[2006] SVO Resale: Yes you can requalify/retro [MERGED]

[James1975NY]

so i was going over the last few pages and for a while starwood wasn't letting you combine staroptions however i think that changed a little while ago. does starwood allow you to combine staroptions to gain elite still?

They will allow you to combine the StarOptions but any StarOptions that have transferred through resale will NOT contribute towards your Elite status unless you were to retro-activate them with direct purchase(s) through SVO.

 

[Ken555]

They will allow you to combine the StarOptions but any StarOptions that have transferred through resale will NOT contribute towards your Elite status unless you were to retro-activate them with direct purchase(s) through SVO.

And as with all things Starwood, this can change at any time without notice.

 

[James1975NY]

And as with all things Starwood, this can change at any time without notice.

Very true but I will add that the initial reason why they did not allow combination of StarOptions was because their PMS (property management system) did not have the logic to prevent someone from reaching Elite status with mandatory resale purchases.

Now that they have the logic (for some time now), they are not so concerned with it. At the end of the day, if they did not allow them to be combined, the Vacation Counselors in owner services would spend a day and a half working with owners and multiple StarOptions "buckets". It is in their best interest to allow the combination of Options to reduce the impact of longer talk times.

 

[James1975NY]

Very true but I will add that the initial reason why they did not allow combination of StarOptions was because their PMS (property management system) did not have the logic to prevent someone from reaching Elite status with mandatory resale purchases.

Now that they have the logic (for some time now), they are not so concerned with it. At the end of the day, if they did not allow them to be combined, the Vacation Counselors in owner services would spend a day and a half working with owners and multiple StarOptions "buckets". It is in their best interest to allow the combination of Options to reduce the impact of longer talk times.

High talk time bad!

 

[Ken555]

Very true but I will add that the initial reason why they did not allow combination of StarOptions was because their PMS (property management system) did not have the logic to prevent someone from reaching Elite status with mandatory resale purchases.

Now that they have the logic (for some time now), they are not so concerned with it. At the end of the day, if they did not allow them to be combined, the Vacation Counselors in owner services would spend a day and a half working with owners and multiple StarOptions "buckets". It is in their best interest to allow the combination of Options to reduce the impact of longer talk times.

It would be great if SVN actually announced this rationale. I believe you, since it makes sense, but you cannot seriously suggest anyone make a purchase decision based on this assumption unless the company itself makes an announcement and commits to this as a permanent policy. And even then, we wouldn't believe them, since they always retain the right to make unilateral changes, etc etc.

 

[YYJMSP]

New info on price to retro

The sales person at WMH today said $20K for a mainland purchase as being the current requirement.

Not sure I trust him, given that he didn't know what I was talking about until I explained what "retroing" was, and then he went away for a good 5mins before coming back with that info...

 

[caterina25]

I just purchased Haborside II resale 2 bedroom L/O gold season.What would be the least costly resort I could purchase to be able to retro my timeshare.

 

[TomH]

I just purchased Haborside II resale 2 bedroom L/O gold season.What would be the least costly resort I could purchase to be able to retro my timeshare.

As of today, my contact at telephone sales confirmed 20K purchase to qualify for retro. The 15K figure promotion has expired.

Tom

 

[vistana101]

I just purchased Haborside II resale 2 bedroom L/O gold season.What would be the least costly resort I could purchase to be able to retro my timeshare.

15k is definitely the mainland purchase requirement-so maybe SPB or SVR?

EDIT: just saw the 20k post by Tom-A Lagunamar Studio might be good

 

[DavidnRobin]

I just purchased Haborside II resale 2 bedroom L/O gold season.What would be the least costly resort I could purchase to be able to retro my timeshare.

Please make sure (whatever the retro cost) to ask yourself about what the true value of retroing a resort like HRA - HRA already has access to SVN (since it is Mandatory). There is much more benefit to retro a Voluntary resort.

So the gain is only two-fold for retroing a M resort... 1) the ability to convert your SOs to SPs - is this really something you would do with HRA?, and 2) gaining SVO Elite status - unless you plan to get to 5* Elite (and Plat for Life - if available) eventually and can maximize the benefits - it is questionable whether the cost is worth the Elite benefit (at any level).

JMO - YMMV
btw - I did retro a M resort. In hindsight - a poor decision.

 

[DeniseM]

I just purchased Haborside II resale 2 bedroom L/O gold season.What would be the least costly resort I could purchase to be able to retro my timeshare.

