Starwood seeking resale owners to join SVN [Requalifying Offer]

[Mauiwmn]

Did anyone else receive this email offer from Starwood?


"Congratulations on becoming a Starwood Vacation Owner through the resale market.

Take your purchase to the next level by joining the growing community of Owners in Starwood Vacation NetworkSM. You'll enjoy the amazing opportunity to travel to any of the 19 outstanding villa resorts in our collection without paying additional exchange fees. Situated in the most popular locations, you can experience the extravagance of some of the most sought-after destinations on earth.

Choose a new adventure every year, and also enjoy:

Gold-level membership status in the industry's best hotel loyalty program, the Starwood Preferred Guest® program, through which you can access more than 1,100 hotels and resorts in nearly 100 countries across nine distinctive hotel brands when you convert your week of ownership to Starpoints® from the Starwood Preferred Guest® program.

The chance to achieve Elite-level ownership status, where you can benefit from exclusive perks and services.

The flexibility to bank or borrow your StarOptions®, the currency used to exchange within the Starwood Vacation NetworkSM program.
The ability to reserve your vacation for less than one week at a time.

Special "Owners-only" pricing when you add to your vacation ownership portfolio.

A host of other helpful ownership benefits.

With the flexibility of Starwood Vacation Network, you can see more, travel more and experience more.

Now’s a great time to take advantage of this limited-time special offers to join.
Call 877-712-9865 by December 12, 2012 to learn more. Vacation Specialists are available by phone, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Eastern time."



Have they done this in the past via email?

I am already 5 Star elite & my resale weeks at WKORV are already part of SVN, so this offer didn't really apply to me but I called to hear what they had to say.

Starwood is temporarily lowering additional purchase needed to retro resale weeks. Additional purchase of $10k-$20k based on your resale week location will retro weeks.

Sounds like they want more weeks in SVN which may tie into the discussion of possible changes or enhancements to program.

I asked what other changes are coming in 2013? Was told there will definitely be ability to book less than 7 nights sooner than 90 days out. Book somewhere in the 6-8 month range. This confirms what I was told in August from a Starwood executive.

I tend to think Starwood will leave the SVN as it is and will simply sell trust options moving forward instead of weeks. They will just dump the trust options into the SVN.

 

[RLG]

I got this email as well. I've purchased quite a few resale units and this was the first time.

The retro offer (10-20k additional) doesn't sound too different from what they've been offering previously.

 

[grgs]

The retro offer (10-20k additional) doesn't sound too different from what they've been offering previously.

Sounds like the threshold may be going back (at least for a while) to what it was earlier. For quite a while now, the minimum requirement has been $20K to retro. Of course, the devil is in the details.

I asked what other changes are coming in 2013? Was told there will definitely be ability to book less than 7 nights sooner than 90 days out. Book somewhere in the 6-8 month range. This confirms what I was told in August from a Starwood executive.

Seems to me this is a relatively easy change for Starwood to implement and one that would greatly enhance SVN. I hope it happens.

Glorian

 

[mandoggy]

We did the owners update recently at WMH and retroed 2 of our resales into the network. For us it was a no brainer as they are all corporately owned by us and will benefit our membership greatly

 

[grgs]

We did the owners update recently at WMH and retroed 3 of our resales into the network. For us it was a no brainer as they are all corporately owned by us and will benefit our membership greatly

Details please. : )

What did you buy? What did you retro?

Thanks!

 

[gnipgnop]

This really confuses me! I own merely one Starwood week, bought resale, and love the resort. But I would like to have Star Options and realize since I bought resale that I can not get into that program but what is the network and can I get into such a program as the OP has listed? What, in reference to $$$, would it cost? Please help!

 

[DeniseM]

This really confuses me! I own merely one Starwood week, bought resale, and love the resort. But I would like to have Star Options and realize since I bought resale that I can not get into that program but what is the network and can I get into such a program as the OP has listed? What, in reference to $$$, would it cost? Please help!

You would have to buy a full-priced timeshare from the developer - this is actually "requalifying" - not just joining the SVN. The original post said they were offering $10-$20K units.

 

[gnipgnop]

Oh bummer! Looks like I'll never get into StarOptions with my little resale week. Thanks for the reply, Denise.

 

[mandoggy]

Our purchase is what works for us......it may not work for you. You may find it a waste of money or a good deal. Our retro is geared towards our use not anyone else's. I would love to share the details, but I am not the least bit interested in engaging in a TUG pi**ing contest with anyone (which will inevitably happen) so I prefer to keep the details private.

 

[DeniseM]

Oh bummer! Looks like I'll never get into StarOptions with my little resale week. Thanks for the reply, Denise.

Your timeshare has excellent trading power in II, and you don't have to pay $10-$20K more to trade in II - that's your best option.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Too bad you see it as a pi**ing contest - what it truly is about is a discussion regarding value with a lot of clouded opinions based on human nature to justify purchases (and buyers remorse). Anyone reading the litany of TUG posts about the various levels of 'value' would come up with the reasonable conclusion that buying from SVO is for fewer than 1% of TS buyers.

Btw - I bought from SVO even having bought resale first and knowing the pitfalls. In hindsight was it wise? No. Do I regret it? No. Do I make the best of it? Yes.

