Have You Inherited a Timeshare? We Need Your Advice. New Westin Nanea Ocean Villas Owner.

[drewdangerous]

Hello everyone,

My sister and I were recently gifted a Vistana timeshare—specifically a floating week at the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas with 81,000 points. It was a generous gift from our aunt and uncle, who fully paid off the property and transferred it to us so we could simply take over the annual maintenance fees. We were excited and grateful… until we realized things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed.

After gaining access to the Vistana account and spending hours on the phone with customer service, we discovered that we’ve lost many of the privileges our aunt and uncle previously had. We weren’t informed that the transfer would come with restrictions—or, more accurately, a downgrade.

Here’s what we’re facing:

• We are not enrolled in the Vistana Signature Network (VSN), which means we can’t use our points to stay at other Vistana properties or bank them for future use.
• Vistana has not offered us the option to enroll in the VSN.
• We can only book online 8 months in advance—and only at our home resort, Nanea.
• After reaching out to the Marriott Vacation Club for solutions, the only option they provided was to buy more points (a $15,000 minimum investment) just to access the broader system.

To make matters worse, we’ve already paid the 2025 maintenance fees ($1,700), and it’s now four months into the year—with no availability left at Nanea. So right now, we’re stuck with no ability to book, no way to use our points elsewhere, and no access to the benefits we were led to believe we’d have.

We’re looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

• Have you inherited or been gifted a Vistana timeshare and had trouble accessing full benefits?
• Is there a workaround to get into the VSN without purchasing additional points?
• Have you successfully escalated a case like this with Vistana or Marriott?

We want to make the most of this gift, but right now it feels like we’ve been handed a financial burden we can’t use. If you have insight, suggestions, or even cautionary tales—we’d love to hear them.

Please comment below—we’re all ears!

 

[travelhacker]

Hello everyone,

My sister and I were recently gifted a Vistana timeshare—specifically a floating week at the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas with 81,000 points. It was a generous gift from our aunt and uncle, who fully paid off the property and transferred it to us so we could simply take over the annual maintenance fees. We were excited and grateful… until we realized things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed.

After gaining access to the Vistana account and spending hours on the phone with customer service, we discovered that we’ve lost many of the privileges our aunt and uncle previously had. We weren’t informed that the transfer would come with restrictions—or, more accurately, a downgrade.

Here’s what we’re facing:

• We are not enrolled in the Vistana Signature Network (VSN), which means we can’t use our points to stay at other Vistana properties or bank them for future use.
• Vistana has not offered us the option to enroll in the VSN.
• We can only book online 8 months in advance—and only at our home resort, Nanea.
• After reaching out to the Marriott Vacation Club for solutions, the only option they provided was to buy more points (a $15,000 minimum investment) just to access the broader system.

To make matters worse, we’ve already paid the 2025 maintenance fees ($1,700), and it’s now four months into the year—with no availability left at Nanea. So right now, we’re stuck with no ability to book, no way to use our points elsewhere, and no access to the benefits we were led to believe we’d have.

We’re looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

• Have you inherited or been gifted a Vistana timeshare and had trouble accessing full benefits?
• Is there a workaround to get into the VSN without purchasing additional points?
• Have you successfully escalated a case like this with Vistana or Marriott?

We want to make the most of this gift, but right now it feels like we’ve been handed a financial burden we can’t use. If you have insight, suggestions, or even cautionary tales—we’d love to hear them.

Please comment below—we’re all ears!

I'm sorry, that's awful. I'm not familiar with the inheritance rules, but it's annoying that you lost the benefits of being enrolled in VSN. I think any work around that may have been available is no longer available to you since the week has transferred.

That being said, are you certain there is no availability at Nanea? I can see availability with my staroptions and since all of Nanea is homeoptions, I would think those should be available to you as well.

If it's a matter of it not being available for the nights that you need, you have a couple of options:

1) You could book something that someone could use and rent it.
2) You could open up an interval account and deposit so you can exchange elsewhere.

It's not ideal, but 81000 options in Interval will go a decent way.

Good luck!

