[ 2022 ] Keen to buy Vistana Villages but very confused, can anyone help?

[annie10189]

Hi all,

I've been to Sheraton Vistana Villages 3 times and been to sales presentation every time.

Husband and I just got married and confident we will return to Orlando at least every second year and believe a timeshare is a more cost effective way to do this.

I've been researching and feel massively confused by fixed timeshare weeks, star options, deeded weeks, non deeded.

Someone recommended I buy mandatory resale weeks but I can't work out why.

Some of the ad's say buyer may receive title credit and I can't work out what this means,

We ideally want to be able to:

- Primarily travel to Sheraton Vistana Villages for 2 weeks every second year in a 2 bed unit
- We'd like the flexibility to change the times of year we travel (so not a fixed 2 weeks)
- It would be nice to occasionally consider going to other countries/resorts so some ability to swap/bank would be good
- In an ideal world Orlando one year and somewhere new the next etc

I'm incredibly confused by all of the options and would really love if anyone could offer some advice.

 

[The Colorado Kid]

Welcome to TUG! You have found the exact place to get all your questions answered.

Buy resale whatever you do.
What is your budget?
Mandatory resorts are those where the StarOptions are granted to you each use year and can be used to book other properties in the Vistana network.
Highly flexible for using a variety of resorts.

Others here on TUG will give you the best advice on which Vistana resorts to buy - Westin Kierland is a favorite if your budget allows.

Redweek Westin Kierland resales:
The Westin Kierland Villas Timeshares For Sale | RedWeek

eBay has a Vistana mandatory membership for sale - you can setup an alert on eBay to be notified when new listings are posted
81000 STAR OPTIONS SHERATON VISTANA VILLAGES KEY WEST ORLANDO FLORIDA TIMESHARE | eBay

 

[annie10189]

Thanks so much @The Colorado Kid.

Our budget is relatively flexible to be honest. I don't mind spending a little more for 'the right thing'. Would rather have something that will work and allow flexibility long term than buy cheap and it not really work for us.

Welcome to TUG! You have found the exact place to get all your questions answered.

Buy resale whatever you do.
What is your budget?
Mandatory resorts are those where the StarOptions are granted to you each use year and can be used to book other properties in the Vistana network.
Highly flexible for using a variety of resorts.

Others here on TUG will give you the best advice on which Vistana resorts to buy - Westin Kierland is a favorite if your budget allows.

Redweek Westin Kierland resales:
The Westin Kierland Villas Timeshares For Sale | RedWeek

eBay has a Vistana mandatory membership for sale - you can setup an alert on eBay to be notified when new listings are posted
81000 STAR OPTIONS SHERATON VISTANA VILLAGES KEY WEST ORLANDO FLORIDA TIMESHARE | eBay

 

[buzglyd]

Westin Kierland would give you a huge pile of points and you could easily book Vistana Villages with them. Figure about 12 grand or so for a resale Kierland.

 

[vacationtime1]

Here is a good introduction to Vistana (and the whole "mandatory"/"voluntary" thing): https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/s...-to-timesharing-or-starwood-start-here.63224/

Purchasing an eoy ("every other year") unit at SVV may work well for you, but buy only in the Key West or Bella phases (which are "mandatory"). Also, buy only in prime season; the cost/benefit is much better on maintenance fees.

Take your time; do your research. It's a whole lot easier to buy these things than to sell them.

 

[byeloe]

Westin Kierland would give you a huge pile of points and you could easily book Vistana Villages with them. Figure about 12 grand or so for a resale Kierland.

I think it is more like $14000, right now with limited resales available

Hi all,

I've been to Sheraton Vistana Villages 3 times and been to sales presentation every time.

Husband and I just got married and confident we will return to Orlando at least every second year and believe a timeshare is a more cost effective way to do this.

I've been researching and feel massively confused by fixed timeshare weeks, star options, deeded weeks, non deeded.

Someone recommended I buy mandatory resale weeks but I can't work out why.

Some of the ad's say buyer may receive title credit and I can't work out what this means,

We ideally want to be able to:

- Primarily travel to Sheraton Vistana Villages for 2 weeks every second year in a 2 bed unit
- We'd like the flexibility to change the times of year we travel (so not a fixed 2 weeks)
- It would be nice to occasionally consider going to other countries/resorts so some ability to swap/bank would be good
- In an ideal world Orlando one year and somewhere new the next etc

I'm incredibly confused by all of the options and would really love if anyone could offer some advice.

