Bringing in a resale- Starwood

Hi,

We're looking at buying a resale on redweek or eBay. (It'll depend on prices) We plan to purchase a unit from the developer at some point in the next year, and figured it might make sense to buy a resale now, and then bring it in when we make the purchase.

If we buy an inexpensive resale, let's say at SDO or vistana resort, (both are non-mandatory I think), we know we want an every year, weeks 1-52. Will resales at those resorts transfer to platinum weeks within the svn network?

The reason I ask is because I thought I read a thread in this forum that someone who brought in either an SDO or VR wks1-52 only got a "Gold" level (for that property) in the SVN network. Seemed unlikely to me, but, before we go down this path, I thought I'd ask the experts here.

Thanks for your help,

-svntug

svntug,

My pre-Starwood (Phase I) Sheraton Desert Oasis (“SDO”) 2-Bdrm Lock-Off year round float week 1-52 that I purchased resale was “requalified” at Gold level (81,000 StarOptions / 44,000 StarPoints).

This is what my SVN salesperson told me about this issue:

SDO was originally not an SVN property. Pre-Starwood units were sold as week 1-52 year-round floaters. Starwood took over after the initial phase units had been sold. Soon thereafter, it kicked-up the prices and implemented its current “Platinum,” “Gold,” and “Silver” seasons on all new units it sold. The original pre-Starwood sales retain their week 1-52 year round float season.

Since the “Platinum” Starwood sales were sold at much higher prices than the pre-Starwood week 1-52 float sales, and since technically Starwood wasn’t obligated to bring the pre-Starwood sales into SVN when it took over the property, but it would have significantly compromised Starwood’s goodwill with the original pre-Starwood purchasers had they not, Starwood elected to “split the baby” and allow pre-Starwood purchasers into SVN, but limit their status to Gold season for internal trading purposes within SVN. (You can still book during “Platinum” season at SDO).

Since SDO is a voluntary resort, this issue is moot for most resale purchases at SDO. However, in light of Starwood’s new “requal” policy, Starwood was forced to re-evaluate this issue. It elected to allow resale purchasers of pre-Starwood intervals the same benefits offered to original pre-Starwood purchasers at SDO. Namely, if you buy any developer week, you can requalify an SDO pre-Starwood resale at the “gold” level.

So if you're interested in purchasing an SDO interval for requalification at the “platinum” level, you must purchase one of the units that was originally sold by Starwood as a “platinum” unit, NOT a pre-Starwood week 1-52 floater unit.

Since most sellers of SDO properties may not recognize this distinction, I suggest obtaining the contract number of any particular unit you are interested in purchasing. Then, armed with that number, you should call SVN and have them verify its current SVN status (“Platinum,” “Gold,” or “Silver”) before purchasing it.

Please see entry No. 34 (and on) in the following link for more info regarding my SDO requal experience.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24046&page=2

Good Luck,
-nodge

Thanks!

Hi,

It definitely complicates the purchase of a resale if I have to call *wood to ask about the status of each individual unit.

Thanks for the info!!

-svntug

svntug said:

Hi,

It definitely complicates the purchase of a resale if I have to call *wood to ask about the status of each individual unit.

Thanks for the info!!

-svntug

Click to expand...

Starwood won't give you info since you are not an owner. You have to talk with the owner and have the owner confirmed the info and make sure it is written in the contract.

Older Vistana Resort Resales

svntug

For what it’s worth, when I was sorting the wheat from the chaff on my SDO resale, I stumbled onto a lot of discussions with SVN folks about requalifying older Sheraton Vistana Resort properties, which are in the same category as SDO as having already been built with many of the early units sold before Starwood took over.

In particular, I heard the following completely conflicting stories from various folks at SVN:

1. Early phase Vistana Resort properties can never be part of SVN (and therefore cannot ever be “requalified”), but they have a sister resort on a Florida coast and you can interchange between the two of ‘em at will; and,

2. Early phase Vistana Resort properties can be requalified into SVN without requiring any developer purchase, so long as you pay a $599 fee to SVN. Apparently, when Starwood took over Vistana Resort, the board at Vistana Resort had the good sense to mandate this requirement as part of the takeover deal.

Since I don't own at Vistana Resort, I wasn’t interested in resolving this conflict. Who knows, maybe there is no conflict as it’s all just based on which early phase Vistana Resort you own.

Nevertheless, if you are considering a Vistana Resort purchase for purposes of requalifying it with a developer purchase, you should get some straight answers from someone (can anyone here help?), or at least force the seller to find out for you and have it all written into your purchase agreement from the seller, before purchasing a resale there.

If you elect to take on the challege of getting a straight answer from SVN, please consider posting what you find out here.

FYI,
-nodge

Thanks!

Thanks for all the info about the Vistana. Definitely sounds like it's important to get something in writing from an SVN rep about a specific unit before buying on the second hand market.

-svntug

Maybe a good starting point is to ask the sellers to print-out and fax or email you a copy of their "your information" page from mystarcentral.com for the property you are considering.

You should verify the following from the document you receive:

Below "Reservation System" it should say "SVN" (If it is blank or says something else, expect problems)

Also, the "Weekly StarOption Value" and "Weekly Starpoints Value" columns should have numbers below them indicating the StarOptions and StarPoints assigned to that property.

-nodge