 

[drewdangerous]

I'm sorry, that's awful. I'm not familiar with the inheritance rules, but it's annoying that you lost the benefits of being enrolled in VSN. I think any work around that may have been available is no longer available to you since the week has transferred.

That being said, are you certain there is no availability at Nanea? I can see availability with my staroptions and since all of Nanea is homeoptions, I would think those should be available to you as well.

If it's a matter of it not being available for the nights that you need, you have a couple of options:

1) You could book something that someone could use and rent it.
2) You could open up an interval account and deposit so you can exchange elsewhere.

It's not ideal, but 81000 options in Interval will go a decent way.

Good luck!

Thank you for the response. I tried to look into the interval account but it wouldn't let me make an account. When I click on the exchange with interval international on my vistana account page, it opens a new page up and says "sorry the page you are looking for is on vacation". I called this morning and the lady I talked with said there was no availability that she could see for me. I just keep getting the run around. Do you have any tips for making an account with interval international?

 

[drewdangerous]

Thank you for the response. I tried to look into the interval account but it wouldn't let me make an account. When I click on the exchange with interval international on my vistana account page, it opens a new page up and says "sorry the page you are looking for is on vacation". I called this morning and the lady I talked with said there was no availability that she could see for me. I just keep getting the run around. Do you have any tips for making an account with interval international?

I actually was able to make an interval account. I will see what my options are going forward.

 

[dioxide45]

Marriott and Vistana only recognize direct liniage in passing down a gift. This would be parent to child or grand parent to child. Transferring from an aunt or uncle wouldn't qualify.

Westin Nanea is a VSN voluntary resort, so VSN membership doesn't transfer automatically to a resale buyer. In this case you are being treated as a resale buyer even though you received it from your aunt and uncle. Sadly for you, it is what it is. THere is no easy or cheap way around it.

That said, you should be able to make reservations at Nanea up to 12 months in advance using your HomeOptions. I suspect you purchased resort view HomeOptions. You don't really own a week, it is just points but the points can only be used at Neana in the view type you own. I am surprised there is no availability this early in the year.

You can setup an II account to exchange through II, but it isn't the best use of the HomeOptions.

 

[dioxide45]

I actually was able to make an interval account. I will see what my options are going forward.

Updated Flex FAQ

This FAQ has been built upon the previous Flex FAQ by okwiater from 2016 and makes updates to include the Westin Flex and Aventuras Flex systems, as well as some other recurring questions that arise on TUG. I did invite the original author to collaborate on this revision; however, the offer was...

tugbbs.com

 

[YYJMSP]

That said, you should be able to make reservations at Nanea up to 12 months in advance using your HomeOptions. I suspect you purchased resort view HomeOptions. You don't really own a week, it is just points but the points can only be used at Neana in the view type you own. I am surprised there is no availability this early in the year.

Would resale be a separate inventory bucket?

 

[travelhacker]

Assuming you have Resort View Options, I found the following check in dates available for 81000 options:

6/19/2025
6/26/2025
7/3/2025

I assume there are several more, but this was just a quick search. I can't think of a reason why you wouldn't have access to those at your home resort, but maybe there are some weird restrictions for resale owners.

Definitely do as @dioxide45 suggests and book out as far as you can for when you want to use your ownership.

 

[echino]

Nanea ownership are not that good without VSN access, especially 81,000 points (I assume Resort View). The problem is 81,000 points is equivalent to a week in a 1-bedroom, but there are very few 1-bedroom units at Nanea. You can also use those points to book 3 or 4 nights in a 2-bedroom, but there will inevitably be leftover points that will simply expire. I just quickly searched and there is plenty of availability in a 2-bedroom, but very little availability in a 1-bedroom for a week in 2025. Using those points in Interval comes with additional expenses and very limited availability as well.

So for 2025, either use Interval, knowing you lose some value, or book 3 or 4 nights in a 2-bedroom, perhaps as an add-on to a week booked separately. For 2026, you will have more options, since you will be able to book at 12 months, with higher chances to book that elusive 1-bedroom.