A 2bd mandatory in Orlando will only come with 81000 staroptions. Right now it could cost upto $4000.
A 2 BD from Westin Kierland will get you 148100 options. It will cost around $14000 right now.

If you have a look at the staroptions value chart you can see how many options are required to book any of the different resorts.

That will help you decide how many to buy

 

[wtrjock]

We own 2 2br annual weeks at SVV key west. Our MF are $1300/year each. Each week gives 81000 star options that we usually use to go to Cancun in a 2br off season. We have never been to SVV but that is the power of the mandatory weeks. The lockoff rooms allow you to split the unit into 1br week and a different studio week, but the MF is higher for the LO rooms. I paid $1k per week on ebay when I bought the units.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Or just rent SVV as many Owners rent their weeks just to recover Maintenance Fees. Check RedWeek for rental prices.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TUGBrian]

if your goal is to simply save money on orlando vacations, renting is most certainly your best choice for now.

you can have your pick of 2br timeshares all over orlando for what they would cost in maintenance fees, many times even less depending on your scheduling flexibility.

same goes for many other locations that contain large numbers of timeshare resorts, although orlando is most certainly the largest/easiest rental market out there.

 

[bnoble]

- Primarily travel to Sheraton Vistana Villages for 2 weeks every second year in a 2 bed unit
- We'd like the flexibility to change the times of year we travel (so not a fixed 2 weeks)
- It would be nice to occasionally consider going to other countries/resorts so some ability to swap/bank would be good

As others have mentioned, I think this can be done by renting. Renting certainly gives you flexibility of time. And, renting probably gives you a cost close to what the annual fees would be, and saves you the need to buy (and, importantly, later sell) anything at all. If you instead needed e.g. Christmas and New Years every year, that might be different. But that doesn't sound like what you need right now.

- In an ideal world Orlando one year and somewhere new the next etc

This on the other hand might be worth exploring a points mini-system. That system could be Starwood, or it could be something else. There are lots of great timeshares in Orlando, so the real question is where else you'd like to focus, and that would help narrow down which system(s) would be a good fit.

 

[CPNY]

@annie10189 I own in orlando and travel to orlando. I wouldn’t use my star options to book a trip to orlando when you can buy getaways for much less than maint fees. This will free up your star options to travel In the vistana network. How do you buy getaways? Easy, when you own a mandatory property like SVV Key west or Bella phase you’ll receive a free interval account. In interval there are getaways for cash that you can buy in addition to what you own and they are plentiful to orlando. They are just extra one time cash vacations. You can buy as many as you like.

if you have the cash, buy Westin kierland villas. As mentioned a 2 bedroom plat plus week will yield 148,100 SO. You can use this to your advantage and get more than one week per year at many destinations in the VSN. It will also allow for star option usage along with an interval exchange if you wanted to lock off the unit. If you like orlando and are looking at Disney trips, then you may be able to deposit a prime WKV week into interval and exchange for a stay in a Disney property. A lockoff at WKV comes with so many excellent usage options. Whatever you do, BUY RESALE!!! Look for a mandatory resort and the best season.

 

[byeloe]

Welcome to TUG! You have found the exact place to get all your questions answered.

Buy resale whatever you do.
What is your budget?
Mandatory resorts are those where the StarOptions are granted to you each use year and can be used to book other properties in the Vistana network.
Highly flexible for using a variety of resorts.

Others here on TUG will give you the best advice on which Vistana resorts to buy - Westin Kierland is a favorite if your budget allows.

Redweek Westin Kierland resales:
The Westin Kierland Villas Timeshares For Sale | RedWeek

eBay has a Vistana mandatory membership for sale - you can setup an alert on eBay to be notified when new listings are posted
81000 STAR OPTIONS SHERATON VISTANA VILLAGES KEY WEST ORLANDO FLORIDA TIMESHARE | eBay

Just an FYI, the eBay listing is for a 2bd lockoff gold season. I put in a bid thinking it was a 2bd platinum, but then I saw the data sheet.

