Vistana Beach Club

[suskey]

HI .. Just received an offer in the mail to join SVO w/o the inital fee. I own a floating Prime week at the Beach CLub.

I can't find how many Star Option points this would be assigned. Does anyone know?

I am thinking of doing this...we travel off season..I like the idea of them paying my II fees. I am pretty diligent with searching and getting good exchanges so I would be right on the phone with Starwood at the 8 month mark.

Have anyone recently converted?

Susan

 

[pointsjunkie]

i think it will be worth 81000 staroptions when trading within the SVN. you will love being part of it. the starwood resorts are beautiful and at the 8 month period you call and start trading, especially if you can go during the off season.

i am so happy that your resort will be part of the svn so now we can go there.

 

[CeeWoo]

i think it will be worth 81000 staroptions when trading within the SVN.

76,000 (81 would work out a lot better though)

 

[suskey]

I called them and they are only giving 76,000..which is a bummer because most 2br similar resorts they have are 81,000.

Also, on the website www.starwoodvacationownership.com/joinsvn it says that
the Beach Club and Fountains Vistana "will be subject to different reservation windows to access reciprocal reservation systems once they become members of SVN"

What do you think that means???

Susan

 

[CeeWoo]

the Beach Club and Fountains Vistana "will be subject to different reservation windows to access reciprocal reservation systems once they become members of SVN"

What do you think that means???

Susan

I think it means that instead of the previous arrangement for exchanging between Fountains/F II/ and Beach club it'll now be the 8 month booking window that SVN uses for resorts other than your home resort

 

[lprstn]

On your letter did you have to sign something or call the sign up? I haven't gotten mine but I am so excited and ready to join I can't wait. Do I have to wait for the letter?

 

[suskey]

I think you can just sign up on the above mentioned website.

Does SVN have anything similar to HGVC's Open Season?

Susan

 

[grgs]

I think it means that instead of the previous arrangement for exchanging between Fountains/F II/ and Beach club it'll now be the 8 month booking window that SVN uses for resorts other than your home resort

That's correct. Click on the "Program Comparison" tab at that website. There it discusses the change in the booking window for Fountains/VBC owners:

"* Access to Vistana's Beach Club, Sheraton Vistana Resort Fountains and Fountains II by Owners in those reciprocal reservation system resorts will be subject to different reservations windows through Starwood Vacation Network. For example, prior to joining Starwood Vacation Network, Vistana's Beach Club Owners may access Sheraton Vistana Resort Fountains 11 months in advance of their desired arrival date. After joining Starwood Vacation Network, Sheraton Vistana Resort Fountains will not be available to Vistana's Beach Club Owners until 8 months in advance of their desired arrival date."

Glorian

P.S. I'm hoping to be able to book into VBC for June 2009 using StarOptions. What do you all think my chances are?

 

[DeniseM]

I think you can just sign up on the above mentioned website.

Does SVN have anything similar to HGVC's Open Season?

Susan

I am not sure what Open Season is, but with regular SVN reservations there are 3 main reservation periods:

8-12 mos. out - owners can reserve their deeded unit/season at their home resort

0-8 mos out - owners can make Staroption exchanges to other resorts/seasons/units

0-3 mos. out - owners can reserve less than a full week using Staroptions

For more info., see the FAQ at the top of the page.

 

[suskey]

I am not sure what Open Season is, but with regular SVN reservations there are 3 main reservation periods:

8-12 mos. out - owners can reserve their deeded unit/season at their home resort

0-8 mos out - owners can make Staroption exchanges to other resorts/seasons/units

0-3 mos. out - owners can reserve less than a full week using Staroptions

For more info., see the FAQ at the top of the page.

HGVC Open Season allows you to book available units at a greatly reduced price. For example..a 1 br HGVC Las Vegas Strip would go for around $70.00 a night. This is excess inventory. I believe you can book it 60 days our..not sure on that.

