• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Starwood ups star options and points at St John

R

rog2867

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2011
Messages
151
Reaction score
22
Just got an email from starwood. We are owners in St. John. They are now offering for a two bedroom lock off which we own the following.

For platinum week 1-6 and 51-52

176,700 Options and 95,400 points.

This is great news if others own here also. This means that people can't transfer into there with just the normal 148,000 options that all the other Caribbean and Hawaiian resort give for a week so it gives us owners more flexibility to change our week there.

Great news from my perspective.
 
Very interesting! I can see why Christmas would command a premium, but I thought that the early weeks in January weren't as popular as the later weeks...
 
I guess anything that is cold in the northeast is high season. Most if not all of the staroptions for any Caribbean location for platinum season are weeks 1-18 51-52 according to my start options chart. Here is what the email says.

More good news for Bay Vista Villas Owners at The Westin St. John Resort & Villas. As a result of the extensive resort enhancements and renovations, your StarOptions® and Starpoints® conversion values will be increasing effective with your 2015 Use Year. •More flexibility for longer stays at other resorts in our villa collection
•More opportunities to stay at Starwood hotels and resorts around the world
•Reserve a seven-night stay in all phases of your resort in the same villa type and season you own in Bay Vista Villas
 
rog2867 said:
More good news for Bay Vista Villas Owners at The Westin St. John Resort & Villas. As a result of the extensive resort enhancements and renovations, your StarOptions® and Starpoints® conversion values will be increasing effective with your 2015 Use Year. •More flexibility for longer stays at other resorts in our villa collection
•More opportunities to stay at Starwood hotels and resorts around the world
•Reserve a seven-night stay in all phases of your resort in the same villa type and season you own in Bay Vista Villas
Click to expand...

Hmm, so owners of those weeks will receive 176,700 SOs to spend, but that doesn't necessarily mean that owners exchanging in will have to pay that. I know a few phases of SVR have an odd system where they are assigned more SOs than folks exchanging in have to pay to book. Or maybe it's fewer.

In any event, it's good news for you, so congratulations!
 
this is interesting - especially with other WSJ CV thread...

More good news for Virgin Grand Villas Owners at The Westin St. John Resort & Villas. As a result of the extensive resort enhancements and renovations, your StarOptions® and Starpoints® conversion values will be increasing effective with your 2015 Use Year.
•More flexibility for longer stays at other resorts in our villa collection
•More opportunities to stay at Starwood hotels and resorts around the world
•Reserve a seven-night stay in all phases of your resort in the same villa type and season you own in Virgin Grand Villas
 
Interesting indeed. So, they're changing a subset of Platinum Plus weeks to Platinum Plus Plus (?) weeks with higher StarOptions? I would've assumed, like Lisa, that weeks 1-4 are less desirable than February through Easter. :ponder: I'll be curious to see what other changes are coming. With the hotel being converted to timeshares, maybe having higher StarOptions/StarPoints will help them sell weeks?

Added: Reading the email you posted (...As a result of the extensive resort enhancements and renovations), it sounds like ALL WSJ owners should get a boost in StarOptions. Good for you owners! (Too bad for us, though.)
 
Last edited:
I would think that since its impossible to exchange into there they are making it harder for people who own other places to get in because if the top options for two bedroom and under is 148100 and they are now giving 176700. I own there and can't ever exchange my week.
 
PamMo said:
Interesting indeed. So, they're changing a subset of Platinum Plus weeks to Platinum Plus Plus (?) weeks with higher StarOptions? I would've assumed, like Lisa, that weeks 1-4 are less desirable than February through Easter. :ponder:

So far, MyStarCentral shows weeks 1-15 and 51-52 (Hillside) and 1-18 and 51-52 (Bay Vista) 2BR's are still 148,100 SO's. I'll be curious to see what changes are coming...
Click to expand...

I will take a photo of the new SOs and SPs and post in WSJ Thread

5bfc34c478383e197773c5348e0ffd0f_zpse542bc8d.jpg
 
Last edited:
Wow! Thank you. I see that everyone gets a boost in SO/SP. Good for you owners! The new chart makes sense for the high demand and high MF's you pay to own at WSJ. But, 257,700 SO's for a 3BR - Yikes!!!
 
