Can I reassign options used to book weeks?

[ada903]

So I have a two bedroom gold WKV and a one bedroom plat WKV, both worth the same - 81,000.

The WKV gold two bedroom was used to book a reservation worth 81,000.

I would have rather used the 81,000 from the one bedroom plat, and deposit the two bedroom gold with II (I can get two exchanges by locking it off).

Can Starwood reassign the options between the two weeks, other than having to cancel and rebook the reservation? I would be afraid to cancel and rebook it, because it is a very good week.

Thanks for any insight!

 

[Ken555]

I doubt this is possible the way you describe. But you're correct in wanting to use the lock off in II. My suggestion is to make another reservation at the same resort at the same time (assuming it's available) before canceling the one you currently have. Once that's done you can cancel the original reservation and deposit into II. Of course, you'll lose your original timestamp.

 

[Sea Six]

What did Starwood say when you asked them? This is an interesting question.

 

[ada903]

I did not ask yet, I will. I doubt I will find another week like this one, it's a holiday week...

 

[work2travel]

I understand that once a week has been relinguished to II AND a trade confirmed it can not be taken back by Starwood and switched for another week because at that point it belongs to II. II will probably provide a replacement week that you can use to reserve another week but you wont get your original week back thus no conversion back to 81,000 staroptions. If this was a Starwood error though you may get lucky

 

[DeniseM]

She wants to make the switch with the Staroptions - not with a II trade.

She made a Staroption trade with her Gold week 2 bdm., and now has a Plat week 1 bdm. available.

She wants to use her Plat week for the Staroption trade, and deposit her gold week with II, because it's a lock-off and can be used for 2 trades with II.

Is that as clear as mud?

 

[ada903]

You got it Denise

 

[jerseygirl]

Ada -- I think it might be possible. I asked a Reservation Agent to tell me which weeks have been allocated to SO trades and which are still available. She told me she couldn't really tell -- that she just sees my "total SOs," how many used, how many remain, etc. I think you may be thinking they're far more organized than they really are!

I would try sending a request to deposit the 2012 2-BR lockoff via mystarcentral Message Center feature (not the "deposit" feature). Be very specific, e.g.:

Hello,

I would like to make a deposit to Interval International but want to be certain an existing reservation is maintained. Here are the details:

I wish to keep Resv #123456 for XXX Resort -- and have the 81000 SOs used for that reservation charged against my ZZZ resort.

Additionally, I wish to deposit my 2-BR Lockoff at BBB resort for 2012 with Interval International.

If you have any questions, I can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX or ada@hotmail.com.

Thank you,
Ada

 

[grgs]

According to this earlier thread (specifically posts 6 & 7), you should be able to do what you're hoping to:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155064

Let us know how it works out.

Glorian

 

[work2travel]

She wants to make the switch with the Staroptions - not with a II trade.

She made a Staroption trade with her Gold week 2 bdm., and now has a Plat week 1 bdm. available.

She wants to use her Plat week for the Staroption trade, and deposit her gold week with II, because it's a lock-off and can be used for 2 trades with II.

Is that as clear as mud?

Thanks Denise. I did not read the original post carefully. I concur with those who believe the swap would/should be possible .

 

[ada903]

I will let you know when I find out if this works out. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for that one bedroom platinum to transfer to my name, I just bought it and it has 2011 usage. I'll try the swap when transfer is complete and post the results.

 

[YYJMSP]

So I have a two bedroom gold WKV and a one bedroom plat WKV, both worth the same - 81,000.

The WKV gold two bedroom was used to book a reservation worth 81,000.

I would have rather used the 81,000 from the one bedroom plat, and deposit the two bedroom gold with II (I can get two exchanges by locking it off).

Can Starwood reassign the options between the two weeks, other than having to cancel and rebook the reservation? I would be afraid to cancel and rebook it, because it is a very good week.

Thanks for any insight!

Yup, no problem -- I've done it a few times... It does not affect your reservations.

When you make a SO reservation, if you don't tell them specifically how to allocate the SO's, they seem to randomly choose which unit(s) to "use up".

I've had them allocate a whole lesser SO's unit and part of another unit to make a single SO's booking, that could have been done using a single unit (worth the exact number of SO's I wanted to use) if they'd allocated it differently. This really messes things up if you then want to use the partially consumed unit to make a home resort reservation, as it shows that it is no longer available.

 

[Sea Six]

Why go to the source and ask Starwood when you can fish here for personal opinion?

 

[ada903]

I did not ask yet because I am still waiting for the one bedroom plat to transfer to us. I will try the swap once that happens. Just wanted to know if anyone was able to do something similar. I must say there are a few tuggers here that know better than some Starwood reps what works and what doesn't.

Why go to the source and ask Starwood when you can fish here for personal opinion?

 

[jarta]

"I must say there are a few tuggers here that know better than some Starwood reps what works and what doesn't."

BTW, some of us who use StarOptions regularly learned about what we post here by asking the Starwood reservation agents questions, getting answers and doing thing like regularly rearranging our StarOptions.

TUG members are generally very expert on II trading but sometimes are less knowledgeable about what can be done with StarOptions because they rarely have used them for trades. ... eom

 

[Sea Six]

I did not ask yet because I am still waiting for the one bedroom plat to transfer to us. I will try the swap once that happens. Just wanted to know if anyone was able to do something similar. I must say there are a few tuggers here that know better than some Starwood reps what works and what doesn't.

But the people here don't make the decisions, do they? Starwood does.

 

[YYJMSP]

BTW, some of us who use StarOptions regularly learned about what we post here by asking the Starwood reservation agents questions, getting answers and doing thing like regularly rearranging our StarOptions.

