SDO II Trading Questions - realistic?

Hello,

I recently purchased a SDO 2 bedroom 1-52 gold plus week. I suspect we'll trade it at least every second year, alrhough it is somewhere we'd stay.

I get 2016 usage, which I will definitely deposit to II. After I've designated the week for exchange, can I search with both a 1 bed and 2 bed, or do I have to decide on deposit?

We'll generally want a 2 bedroom, so my base plan is to make a wide open ongoing search. Something like wkorv, wkorvn, wmh, wdw or wkv for any week from September to Christmas.

Is it realistic to expect that search to hit? Alternatively, any thoughts on my chances of getting a 2 bed at wmh or wdw on instant exchange for a 1 bedroom if I'm flexible for any time in fall? I'd like to take advantage of my flexibility, since it will end once my kids are in school.

I did search sightings, but am curious to see what others think. Also, what would my chances be to get a 2 bedroom in Maui or at WLR from say Oct to May with a 2 bed ongoing search?

This is the issue - in a month, Interval will take over control of Starwood, and after that, no one has any idea what they will do, and they will have 100% control of what is deposited in II. With Starwood, deposits are not dependent on what owners deposit - it's Starwood's call.

In the past, your best chance of getting an exchange was the fall. Starwood did not deposit holiday and high season weeks in II.

That's fair enough. If I end up using the home resort most years and renting to cover MF when we can't go I'm fine with that. I paid less than 1 years MF for the deed, transfer, and 2016 usage, so its not a big outlay.

Would my desired trades have been likely in the past? I don't believe II changed much when they bought Hyatt, so I suspect they'll keep things the same for now. I'm comfortable with uncertainty (and suspect most changes will not be in my favour) but am trying to figure out the baseline value.

Denise is more qualified to answer this question, but I'll throw in my two cents. If you are okay with a one bedroom at any of the resorts you mentioned, I'd recommend splitting SDO and put in an ongoing search. I have done this in the past and found the most success. I have also tried searching without depositing, but wound up searching II daily as soon as I woke up in the morning.

Best of luck!

bizaro86 said:

Would my desired trades have been likely in the past? I don't believe II changed much when they bought Hyatt, so I suspect they'll keep things the same for now.

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I also own at SDO for the purpose of trading, and it has been a rough couple of years. Your desired trades would have been easy 2+ years ago but it's all up in the air right now.

Having said this, I think you'd definitely get WDW, WMH, or WKV in September to December. If you're truly flexible within this timeframe I also think you'll be able to do a 1br to 2br uptrade.

Wkorv is a crapshoot, and I definitely wouldn't count on getting a 2br. If you're ok with taking a 1br I think your chances are fair, and if you'd take a studio I would say that your chances are good. As Denise has alluded; nobody really knows at this point!

Chrispee said:

I also own at SDO for the purpose of trading, and it has been a rough couple of years. Your desired trades would have been easy 2+ years ago but it's all up in the air right now.

Having said this, I think you'd definitely get WDW, WMH, or WKV in September to December. If you're truly flexible within this timeframe I also think you'll be able to do a 1br to 2br uptrade.

Wkorv is a crapshoot, and I definitely wouldn't count on getting a 2br. If you're ok with taking a 1br I think your chances are fair, and if you'd take a studio I would say that your chances are good. As Denise has alluded; nobody really knows at this point!

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I agree with this 100%.

If you have to have a 2 bedroom unit, your best chance would be to deposit the 2 bedroom and put in an ongoing search (OGS). I search with my SDO 1 bedrooms every day and 2 bedroom units have become few and far between. I'm pretty sure that unicorns are spotted more often than 2 bedroom Starwood Hawaii units. Of course no one has any idea of what success people are having with their OGS, so maybe that still works. Total crapshoot at this point.

In answer to one of your questions, you can do searching with either the 1 or 2 bedroom units prior to deposit, but you will have to choose the unit size when you deposit. (In the olden days that wasn't the case).

There's still a lot of value with the SDO units because you are trading two 1 bedroom units and upsizing each of those to a 2 bedroom unit is doable (for most properties other than Hawaii). Upsizing from a studio to a 2 bedroom requires a greater time commitment and more luck.

prior to last year, I consistently traded both sides of my 2bedroom SDO for 2 consecutive weeks in 2 bedrooms at WKORV(N) and/or WPORV in January

October would be a good month to try with an OGS. I know of people who matched (but cannot remember if it was a 1 or 2 bedroom) in the past year for October months. That said, we were always happy to take a 1 bedroom or even studio, but lucked out w/ always getting a 2 bedroom.

Given the current shift in II trading and bulk banking (only speaking about Starwood Hawaii resorts), and if you must have a 2 bedroom, I would deposit and search with the full 2 bedroom. If you match, you would still have a great trade $$-wise as the MF at SDO are half of the Starwood Hawaii resorts.

I was told by II that you can only exchange to a larger unit within 45 days of check in. How far in advance can you request a larger unit with OGS?

Just a couple weeks ago, someone could not use a large 1 br SDO to match 1 br Westin Maui. Not sure the trade power for SDO has been decreased or not, but you should be realistically expect it may not be as easy as before that 1 br SDO can get you a 2 br Westin Maui.

FWIW, last month I added a request for WKORV for fall of 2017. My previous request for fall 2016 didn't hit and I needed to make final plans for this year so simply used it elsewhere and booked WKORV using StarOptions instead. I'm hopeful availability via II from SDO to WKORV will increase in future, but not optimistic.


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