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Free, Free, Free

SOS8260456

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We are staying at Vistana Resort and we did the tour this morning. We haven't done a timeshare tour in a long time because we are usually at Wyndham (avoid it like the plague) or DVC. So we decided to do it. They offered $100 cash, 2 50% off vouchers for stays at some of their hotels, and the deal breaker for us was a free pass for unlimited bus transportation to the parks. Now I never knew Vistana had park transportation, but apparantely they do, but it is $9 a person each way. Since we have a 17 and an 18 year old we liked the free transport option just in case they wanted to go off on their own.

I know nothing about Starwood except that Atlantis is part of it. So I learned some things today about it. 1. that they GUARANTY availability up to 48 hours prior to check in. I kept bringing this point up, over and over, during the presentation, but they insist. The sales person finally did make the comment that good sense would tell you not to wait until the last minute for booking Easter, 4th of July, etc. I had a ball with that one, since we just scheduled this trip a couple of weeks ago and we have done other last minute holiday trips. He was like a deer in the headlights.

Next, owning here in Orlando would have much more trading power than owning in Hawaii. In fact, they have owners who change their ownership from Hawaii to Orlando to save money and get more trading power.

Next, everything is free, free, free. And when you use points, that earns you more points, keeping the cycle of free, free, free going! Plus he guaranties that we would get our money back if we needed to sell it for any reason. We never did get to how everything is free, free, free, because I kept harping on wanting the "getting our money back" in writing and that is when he went and got the manager. The offer was 28k for a 2 bedroom at Vistana Villages and 18K for a 1 bedroom. I didn't pay attention to season, but I think he said gold, because I remember noticing that there were 5 different seasons.

Oh, and at one point I brought up special assessments and he said no resort ever has special assessments. Then when we were talking about Hawaii, he opens the II book and selects a resort at random for a possible choice of where we could stay by exchanging through II. No word of lie, he picked Point of Poiu (don't know if I have the name and spelling exactly correct). This is the resort that has that horrible special assessment due to water erosion. At least I hope it was that resort, because I told him it was and had fun talking about the 10K special assessment.

We exchanged into this resort by doing a direct exchange with another TUGGER (called relative for presentation purposes) and I told him that we were considering taking over the ownership from our relative. I asked what benefits would transfer over to us if we did this. He said absolutely none would, not even the ability to use Interval International.

It was an entertaining 2 hours (even though it was suppose to only be 90 minutes).

Lisa :)
 

Sea Six

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Of all the places I have taken "Owner's Updates", I think Vistana is the WORST. And, I think you got more than your share of BS from these people.
 

glypnirsgirl

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WOW! Did you have to use a shovel to dig your way out of there?
 

clsmit

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Are you sure you didn't go on April 1st? :rofl: We met one of our best existing owners reps at Orlando -- we still email her about things other than Starwood.
 

SOS8260456

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Oh, and owners can request 4 pm check outs. I forgot about that one.

The update wasn't a bad one. Maybe because we took it all with a grain of salt. Our rep was a young man who didn't even own a timeshare (I also had fun with that). He wasn't pushy pushy and getting out was easier than I thought it would be and we never even really mentioned that you could buy the stuff on ebay other than my carrying on about the resale value.

We have done Westgate and even our own Wyndham ownership "updates" where the sales rep wouldn't let us go and would insult us, etc. There was really none of that here.

I did do my good deed for the day when I approached a young family with 3 little ones as we were walking out and talked to them about timesharing, the resale market and TUG. I know they didn't purchase from the developer yet and maybe they'll get to TUG before buying one and then be an educated purchaser.
 

MommaBear

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:hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical:

Or it would be funny if everyone actually knew the inside scoop and knew that you got fed a pack of lies. It is actually sad that unsuspecting people fall for this BS
 

DebBrown

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Next, owning here in Orlando would have much more trading power than owning in Hawaii. In fact, they have owners who change their ownership from Hawaii to Orlando to save money and get more trading power.

Well, we were just at Vistana Villages and met a couple of women pool side who were so pleased with their recent transaction. They traded their 1br Hawaii unit + $15k for 2 2br units in Orlando. They were very smug about the great deal they got.

Deb
 

schuang

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Well, we were just at Vistana Villages and met a couple of women pool side who were so pleased with their recent transaction. They traded their 1br Hawaii unit + $15k for 2 2br units in Orlando. They were very smug about the great deal they got.

Deb

Hi All, I've just stumbled upon this site as I'm doing research. A lot of great knowledge and experience here. I too have a Hawaii unit (actually 2), and the increases in taxes are killing me. I too am considering the same trade above (x 2) to get me to 4* status, but after reading this I wanted to take a pause. I'm viewing this transaction as a way to get the Options, lower taxes, and get the waitlist benefit.

