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Information from Lagunamar Owners update

OKPACIFIC

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Thought I would just pass along some tidbits from our owners update during our recent trip to the Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort. By the way, it is a very nice resort, I wonder why it took us so long to visit it!

Of course, there is plenty of room for both parties misunderstanding the discussion, so please take everything with a grain of salt...
  • The new Mexico properties (Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, etc) might be sold as a club, which I presume would work like the Sheraton Flex Program. Lagunamar would not be part of the club.
  • We asked if Lagunamar would have it's staroption value increased once the other Mexico properties went into sales, similar to what happened in St John and to Kaanapali ocean front. The answer was yes, but we couldn't get a bead as to wether this would only apply to platinum plus season or if it would apply to gold plus season too. We also asked if the "ocean side" properties might become the ones that got the staroption upgrade; again no clear answer.
  • We asked if there were plans for a higher elite tier above 5 star. The answer was no, but there were plans to raise the staroption requirements to reach each of the existing elite levels. Owners would be grandfathered into their current level.
  • Other miscellaneous items about buying a Lagunamar property (we did not):
    • "Oceanside" properties could only be purchased as a two bedroom lockoff
    • They will not accept a trade in from another Vistana property towards a Lagunamar purchase
The update itself was pleasant and low pressure. We immediately got our resort credit coupons and went on about our day enjoying the resort.
 

okwiater

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Resorts Owned
WKV 2B Plat+ (x2)
WSJ 3B Plat+ (VGV/BV)
WLR 2B Plat+ Oceanside
SMV 2B Plat+
Sheraton Flex (x2)
They will not accept a trade in from another Vistana property towards a Lagunamar purchase

We were allowed to trade in but only towards the purchase of Gold season. We passed, of course.
 

margolism

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When we went for our owner's update last February, there was virtually nothing for them to sell. Was extremely low pressure, and the rep basically said he was moving to another property given there was virtually no inventory - especially for Plat Plus season.
 

SandyPGravel

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De Forest, Wisconsin
Resorts Owned
Westin St. John Plat+
2 BR-VGV
Westin St. John Plat
2 BR-BV
When we went for our owner's update last February, there was virtually nothing for them to sell. Was extremely low pressure, and the rep basically said he was moving to another property given there was virtually no inventory - especially for Plat Plus season.
Weird, the concierge really pressed us to do an update last week, but we told her numerous times we were not interested, that we had just done one in August in Colorado. Maybe the concierge gets something for booking updates? Don't understand why she was so insistent that we do an update if they don't have any inventory.
 

VacationForever

TUG Review Crew
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In general, the Concierge gets commission each time someone is booked to go on an owner update. They don't really care if you are buying or not, or how much inventory the resort has. The gift comes from their commission. So as long as they still make money (after the gift), they will push for the guest to sign up. Hence the gift value keeps going up if the guest negotiates, up to a point when it is no longer worth their while. It also results in the conflict between concierge and the sales person. Concierge just wants to push people through. Sale people only want "quality" guests.
 

susan6103

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Week 52?
We had an owner update today.
This is our first time back at Lagunamar in 5 years. The property looks better than before. That was a pleasant surprise.

My question is: do they really have holiday weeks here ?
I'm confused because we were able to exchange here for week 52 (SVN). But the sales guy is now telling us that won't be possible in the future as week 52 is now being sold and accessible only as event week.
 

cubigbird

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Resorts Owned
Westin Lagunamar, Westin Kierland X2, Westin St John-Sunset Bay X2, Westin Desert Willow, Westin Aventuras
We own week 51 event week - fixed week Christmas and just left. I agree, the resort looks great and they are doing a great job of upkeep.

I believe 50% of inventory of weeks 51 and 52 were sold as event weeks. I'm finding it is now becoming harder and harder to book or exchange into those weeks if you don't own them. I called to elite owner services the other day just to move my 2017 check in ONE DAY from Friday to Saturday and was denied, stating zero availability, and this was less than 7 days into the opening of the 12 month window. I had to keep what I had. In the past I have not had an issue changing the reservation by a day or two in the 12 month window. On another note, the owner services rep said the next available day to check in was Jan 6th. I have heard of Hawaii, STJ and Harborside holiday weeks booking quickly but not Lagunamar!! I guess that's starting to change??? During the week we were there, it was obvious the resort was full.

We also did an owners update. The staff said inventory to sell is minimal but they expect to get access to other inventory soon - they couldn't state what that would be - Nanea, St. John or others. It doesn't appear there are plans for the redevelopment or sales of the other Westin yet or anytime soon.
 
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