Buying on Secondary market at Westin St. John

[pal11]

I am considering buying on the secondary market at Westin St. John Bay Vista. It is listed as a platinum week with a floating designation, though its does have an assigned unit and assigned week (25). It is strange that the assigned week is outside of the Platinum weeks of 51-18. Does that assigned week make sense? Does anyone know if I will still have the same priority in booking a platinum week of my choice as other owners? I understand at Bay Vista I will not be considered a vacation club member and will not be able to use points at other Westin timeshares which I don't mind as I plan using the unit every year. Any other disadvantages to buying on the secondary market?

 

[GrayFal]

I am considering buying on the secondary market at Westin St. John Bay Vista. It is listed as a platinum week with a floating designation, though its does have an assigned unit and assigned week (25). It is strange that the assigned week is outside of the Platinum weeks of 51-18. Does that assigned week make sense? Does anyone know if I will still have the same priority in booking a platinum week of my choice as other owners? I understand at Bay Vista I will not be considered a vacation club member and will not be able to use points at other Westin timeshares which I don't mind as I plan using the unit every year. Any other disadvantages to buying on the secondary marke

25 is Platinum
51-18 is Platinum Plus

 

[DavidnRobin]

I am considering buying on the secondary market at Westin St. John Bay Vista. It is listed as a platinum week with a floating designation, though its does have an assigned unit and assigned week (25). It is strange that the assigned week is outside of the Platinum weeks of 51-18. Does that assigned week make sense? Does anyone know if I will still have the same priority in booking a platinum week of my choice as other owners? I understand at Bay Vista I will not be considered a vacation club member and will not be able to use points at other Westin timeshares which I don't mind as I plan using the unit every year. Any other disadvantages to buying on the secondary market?

I recommend to slow down and spend more time researching the many factors involved when purchasing WSJ (along with not purchasing...).

 

[andremike]

Have you stayed there before? I believe St John is a Mandatory Resort so you get staroptions to use anywhere... one thing to consider is the maintenance fees are probably high.. so you might be better off buying elsewhere and using your options to stay there

I was thinking about staying there, so I am wondering

 

[Markus]

Have you stayed there before? I believe St John is a Mandatory Resort so you get staroptions to use anywhere... one thing to consider is the maintenance fees are probably high.. so you might be better off buying elsewhere and using your options to stay there

I was thinking about staying there, so I am wondering

Bay vista phase is not mandatory. If you are looking for StarOptions, you need to buy in the Virgin Grand phase only.

markus

 

[pal11]

Thank you for all your comments. Can you tell me if resale buyers have the same priority in regards to choosing weeks as those who buy from Marriott/Westin? I understand that exactly 12 months prior (prior to what I don't know) everyone who is a resident can choose within their season, and then at 8 months it is opened up to others.

Does anyone now how difficult it is to secure a week in January or February or for that matter a week 51 or 52 if you have a floating platinum plus ownership?

 

[daviator]

There is no reservation advantage to those who buy from the developer, everyone who owns in a given phase and season gets access 12 months in advance of checkin. The system is fair in that regard.

 

[GrayFal]

There is no reservation advantage to those who buy from the developer, everyone who owns in a given phase and season gets access 12 months in advance of checkin. The system is fair in that regard.

True.

 

[Eric B]

The weeks in Virgin Grand are all fixed unit fixed week ownerships so floating is only possible into released weeks or unsold inventory. The developer generally makes other use of weeks 51-53 for unsold inventory, which is understandable. The result is that it’s typically difficult to float to those weeks - they rent well, too, so owners tend to either use or rent, not float.

In the other phases, some are fixed in 51 or 52. I’m not sure what the proportion is. The biggest downside I see is waiting for the home week reservation window for those means not using your priority in weeks 1-18. The result would be rather expensive credit to deposit in Interval if you can’t get a short notice week in your unit size/season for the voluntary phases or expensive StarOptions for VGV or a requalified week in the others.

 

[ljmiii]

Does anyone now how difficult it is to secure a week in January or February or for that matter a week 51 or 52 if you have a floating platinum plus ownership?

I can tell you that when I purchased a WSJ Bay Vista EOYO week in late 2023 and I asked the seller to reserve a reservation for me in February, that they were unable to secure Friday or Saturday night but did secure a Sunday night one. I'm guessing they didn't try at midnight for Friday, there was stiff competition for Saturday, and were on at midnight for Sunday...but I don't actually know.

Week 51 and 52 are weird for the reasons @Eric B mentioned. And as a recent resale buyer at Bay Vista, I know that there's no chance I'll ever try for weeks 51 or 52 (unless I retro the weeks at some points) simply because not getting a reservation would be catastrophic - it can't be converted to StarOptions so the week would be lost.

 

[Eric B]

As an owner of fixed platinum plus weeks early in the year, I generally convert the reservations to use other StarOptions and try to float the released home weeks to 51 or 52. It has worked a couple of times but not often.

 

[Crasherino]

Thank you for all your comments. Can you tell me if resale buyers have the same priority in regards to choosing weeks as those who buy from Marriott/Westin? I understand that exactly 12 months prior (prior to what I don't know) everyone who is a resident can choose within their season, and then at 8 months it is opened up to others.

Does anyone now how difficult it is to secure a week in January or February or for that matter a week 51 or 52 if you have a floating platinum plus ownership?

I am a secondary market Platinum Plus Bay Vista Owner. As long as you get online at midnight a year in advance (to the day), you shouldn't have a problem reserving the week you want. We generally book Presidents Week (#7) and as long as we don't sleep on it, we're fine. Of course, this past year, I slept on it and missed my window. I ended up booking Easter week instead and then during Christmas time, I took a chance, cancelled my Easter week and shot for week 52. Ended up getting that no problem as I was online at 11:55 waiting to pull the trigger.

Is it worth it? I dunno - we paid a pretty modest up front price for an EOY BV 2 bdrm about 13 years ago. So we look at it as getting a week's vacation for the price of the maintenance fees (which I think is about $2,700 for a week's stay). We also haven't had an issue selling the week on secondary market on the 2 times that we couldn't use it for whatever reason. Those two sales made back more than half the purchase price.

For us, we are only interested in going to STJ - we have no real interest in trading for other properties. If you are like minded, then it might be worth it for you. From what I remember, the prices on the secondary market are all over the place. If you take your time and wait, you may find a deal that makes sense.