Sorry for sounding naive, but I'm relatively new to the vacation ownership world, and would appreciate your feedback. Is this a bad plan? I probably would come to Orlando only once every 6 years, and plan on banking the options, and use the waitlist to get to other destinations such as Vail or Steamboat, or go back to Hawaii every 4 or 5 years. How reliable is the waitlist benefit to get what I really want on the week I want it (except Christmas,... President's week is really my critical week). Thanks in advance.

Steve
 

YYJMSP

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I probably would come to Orlando only once every 6 years, and plan on banking the options, and use the waitlist to get to other destinations such as Vail or Steamboat, or go back to Hawaii every 4 or 5 years.

You can only bank in to the next two years, not for 4 or 5 or 6 years if I read your comment correctly...
 

schuang

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I too have a Hawaii unit (actually 2), and the increases in taxes are killing me. I too am considering the same trade above (x 2) to get me to 4* status, but after reading this I wanted to take a pause. I'm viewing this transaction as a way to get the Options, lower taxes, and get the waitlist benefit... How reliable is the waitlist benefit to get what I really want on the week I want it (except Christmas,... President's week is really my critical week).

Let me clarify, my question falls along the line does the 4* status waitlist benefit really work? If I trade/buy into Orlando for the sake of options power and to get the 4* waitlist status, will it really be effective in getting into the other resorts, such as Vail or Steamboat on President's week? I was told by the rep that they don't sell President's week as a lockout week, and that it's very likely that there will be availability...
 

LisaRex

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Let me clarify, my question falls along the line does the 4* status waitlist benefit really work? If I trade/buy into Orlando for the sake of options power and to get the 4* waitlist status, will it really be effective in getting into the other resorts, such as Vail or Steamboat on President's week? I was told by the rep that they don't sell President's week as a lockout week, and that it's very likely that there will be availability...

It's very difficult to know how difficult or easy SO trades are going to be in the future. I can tell you that my GUT tells me that it's going to be more difficult to get into anywhere during high season because SOs can be banked now. That means that the competition for these prime weeks is going to get even stiffer. Waitlisting can be a great perk, but it may involve waiting until someone else cancels their reservation. Are you patient enough to do this, and delay booking flights, etc. until your unit is secure? (I'm not.)

Do you know about Redweek.com and Tug classifieds? These are two places that you can go and rent timeshares directly from owners. And you can rent out your weeks, too. Cost for Tug ads is free if you're a Tug member. Cost to join Redweek is about $15, IIRC. If I were you, I'd consider renting out my two Hawaii units the years that I didn't plan to go, and simply applying that money towards renting a week in Vail or Steamboat. No worrying about waitlisting or being squeezed out. Just pick a week from the available weeks, pay cash, and enjoy your stay.
 

jerseygirl

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If you search for the term waitlist on this board, I think you'll find that many don't believe it works as well as one would hope.

Regarding obtaining President's week at Vail or Steamboat - I think it's very likely that it would be booked by owners within minutes of the opening bell and there would be no availability at the 8-month mark. You could then go on the waitlist, but would probably have lots of company. Then, you have to hope for a cancellation (when a private rental would bring big $$$$ to the owner who was lucky enough to book that week) AND that Starwood would choose you to call from the waitlist.

Could it happen? Yes. Would I spend real $$$$ on the probability of it happening? Absolutely not.
 

jarta

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Let me clarify, my question falls along the line does the 4* status waitlist benefit really work? If I trade/buy into Orlando for the sake of options power and to get the 4* waitlist status, will it really be effective in getting into the other resorts, such as Vail or Steamboat on President's week? I was told by the rep that they don't sell President's week as a lockout week, and that it's very likely that there will be availability...

The Starwood wait list, in my experience, is not effective. 4 Star Elite is not worth getting to. 5 Star Elite is. But it is not for everyone; only a few.

If you want to go skiing in CO, buy a ski week in CO.

Owning 2 timeshares in HI is doubly painful. But, do you really want to own 4 in Orlando after spending another $30K? If you went from 2 2-br in at WRORV (mandatory) to 4 prime season 2-br at SVR (voluntary) you would save around $2,000 per year in MF ($4,800 - $2,800) and gain less than 100,000 StarOptions. (382,800 - 296,200).

I think a good alternative plan would be to dump the 2 2-br in HI (for $25,000 or so) and use your proceeds to buy 2 2-br Plat weeks at WKV (mandatory and lower MF so you will probably need $7,000 more) or, even better, buy 2 2-br SDO (voluntary) in any season (less than $1,000 each), reduce your MF, trade through II and invest the balance of the HI sale proceeds until you are able to afford something where you really want to go. Salty
 
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