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Westin Flex EOY Purchase

jabberwocky

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I just got off the phone with Vistana with regards to purchasing a Westin Flex package.

Here is what we currently own:

- SVR EY - 81,000 (Developer purchase fixed/float week 51 - our first)
- SDO EOYE (True-plat resale)
- WKORV-N EOYO (Oceanfront 176,700 resale)

Proposed deal:

67k EOYO Flex package for $13k + $850 closing ("discounted" price equates to about $0.20/point - more expensive than WF every year if you annualized - but not outrageous premium). MF would be $630/year. They would also retro our SDO unit so we would have 148,100 EOY.

Rationale:

67k would allow us to add 2-4 days to our Maui vacation plus get our SDO retro'd as a bonus. I do realize we would have to move rooms on Maui as OF units are not in Flex. It would also give us the flexibility to add a few days at WKV when we go to Scottsdale or to add a week in low season at SVR (probably week 1 right after Christmas). Third-order consideration is that we would get 3* elite status - the only benefit I can see is that we would have the Oct. 1 banking deadline extension and reduced banking fee.

Our alternative would be to purchase a second EOY WKORV-N Oceanfront week; however, the MF's would be quite a bit larger and we would have to commit to two full weeks every second year in Maui as I don't want to use it for SO's.

This would be a cash purchase and we can well afford the MF's. My wife and I are in our early 40's so there is a long-time horizon for potential use.

Thoughts? Should I be asking for additional Bonvoy points to be thrown in?
 

byeloe

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If you are looking for more staroptions, why not buy a platinum week at WKV. You may get an annual 2BD for close to the $13000. And it may have resale value later where the Westin Flex likely won't
 

jabberwocky

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We're not looking for more StarOptions per se. The reason for purchasing WF would be to be able to book a partial week in the 8-12 month window on Maui without having to play the StarOption lottery at 8 months. This would likely be a 30+year addition to our portfolio - I'm always assuming a resale value of $0 on every unit I buy now.
 

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We're not looking for more StarOptions per se. The reason for purchasing WF would be to be able to book a partial week in the 8-12 month window on Maui without having to play the StarOption lottery at 8 months. This would likely be a 30+year addition to our portfolio - I'm always assuming a resale value of $0 on every unit I buy now.
Play the 8 month lottery. You’re going to be throwing 13K in the trash. You would be spending 13K to book a few extra days at 12 months.
 

byeloe

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This would likely be a 30+year addition to our portfolio

Very difficult to forecast life 30 years out. Just seems to be a rather expensive way to add a few nights. But it may work for you. Might also depend on when you prefer to go to Maui
 

CPNY

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Very difficult to forecast life 30 years out. Just seems to be a rather expensive way to add a few nights. But it may work for you. Might also depend on when you prefer to go to Maui
Really, 20 years ago when I bought my first timeshare looking through the interval catalog I was like “WOWWWW I can go anywhere!!!” 20 years later, I never exchanged and use 70% airbnb lol times change. At least holding onto a mandatory deed people will take them for free (platinum weeks) I hold SVV Key West. I’m sure I can give them away free now, no price and people would scoop them up for the star options. There’s my exit plan lol. Here’s hoping Marriot doesn’t re work the star options chart
 

jabberwocky

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Very difficult to forecast life 30 years out. Just seems to be a rather expensive way to add a few nights. But it may work for you. Might also depend on when you prefer to go to Maui

With the kids in school for at least another 12 years or so we'd be looking at peak times so the security of knowing we would could book those extra days well in advance would be worth the peace of mind. I've found that 7 days is just a little too short for us, 14 days might be a bit too long. I'm also looking at airfares which can vary by around $400 depending on whether we do Sat-Sat or Sat-Wednesday. Adding four extra nights (Sunday - Wednesday) would give us airfare savings of $2400 for six people.

If it was just a few extra nights I wouldn't consider it, but adding in the retro of our SDO plat and the extra 148,100 EOY SO's makes it something I'd actually consider. We'll see what my wife thinks ;)

At least holding onto a mandatory deed people will take them for free (platinum weeks) I hold SVV Key West. I’m sure I can give them away free now, no price and people would scoop them up for the star options. There’s my exit plan lol.

I think at worst people will be willing to pick up the Westin Flex if it were offered for free. Unlike the Sheraton Flex you still get 12 month booking priority at a collection of desirable resorts.
 