 

[drewdangerous]

Marriott and Vistana only recognize direct liniage in passing down a gift. This would be parent to child or grand parent to child. Transferring from an aunt or uncle wouldn't qualify.

Westin Nanea is a VSN voluntary resort, so VSN membership doesn't transfer automatically to a resale buyer. In this case you are being treated as a resale buyer even though you received it from your aunt and uncle. Sadly for you, it is what it is. THere is no easy or cheap way around it.

That said, you should be able to make reservations at Nanea up to 12 months in advance using your HomeOptions. I suspect you purchased resort view HomeOptions. You don't really own a week, it is just points but the points can only be used at Neana in the view type you own. I am surprised there is no availability this early in the year.

You can setup an II account to exchange through II, but it isn't the best use of the HomeOptions.

Do you know if it's easy to add the VSN membership to my account? I'm sure there are some yearly fees associated with doing that, but I can't imagine it's as much as what Marriott Vacation Club was proposing to me to join into their system.

 

[dioxide45]

Do you know if it's easy to add the VSN membership to my account? I'm sure there are some yearly fees associated with doing that, but I can't imagine it's as much as what Marriott Vacation Club was proposing to me to join into their system.

The only way to do it is as they suggested, make a direct purchase from Vistana. I believe the minimum is only $10,000 but perhaps it is different for Hawaii based VOIs.

 

[aland0524]

Hello everyone,

My sister and I were recently gifted a Vistana timeshare—specifically a floating week at the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas with 81,000 points. It was a generous gift from our aunt and uncle, who fully paid off the property and transferred it to us so we could simply take over the annual maintenance fees. We were excited and grateful… until we realized things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed.

After gaining access to the Vistana account and spending hours on the phone with customer service, we discovered that we’ve lost many of the privileges our aunt and uncle previously had. We weren’t informed that the transfer would come with restrictions—or, more accurately, a downgrade.

Here’s what we’re facing:

• We are not enrolled in the Vistana Signature Network (VSN), which means we can’t use our points to stay at other Vistana properties or bank them for future use.
• Vistana has not offered us the option to enroll in the VSN.
• We can only book online 8 months in advance—and only at our home resort, Nanea.
• After reaching out to the Marriott Vacation Club for solutions, the only option they provided was to buy more points (a $15,000 minimum investment) just to access the broader system.

To make matters worse, we’ve already paid the 2025 maintenance fees ($1,700), and it’s now four months into the year—with no availability left at Nanea. So right now, we’re stuck with no ability to book, no way to use our points elsewhere, and no access to the benefits we were led to believe we’d have.

We’re looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

• Have you inherited or been gifted a Vistana timeshare and had trouble accessing full benefits?
• Is there a workaround to get into the VSN without purchasing additional points?
• Have you successfully escalated a case like this with Vistana or Marriott?

We want to make the most of this gift, but right now it feels like we’ve been handed a financial burden we can’t use. If you have insight, suggestions, or even cautionary tales—we’d love to hear them.

Please comment below—we’re all ears!

We also own at the Nanea and bought before they completed the place. We were looking for and bought a one bedroom which is 81,000 points resort view (there are no other views at the Nanea other than Ocean Front and Resort) and no ocean fronts for one bedrooms. We later learned that there are a very limited number of one-bedrooms at the Nanea which makes getting reservations very difficult but it's never been a problem for us until this year (for 2026).

Your situation is very disturbing as we'll likely "gift" this and our other Marriott Vacation Club timeshares to our children...so your note is a good "heads up". Have you asked if the way your aunt/uncle transferred ownership to you compromised your privileges or if anytime somebody does this, they automatically revoke original owner's rights (and get you to buy more points!)? Maybe if your aunt/uncle were to reach out to Westin/Marriott, they might be able to find a way to rework the transfer. I know Marriott has a "transfer of ownership" program (we had to transfer these properties to a Revocable Trust and they had a different department that handles this and also walked you through what you need to do.)