Agreed -- based on previous member's experience (I think it was you jarta), one of the things I learned is that I can choose which SVO properties my SVN fees are attached to. Originally they were asssociated with my Hawaii properties (the first 2 units we purchased), and were therefore subject to Hawaii's state sales tax.

I had the SVN fees reassociated with other properties instead.

It's only a few dollars, but it's the principle that counts...

On the topic of re-arranging SO's, here's a cut-and-paste from my last conversation with SVO on the topic:

Please keep in mind that as a multiple week owner, the StarOptions from all of your weeks of ownership are combined and used as necessary to book reservations. As a multiple week owner, StarOptions for reservations booked eight months or less can be re-arranged at a later time if you choose to convert a week to StarPoints or book a Home Resort Preference Period reservation. Please advise us if you would like the StarOptions from a specific week of ownership to be used to book reservation ... ​

 

[ada903]

Good to know! I am glad I asked.

Agreed -- based on previous member's experience (I think it was you jarta), one of the things I learned is that I can choose which SVO properties my SVN fees are attached to. Originally they were asssociated with my Hawaii properties (the first 2 units we purchased), and were therefore subject to Hawaii's state sales tax.

I had the SVN fees reassociated with other properties instead.

It's only a few dollars, but it's the principle that counts...

On the topic of re-arranging SO's, here's a cut-and-paste from my last conversation with SVO on the topic:

Please keep in mind that as a multiple week owner, the StarOptions from all of your weeks of ownership are combined and used as necessary to book reservations. As a multiple week owner, StarOptions for reservations booked eight months or less can be re-arranged at a later time if you choose to convert a week to StarPoints or book a Home Resort Preference Period reservation. Please advise us if you would like the StarOptions from a specific week of ownership to be used to book reservation ... ​

 

[jarta]

Sea Six, ... "But the people here don't make the decisions, do they? Starwood does."

For StarOption trading, Starwood makes the rules and the final decisions.

My point was exactly that - Starwood makes the rules. I find the rules for StarOption trading not to be all that complicated. And, my experience with Starwood reservation agents (as opposed to Starwood salespersons) is that the agents are quite knowledgable, unfailingly polite and they actually try to help those who call to find what they want.

And, if the exact match is not available, the reservations agents will suggest acceptable alternatives or "work arounds." By being flexible, asking questions, listening and paying attention to what the reservation agent is saying, callers can learn quite a bit about how StarOptions work - whether or not the suggestions are accepted.

It's called active listening. I find it works to avoid mis-communications. Hearing and listening are not the same things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_listening ... eom

 

[Ken555]

Assuming this is a SO reservation (and not home resort during ownership period, since the OP has gold and plat weeks), I'm glad to hear others report success at switching the source of the SOs after the fact with SVN. This is exactly the type of issue which SVN should include in a FAQ (or we should...).

 

[jarta]

ada, ... "I did not ask yet because I am still waiting for the one bedroom plat to transfer to us."

Because you did not have both sources (2-br gold and 1-br plat) of StarOptions at the time the reservation was made using the StarOptions from the 2-br gold (although in your first post that's exactly what you said you then had "So I have a two bedroom gold WKV and a one bedroom plat WKV, both worth the same - 81,000."), you may have trouble with your specific request for reallocation to the 2-br gold week and the follow-up request for deposit of the 2-br gold week in II.

In your case, there might be a trouble making a reallocation. To clarify, my experience is limited to having the available StarOptions in two places at the time the reservation is made and reallocating the StarOptions for a home resort reservation, not an II deposit.

I have no idea whether the lack of sufficient StarOptions in both places at the time your reservation was made will be noted and, if noted, will result in the reallocation or the deposit of the 2-br as two 1-brs in II being denied.

Starwood might not notice or might not even care about this inventive sleight of hand. However, it should work for 2012 (assuming you will even need it then). GLTY! ... eom

 

[vss]

Ada, Very interesting as I face almost exactly the same situation! I believe SVN used the staroptions related to my 2-BR Gold+ WKV to book a 2011 year-end week in Cancun. Recently, I too bought a Platinum WKV with 81,000 points available for use in 2011. Hopefully, the SO switch can occur. If not the Plat gets deposited in II. I'll let you know what occurs if my purchase is transferred before yours.

A question - Will SVN show the purchase in StarCentral before the deed is recorded in Maricopa County, AZ? SVN and AZ received the deed last week. Thanks.

 

[YYJMSP]

A question - Will SVN show the purchase in StarCentral before the deed is recorded in Maricopa County, AZ? SVN and AZ received the deed last week. Thanks.

Sending the unrecorded deed to SVN (which is what I assume you mean by it being sent to the county at the same time) won't do anything.

If the deed recorded at the county, next step is for the change of ownership to be checked/recorded by SVO, and then it will be added to your MSC profile.

MSC will be the last place it shows up, after everything else is done.

 

[vss]

YYJMSP, Thanks. I should have been clearer. The deed was recorded electronically at Maricopa County last week and the top of the deed has the appropriate legends - Official Records of Maricopa County, etc. However, it does not show up yet when I search the records of Maricopa County. Looks like there is a lag of 2-3 weeks before the database is updated. I guess I just need to be patient and let the process follow its natural course. The recorded deed has been sent to SVO, so let's see what happens.... Thanks.

 

[ada903]

The deeds are available online immediately after recording, if you search by the electronic recording number - however the search by name function takes 2-3 weeks to catch up in the system. Search for the electronically recorded deed by the recording number field, download it and email it to Starwood title. I had a transfer completed last week - it took them 3 days to transfer the property after they received the deed by email.