CPNY

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With the kids in school for at least another 12 years or so we'd be looking at peak times so the security of knowing we would could book those extra days well in advance would be worth the peace of mind. I've found that 7 days is just a little too short for us, 14 days might be a bit too long. I'm also looking at airfares which can vary by around $400 depending on whether we do Sat-Sat or Sat-Wednesday. Adding four extra nights (Sunday - Wednesday) would give us airfare savings of $2400 for six people.

If it was just a few extra nights I wouldn't consider it, but adding in the retro of our SDO plat and the extra 148,100 EOY SO's makes it something I'd actually consider. We'll see what my wife thinks ;)



I think at worst people will be willing to pick up the Westin Flex if it were offered for free. Unlike the Sheraton Flex you still get 12 month booking priority at a collection of desirable resorts.
That’s a good point. However, its a tougher sell. While I would like it, as an east coaster, heading to Hawaii every year would be tough. I can be in Europe in half the time. Unless, riverfront ski weeks were easy to get. But i hear that’s not the case.
 

Ken555

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Airfares to the islands are in flux due to Southwest. I wouldn’t make any long term decisions based on perceived savings due to airfares.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Markus

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Your rationale for doing this is solid, you can ‘t put a price on some of your considerations. They should offer something like 150,000 BonVoy points as well based on my recent conversations and owner updates.

Markus
 

CPNY

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I just got off the phone with Vistana with regards to purchasing a Westin Flex package.

Here is what we currently own:

- SVR EY - 81,000 (Developer purchase fixed/float week 51 - our first)
- SDO EOYE (True-plat resale)
- WKORV-N EOYO (Oceanfront 176,700 resale)

Proposed deal:

67k EOYO Flex package for $13k + $850 closing ("discounted" price equates to about $0.20/point - more expensive than WF every year if you annualized - but not outrageous premium). MF would be $630/year. They would also retro our SDO unit so we would have 148,100 EOY.

Rationale:

67k would allow us to add 2-4 days to our Maui vacation plus get our SDO retro'd as a bonus. I do realize we would have to move rooms on Maui as OF units are not in Flex. It would also give us the flexibility to add a few days at WKV when we go to Scottsdale or to add a week in low season at SVR (probably week 1 right after Christmas). Third-order consideration is that we would get 3* elite status - the only benefit I can see is that we would have the Oct. 1 banking deadline extension and reduced banking fee.

Our alternative would be to purchase a second EOY WKORV-N Oceanfront week; however, the MF's would be quite a bit larger and we would have to commit to two full weeks every second year in Maui as I don't want to use it for SO's.

This would be a cash purchase and we can well afford the MF's. My wife and I are in our early 40's so there is a long-time horizon for potential use.

Thoughts? Should I be asking for additional Bonvoy points to be thrown in?
The “deal” will always be there. I’d give it some time and see what pops up on resale. There was a Westin Flex resale not long ago that popped up. I wouldn’t jump into an EOY at 13K right now.
 

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The “deal” will always be there. I’d give it some time and see what pops up on resale. There was a Westin Flex resale not long ago that popped up. I wouldn’t jump into an EOY at 13K right now.
The problem with flex resale (Westin or Sheraton), aside from the lack of SO on resale, is that Marriott is aggressively exercising ROFR on resale flex products. Every Sheraton resale flex VOI that I have tried to purchase that has made it to contract has been taken by Marriott during the ROFR period. The accepted contract offers ranged from $1500 for 81k to $2500-$3000 for 148.1k HOs (all closing costs +MFs included). I inflated the selling price by having the seller pay all closing costs and MFs and then offering a higher total price to get the contract price higher in an attempt to pass ROFR. It didn't work. I am not going to pay a higher price than what I offered for a low-value resale product. I only want Sheraton Flex to get the high demand ski weeks at Steamboat that you can only get 12 months out and very few deeded weeks were sold (most were sold as the flex product). I am not talking about ski weeks at Sheraton Lakeside Terrace in Avon. I know you can get those with a decent chance of success at 8 months with SOs (still not the high demand ski weeks of Christmas, New Years, Pres week though).
 

