SVO's "Vistana Plus"

Hi Gang,

Does anyone have info about Starwood’s “Vistana Plus” program?

I’m fairly sure that this was an early (pre-Starwood) form of the current SVN internal exchange program that was offered to early phase Vistana Resort, Vistana Beach Club and maybe even Sheraton PGA developer purchasers. I think that this program was initially created to allow “Vistana Plus” members the option to split their week between two of these resorts on any given week long trip.

“Vistana Plus” members apparently can also convert their weeks to StarPoints (Starwood Hotel points) since a section in mystarcentral.com has the express heading titled “Convert Your Week to Starpoints! Starwood Vacation Network (SM), Vistana Plus members only.”

We’ve spent tons of time here on TUG trying to figure out SVN, but we haven’t really done much with trying to understand this “Vistana Plus” program, which apparently is still alive and well. Before we spend too much time on it, however, the following two questions need to be answered:

1. Do “Vistana Plus” members get any special privileges that allow them to trade into other SVO resorts?; and,

2. Is “Vistana Plus” membership transferable on resale? (Post #9 from this link suggests that it is)

If the answer to both of these questions is “yes,” we may have found a back door into SVN.

So how about it early phase Vistana Resort and Vistana Beach Club owners? I’d be happy to root through any “Vistana Plus” paperwork you have in search of clues.

-nodge

My understanding is that some long time owners at starwood resorts which owned "pre starwood" do have the option of paying a fee to join SVN. But that anyone buying from a "pre-starwood" owner wouldn't have that option. I'm not sure if this is true with the “Vistana Plus” membership but I'd guess that it they are not transferable.

Well I don't know anything about Vistana Plus, but I believe that non-SVN Cascades owners can reserve in Lakes or PGA, non-SVN PGA owners can reserve in Cascades or Lakes, and non-SVN Lakes owners have the split week option with Jensen Beach. Not sure if the Lakes can reserve Cascades and PGA, but that would seem logical.

I originally bought my Cascades week as a resale (later requalified), and at the time I was told by Starwood that I could reserve Lakes or PGA, but there was no mention of a Vistana Plus membership, nor were there StarOptions involved. Before I bought that week, I bought a PGA week (which later fell through-- seller sold it twice ) and was told by Starwood that I would be able to reserve Cascades or Lakes in addition to PGA.

Not sure if any of that info helps with a back door to SVN, but just reporting what I've learned.

99% Sure: Lakes, Cascades and PGA are interchangable and have a split-week feature (3/4) with payment of a housekeeping fee. They also have (or, used to have) a "bonus night" feature with prices that were better than those offerred to the Travel Agent secretaries. This mini-network used to include the St Augustine Golf Resort (which was quite nice when it was first built), but Starwood sold it and, poof, that feature was gone. I often wondered if there were any SVN members at St Augustine, since I think there was a period of time when Starwood was selling St Augustine as part of SVN. (I got sucked into a developer presentation in 2002 ... several months before St Augustine was sold and I'm pretty sure it was a purchase option.) Makes you wonder if they could tire of another resort and sell it right out of the network in the future. I think this possibility exists for Harborside as they don't seem to include it in much of their corporate promo material (Wall St stuff) -- they co-developed it with the Atlantis folks. As an owner, I don't think I'd care very much if that happened since I would never do an SVN trade with it anyway due to the low StarOption value vs. the rental potential for my gold week (similar to the St John situation).

Have heard/read: Fountains (not sure if Fountain I, II or both) and Jensen Beach -- interchangeable (not sure about a split-week feature). I'm almost positive that Lakes/Cascades/PGA cannot use Jensen Beach.

Have never heard about an option to trade for hotel points (would surprise me since I think these are all pre-Starwood resorts).

Have heard/read: Fountains (not sure if Fountain I, II or both) and Jensen Beach -- interchangeable (not sure about a split-week feature). I'm almost positive that Lakes/Cascades/PGA cannot use Jensen Beach.

Have never heard about an option to trade for hotel points (would surprise me since I think these are all pre-Starwood resorts).

Click to expand...

I am deeded at Vistana Beach Club pre-starwood days (1994). There used to be a program called Vistana Plus where I could exchange my week for starpoints for a fee of $200 approx. I can do internal (no fee) exchanges to Fountains I & II.

I used to have a link to the Vistana Plus program that showed exactly how many points my week converted to (for the $200 fee). But that link has been dead and I see no mention of it on the Starwood Member site.

Though I have never done this.....this is what is showing under my current Beach Club membership info now on the member site :

Convert Your Week to Starpoints®!
Starwood Vacation Network(SM), Vistana Plus members only

Instead of visiting a resort affiliated with the Starwood Vacation Network, you can elect to convert your week to its equivalent value of Starpoints.

The 2008 Starwood Preferred Guest Conversion Window extends from October 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008.