Dear TUGgers, I would appreciate any advice you could provide on making this one tough decision in my life -- buying a 2 BO at Westin Kierland for $22K (148,100 options) on a resale market.
I read lots of posts and did my homework, but a word of advice from people would be really helpful and very much appreciated. I never owned a timeshare before, but visited a couple of Starwood vacation ownership resorts by renting on EBay and was intrigued by the idea. I am a loyal Starwood customer and believe this is a great chain (I have been a platinum member for years), but a few things make me think twice:
(1) will I always be able to exchange within SVN into places I want to go to, such as Hawaii, WSJ, Lagunamar? I don't really intend to go to Kierland at all, but only want to buy it for the exchange power within SVN. This exchange promise is really my only reason for buying and I want to be really comfortable with the ability to exchange. Please tell me how it really is.
(2) II seems to be so complex and many people wrote about their frustration with the system. Will I be able to easily change into another high quality resort through II or will it just be a nightmare to deal with?
(3) Should I want to sell the timeshare in the future if it does not work out for me, how easy is it? Say if I just want to sell for $15K and take a loss, will it be relatively easy?
(4) I see all these great rental deals on EBay (such as $520 for a week at Kierland) and it puzzles me -- why should I buy a potential headache, when I can just rent when I need it?
Please give me your real life experiences, would be much apppreciated. Thanks!
I read lots of posts and did my homework, but a word of advice from people would be really helpful and very much appreciated. I never owned a timeshare before, but visited a couple of Starwood vacation ownership resorts by renting on EBay and was intrigued by the idea. I am a loyal Starwood customer and believe this is a great chain (I have been a platinum member for years), but a few things make me think twice:
(1) will I always be able to exchange within SVN into places I want to go to, such as Hawaii, WSJ, Lagunamar? I don't really intend to go to Kierland at all, but only want to buy it for the exchange power within SVN. This exchange promise is really my only reason for buying and I want to be really comfortable with the ability to exchange. Please tell me how it really is.
(2) II seems to be so complex and many people wrote about their frustration with the system. Will I be able to easily change into another high quality resort through II or will it just be a nightmare to deal with?
(3) Should I want to sell the timeshare in the future if it does not work out for me, how easy is it? Say if I just want to sell for $15K and take a loss, will it be relatively easy?
(4) I see all these great rental deals on EBay (such as $520 for a week at Kierland) and it puzzles me -- why should I buy a potential headache, when I can just rent when I need it?
Please give me your real life experiences, would be much apppreciated. Thanks!