[ 2018 ] Westin Kierland SO use at Kaanapali

[kenme111]

First time post and could not find an answer to my question in the forum, sorry if already answered. About to pull the trigger on a 2bd Gold season at WK with 81k SO for $3.2k with the intent of mainly using for at one of the Westin Kaanapali resorts. Question is how hard is it to find availability 8mo out in Kaanapali, is it difficult or rather easy? My spouse is a teacher so our vacation time is limited to when schools are typically out. Thanks for any help

 

[cubigbird]

$3,200 is way overpaying for a resale gold season week at WKV. I would pass and keep looking, or if anything negotiate much lower. I wouldn't pay much more than $1000. Your best bet and the best value is to buy a Plat+ 148,100 Annual week.

 

[VacationForever]

$3,200 is way overpaying for a resale gold season week at WKV. I would pass and keep looking, or if anything negotiate much lower. I wouldn't pay much more than $1000. Your best bet and the best value is to buy a Plat+ 148,100 Annual week.

That is my observation too. Alternative is SVV Prime 2BR or 2BR l/o (Key West and Bella) for under 1K. 81K / 95.7K and with lower MF than WKV.

 

[carpie99]

First time post and could not find an answer to my question in the forum, sorry if already answered. About to pull the trigger on a 2bd Gold season at WK with 81k SO for $3.2k with the intent of mainly using for at one of the Westin Kaanapali resorts. Question is how hard is it to find availability 8mo out in Kaanapali, is it difficult or rather easy? My spouse is a teacher so our vacation time is limited to when schools are typically out. Thanks for any help

If your vacation time is not very flexible then I wouldn't buy WKV to go to Hawaii. You are going to want the 12 mos window to book. My vacation schedule is very flexible so I am able to use SVV weeks to book Hawaii during shoulder seasons. JMO YMMV.

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

First time post and could not find an answer to my question in the forum, sorry if already answered. About to pull the trigger on a 2bd Gold season at WK with 81k SO for $3.2k with the intent of mainly using for at one of the Westin Kaanapali resorts. Question is how hard is it to find availability 8mo out in Kaanapali, is it difficult or rather easy? My spouse is a teacher so our vacation time is limited to when schools are typically out. Thanks for any help

This year there was a lot in June but middle of the summer looked tough. In the southwest when school is out the end of May it is very doable but for areas where school ends the later part of June it is more difficult to exchange at 8 mos out

 

[DeniseM]

Kenme111 - Here is why a gold week for 81,000 Staroptions is not a good deal - you are paying the same maintenance fee as someone who buys a Plat week and gets 148,100 Staroptions.

 

[Jayco29D]

I agree with all the comments so far. We bought at Westin Kaanapali North Oceanfront to use it ourselves (primarily). The secondary goal was to buy at a mandatory resort so we could get the highest StarOptions of 178,000. This gives us more exchange opportunities to stay in other Westins in Maui, Westin St John and elsewhere. It will be hard to trade with so few StarOptions into other properties that require more StarOptions.

 

[Ken555]

I don’t typically travel during school vacation but I have had no issues using my WKV staroptions for Maui during the last 13 years. That said, I agree with others that a WKV 81k week is not the best choice.


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[zinger1457]

I agree with all the comments so far. We bought at Westin Kaanapali North Oceanfront to use it and for the highest StarOptions of 178,000 so we have trading power to stay in other Westin Maui’s and Westin St John someday. I think it will be hard to trade with WK and so few StarOptions into with something of higher value.

Maybe I'm missing your point but as long as someone has enough staroptions for the week they are requesting why would it be harder for them to make a trade outside of the location they own then you? Your WKORV ownership doesn't give you any special priority outside of WKORV.

 

[Negma]

Here is another way to look at it understanding that MF will go up.
I know you said your offer was 3.2, but to make the math easy using Starwood’s recent sale over 10 years; do the math using your offer ......
Gold 2 br LO is 5 k plus 16 k in MFs for 21k for 81k in star options a year for 10 years.
81 k options gets you 7 days in a one bedroom premium. Over 10 years that’s 70 nights or averages 300/ night
15k for a 2br platinum lock off with same maintence fees over 10 years is total 31k for 148.1 SO. But you get a week in 1br premium and 1 week studio, that’s 140 nights or 221/ night
Cubigbirds thinking makes more sense if you can afford the platinum week.

 

[GrayFal]

If your vacation time is not very flexible then I wouldn't buy WKV to go to Hawaii. You are going to want the 12 mos window to book. My vacation schedule is very flexible so I am able to use SVV weeks to book Hawaii during shoulder seasons. JMO YMMV.

I will be looking for week 48-50 in 2019. Is that a doable time frame using SO at 8 months?