 

[5finny]

@byeloe
I almost did the same thing but caught myself just in time

 

[byeloe]

@byeloe
I almost did the same thing but caught myself just in time

Either the market has taken a significant jump or there are a lot of other people thinking it's a high season week, as the bid is close to $2000

 

[dioxide45]

Either the market has taken a significant jump or there are a lot of other people thinking it's a high season week, as the bid is close to $2000

I think it is a supply/demand issue right now. Vistana soaked up a lot of weeks people didn't want with deed back programs. They were also very heavily pushing trading in weeks to sell new Sheraton Flex. I suspect a lot of people did this causing a lot of weeks to come off the market as Vistana added them to their Flex trusts. Also in the past, a lot of weeks came from exit companies that would list timeshares for resale. That business model kind of died to where now the exit company first tries to have the resort take it back (through deed back programs the owner can do themselves) or they tell the owner to stop paying and let the resort foreclose. I think the days of lots of Marriott and Vistana resales on eBay are behind us.

I wonder what a 2BR dedicated prime week would sell for now on eBay? Those in the past used to go for less than $1000. Then slowly crept up. The only hope of scooping a good deal is taking advantage of a seller or broker who doesn't really know what they are selling. Most Sheraton properties don't have ROFR, so Vistana can't scoop a good deal that you snag.

 

[annie10189]

Thank you so much everybody! Really incredibly helpful!

 

[rickandcindy23]

Welcome to TUG! You have found the exact place to get all your questions answered.

Buy resale whatever you do.
What is your budget?
Mandatory resorts are those where the StarOptions are granted to you each use year and can be used to book other properties in the Vistana network.
Highly flexible for using a variety of resorts.

Others here on TUG will give you the best advice on which Vistana resorts to buy - Westin Kierland is a favorite if your budget allows.

Redweek Westin Kierland resales:
The Westin Kierland Villas Timeshares For Sale | RedWeek

eBay has a Vistana mandatory membership for sale - you can setup an alert on eBay to be notified when new listings are posted
81000 STAR OPTIONS SHERATON VISTANA VILLAGES KEY WEST ORLANDO FLORIDA TIMESHARE | eBay

That one on ebay sold for a lot of $$$. I cannot imagine paying that much and then paying those fees every year. Am I the crazy one?

 

[rickandcindy23]

I think it is a supply/demand issue right now. Vistana soaked up a lot of weeks people didn't want with deed back programs. They were also very heavily pushing trading in weeks to sell new Sheraton Flex. I suspect a lot of people did this causing a lot of weeks to come off the market as Vistana added them to their Flex trusts. Also in the past, a lot of weeks came from exit companies that would list timeshares for resale. That business model kind of died to where now the exit company first tries to have the resort take it back (through deed back programs the owner can do themselves) or they tell the owner to stop paying and let the resort foreclose. I think the days of lots of Marriott and Vistana resales on eBay are behind us.

I wonder what a 2BR dedicated prime week would sell for now on eBay? Those in the past used to go for less than $1000. Then slowly crept up. The only hope of scooping a good deal is taking advantage of a seller or broker who doesn't really know what they are selling. Most Sheraton properties don't have ROFR, so Vistana can't scoop a good deal that you snag.

This is exactly why I have had a tough time buying more SBP and SDO weeks. I would love to own more but they are hard to come by. Too bad Vistana got wise to all of the ebay ads for my favorite ones to own.

 

[The Colorado Kid]

I agree that eBay listing went for pretty high based on other recent sales. I am seeing more resales increasing in the final prices on eBay as I think the resale market is recovering a bit from the last 2 years.

 

[Red elephant]

This is exactly why I have had a tough time buying more SBP and SDO weeks. I would love to own more but they are hard to come by. Too bad Vistana got wise to all of the ebay ads for my favorite ones to own.

I have been trying to get SBP weeks as well. Looking for a 2 bed lockoff but cannot find it.

 

[DanCali]

Westin Kierland would give you a huge pile of points and you could easily book Vistana Villages with them. Figure about 12 grand or so for a resale Kierland.

More like $15K today I believe. Prices have increased post-pandemic.

 

[DandM1]

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[byeloe]

[quote of removed post]

unfortunately your unit is not mandatory so doesn't come with the staroptions. You will likely have to give it away, possibly with incentives

 

[VacationForever]

...or call Vistana for deedback.

 

[DandM1]

[Text deleted. Solicitations are not permitted in the discussion forums. Please review the Posting Rules you agreed to when you registered as a user here.]

Sorry!!