SVO will from time-to-time run promotions like
this one where you will get free nights when booking a certain number of nights with StarOptions (the internal SVO timeshare currency).
It also ran a promotion last year where if you paid your 2010 maintenance fee early you could book, using new money and not StarOptions, up to 3 nights at an SVO timeshare for "half" of the regular owner discount price. Availability of this deal was limited, but some folks here reported getting a good deal with it.
In general, the "half" off owner discount price turned out to be about what you could book the same villa for via
www.hotwire.com. But, unlike when booking with Hotwire, under this particular SVO Owner deal you knew what you were going to get before pulling the booking trigger. Of course, with Hotwire you can improve your odds by first consulting web sites like
www.betterbidding.com, but there are no guarantees what you think your going to get will actually be what you get until after you press “enter” on your non-refundable, non-cancellable purchase.
All of these promotions are at the whim of SVO, so they tend to come and go even faster than SVN elite member benefits, which are also at the whim of SVO. The latter tending to go way, way more than come.
-nodge
Oh yeah . . . to answer another of the OP's questions, anyone having StarOptions (i.e. membership in SVN) can book individual nightly stays at SVO resorts using StarOptions if booked 3 months or less prior to the planned arrival date. SVO has from time-to-time waived this "3 month out" rule and allowed owners to book less than full weeks at some resorts more than 3 months prior to the planned arrival date. Again, like most things with SVO, waiver of this rule is at SVO's whim. -n