CPNY

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The problem with flex resale (Westin or Sheraton), aside from the lack of SO on resale, is that Marriott is aggressively exercising ROFR on resale flex products. Every Sheraton resale flex VOI that I have tried to purchase that has made it to contract has been taken by Marriott during the ROFR period. The accepted contract offers ranged from $1500 for 81k to $2500-$3000 for 148.1k HOs (all closing costs +MFs included). I inflated the selling price by having the seller pay all closing costs and MFs and then offering a higher total price to get the contract price higher in an attempt to pass ROFR. It didn't work. I am not going to pay a higher price than what I offered for a low-value resale product. I only want Sheraton Flex to get the high demand ski weeks at Steamboat that you can only get 12 months out and very few deeded weeks were sold (most were sold as the flex product). I am not talking about ski weeks at Sheraton Lakeside Terrace in Avon. I know you can get those with a decent chance of success at 8 months with SOs (still not the high demand ski weeks of Christmas, New Years, Pres week though).
That’s good to hear. It will probably keep the resale value up. Just keep trying!
 

marmite

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With the kids in school for at least another 12 years or so we'd be looking at peak times so the security of knowing we would could book those extra days well in advance would be worth the peace of mind. I've found that 7 days is just a little too short for us, 14 days might be a bit too long. I'm also looking at airfares which can vary by around $400 depending on whether we do Sat-Sat or Sat-Wednesday. Adding four extra nights (Sunday - Wednesday) would give us airfare savings of $2400 for six people.

I often book a 2nd week and leave early if I really don't want the extra days or if there is a substantial savings on air when leaving before the weekend. I live in Canada too, so I sympathize that our airfare can be extreme at times, but I have rarely seen that type of (huge) savings be consistent year-after-year based on travelling on a weekday vs. weekend.

I would personally rather have a 2nd owned EOY week in Hawaii, even with those MF's. If I don't use it one year, I'd go ahead and rent it out. You could even rent out the extra few days (if I you leave your unit mid week). Either that, or I'd do a request-ahead in II with your SDO for an additional days (requesting weeks on either side of your Hawaii reservation). Yes, I realize you'll likely not get OV, but if it is just adding on those extra days, that is a cheap way to do it. And as @oneohana suggested, renting from an owner is a good option. And then you have no obligations year after year.
 

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As owner of 5 developer-bought Sheraton Flex, I'm really glad that MVC is actively exercising ROFR which hopefully would stabilize resale prices for flex.
 

dioxide45

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That’s good to hear. It will probably keep the resale value up. Just keep trying!
Ending bids on eBay are only up slightly. What was selling for $1 is maybe selling for about $500 now. Perhaps then getting snapped up with ROFR.
 

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Ending bids on eBay are only up slightly. What was selling for $1 is maybe selling for about $500 now. Perhaps then getting snapped up with ROFR.
Was ROFR ever exercised as much as it seems to be now post acquisition?
 

dioxide45

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Was ROFR ever exercised as much as it seems to be now post acquisition?
I don't currently track the Flex programs on ROFR.net. Looks like I need to add them to the database.
 

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I don't currently track the Flex programs on ROFR.net. Looks like I need to add them to the database.
I’m guessing in general, not just flex but for all VSE resorts? Or did it become more utilized since MVC purchased VSE? Would be interesting to know at what percent. Of course it would be impossible since you aren’t tracking every single resale in the market lol. I guess you would note an uptick in tracking on what was reported?
 

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VSE can’t just all of a sudden exercise ROFR on resorts that don’t have ROFR in their CCR. They’d have to amend their CCR and that would require an owner vote?
 

dioxide45

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VSE can’t just all of a sudden exercise ROFR on resorts that don’t have ROFR in their CCR. They’d have to amend their CCR and that would require an owner vote?
It may or may not require an owner vote. Perhaps just a vote of the board. They were somehow able to do it at one of the Marriott properties (Summit Watch?). I am sure they have their attorneys pouring over all of the CC&R docs to see what they can get away with.
 

CPNY

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It may or may not require an owner vote. Perhaps just a vote of the board. They were somehow able to do it at one of the Marriott properties (Summit Watch?). I am sure they have their attorneys pouring over all of the CC&R docs to see what they can get away with.
I’m sure of it too. As evaluation of the business they just bought, I’m sure they will see area they can add restrictions. Adding ROFR to resorts that never had them is a bad sign of things to come IF in fact that is what they did or are doing without regard for the CCRs.
 

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What about renting those extra days from an owner?

It's a nice thought. Trying to rent an extra few days might be a bit tricky. Most rentals seem to be for full weeks unless I were to rent from a DC owner down the beach. I do like the stability of being able to book everything well in advance.
 
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