Hi Paula - what are you goals in wanting to retro this timeshare?

If it's so you can convert your week to Starpoints, that's a really bad value. You can actually BUY Starpoints from Starwood for less than converting your week to Starpoints. Why? Because the maintenance fee is so high, that it costs you more to convert your week to points, that it would to simply buy them.

Unless you intend to go all the way to 5 Star Elite (a proposal that will cost you over $100K up front and about $10K a year in maintenance fees) there is no reason to requalify.

 

[caterina25]

I love to travel to Europe but lately the prices are out of reach,I was thinking of the possibility of trading for the hotel points to use for hotels in Europe.After reading some of the post the points may not be a good trade.Thanks for your help.

 

[DavidnRobin]

DeniseM brings up an excellent point in the cost to buy SPs openly compared to the amount of SPs attained for the MFs. I would not think that HRA fits this scenerio - more like a place to buy to go (like WSJ).

Get an AMEX SPG card - we have racked up many SPs using our card (almost exclusively) - we have 250K SPs, and we just used 225K SPs during our Europe vacation (using the 5th nite free) for London, Amsterdam, and Paris

 

[DeniseM]

I love to travel to Europe but lately the prices are out of reach,I was thinking of the possibility of trading for the hotel points to use for hotels in Europe.After reading some of the post the points may not be a good trade.Thanks for your help.

Here is another negative aspect of converting to Starpoints:

Every year your maintenance fee will go up. (My maintenance fee at the Maui resort has gone up $1,100 since 2004.)

Every year Starwood raises the number of Starpoints they charge for hotel stays.

But Starwood has NEVER increased the number of Starpoints they give timeshare owners who convert their weeks to Starpoints.

In 2004 when I paid $1,200 in maintenance fees, it was worth 80K Starpoints if I converted to points. This year, with my maintenance fee now over $2,300 - I would still only get 80K Starpoints. So my maintenance fee has doubled - but the Starpoint exchange rate hasn't changed.

Personally, I would never convert Hawaii, St. John, or Harborside, or any of the other new resorts with high MF's to Starpoints. It's just not a good value, when you can buy the points for less!

 

[jerseygirl]

It really is a double whammy when you think about it. Your maintenance fees go up AND most hotel systems increase the points required for stays periodically. So, you're getting the shaft on both sides.

Hilton raised the points for conversion after their last devaluation. I think they're the only major to have ever done that. I've never really figured out whether the increase was "fair" or "token," but I appreciated the goodwill it showed.

I try to plan my Hilton vacations a full year in advance so that I can convert the excess points prior to year-end (e.g., if you want to convert 2011 points, you need to let Hilton know by 12-31-2010). This year I had enough "extra" points to get a free airline ticket .... but, again, I've never really analyzed the full monetary value. I just knew I didn't need the extra unused points (espcially since Hilton's Open Season rates are a wonderful thing), so I thought why not just convert my extra HGVC points to HH points, then to airline miles -- worked for me!

 

[SDKath]

I do want to add that the SP requirement for many of the nicest hotels has actually been LOWERED this past year (probably because of the sluggish economy). Not saying that it will stay that way, but for the last 2 years my family and I have been to some incredibly hotels and have stayed with much fewer SPs than in the past.

My mom is going to Venice and staying at the Westin Europa for 12,000 SPs a night! The cost to get a room there is 900 EUROS!

Last year it was the same in Greece. Just saying....

Katherine

 

[jerseygirl]

Thanks Kath -- I didn't realize that. I really don't pay too much attn to SP requirements as I primarily use "cash and points" (I find that to be the best deal for me, primarily because I use another hotel's loyalty card and really don't rack up a ton of SPs). Did you mom stay at the Hotel Grande Bretagne in Greece? Just got back from there last month and spent a weekend in Athens (and a week in Rhodes -- absolutely wonderful!). The Hotel Grande Bretagne was FABULOUS. As lowly gold members, we were thrilled to be upgraded to a junior suite which had a HUGE balcony from which we could catch glimpses of the protestors (a bunch of Greek men standing in the street, smoking, and plotting the following week's strikes -- no violence!)

We had both breakfast and dinner at their rooftop restaurant so we could enjoy both the daytime and evening views of the Acropolis/Parthenon. I felt like I was sitting in a postcard! That hotel deserves every bit of its rating! I think we paid 8000 SPs and $150 -- a great deal (less than $400/night if one didn't have the points and took advantage of the current 20% SP cash sale).

