My letter to Starwood Management
After my last post about my recent purchase and regrets I sought the address of someone to put my comments in writing. Below is a copy of a letter sent to Sergio Rivera and Frits.... I hope other owners will take the time to express thier opinion in writing.
Mr. Frits van Paasschen
Chief Exec. Officer, Pres
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
1111 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, NY 10604
Dear Mr. van Paasschen;
I am writing this letter under the hopes that you will do something to correct the decline of Starwood vacation ownership value in my purchase at Vistana Villages, Orlando, Florida. I was introduced to Starwood through an RCI exchange when I stayed at the Vistana Resort with my family in January 2009. During this stay I considered vacation ownership with Starwood after being a 2-property Wyndham owner.
Several months later I decided to pursue purchase at Starwood. I enlisted the help of several resale real estate individuals who helped me navigate the popular timeshare programs and properties. When I expressed interest in Starwood I was repeatedly told how mismanaged they believed Starwood was and advised against this purchase. More than one real estate professional mentioned the implementation of the recent special assessment fee at Vistana Resort as an example of the seeming disregard and lack of consideration that Starwood has when making decisions that impact their owners. This bombastic one-year implementation of a special assessment was contrasted with a recent refurbishment conducted by Hilton in Las Vegas and that fee being spread across a longer period of time to make the burden more manageable on families. Regardless of the advice I was offered, I decided to trust Starwood and buy at Vistana Villages.
Now we are in November of 2009 and after purchase my initial greeting to Starwood maintenance fees: Upon receipt of the 2010 bill I was greeted with a 29% increase over the previous year. In light of the fact that my two Wyndham properties have increased by 5-8% in 2010, the increase implemented by Starwood seems particularly excessive and, unfortunately, in line with the lack of company foresight and attention to owner satisfaction that the timeshare professionals I consulted with referred to. I understand that inflation increases and that there is a need for a business to stay solvent in the face of delinquencies. However Starwood can do a better job of navigating business decisions with that of owner satisfaction. The erratic nature of these fees appears to be a barometer of management’s skill, stability and lack thereof.
Unfortunately, my ownership beginning with Starwood has been tarnished. Like strong families in a harsh economy, strong business management must creatively adapt and organize their organizations to thrive. As a parent, I have had to make decisions that balance the needs of my family, while providing for my children’s long-term well-being. My observation is that if Starwood management were running my family they would tell my children to drop out of school to go and work down the street at the neighborhood mill to make some temporary cash, blind to the impact this decision would have on their future. I hope, upon review, that you will agree that Starwood can manage better to match the wonderful qualities of its resorts and program and not lurch precariously on the lynchpin of exorbitant and insensitive implementation of fees that ultimately undermine Starwood’s value and limit owners’ trust in Starwood.
I look forward to better times for Starwood management and its owners.
Sincerely,
Paul Levatino
My fear with this being moved to a 307 reply post is it is going to get lost and as a result immobilize no one to write to Starwood...
Starwood is screwing the owners here. We can't search first, we don't get the extra II voucher week included for deposit we used to get and we have to call starwood and give them our good reservation week for them to rent for profit and if we don't find a suitable II exchange we can pull out the look and pick from the left over week nobody wanted at our home resort that we pay good money to own at!!!!! Starwood must think we are totally stupid to say that this is better for us b/c we can wait until Dec. 31st. to deposit our week in II and still have the same trading power as the old way. Who cares about that in comparison to what you took away! 