As your aunt/uncle probably told you, owners are allowed to make reservations 12 months in advance (their on-line system is very good) but for some reason this year, making one bedroom reservations (81K points) was difficult - I did eventually make one but not quite the day I wanted). I don't know if your "privileges" allow you to also use your 81K points at the other two resorts next to the Nanea - Kaanapali North and South. These reservations can only be made 8 (not 12) months in advance. The 81K points allows us to get a nice one bedroom sometimes with ocean view.

At worst, try making the reservations at the Nanea during the 8 month time period. I don't know how flexible you are but there are availabilities you can find within the 8 month period. Just learn how to use the on-line system and it will show you good availabilities....for example, I just found an August 15, 2025 availability for Nanea...

Best of luck...

 

[vacationtime1]

OP will be able to reserve at Nanea at the twelve month mark, but will not have access to other resorts within the VSN except via Interval.

btw -- there was a workaround on this problem if either of OP's grandparents are alive (i.e. the parents of the aunt or uncle); the aunt or uncle could transfer to their parent with full Abound privileges and the grandparent could then transfer to their grandchild with Abound privileges.

 

[jabberwocky]

We also own at the Nanea and bought before they completed the place. We were looking for and bought a one bedroom which is 81,000 points resort view (there are no other views at the Nanea other than Ocean Front and Resort) and no ocean fronts for one bedrooms. We later learned that there are a very limited number of one-bedrooms at the Nanea which makes getting reservations very difficult but it's never been a problem for us until this year (for 2026).

Your situation is very disturbing as we'll likely "gift" this and our other Marriott Vacation Club timeshares to our children...so your note is a good "heads up". Have you asked if the way your aunt/uncle transferred ownership to you compromised your privileges or if anytime somebody does this, they automatically revoke original owner's rights (and get you to buy more points!)? Maybe if your aunt/uncle were to reach out to Westin/Marriott, they might be able to find a way to rework the transfer. I know Marriott has a "transfer of ownership" program (we had to transfer these properties to a Revocable Trust and they had a different department that handles this and also walked you through what you need to do.)

As your aunt/uncle probably told you, owners are allowed to make reservations 12 months in advance (their on-line system is very good) but for some reason this year, making one bedroom reservations (81K points) was difficult - I did eventually make one but not quite the day I wanted). I don't know if your "privileges" allow you to also use your 81K points at the other two resorts next to the Nanea - Kaanapali North and South. These reservations can only be made 8 (not 12) months in advance. The 81K points allows us to get a nice one bedroom sometimes with ocean view.

At worst, try making the reservations at the Nanea during the 8 month time period. I don't know how flexible you are but there are availabilities you can find within the 8 month period. Just learn how to use the on-line system and it will show you good availabilities....for example, I just found an August 15, 2025 availability for Nanea...

Best of luck...

If you are transferring to your children it should not be an issue. The problem with the OP is that is is an aunt/uncle - so VSN and other privileges don’t transfer.

We recently took over. Unit from my parents and the transfer went flawlessly and we have full use of it within VSN/Abound.

As others have mentioned, the only way to get this into VSN would be a retro purchase deal (minimum $10k).

 

[aland0524]

If you are transferring to your children it should not be an issue. The problem with the OP is that is is an aunt/uncle - so VSN and other privileges don’t transfer.

We recently took over. Unit from my parents and the transfer went flawlessly and we have full use of it within VSN/Abound.

As others have mentioned, the only way to get this into VSN would be a retro purchase deal (minimum $10k).

Thanks @jabberwocky...very helpful and reassuring...regarding the transfer to children...

 

[DavidnRobin]

Resale Nanea has value, so... this maybe a rare (rare) instance where buying the minimum necessary to Requal may be worth it (and even then perhaps not).
Using II for Nanea is a downward exchange.
Nanea has a ROFR - so if they 'gift' it to you, wouldn't MVC grab it? You may need to set-up a payment to them, and have it returned to you.

 

[dioxide45]

Resale Nanea has value, so... this maybe a rare (rare) instance where buying the minimum necessary to Requal may be worth it (and even then perhaps not).
Using II for Nanea is a downward exchange.
Nanea has a ROFR - so if they 'gift' it to you, wouldn't MVC grab it? You may need to set-up a payment to them, and have it returned to you.

