# How does worldmark compare with starwood or marriott?



## djp (Sep 23, 2006)

I am begining to look into another timeshare purchase. I currently own with Starwood and love it and have toured numerous marriotts. I am doing a trendwest tour next week at tahoe (just for the gift), but am interested to get some info as we will be buying another timeshare and have been planning on buying another starwood or maybe a marriott. How does worldmark compare? I like the fact that there appear to be alot on the west coast. What is the disadvantage of buying resale? From what I have read developer cost cost is 1.80 per point and resale is about .80 per point...is this correct? It also looks like alot of resales are advertising "assumable loans". Any details on this....I have neve seen this before on a ts. Are the rates really high? Also what is the difference between worldmark and fairfield? Is one better?


----------



## myip (Sep 23, 2006)

If you want to stay in Marriott then buy Marriott.  The 21 days advantage is very important with trading in II.  I sold my WM and got Marriott Platinum LO instead.  I live in West Coast but didn't care too much of WM Resort.  Availability is little for bonus time rental during high season.  It is difficult and competitive to book reservation < 7 days duriing high season.  So I  ends up using WM for trading in II.


----------



## Cathyb (Sep 23, 2006)

We own all three   and believe having a mix allows greater flexibility.  For example on recent trip to Figi we transferred our Starwood SPG points (Westin Rancho Mirage) to American Airlines for frequent flier miles; stayed 10 nights at Worldmark Figi and used Marriott Reward certificate for our night in LAX before our plane took off.  In 2008 working on using either Marriott or Starwood to stay in Aruba after a week in St. Maarten that we have confirmed already IF an exchange request with SFX doesn't come thru.
  Bottom line: What is it you want to do for the next 15 yrs; where do you want to travel (US, Europe, etc?) and see which Plan works best.


----------



## djp (Sep 23, 2006)

are the resorts as nice as starwood/marriott?


----------



## GreenMum (Sep 23, 2006)

No.  You can always compare many owners experiences by going to the resort reviews/ratings & look at the various areas to see where the resorts rank.


----------



## Cathyb (Sep 29, 2006)

djp: Definitely not; but how much time do you plan to spend inside the unit?  WM is more austere in furnishing; but more generous in kitchen items like racks of spices provided; two coffee packets; etc. They generally have kids' game rooms, small exercise area; pool, spa, some have free Internet in lobby.  The nicest feature IMHO is the flexibility of having 1,2,3, etc days at one resort then drive to the next one. They have a large inventory in Australia now, San Francisco, San Diego, nr Monterey, Solvang and adding more every year.  Sure we like the luxuries of Marriott and Westin, but the ease of getting -- say San Francisco -- puts WM right up there with them.


----------



## honeybunney (Sep 30, 2006)

I think most of Worldmark resorts have small gas BBQ Grill on the balcony unlike Marriott's.  Buy Worldmark resale.  There's no benefits to buying from Trendwest.  Marriott is very nice but their maintenance fee are high. It all depends if you want five star place or a home-away-from home resort.  Worldmark has pretty good trading power to get into Marriotts, DVC and Four Season.  If you are flexible on vacation time then Worldmark is very flexible on how many days you want with the exception of min. 7 days for red season.  On a red season, you can book any resorts as long it's a total of 7 days or more in the red season.  Worldmark is very flexible that's what made me decide to buy it.


----------

