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Did Vistana Extend 120 COVID StarOptions to 12/2022?

dioxide45

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Marriott extended DC points that were from cancelled reservations under the 2020 COVID cancellation policy to December 2022. Has anyone checked to see if Vistana did the same for restricted StarOptions?
 

GrayFal

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Ohhhwwwww
 

SueDonJ

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DeniseM

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Doesn't look like it - but that would be great!

Screen Shot 2021-03-16 at 8.42.30 PM.png
 

DeniseM

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Vistana owners, if Marriott doesn't implement this with Vistana too, we should start a email campaign to Vistana management protesting this - I would be happy to organize it!
 

CPNY

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With the vaccine rollout, it’s time to use those star options!! I used 148k already. I wish I held onto a few to use this summer, I may have to buy another week soon.
 

DeniseM

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This is what I'm wondering: Do all the restricted Staroptions that were rolled over to 2021 + regular banked Staroptions + normal 2021 usage, exceed the maximum number of reservations possible? This would not be the first time that Vistana failed to do the math!
 

DeniseM

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Not in support of this. Puts too much pressure on supply for 2022 usage IMHO. I'd rather keep expirations where they are at
Do you have any restricted 2021 Staroptions?
 

sjsharkie

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Do you have any restricted 2021 Staroptions?
I do. But I have already booked for a June trip, and then all I will have is my home reservation at Harborside in December which I rent out.

I did take a slight loss on my 2020 Harborside rental but I did so knowing I didn't want to risk rolling over the 2020 options to 2021.



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rcv82

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This is what I'm wondering: Do all the restricted Staroptions that were rolled over to 2021 + regular banked Staroptions + normal 2021 usage, exceed the maximum number of reservations possible? This would not be the first time that Vistana failed to do the math!

Units sat empty for months. Any time time a unit was empty and the SOs got rolled, I would think there will be an equivalent amount of reservation time that will not be possible, since basically all the time is accounted for if all the ownerships are sold. I think there will be many SOs that will have to expire unused. A lot of that will probably happen to people who just aren’t paying attention and working to get things scheduled.


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CPNY

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Units sat empty for months. Any time time a unit was empty and the SOs got rolled, I would think there will be an equivalent amount of reservation time that will not be possible, since basically all the time is accounted for if all the ownerships are sold. I think there will be many SOs that will have to expire unused. A lot of that will probably happen to people who just aren’t paying attention and working to get things scheduled.


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This is why I used my restricted SO up as fast as I could this year. I “wasted” 90K on Orlando. I could have used some extra for my WSJ trip I booked within 120 days but that’s life.

My main concern was letting Star Options go unused. As it turns out now, I’ll be out of ALL SO by June
 

sjsharkie

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FYI, Marriott board is reporting this was a glitch that caused a false extension of date, and it has now reverted back to 12/31/21.

So I would not expect any extensions on the Vistana side.

-ryan
 

Helios

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Not in support of this. Puts too much pressure on supply for 2022 usage IMHO. I'd rather keep expirations where they are at

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I don’t like this either for the same reason.
 

controller1

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This was posted a few hours ago in a Facebook Vistana Owner forum. I am not the person who posted this and I am not predicting this. I did think it was appropriate to pass it on.

Heads up - I was on the phone with Vistana customer service representative and he told me to look out for an email which will be sent this week about extension of restricted options. Not clear about exact details
 

waldort

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Due to documentable personal illnesses followed by a year of Covid closures, we had to cancel several booked plans in 2020. As a result we have nearly 300,000 Restricted Banked Star Options that will expire 12/31/21. Currently, pent-up consumer demand for bookings now means non-home resorts, and even our home (Nanea) are already full for weeks in late November before Xmas holidays. This is effectively depriving us and others in like circumstances of using our points; thereby costing us 2 years of use (equalling in our case 4 weeks x 1 bedroom at Nanea Muai resort) which is a lot!! We have been to Nanea twice and look forward to another Vistana venue, but we can't even book those til July (120 day rule). By then, we will have little if anything to choose from. What we are asking for: drop the restricted status, enact an add'l extension of these points through 12/31/23. I believe we are not alone in finding ourselves in this effectively punitive situation. Changing it is a policy decision by mgmt, just as our government has elected to issue additional Covid recovery assistance. Look forward to hearing from you too! Meanwhile, I have filed complaint with BBB of Florida.
 

daviator

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You're not going to like my comments, but I hope that Vistana does not extended restricted StarOptions from 2020. It will just push the availability problems into future years and make it even harder for people to make reservations.

