDATE: May 11: Midnight]

We are getting our owner update tomorrow. Any specific questions we can ask? Our concierge hinted at some major changes with both SVO and SPG, and mentioned something about 6 new resorts.

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The Haileys said:

We are getting our owner update tomorrow. Any specific questions we can ask? Our concierge hinted at some major changes with both SVO and SPG, and mentioned something about 6 new resorts.

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You know that an "owners update" is just a sales presentation - where they will push you hard to buy more from the developer. I would not go - period.

Also - sales people are usually a very poor source of up-to-date news. What they do know, will be presented to you in a way that supports developer sales, and much of it will either be wrong, or out-right misleading.

Our concierge gave some heavy hinting at the same thing -- but we were there in December. I wouldn't get my hopes up for any actual information.

And realistically, from a sales perspective, if there were solid plans to add 6 resorts, I doubt they would keep it a secret for only those that attend owner's updates. They are going to want to spread the word to as many potential buyers as possible.

ThreeLittleBirds said:

And realistically, from a sales perspective, if there were solid plans to add 6 resorts, I doubt they would keep it a secret for only those that attend owner's updates. They are going to want to spread the word to as many potential buyers as possible.

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These are the previously announced hotel properties in Hawaii and Mexico that are being sold with SVO as part of the spinoff to ILG and will be renovated and converted to timeshares.

YYJMSP said:

These are the previously announced hotel properties in Hawaii and Mexico that are being sold with SVO as part of the spinoff to ILG and will be renovated and converted to timeshares.

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The Westin hotel in Cancun, Westin Cabo and the Sheraton hotel in Poipu Beach Hawaii are 3 that come to mind.

They are pushing the Flex packages HARD. They offered to convert our current ownership and double the Options for what seemed to be a reasonable price, in comparison to regular developer prices. But we know we can get better deals for our needs on the resale market. They did allude to the ILG merger as bringing in all those resorts into the same network as the Starwood resorts, but when I pinned them down to a specific answer, that turned out to be not quite accurate. It will change from being a deposit/exchange system to a straight up point based system, which puts all Starwood ownership on equal footing in the II network. Also, the point tiers for 3 and 4 star elite are expected to increase. No information about the Marriott takeover on the hotel end, but they expect little to change in the SPG world. They did offer us a nice Explorer package plus Stars Points, which we took because it works well with our future plans.

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blondietink said:

The Westin hotel in Cancun, Westin Cabo and the Sheraton hotel in Poipu Beach Hawaii are 3 that come to mind.

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Westin Puerto Vallarta was another one. Perhaps yet another is the not yet opened Nanea in Maui next to Wkorv and wkorv-n. Not sure what the sixth one could be, except perhaps WSJ's not yet opened Sunset Bay phase.

The Haileys said:

It will change from being a deposit/exchange system to a straight up point based system, which puts all Starwood ownership on equal footing in the II network.

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Interesting. This is how the Flex program works...I wonder if they were talking about that, or the possibility of converting all starwood weeks to the points system?

Current message on website.

We are in the process of becoming Vistana™ Signature Experiences, inc. Thank you for your patience as we transition to our new Web experience.

If you have received a notice that your email could not be delivered, please try again in a few hours.

To make a reservation, payment, or for more information during normal business hours, please call Owner Services:

Sheraton Owners

1.888.SV.OWNER (1-888-786-9637) or direct at 407-903-4649

Westin Owners

1.888.WV.OWNER (1-888-986-9637) or direct at 407-903-4635

Harborside Owners

1-877-782-7496 or direct at 407-903-4893

Lakeside Terrace and Vistana Beach Club

1-800-847-8262 or direct at 407-903-4640

Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, and Saturday - Sunday 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Eastern time.

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tschwa2 said:

Current message on website.

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Why do they have different phone numbers for each segment? Why not just one? Don't they all just route to the same place and people.

vistana101 said:

Interesting. This is how the Flex program works...I wonder if they were talking about that, or the possibility of converting all starwood weeks to the points system?

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Honestly, it could have been anything. The sales manager was talking so fast, I couldn't keep up. But yes, Flex owners will exchange in II like they do within Flex. I couldn't get a straight answer as to how that will change for Star Option owners, but I think that applies to all.

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alexadeparis said:

Westin Puerto Vallarta was another one. Perhaps yet another is the not yet opened Nanea in Maui next to Wkorv and wkorv-n. Not sure what the sixth one could be, except perhaps WSJ's not yet opened Sunset Bay phase.

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Adding to our collection of upper-upscale resorts, we are pleased to welcome our five newest resort hotels as part of the transaction: The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos, which is scheduled to re-open in the second quarter of 2017 after renovations following Hurricane Odile; The Westin Resort & Spa, Cancún; The Westin Resort & Spa, Puerto Vallarta; Sheraton Kauaʻi Resort; and Sheraton Steamboat Resort. These resort hotels are anticipated to provide additional villa accommodations over time. Until then, Owners can continue to access them through the SPG program.

Flex Options very expensive

At our last owner's update we were shown some Flex Options purchase options. On a per-option basis they are much more expensive than the "list" price at, say, WLR, for the same number of options. Lagunamar has been something like $35K for 148,100 and the FlexOptions were well over $40K for the same amount. Given that they are for Sheraton, not Westin, properties, the value isn't there if you just want options to play with. I suspect this has been discussed in other threads but haven't been on enough recently to see them.

DavidnRobin said:

These resort hotels are anticipated to provide additional villa accommodations over time. Until then, Owners can continue to access them through the SPG program.

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Over time?! That's extremely non committal! Sounds like we better not hold our breath for real availability.

alexadeparis said:

Over time?! That's extremely non committal! Sounds like we better not hold our breath for real availability.

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They also didn't really indicate if Los Cabos would reopen as a timeshare property or a hotel.

alexadeparis said:

Over time?! That's extremely non committal! Sounds like we better not hold our breath for real availability.

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80 year Branding of Westin and Sheraton - depends on time horizon I guess

dioxide45 said:

They also didn't really indicate if Los Cabos would reopen as a timeshare property or a hotel.

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Wasn't there something in the early press releases that said those properties were to all be converted from hotels to timeshares?

YYJMSP said:

Wasn't there something in the early press releases that said those properties were to all be converted from hotels to timeshares?

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If there was one in yesterday's release, I didn't see it, and I read through the press release. I can't speak to some of the earlier releases about the deal.

The only place I can tell that it is mentioned is in the email that was sent out to owners after the closing of the acquisition by ILG. Which isn't an email that I received since I don't own a Vistana/Westin/Sheraton property.

We were told at a recent owners update that these hotels would be converted into TS's. They also said the units would have some type of kitchen with Steve tops. The mini kitchens of current resorts. That would be a nice feature, so hopefully it is true.

Mike

mjm1 said:

We were told at a recent owners update that these hotels would be converted into TS's. They also said the units would have some type of kitchen with Steve tops. The mini kitchens of current resorts. That would be a nice feature, so hopefully it is true.

Mike

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From what I can tell, I think that Starwood does a better hotel conversion job than Marriott has in the past. So if they do convert these to timeshare, which I would expect them to do since I don't think II wants to be in the hotel business, then I would expect a pretty good mini kitchen.