4* and 5*Elite - What are your annual MFs?

I was posting on the 2o11 maintenance fee thread and SDkath's guide to 5* this morning. I saw a post by our favorite Mod regarding the annual MF cost (estimate) to be 5* Elite. She estimated it was $10,000 a year, which promped me to check my total.

Anyway, my 2011 MFs are $7575.14 for our five weeks.

I think mine is around $12k. I dont' pay my bills so I don't know exactly how much it was.

We're at $9409.21 for 955,700 SO's (7 weeks).

tomand robin, ... For my 5 timeshares that got me to 5 Star Elite my 2011 MF are:

1 WKV 2-br - $1,216.08

3 Lagunamar 2-br - $2,488.10
(1 every; 1 even; 1 odd)
($1,244.05+$622.03+622.02)

1 Harborside 3-br - $2,615.94

ARDA - $0

SVN - $152 ($119+$33)

Total 5 Star MF - $6,472.12

Total StarOptions - 641,200 (5 Star achieved before increase)

$10,000 in MF? ROFL. Sure, if you bought 2 2-br in Maui. ... eom

deleted ...

tomandrobin said:

I was posting on the 2o11 maintenance fee thread and SDkath's guide to 5* this morning. I saw a post by our favorite Mod regarding the annual MF cost (estimate) to be 5* Elite. She estimated it was $10,000 a year, which promped me to check my total.

Anyway, my 2011 MFs are $7575.14 for our five weeks.

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Around $9400 for 9 weeks....

For starwood they are $7212.56

This year came to ~$5750 including all SVN fees, etc -- 386,200 SO's -- 4 Star Elite

If all goes as planned, we should be able to get to 5 Star Elite for ~$7200 in MFs and get 682,400 SO's.

REALLY good info! I will add this to the thread on achieving Elite status - thanks!

I'm new to the system and I don't have any elite qualifying points yet, but I'd like to work towards the Elite status. Will the following strategy work?

1. buy 2 SDO 2br l/o true platinum week

2. buy 2 SBP units with original purchase price less than but not too much less than "current 2br price for palmetto phase, platinum week" - 20k

3. upgrade the 2 SBP units and retro the 2 SDO units

If it works, the cost will be a little more than 40k, probably around 45k, the total starpoints are 148k x 4 = 952 which qualifies for the 5 star elite, and the annual MF will be about 900 x 2 + 600 x 2 = 3000.

sui said:

I'm new to the system and I don't have any elite qualifying points yet, but I'd like to work towards the Elite status. Will the following strategy work?

1. buy 2 SDO 2br l/o true platinum week

2. buy 2 SBP units with original purchase price less than but not too much less than "current 2br price for palmetto phase, platinum week" - 20k

3. upgrade the 2 SBP units and retro the 2 SDO units

If it works, the cost will be a little more than 40k, probably around 45k, the total starpoints are 148k x 4 = 952 which qualifies for the 5 star elite, and the annual MF will be about 900 x 2 + 600 x 2 = 3000.

Click to expand...

1) True platinum SDO weeks are extremely difficult to find.

2) I am not sure they are still offering upgrades form resale units...if you find a rep that is, let me know who it is.

Finally, your math is off. First, 4 x 148 = 592 (which isn't enough for 5* but would get you 4*). Second, not sure where you're getting those maintenance fee figures but SDO 2 bedroom l/o is at 908 and SBP 2 bedroom l/o at Palmetto is certainly more than $600.

sui said:

I'm new to the system and I don't have any elite qualifying points yet, but I'd like to work towards the Elite status. Will the following strategy work?

1. buy 2 SDO 2br l/o true platinum week

2. buy 2 SBP units with original purchase price less than but not too much less than "current 2br price for palmetto phase, platinum week" - 20k

3. upgrade the 2 SBP units and retro the 2 SDO units

If it works, the cost will be a little more than 40k, probably around 45k, the total starpoints are 148k x 4 = 952 which qualifies for the 5 star elite, and the annual MF will be about 900 x 2 + 600 x 2 = 3000.

Click to expand...

First of all, why do you want to reach Elite status? (What do you hope to gain from it?)

4 Star Elite

$5083.00, 330,000 points.