No - all weeks early in the year are desirable - because of East Coast snowbirds (I think that is what they are called) - this is evident from the rent people get for their Plat+ weeks on RedWeek and such.

In 2015 - it will take more SOs to exchange into WSJ.
 
Last edited:
Yup they are snowbirds, south for the winter and back north for summer. You can always tell when they are back as it gets tough to drive around NJ :)
 
Is this increase just for Bay Vista or for all WSJ villas (or is it for the new villas announced recently)? Confused..
 
I suspect it is really to allow for the planned CV phase.

VGV = Hillside - oldest phase
BV phase was after VGV phase - and is closer to resort.
 
Last edited:
I guess I don't understand the phases. I know there is Hillside, Bay Vista, and the newly announced Coral? So this currently only applies to Bay Vista?

DavidnRobin said:
Just VGV phase (it is stated at top of new chart) - so far at least. I suspect it is really to allow for the planned CV phase.
Click to expand...
 
Virgin Grand Villas = Hillside
 
lizap said:
I guess I don't understand the phases. I know there is Hillside, Bay Vista, and the newly announced Coral? So this currently only applies to Bay Vista?
Click to expand...

Oops - I just saw that one chart is for BV and the other for VGV
BV phase is still in active sales, but looks like that is coming to an end since they are now planning for the new CV phase.
 
Last edited:
I got the e-mail about BV. Similar increases in the charts above refer to BV. I'm happy about my purchase earlier in the year.
 
Thanks. So, I imagine increases will be coming for Bay Vista (just saw the chart) and the newly announced Coral. Kind of makes sense, as WSJ SOs seemed to be out of whack with Hawaii resorts. Really am glad I have a lot of SOs. This might make WSJ easier for other Starwood mandatory owners (with the required SOs) to get (more availability) using SOs.


PamMo said:
Virgin Grand Villas = Hillside
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
lizap said:
Thanks. So, I imagine increases will be coming for Bay Vista and the newly announced Coral. Kind of makes sense, as WSJ SOs seemed to be out of whack with Hawaii resorts. Really am glad I have a lot of SOs. This might make WSJ easier for other Starwood mandatory owners (with the required SOs) to get using SOs.
Click to expand...

There are too many threads on this subject...
Both VGV and BV phases had SO/SP increases...
 
This is a good example of why you should buy primarily where you intend to visit, as the system can change at any time...This change is really going to hurt those who have been using a smaller number of SOs to get to WSJ. As I posted earlier, the result could be more WSJ availability for other Westin owners with large amounts of SOs. I suspect an increase will ultimately be effective for the entire resort..
 
So now that Starwood has clearly established that they will change the StarOptions chart, I wonder if HRA is next?

Marriott broke the mold in establishing wide ranging points requirements that premium priced its best properties.

Starwood has taken the first step in following suit with this (major) revaluation. I do think HRA is the next logical property to re-assess, followed by WKORV.

Interesting stuff.

Best,

Greg
 
So I have 2 81.000 SO per year, 162.000 SO at SVV, this means that all of a sudden I can't trade in to WSJ then pretty much?
The value of my SO decreases???

Have Starwood increased the amount of SO it takes a lot of times?
 
I'm glad I decided to try(and get reservations) for WSJ for next year before the change takes effect.

Lee

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
 
Quiding said:
So I have 2 81.000 SO per year, 162.000 SO at SVV, this means that all of a sudden I can't trade in to WSJ then pretty much?
The value of my SO decreases???

Have Starwood increased the amount of SO it takes a lot of times?
Click to expand...

It means that you have to bank some of your StarOptions into a future year, and then you will have enough.

It's an interesting change, with positives and negatives.

I remain happy because I would pay more SOs if I had a higher probability of getting my reservation (because there is less competition from other SVN owners and more availability from WSJ owners who choose to use their surplus and travel elsewhere).

Best,

Greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top