I bought a Sheraton Desert Oasis EOY (every other year) ownership earlier this year with first use in 2009. My Maintenance Fees are listed as $293.02, which is $586.04 over two years. This amount is $40 more than the annual MF as listed by grgs. Is this standard for EOY ownerships?
Also, even though I am a resale purchaser, my current year charges show the $109 membership fee as part of my total due. Also, my onwership details show the Starpoint and Staroption values. Is this true of all ownerships, whether eligible for SVN or not?
I just read seenett's summary of SVN and SVO, along with nettleton's Starpoint spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet, nettleton wrote about Desert Oasis:
"owners who bought their weeks before the resort was part of SVN have been offered SVN membership. The previous developer sold only one season; year round float for weeks 1-52. The weeks are considered Gold for SPG purposes."
seenett wrote: "Owners of some older resorts built and sold by a previous developer (Embassy, Vistana, etc.) before Starwood took control may be allowed to “buy in” to the SVN network and participate fully in the StarOption and StarPoint features; though sometimes at reduced point values. Because many of these resort weeks were purchased before SVN was introduced, there is very limited availability of these weeks within the SVN system. On occasion, SVO will offer SVN membership to the current owners of these weeks in order to get more weeks from that resort to be available within SVN."
The ownership I bought was one of these year round float ownerships sold by the previous developer. I'm looking for advice - should I pay the membership fee and assume that I will be allowed to participate in starpoints and staroptions? Should I ask whether I am eligible? Anything else I should know?
Thanks