 

[VacationForever]

I agree with all the comments so far. We bought at Westin Kaanapali North Oceanfront to use it and for the highest StarOptions of 178,000 so we have trading power to stay in other Westin Maui’s and Westin St John someday. I think it will be hard to trade with WK and so few StarOptions into with something of higher value.

A StarOption is a StarOption. It is not about trading power. If you have enough SO to book and there is availability, then you get to book it.

 

[Jayco29D]

A StarOption is a StarOption. It is not about trading power. If you have enough SO to book and there is availability, then you get to book it.

I did not mean some resorts with StarOptions have more trading power than others. What I meant is if you have the a lot of StarOptions, you have the best chance to book at other places since you need 178K StarOptions to stay oceanfront in a 2 bedroom at the other Kaanapali resorts and at Westin St. John. You can also split up StarOptions into smaller units and stay at many other places. I probably should not have used the word "trading power" since that is a standard term used to refer to II and RCI. I probably should have said "exchanging opportunities" or something like that. I will go back and edit my post to be more accurate.

 

[Jayco29D]

Maybe I'm missing your point but as long as someone has enough staroptions for the week they are requesting why would it be harder for them to make a trade outside of the location they own then you? Your WKORV ownership doesn't give you any special priority outside of WKORV.

I went back and edited how I wrote this. I mistakenly used the word "trading power" and should have said more StarOptions allow for more opportunities to exchange - not because any single resort has greater trading power - but because if you buy at a mandatory resort worth more SOs, you have more opportunities to exchange because you get more SOs. As far as I know, all SOs are equal in value. You just need more SOs to stay at specific locations, bigger unit size and for ocean views / ocean front views.

 

[vacationtime1]

I will be looking for week 48-50 in 2019. Is that a doable time frame using SO at 8 months?

Yes. Weeks 48-50 are low demand weeks almost everywhere -- even WKORV/N.

Full disclosure: we will be competing with you for one of those weeks; fortunately, there will be enough to go around

 

[GrayFal]

Yes. Weeks 48-50 are low demand weeks almost everywhere -- even WKORV/N.

Full disclosure: we will be competing with you for one of those weeks; fortunately, there will be enough to go around

Lol Thanks

 

[**Luv2travel**]

$3,200 is way overpaying for a resale gold season week at WKV. I would pass and keep looking, or if anything negotiate much lower. I wouldn't pay much more than $1000. Your best bet and the best value is to buy a Plat+ 148,100 Annual week.

Hello GrayFal- We are considering purchasing a 148,100 annual from Westin Kierland. I am checking to see if you've had any problem getting into the Westin North or South or Nanea with star options 8 months out? And- do you get a choice of view category? This post that I'm responding too is an older post- and I know since Marriott bought out Starwood or have destination points they may have moved over powered the system. Thanks for your assistance

 

[Ken555]

Hello GrayFal- We are considering purchasing a 148,100 annual from Westin Kierland. I am checking to see if you've had any problem getting into the Westin North or South or Nanea with star options 8 months out? And- do you get a choice of view category? This post that I'm responding too is an older post- and I know since Marriott bought out Starwood or have destination points they may have moved over powered the system. Thanks for your assistance

I do this and no problem at eight months, though I tend to travel outside school holidays. When ocean front is available, I can book it…but I don’t count on it. With SOs you can’t reserve ocean view vs island - unit location is based on how early you reserve, so if you do it as early as possible you’ll likely get a good unit.


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[dioxide45]

With SOs you can’t reserve ocean view vs island -

You may be able to now. In one of the recent website outages, when it came back up the ability to see the break out of island view and ocean view is now there. We don't know if the resorts will honor these views on a reservation, but I suspect there will be some upset owners if they don't.

 

[Ken555]

You may be able to now. In one of the recent website outages, when it came back up the ability to see the break out of island view and ocean view is now there. We don't know if the resorts will honor these views on a reservation, but I suspect there will be some upset owners if they don't.

View attachment 44475

It's always nice to see improvements at Vistana!

 

[dioxide45]

It's always nice to see improvements at Vistana!

I am sure they are just changing it so Marriott can come along and mess with it.

 

[EnglishmanAbroad]

It's always nice to see improvements at Vistana!

I guess it gives them the flexible interface to work with if/when they decide to introduce SO differentiation for various views/levels.

 

[CPNY]

I guess it gives them the flexible interface to work with if/when they decide to introduce SO differentiation for various views/levels.

I’m anticipating a complete overhaul to the SO chart. People will have to buy more to book those ocean views lol

 

[dioxide45]

I’m anticipating a complete overhaul to the SO chart. People will have to buy more to book those ocean views lol

I too anticipate an increase in StarOptions for Ocean Views. They did this several years ago for the Oceanfront. If you own those Ocean Views, you will get more SOs. Those that don't will have to buy more or use more to book those.

 

[**Luv2travel**]

Thank you for your input.