2017 Reservation Strategy

[dioxide45]

Pulling this question from the old thread I resurrected. I have a few questions about our strategy for booking 2017 StarOption reservations.

We currently have a 13 night Westin Lagunamar reservation for may using 2017 StarOptions. We are also looking to go to Maui the first week of December in a 2BR. We would be able to use remaining 2017 StarOptions and 2018 StarOptions to make that happen. However, having to borrow 2018 options would require us having to call at 9:00am vs being able to book online at midnight.

1. What is available like at WKORV N/S at 8 months using StarOptions? We are looking for a 2BR but could book a studio and 1BR.
2. Would we be better to rebook our Lagunamar stay using borrowed 2018 options? Is having the ability to book online at midnight that important for shoulder season Maui?
3. Would they be willing to borrow options from 2018 when we would effectively still have lots of 2017 options remaining?
4. When you borrow points, you need to have that years MFs prepaid? If so, does that also include the SVN fee, or only the estimated amount shown online. Also, after paying this year's fee the system will probably still show a $5 balance for the ARDA fee, how do I avoid the future MF payment from being applied to that and a $5 balance outstanding on 2018 fees?

 

[okwiater]

I am a StarOptions borrowing pro, so although I can't definitively answer your WKORV-specific questions, I can handle the others.

2. If you can shuffle reservations around so that you have the option to book at midnight, you're always better off. Sometimes I'm surprised and inventory I thought would be available is snapped up immediately, or inventory I thought would be snapped up sticks around for days or weeks. Even though you can get a feel for particular properties and weeks, there's always a bit of a "crapshoot" element, especially with some of the funny things Vistana does with inventory holdbacks. So yes, if you're able to rebook Lagunamar using borrowed options, all the better.

3. You can definitely borrow from 2018 with 2017 options remaining. I just did this a few days ago, booking a 176,700 SO 2017 reservation by draining 40,900 options scattered across various 2017 ownerships and 135,800 options from a 2018 ownership. At the end of the transaction, I still had 257,700 untouched 2017 options which I told them I wanted to keep for use at my home resort. Even if you've already "contaminated" the options by relinquishing your Home Resort priority, there are still other rules which would make it beneficial/desirable for you to want to preserve those options specifically. For instance, you can only rent SVN reservations at your home resort (and in your home season). So they really don't care which options you want to use or why; just be clear which ones you want to use and/or leave and they'll happily borrow per your request.

4. Yes, you do need to have the year's MFs prepaid. It DOES include the SVN fee if the week you're prepaying is either your 1st or 2nd SVN week. In other words, whatever the website shows as next year's estimated MFs is the amount you'll need to pay. As for the ARDA fee, I had the same situation occur, where I was showing a $5 balance due to the ARDA fee. The phone agent was still able to take a payment for just next year's fee, and although I'm sure the system stupidly applied it to the ARDA fee, I simply sent a followup message using the online messaging system requesting that my prepayment be credited entirely to 2018 and not to the 2017 ARDA fee. I've done this in the past and while it has taken a few days to receive a response I have never had issues getting it credited properly.

 

[youppi]

Pulling this question from the old thread I resurrected. I have a few questions about our strategy for booking 2017 StarOption reservations.

We currently have a 13 night Westin Lagunamar reservation for may using 2017 StarOptions. We are also looking to go to Maui the first week of December in a 2BR. We would be able to use remaining 2017 StarOptions and 2018 StarOptions to make that happen. However, having to borrow 2018 options would require us having to call at 9:00am vs being able to book online at midnight.

1. What is available like at WKORV N/S at 8 months using StarOptions? We are looking for a 2BR but could book a studio and 1BR.
2. Would we be better to rebook our Lagunamar stay using borrowed 2018 options? Is having the ability to book online at midnight that important for shoulder season Maui?
3. Would they be willing to borrow options from 2018 when we would effectively still have lots of 2017 options remaining?
4. When you borrow points, you need to have that years MFs prepaid? If so, does that also include the SVN fee, or only the estimated amount shown online. Also, after paying this year's fee the system will probably still show a $5 balance for the ARDA fee, how do I avoid the future MF payment from being applied to that and a $5 balance outstanding on 2018 fees?

Sorry to hijack this thread dioxide45 but on our 2017 DRI MF, ARDA fee increased from $5 to $7. Are you, VSE owners, still paying $5 for ARDA fee in your 2017 VSE MF ?
Thanks

 

[dioxide45]

Sorry to hijack this thread dioxide45 but on our 2017 DRI MF, ARDA fee increased from $5 to $7. Are you, VSE owners, still paying $5 for ARDA fee in your 2017 VSE MF ?
Thanks

The fee that is shown for our Vistana account is only $5. However, the fee that Marriott tries to collect is $10. I think it is up to the developer to decide how much they want to try to collect.

 

[dioxide45]

One more question on this, if one has to borrow points, does it help to actually prepay the MF in advance online ahead of when you have to call, or is it just as easy to do it all in a single call?

 

[pathways25]

One more question on this, if one has to borrow points, does it help to actually prepay the MF in advance online ahead of when you have to call, or is it just as easy to do it all in a single call?

In my experience, if I pay online just before calling to borrow, the agent has frequently not been able to see the payment and they have asked me to pay again. I would suggest paying online a few hours before calling to borrow the points.

 

[dioxide45]

Thanks, I will probably do it a few days in advance.

 

[okwiater]

I would also recommend pre-paying the $5 ARDA fee, since withholding that amount occasionally causes the system not to show the week as fully pre-paid. Bypassing the glitch requires the agent to involve resolution services, which could delay your reservation. It's not worth it for $5. You can always submit a message online later to have them reallocate the $5 towards the following year's MF.