2 weeks WKORV and 1 week SVV...they gave us credit for another resort to get to 4 Star, that resort is $525.00 per year, we always deposit it in II.

ocdb8r said:

2) I am not sure they are still offering upgrades form resale units...if you find a rep that is, let me know who it is.

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Pretty sure this is not a viable option -- the upgrades they do offer (if you can find a salesperson willing to do so) is a credit for what you actually paid for the unit (they appear to be marking resales as ineligible, or crediting you $0, for this from what I saw recently) against a full current developer price on the upgraded unit.

sui said:

If it works, the cost will be a little more than 40k, probably around 45k, the total starpoints are 148k x 4 = 952 which qualifies for the 5 star elite, and the annual MF will be about 900 x 2 + 600 x 2 = 3000.

Click to expand...

Something wrong with the numbers. I assume by "952" you actually meant to type "592" (which is 4 x 148)...

However, the highest SO's for a SBP is 125,000 (3BR LO Platinum in Palmetto phase) -- there is no 148,100 unit at SBP -- so 2 of those plus the 2 SDOs would only come up to 546,200 which is well short of the 659,000 needed for 5 Star Elite.

And I'm pretty sure that those MFs aren't right...

DeniseM said:

First of all, why do you want to reach Elite status? (What do you hope to gain from it?)

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honestly, I don't know, maybe because everyone else is getting it?

Well, I agree that my numbers are off, need to do some more homework on the points and MFs.

sui said:

honestly, I don't know, maybe because everyone else is getting it?

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Everyone else is NOT getting it. Only a small percentage of Tuggers are Elite owners. It is definitely not for everyone.

The people who are most successful with 5 Star Elite:
-Have many weeks of vacation time every year
-Have a lot of disposable income
-Pay cash for all their timeshare purchases
-Travel internationally on a regular basis
-Stay in Starwood hotels so they can use the Plat status to their advantage
-Are big time planners

Does that describe you?

Here are the Elite Member Perks - https://www.mystarcentral.com/elite/chart.html

Take a good hard look at it and ask yourself if and how it's useful to YOU and if it's worth the thousands of dollars you will spend.

No, not at all, so maybe I could forget about it for a couple years. I kept hearing it mentioned, so I thought it must be popular.

5-star elite

Our total MFs were $ 5872.18 for a total of 574,000 SO. We achieved 5-star before they raised the bar.

What DeniseM says bears repeating:

"Everyone else is NOT getting it. Only a small percentage of Tuggers are Elite owners. It is definitely not for everyone.

The people who are most successful with 5 Star Elite:
-Have many weeks of vacation time every year
-Have a lot of disposable income
-Pay cash for all their timeshare purchases
-Travel internationally on a regular basis
-Stay in Starwood hotels so they can use the Plat status to their advantage
-Are big time planners

Does that describe you?

Here are the Elite Member Perks - https://www.mystarcentral.com/elite/chart.html

Take a good hard look at it and ask yourself if and how it's useful to YOU and if it's worth the thousands of dollars you will spend."

3 (4 Star) to 5 or more (5 Star) weeks must be useful to YOU. In addition to the MF and the cost of acquiring the weeks (the way it works, for 5 Star, 3 must be developer weeks), there is the cost of multiple vacationing once you are at the resorts.

It is not for everyone. (Actually, I do not believe Starwood is trying to develop timeshare resorts for everyone. Reread DeniseM's questions.) However, rarely do you hear much complaining on TUG about Starwood by 4 and 5 Star Elite owners (except if they bought in Hawaii). There are reasons for that. The Starwood perks are actually useful to Elites because of the way they vacation.

But, do not overbuy timeshares if you can't afford ALL the costs. We 4 and 5 Stars do not want to end up paying anyone's MFs in addition to our fair share. lol! ... eom

$9500 for 9 weeks. the HRA is 2900 of it, soooo high!!!!

I guess I can't play since I am only 3* (w/ ~550K SOs) ... yet our MFs are higher than most... (except for my hero W5* - lol)

Total cost: $4830.80 for 5* - 570,500 staroptions

$8838 for 9 weeks.

According to Denise I'm not a successful 5*. At this present time I only fit in under big time planner.

myip said:

Total cost: $4830.80 for 5* - 570,500 staroptions

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Nice....By far, one lowest 5* annual MF costs