50% 0ff owners rental

[rhstjean]

Have you received your Starwood 50% off certificates for paying maintenance fees early. I called today and got the roundaround. If you received your certificates, did them come by mail,email, etc. Thanks

 

[timeos2]

The costly deal

I am assuming that this is an offer to pay your fees early and earning you a 50% discount on a rental. While that may be a good deal for those that can use it take a broader view and you'll see why there are some problems with this type of "bonus".

This is most likely delinquent time that needs to be rented. This gets it a renter - thats good. But it's at 50% of the going rate. Assuming that the rate is the annual fee (it may not be) right off the bat the income is 50% short. The owners eat that difference in "bad debt". But even that 50% may not entirely go to the Association vault as usually the management gets a percentage - 25-35% or more - thus reducing the net income even more. So while this may generate a small amount of income, and a good deal for those that use it, the majority of owners end up covering the cost in the annual fees buried as bad debt in the budget. Far better to take steps to get that time foreclosed and resold to a full fee paying owner.

 

[jarta]

timeos, ... First, you state that "most likely" this is delinquent property. Could it not just as easily be developer inventory which has not sold and probably will not sell this year? The rental to owners at 50% would reduce the amount the developer has to pay for its unsold units.

Or, could it not be that it is a mix of delinquent and developer leftovers that was negotiated between the HOA and Starwood? Why couldn't this be a proactive measure undertaken in good faith by both the developer and the HOA?

And why can't one do both things at once concerning delinquencies: take steps to collect on the delinquent units and rent them at 50% to those owners who pay early?

The net rental goes to reduce the delinquency. The delinquent owner owes the rest of the delinquency and the foreclosure is still available if the rest of the delinquency is not paid - and quickly. ... eom

 

[DeniseM]

Have you received your Starwood 50% off certificates for paying maintenance fees early. I called today and got the roundaround. If you received your certificates, did them come by mail,email, etc. Thanks

It [*the hotel certificate] is worthless - it's 50% off the rack rate for SW hotels. You can get a better rate through various discount sites.

*Since this statement seemed to be confusing to some people, I added the words "the hotel certificate." Note that this (hotel) certificate cannot be used at the timeshares - there is a separate certificate for that.

Tugger Nodge tried to book a *room with it and he was able to get a better rate not using the certificate.

*Nodge was actually trying to use the timeshare certificate, but he was told it only applied to the full retail rate. Post #7 in this thread may indicate that the first Rep. gave him the wrong info.

 

[DeniseM]

Just got this email (addressed to my husband who has nothing to do with our timeshares.)

Thank you for paying your maintenance fee and taxes early. Now you can enjoy two valuable vacation awards:

50% off Regular (retail) Rates at participating Starwood hotels and resorts. Your SPG 50% Off Regular (retail) Rates Award has been deposited to your Starwood Preferred Guest® account. Your award ID is HOA50, and there is no cost of Starpoints® to you.

To enjoy your 50% discount off Regular (retail) Rates, call 888.625.4988 and ask for Rate Plan SPG50. Make sure to mention your Award ID: HOA50

50% off your special Owner rate, which is valid for one to three consecutive nights at participating Starwood Vacation Ownership resorts* based on availability.

To enjoy your 50% discount off your Owner rate, call 888.625.4988 and ask for Rate Plan SVOWN50 and make reservations for travel now through December 31, 2010. Please write your confirmation number in the box below and present this email at check-in.

Confirmation Number: __________________

Remember, you could also win other exciting vacation prizes through the end of 2010. You have been automatically entered in the "Pay early. Win big. Win now" contest and the "Thanks-a-Million Vacation Giveaway" for chances to win extraordinary travel prizes, including up to 1,000,000 Starpoints® from the Starwood Preferred Guest program. This is simply our way of thanking you for paying early.

*Isn't this offer DIFFERENT from the original?

 

[pointsjunkie]

Have you received your Starwood 50% off certificates for paying maintenance fees early. I called today and got the roundaround. If you received your certificates, did them come by mail,email, etc. Thanks

when you go on to starwood.com and log-in to your spg account and look at awards your 50% awards will be listed there.

 

[nodge]

It's worthless - it's 50% off the rack rate for SW hotels. You can get a better rate through various discount sites. Tugger Nodge tried to book a room with it and he was able to get a better rate not using the certificate.

Here is a link to my original data.

I just called SPG armed with the official code to see if the 50% OFF rates have come down to actually be 50% OFF anything reasonable. Short Answer: Nope.

For the extra night I need in March at WKV, I have a large one bedroom reserved via an AAA rate of $199 (which was available when I made the reservation, but is now $249 on SPG.com).