You bought a vacation property and were then unable to use it, due to circumstances beyond your control, beyond Vistana's control, beyond anyone's control. I think that Vistana was very generous to allow cancelled 2020 plans to be used (via restricted options) in 2021, but it created a foreseeable problem, there is simply not enough inventory to allow 2021 usages, plus canceled 2020 usages, and kicking the can forward won't help. But this isn't a problem that Vistana created and it isn't their responsibility to make you whole. A pandemic happened and everybody got hurt in a variety of ways.

One of the risks of buying property is that if something happens and you can't use it, you still have to pay for it.

Why didn't you book your 2021 Nanea trip at 12 months out using your 2021 ownership? That's the only way to be sure of getting in, especially in 2021 where later you'll be competing with everyone trying to use those excess 2020 options that they banked during the pandemic. You might get something by checking back every day, but I think this will be a tough year for those who didn't reserve during the home resort period.

I will personally be upset if Vistana extends these options and makes it hard for me to use my ownerships in future years. The pandemic happened, people couldn't travel. If you can't use the restricted options, count your blessings that you're still alive and able to be upset about it, there are plenty who are not.
 
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tschwa2

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I tend to agree that the point of giving the 120 day limit was to keep the more desirable time out of the hands of those looking to use restricted points. They were to give you options to use the points during less desirable times (like in Hawaii when there was a lot of restrictions and no one was travelling) or to use them in Orlando or something similar so you have some option to use them.
 
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frank808

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I am not an owner at Westin have no star options(was told it was just options now since Starwood is gone). But I do have HGVC, DVC and Marriott DC points.

My Marriott DC points have the same restrictions. The 2020 points were extended for 1 year and have 120 day booking window. I thought that was very generous. MVC did not have to do anything as WE are the OWNERS. You could still go to the property but had to quarantine for 14 days before covid tests were accepted.

As David mentioned this pandemic was not anyone's fault. Why does MVC owe you replacement time for your ownership? How is MVC going to create time that is not going to affect other owners down the road when they cannot use their time? Not using your TS is no different than owning a vacation home that was not usable because of a natural disaster. Does the builder of the vacation home owe you for your lost usage? Sorry if my answer does not agree with you. We cannot keep saying someone owes me and not have it affect others.

I have also been affected by covid pandemic and have lost points and usage because of this. But I do not think any of the developers owe me usage. I am happy by whatever concessions they have granted us. Just happy I was able to salvage some use.

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MrockStar

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One idea, my Bluegreen points where going to drop to Red/white/blue restricted at the end of 2020 No extensions (i asked) we all cancelled quite a few trips because of CV-19. So i happened to check RCI and with a stroke of luck found a 2 bedroom Outer banks unit 3rd week of June and booked it just inside the 6 month window. so i was able to use those restricted points and get a great trip out of them. Maybe you could do the same with II or RCI. hope it could work for you. :cool:
 

wjarcher

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I was fortunate to use all of my restricted and unrestricted 2021 points earlier this year (actually had to borrow some from 2022 to book some nights).

Try to see if you can find some availability for the less popular (compared with hawaii) resorts on the mainland such as arizona, colorado, or california at 120-days. It's going to be very competitive later this year when everyone starts to travel. I wish that the staroptions can be rented like marriott dp so that I can rent some rather than using next year's.

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robertk2012

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You had time to use them and resorts to use them at. Even if extended another year then you will have the same issues with 3x the points to use.
 

tschwa2

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One idea, my Bluegreen points where going to drop to Red/white/blue restricted at the end of 2020 No extensions (i asked) we all cancelled quite a few trips because of CV-19. So i happened to check RCI and with a stroke of luck found a 2 bedroom Outer banks unit 3rd week of June and booked it just inside the 6 month window. so i was able to use those restricted points and get a great trip out of them. Maybe you could do the same with II or RCI. hope it could work for you. :cool:
Unfortunately restricted and even banked points can't be deposited into Interval. Once into 2021, 2020 points can only be used in the internal network.
 

MrockStar

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Unfortunately restricted and even banked points can't be deposited into Interval. Once into 2021, 2020 points can only be used in the internal network.
Ok, what about RCI ?
 
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