I like the SVN options but it is extremely annoying and unfair that they only are assigning 76,000 staroptions for our units. That prohibits trading into most other 2 bedrooms in the network w/o going into the following year... And that means double maintence fees to do so.

Does anyone think the Palms and Spas units at Vistana, once renovated, will be included in SVN?

Susan

 

[DeniseM]

HGVC Open Season allows you to book available units at a greatly reduced price. For example..a 1 br HGVC Las Vegas Strip would go for around $70.00 a night. This is excess inventory. I believe you can book it 60 days our..not sure on that.

No - Starwood offers a 30% discount to owners, but that's off rack rate, so in Hawaii, for example, it's still close to $300 a night for a studio unit.

 

[Ken555]

HGVC Open Season allows you to book available units at a greatly reduced price. For example..a 1 br HGVC Las Vegas Strip would go for around $70.00 a night. This is excess inventory. I believe you can book it 60 days our..not sure on that.

That's a nice feature - I wish Starwood had that.

I like the SVN options but it is extremely annoying and unfair that they only are assigning 76,000 staroptions for our units. That prohibits trading into most other 2 bedrooms in the network w/o going into the following year... And that means double maintence fees to do so.

I know it won't make you feel any better, but you're currently paying about 50% or less than other SVN properties in maintenance fees. I have no idea how SVN decided on the StarOption value for VR. There are other threads here with speculation on this seemingly arbitrary amount.

Does anyone think the Palms and Spas units at Vistana, once renovated, will be included in SVN?

I'd expect all the phases to be admitted to SVN. This is an easy way for SVN to have a new resort to sell without building anything, and showing original owners what can be done with StarOptions in the hopes of selling them more.

 

[CeeWoo]

I know it won't make you feel any better, but you're currently paying about 50% or less than other SVN properties in maintenance fees. I have no idea how SVN decided on the StarOption value for VR. There are other threads here with speculation on this seemingly arbitrary amount.

.

I'm certainly hopeful though that they don't use the remodeling as justification to raising the mainenance fees in the future (since we paid for it)

 

[grgs]

I like the SVN options but it is extremely annoying and unfair that they only are assigning 76,000 staroptions for our units. That prohibits trading into most other 2 bedrooms in the network w/o going into the following year... And that means double maintence fees to do so.

On the other hand, Lakes/Cascades 2 bd (non-LO) units are only valued at 67,100 options. Seems to me that is also unfair, as they've valued Fountains 2 bd (non-LO) units at 76,000. I don't quite get what Starwood is hoping to achieve with this valuation of 76,000 options--seems to me they've pleased no one.

Glorian

 

[pointsjunkie]

ken555's point was dead on. if they are letting you join the svn and are giving you 78000 staroptions to get to 3* elite you will need to purchase 81000 which will get you to exactly 159,000 staroptions. so that will be their sales strategy.

 

[grgs]

ken555's point was dead on. if they are letting you join the svn and are giving you 78000 staroptions to get to 3* elite you will need to purchase 81000 which will get you to exactly 159,000 staroptions. so that will be their sales strategy.

I thought you were on to something there, but Starwood isn't valuing these units at 78,000. It's 76,000, which means someone would need 83,000 options to get to 3 * elite.

Glorian

 

[SDKath]

Do you own at another resort system too? I think the 30,000 "Phantom" StarOptions you can get for owning at another TS could be applied to the elite system? Katherine

 

[suskey]

Our maintence fees at Vistana Beach Club are high...not sure exactly but I think they are around $800.00-900.00.So to get enough options for a 2BR one decent week, I need to pay twice that amount.

Does the II membership you get cover all the resorts you own? I currently own 8 other II weeks that are not Starwood. Or is the free membership they give you just for the SVN property?

Susan

 

[Ken555]

Our maintence fees at Vistana Beach Club are high...not sure exactly but I think they are around $800.00-900.00.So to get enough options for a 2BR one decent week, I need to pay twice that amount.