Here are the rates quoted by SPG today for that same room:

SVO Owner Rate: $298/night

SVOWN50 Rate: $419/night (which is 50% off the newly published rack rate of $840/night)

[RANT REMOVED BY NODGE (too bad, it was a good one too)]

Wait . . . Another data point offers hope . . . . .

I just called SPG and tried to book WKORVN for one night in January. Here are the rates I got for an island view studio:

Best Available Rate: $360/night
AAA Rate: $288.00/night
SVO Owner Rate: $280.00/night (take that AAA members. Us SVO owners get $8 off more than you PER NIGHT Baby).
SVOWN50 Rate: $140/night

The SPG agent said that the SVOWN50 rate has extremely limited availability at each resort, and it is only available if there is "tons" of available inventory. If not, you'll get quoted 50% off the rack rate with that coupon and you won't be told that there are better deals to be had unless you know to ask.

So there you go . . . . the SVOWN50 rate can indeed be 50% off the SVO Owner rate. It just has to be way off season for that to actually happen. I'll call off the dogs now. SVO has skirted the law yet again.

-nodge

 

[James1975NY]

Here is a link to my original data.

I just called SPG armed with the official code to see if the 50% OFF rates have come down to actually be 50% OFF anything reasonable. Short Answer: Nope.

For the extra night I need in March at WKV, I have a large one bedroom reserved via an AAA rate of $199 (which was available when I made the reservation, but is now $249 on SPG.com).

Here are the rates quoted by SPG today for that same room:

SVO Owner Rate: $298/night

SVOWN50 Rate: $419/night (which is 50% off the newly published rack rate of $840/night)

Hey out-of-work attorneys looking for something to do. I remember reading somewhere that attorney fees are fully recoverable in consumer fraud/protection cases. If so, SVO's highly touted "50% OFF Special Owner Rates" inducement which has turned out to really be "50% Off Rack Rates" could generate a ton of billable hours for you from working for 200,000+ of us SVO owners who where duped by SVO to pay early by this promotion. No class action or pesky interpretation of SVO's developer-friendly contracts required either. Just bill away on a per client basis.

SVO messed up big time on this one. Consumer protection sharks will be circling to gorge on this easy kill.

-nodge

I am willing to bet that SVO has its basis covered on this one. These types of offers are not new or unique to SVO.

Nobody that is making advanced notice reservations will be paying a rack rate for anything...airfare, car rentals, hotels etc. A rack rate is only in place to set the "bar" and ultimately determines where the dicounted rates will fall.

 

[jarta]

So, despite what was posted earlier, the 50% is off the SVO Owner Rate.

That means that for WKOVR, the:

Best Available Rate = $360
AAA rate = $288
SVO Owner Rate = $280
50% SVO Owner Rate = $140

So, how is the certificate worthless? And, just how is an unemployed attorney going to make money on that class action suit for deceptive advertising? Do facts matter here? ... eom

 

[DeniseM]

Facts are very important - you should check yours:

It's worthless - it's 50% off the rack rate for SW hotels. You can get a better rate through various discount sites. Tugger Nodge tried to book a room with it and he was able to get a better rate not using the certificate.

The original published offer read:

“50% off your special Owner rate.”

AFTER publishing the offer as an incentive to get owners to pay early, they have changed it to:

50% off Regular (retail) Rates

*After some research I discovered that this has NOT changed - it was always 50% off the rack rate.

 

[jarta]

DeniseM, ... There are 2 separate certificates.

One is for 50% off the Starwood hotel retail rate.

The other is for 50% off the SVO Owner Rate at SVO resorts.

Please check your facts by going to mystarcentral before posting baloney. As the moderator here, its sort of mandatory. For nodge, it's just humor.

Here's what it says on mystarcentral:

"When you pay your maintenance fees early and in full, you'll receive immediate rewards, including two valuable vacation certificates and automatic entry in two exciting contests for a chance to win up to 1,000,000 Starpoints and other exciting travel prizes. Learn more" ... eom

 

[DeniseM]

Jarta - I did not reference the TS coupon - my post ONLY talked about the hotel coupon, and since I'm the only one who used the word "worthless" in this thread, logic would indicate that you were addressing my post.

Your back-peddling also tells me that you didn't know that Starwood changed the offer mid-stream...

 

[jarta]

DeniseM, ... I am not back-pedaling. You are.

Your post to me mentions both the hotel deal and the SVO deal and confuses them.

There have always been 2 certificates. One for the hotel; one for the SVO resorts. You just didn't read the material. And, despite what you and nodge say, both have value. The figures nodge posted prove that. It's just that he obscures the value in his ramblings. I tried to illustrate the value by using nodge's own numbers.