 

[Mjasp]

Your timeshare has excellent trading power in II, and you don't have to pay $10-$20K more to trade in II - that's your best option.

Curious, since you are a Vistana Resort owner also, does VR have good trading power in II? I've never used II since I always go to VR since I have a lot of family in Orlando.

 

[DeniseM]

In general, the Florida timeshares do not have the strongest trading power in II, because there is more supply than demand in Florida. At SVR, the strongest trader is a true fixed holiday week like Christmas or New Years. Fixed holiday weeks can have very good trading power, because Starwood must deposit the actual fixed week, instead of using the blended trading power that a floating week has. If I was in the market for an SVR week, I'd acquire a fixed Christmas or New Year's week.

 

[LisaRex]

Curious, since you are a Vistana Resort owner also, does VR have good trading power in II? I've never used II since I always go to VR since I have a lot of family in Orlando.

I own both WKORV and SVV and there is a definite difference in what I see in II. If you are content to stay within Starwood, SVR/SVV can be a very economical way to exchange into a more expensive resort such as the Hawaiian resorts. If you want to expand beyond that (e.g. Four Seasons Aviara), SVR/SVV may not give you sufficient trading power to see them.

 

[LisaRex]

Btw - I bought from SVO even having bought resale first and knowing the pitfalls. In hindsight was it wise? No. Do I regret it? No. Do I make the best of it? Yes.

Thanks to Tug and Starwood (they wouldn't return my phone calls when I was looking to buy my first timeshare), I bought my first timeshare on the resale market. Still overpaid, but not as much as I would have had I bought from the developer. And I'd probably own OV instead of OF.

That being said, I can see the value of retroing units in order to gain 5* elite privileges, especially if I traveled internationally and stayed in a lot of Starwood hotels. And even though 5* owners aren't supposed to be put in the best rooms ahead of owners there, I strongly suspect they are. However, I can definitely understand mandoggy's reluctance to post that here, though, because the strong sentiment here is that if you don't buy resale SDO and use Starwood priority in II to exchange up, you're kind of stupid.

I'd like to think of myself as a balanced owner. I own one resort (WKORV-N) that I bought purely as an emotional purchase -- OF at a gorgeous resort on Maui, which I still don't regret even though the MFs make me cringe. (I don't believe for one second that it takes $10,000 per month to properly maintain (and pay property taxes) on a 2 bdrm condo.) Plus, I own one resort (SVV) that I bought solely to use as a trader/SVN exchanger. It was the most economical way for me to meet my end result of securing a second unit/week at WKORV the years I go there, and/or to have enough SOs to secure a 3 bdrm unit at HRA/WSJ.

My advice is to read the information here, understand it, and then make an informed decision. If you want to crow about trading into top tier resorts for a fraction of the price, have at it. If pursuing elite status appeals to you, and you can afford it, then by all means go for it. It's all good.

 

[jerseygirl]

I own both WKORV and SVV and there is a definite difference in what I see in II. If you are content to stay within Starwood, SVR/SVV can be a very economical way to exchange into a more expensive resort such as the Hawaiian resorts. If you want to expand beyond that (e.g. Four Seasons Aviara), SVR/SVV may not give you sufficient trading power to see them.

It must be the floating week curse because my fixed Spring Break SVR week sees everything, including FSA.

 

[VacationForever]

My SVR Float 1-52 now pulls everything too. This improved trading power came about in the past month or so.

 

[darius]

Minimum required to requal?

Hello everyone,

I called the call center to find out about a requal to one of my weeks and was told that I must spend a minimum of 20K (in mainland) or 40K in Hawaii. Was the rep misinformed?

Thanks!

 

[DeniseM]

Hello everyone,

I called the call center to find out about a requal to one of my weeks and was told that I must spend a minimum of 20K (in mainland) or 40K in Hawaii. Was the rep misinformed?

Thanks!

Did you call the number in the first post?

 

[darius]

Hi Denise,

Yes -- I did. Not sure if I got bad information from the rep?

Thanks!

 

[DeniseM]

Hi Denise,

Yes -- I did. Not sure if I got bad information from the rep?

Thanks!

I would email the OP, and ask them if the letter was signed by anyone.

There have been a few cases of individual sales people sending out "roque" letters, but they referred people to themselves.

Also, I noticed that this part of the post wasn't in the body of the letter, so I'm not sure if it came from the letter:

Starwood is temporarily lowering additional purchase needed to retro resale weeks. Additional purchase of $10k-$20k based on your resale week location will retro weeks.

 

[darius]

Great idea! Thank you Denise.

 

[gtm2011]

I called the number above and they routed my call to Juan Carlos Ruiz at 407-903-4814. The best offer they made me was to upgrade my one bedroom platinum annual SDO into a two bedroom lock-off worth 95,700 Staroptions at the Sheraton Vistana Villages. Along with the upgrade, they would also allow me to bring my mandatory resale WKV week into the SVN network. My net cost was going to be $15,904 and they were going to throw in 20,000 Starpoints as an incentive. From my perspective, you would probably need at least two voluntary resale weeks to make the deal worth considering.