Everything is relative. $800-900/week is significantly less expensive than other SVN resorts, and less than 50% of the new ones.

Does the II membership you get cover all the resorts you own? I currently own 8 other II weeks that are not Starwood. Or is the free membership they give you just for the SVN property?

Susan

No. It's a separate account for just your SVN week(s), and you cannot add your other weeks to it.

 

[pointsjunkie]

just the svn property. that 76000 is stupid, i bet once everyone is in the system and enough people complain that the amount of staroptions does not get them an equal trade within the same town svv, i think they will increase them like they did with svv ans svr lakes and cascades. we shall see.

 

[grgs]

Our maintence fees at Vistana Beach Club are high...not sure exactly but I think they are around $800.00-900.00.So to get enough options for a 2BR one decent week, I need to pay twice that amount.

Yes, but some of the mf on other 2 bedroom units are significantly higher. Westin Ka'anapali runs around $1700. Westin Princeville is around $2000. The new Westin Desert Willow in Palm Desert is going to be around $1600. So I guess it's all relative.

I'm not recommending this, but you could buy an inexpensive, low season week with relatively low mf that would put you over the 81,000 mark. I'm sure Starwood is hoping you will do just that.

Does the II membership you get cover all the resorts you own? I currently own 8 other II weeks that are not Starwood. Or is the free membership they give you just for the SVN property?

Susan

The II membership you get through SVN will only cover SVN properties. You would still need to keep your other II account for all non-SVN properties if you wish to trade those. And it isn't really "free." YOu pay for it as part through your SVN annual fee.

Glorian

 

[suskey]

This is becoming less appealing to me. I was ready to jump on it, now I am not so sure.

Susan

 

[Transit]

just the svn property. that 76000 is stupid, i bet once everyone is in the system and enough people complain that the amount of staroptions does not get them an equal trade within the same town svv, i think they will increase them like they did with svv ans svr lakes and cascades. we shall see.

I agree where did they get this odd number from? 76000 SO's.

 

[LisaRex]

This is becoming less appealing to me. I was ready to jump on it, now I am not so sure.

Susan

Some food for thought:

Even though I probably won't use SVN much, I am intrigued by some of the promos that Starwood has offered to its owners. For instance, here are some deals they offered us during the spring promo:

1) a studio in WKORV or WPORV for 12k StarPoints per night with 5th night free.
2) 7 nights in a 1 bdrm Orlando villa for 37k StarOptions. (76k StarOptions could be stretched to get 2 weeks in a 1 bdrm villa at your home resort.)
3) 7 days in a 2 bdrm Orlando villa for $999 + they'll throw in 10k StarPoints if you check in on a Fri/Sat or Sun.
4) studio villa in Orlando for 11.5k StarPoints or a 1 bdrm for 20k StarPoints with 5th night free.
5) 7 nights in a studio villa in WKORV for $1500 + they'll throw in 15k StarPoints if you check in on a Fri/Sat or Sun.

I'm hoping that Kierland, Mission Hills, and Colorado will be included in fall promos. What is nice about these offers is that you can use them to extend your stay for a lot cheaper than you can normally rent them. Plus they give you flexibility to just stay for a long weekend, etc.

Anyway, I don't know if non-SVN members are eligible for these deals, but I think they can add value to the membership.

 

[SDKath]

Less logical is that it will take 81,000 SOs to trade INTO the resort. But to trade out, you'll get only 76,000.

It assures one can only get a studio for the 2BR you are depositing. That in itself is lame. BUT if you are in the SVN this way, you CAN combine staroptions with other SVN resorts so you can take the points further. I guess if I had 2 units I would join for sure (you'd get more than 148,100 SOs) but with only 1 unit, I am not sure if it would work.

The 76,000 SOs is a very clever way to cheat everyone out of a good SO trade. Sigh.

Katherine