The problem here is that people who don't like Starwood very much won't read what is said in their haste to disparage Starwood's efforts to get assessments paid on time. They (including you) post one thing and then the other referring to both as one certificate and confuse people who visit this site about what type of offers Starwood is actually making to owners who pay the MF early. Facts do matter - apparently except here (where if the facts are posted it's called back-pedaling). ... eom

 

[DeniseM]

Nice try - but I had already stated in another thread that I didn't know what the TS coupon was worth:

We know the hotel coupon is worthless, but I wonder what the "real" value of the other coupon is?

My post does not mention the TS coupon...

So yes, to answer your question, Starwood's behavior is absolutely unethical: They offered a coupon for 50% off the special owners rate to owners who pay their MF early, and then several weeks later changed it to 50% off the rack rate, making it worthless, exactly as I said above... I'm sure you will come up with a way to defend that...

*After some research I discovered that this has NOT changed - it was always 50% off the rack rate.

 

[DeniseM]

With some help from gmarine, I have discovered that I made a mistake about the hotel coupon - it was always 50% off the rack rate and it was not changed later by Starwood.

When I read Nodge's original post, that he linked above, I misread it and I thought that he was trying to use the hotel coupon at the WK hotel, and he was actually trying to use the TS coupon at WKV. So when he said that they changed the terms of the coupon, I thought it was the hotel coupon.

My apologies for any confusion this may have caused.

In conclusion - the hotel certificate is still useless, but Starwood did not change the terms after issuing it - it was worthless from the beginning!

 

[Troopers]

I'll take the SPG 50% off coupons. They certainly have value at Cat 6 or 7 hotels.

 

[wannagotoo]

You do a good job, Denise

 

[pointsjunkie]

does anyone remember what discount we are entitled to as an owner, i recall something like 35% off. i will go back in to my papers.

 

[jarta]

DeniseM, ... Apology accepted. Glad to see you figured out there are two separate certificates, both of which can be used.

50% off the hotel rack rate is probably not worthless, but not as great a deal either as the SVO owner rate certificate. Certainly it depends on the way you travel or the level of the hotel you want to reserve at. Four Points in Kansas City at the airport - not so good; Danieli in Venice in the summer - not so bad - especially if you have an elite level that entitles you to an upgrade.

50% off the SVO owner rate is pretty sweet. Using nodge's own figures, it's a savings of almost $150 per day at WKV. ... eom

 

[LisaRex]

SPG50 certificates can be valuable at places like New York City hotels, where one night retails for $400 or more. The rack rate is higher than that, but 50% off can offer a nice savings. I don't believe Hawaiian hotels accept the SPG50.

I get this certificate every year from Starwood but I'm not sure if it's because I get the Starwood AMEX or because I'm Starwood gold.

 

[DeniseM]

Glad to see you figured out there are two separate certificates, both of which can be used.

Since I posted all the details for both certificates in post #5 in this thread, obviously I knew there were 2 certificates...

 

[jarta]

DianeM, ... Posting verbatim what Starwood mailed out does not mean you understood it. You closed post #5 by asking: "Isn't this offer DIFFERENT from the original?"

Then, in your next post (post #10), you state:

"The original published offer read:
Quote:
“50% off your special Owner rate.”

AFTER publishing the offer as an incentive to get owners to pay early, they have changed it to:
Quote:
50% off Regular (retail) Rates"

The "it" you say was changed is the special owner rate certificate. "It" was never changed. You were just confused. Plus, you later altered your post - but only to admit that the hotel/rack rate certificate had never changed.

In your haste to point out that Starwood was offering a "worthless" certificate you jumbled up the 2 separate certificates.

Your inability to stop dissembling is making you look foolish. ... eom

 

[DeniseM]

I try not to make mistakes on TUG, but obviously I made one here. All I can do is admit it, try to explain what I was thinking, and correct it, and I've done that. I feel a little foolish and I probably do look foolish, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you pointing it out...true to form. I'm done with this topic.

 

[pointsjunkie]

the svown50 is on;y good for 3 nights.

i booked xmas week next year at orlando for $85 per night for the 2 br.

cancun studio for $60 per night.

only 3 coupons have posted waiting for my other 6.

this is a great promo.

 

[sb2313]

wporv in January

Just utilized ours to book 3 nights at the princeville villas-$205 a night for the one bedroom premium in january(studio is $140 and 2 bedroom $329). For reference the best available rate on spg is $309 in the 1 bedroom premium for those nights. Pleasantly surprised that this is such a great coupon!