 

[DavidnRobin]

SPG did not change there SP requirements from 2009-2010
SPG had many downward SP requirments from 2008-2009
{both were discussed on TUG - but see FlyerTalk for details}

of course - over the long haul - up, up, and away

the cost per room - as we know - is very dynamic - and the cause of a lot of fuzzy math (as has been discussed) - for example: we stayed 5 nites at the Westin Paris for about 84K SPs - the 'back of the door price' of the room per nite was 750 euros (~$1100 per nites) - did we really save $5500 minus the cost of 84K SPs (~$1700) = $3800 for those 5 nites? Only if I would ever actually spend $1100/nite (ah...nope).

However - SPs are a great way to stay at nice European hotels for cheap... saved us $1000s not even using fuzzy math (that would have saved over $10K - which feels good - but certainly overexagerated - IMO YMMV)

 

[mwinikoff]

Denise,

How/Where are you buying Starpoints at a "good price"?

Thanks,

M

Here is another negative aspect of converting to Starpoints:

Personally, I would never convert Hawaii, St. John, or Harborside, or any of the other new resorts with high MF's to Starpoints. It's just not a good value, when you can buy the points for less!

 

[LisaRex]

Denise,

How/Where are you buying Starpoints at a "good price"?

Thanks,

M

You can buy them directly off the SPG website. There is a maximum you can buy is 20k at $.035 per point. They also occasionally offer discounts. They ran a year-end promo in '09. If you're married, I believe each spouse can buy 20k and then you can combine them for an award.

 

[DeniseM]

Denise,

How/Where are you buying Starpoints at a "good price"?

Thanks,

M

What Lisa said - but I would never "buy" Starpoints - that was just one of the reasons that converting is a poor value most of the time. We are generating "free" Starpoints with our Starwood AMEX.

 

[DavidnRobin]

What Lisa said - but I would never "buy" Starpoints - that was just one of the reasons that converting is a poor value most of the time. We are generating "free" Starpoints with our Starwood AMEX.

We also use our SPG AMEX card to gather SPs, but they are not free. There is a annual fee (easy to overcome) - but more importantly you need to compare the value of having a SPG AMEX card compared to having other types of 'cash-back' or other award cards.

 

[Pindento]

?? *Wood Sales over the phone - no REQUAL, no UPGRADE for resale units ??

I just called SVO direct sales for information, and spoke with someone named Don - I was looking to get info about inventory on where active sales were occuring. I also asked a few questions while I was at it about re-quals/upgrades on resales. The emphatic responses was that there was no longer any options available to take a resale of any kind and get it qualified into the Starwood Vacation network - no way, no how. Not through re-qualification, nor through upgrade.

Was I just talking to the wrong guy, a direct sales guy attempting to guard turf, or is this a new reality? He indicated that all these options were eliminated about a year and a half ago - he said that if you bought something on resale, neither upgrade nor requal with another unit was an option. Not "let me see", or "let me talk with my manager", just "this no longer exists".

For my motivations as a potential new buyer, this would stop me completely in my tracks from buying a unit ... resale or otherwise, seems like this would reduce current owners resale market options to unload if needed.

Anyone have definitive sources out there that could confirm or correct this message I got over the phone?

Vincent

 

[Fredm]

I just called SVO direct sales for information, and spoke with someone named Don - I was looking to get info about inventory on where active sales were occuring. I also asked a few questions while I was at it about re-quals/upgrades on resales. The emphatic responses was that there was no longer any options available to take a resale of any kind and get it qualified into the Starwood Vacation network - no way, no how. Not through re-qualification, nor through upgrade.

Was I just talking to the wrong guy, a direct sales guy attempting to guard turf, or is this a new reality? He indicated that all these options were eliminated about a year and a half ago - he said that if you bought something on resale, neither upgrade nor requal with another unit was an option. Not "let me see", or "let me talk with my manager", just "this no longer exists".

For my motivations as a potential new buyer, this would stop me completely in my tracks from buying a unit ... resale or otherwise, seems like this would reduce current owners resale market options to unload if needed.

Anyone have definitive sources out there that could confirm or correct this message I got over the phone?

Vincent

The comment I emphasized is not true. I have been involved in several Requals in the past 6 months. However, none in the past month. So, cannot say for certain that it is not a new policy.

 

[YYJMSP]

Anyone have definitive sources out there that could confirm or correct this message I got over the phone?

Our last requalification was done about 10 months ago -- just fired off a note to our corporate sales rep and post once I have a response...