It has already been gifted. Deal is done

 

[sfcolliejr]

I'm sorry, that's awful. I'm not familiar with the inheritance rules, but it's annoying that you lost the benefits of being enrolled in VSN. I think any work around that may have been available is no longer available to you since the week has transferred.

That being said, are you certain there is no availability at Nanea? I can see availability with my staroptions and since all of Nanea is homeoptions, I would think those should be available to you as well.

If it's a matter of it not being available for the nights that you need, you have a couple of options:

1) You could book something that someone could use and rent it.
2) You could open up an interval account and deposit so you can exchange elsewhere.

It's not ideal, but 81000 options in Interval will go a decent way.

Good luck!

Hello everyone,

My sister and I were recently gifted a Vistana timeshare—specifically a floating week at the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas with 81,000 points. It was a generous gift from our aunt and uncle, who fully paid off the property and transferred it to us so we could simply take over the annual maintenance fees. We were excited and grateful… until we realized things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed.

After gaining access to the Vistana account and spending hours on the phone with customer service, we discovered that we’ve lost many of the privileges our aunt and uncle previously had. We weren’t informed that the transfer would come with restrictions—or, more accurately, a downgrade.

Here’s what we’re facing:

• We are not enrolled in the Vistana Signature Network (VSN), which means we can’t use our points to stay at other Vistana properties or bank them for future use.
• Vistana has not offered us the option to enroll in the VSN.
• We can only book online 8 months in advance—and only at our home resort, Nanea.
• After reaching out to the Marriott Vacation Club for solutions, the only option they provided was to buy more points (a $15,000 minimum investment) just to access the broader system.

To make matters worse, we’ve already paid the 2025 maintenance fees ($1,700), and it’s now four months into the year—with no availability left at Nanea. So right now, we’re stuck with no ability to book, no way to use our points elsewhere, and no access to the benefits we were led to believe we’d have.

We’re looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

• Have you inherited or been gifted a Vistana timeshare and had trouble accessing full benefits?
• Is there a workaround to get into the VSN without purchasing additional points?
• Have you successfully escalated a case like this with Vistana or Marriott?

We want to make the most of this gift, but right now it feels like we’ve been handed a financial burden we can’t use. If you have insight, suggestions, or even cautionary tales—we’d love to hear them.

Please comment below—we’re all ears!

We just returned from Westin Desert Willows and went to our owners update. We don't have kids but we have some nieces and nephews whom we could "will" the deed to. Your situation is exactly what was explained to us when we asked about leaving the deed to someone. Our sales person explained that anyone who accepted the deed would have to buy more points or options to get full advantage, otherwise, they would be limited as you are.

 

[beachlynn]

Hello everyone,

My sister and I were recently gifted a Vistana timeshare—specifically a floating week at the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas with 81,000 points. It was a generous gift from our aunt and uncle, who fully paid off the property and transferred it to us so we could simply take over the annual maintenance fees. We were excited and grateful… until we realized things weren’t as straightforward as they seemed.

After gaining access to the Vistana account and spending hours on the phone with customer service, we discovered that we’ve lost many of the privileges our aunt and uncle previously had. We weren’t informed that the transfer would come with restrictions—or, more accurately, a downgrade.

Here’s what we’re facing:

• We are not enrolled in the Vistana Signature Network (VSN), which means we can’t use our points to stay at other Vistana properties or bank them for future use.
• Vistana has not offered us the option to enroll in the VSN.
• We can only book online 8 months in advance—and only at our home resort, Nanea.
• After reaching out to the Marriott Vacation Club for solutions, the only option they provided was to buy more points (a $15,000 minimum investment) just to access the broader system.

To make matters worse, we’ve already paid the 2025 maintenance fees ($1,700), and it’s now four months into the year—with no availability left at Nanea. So right now, we’re stuck with no ability to book, no way to use our points elsewhere, and no access to the benefits we were led to believe we’d have.

We’re looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

• Have you inherited or been gifted a Vistana timeshare and had trouble accessing full benefits?
• Is there a workaround to get into the VSN without purchasing additional points?
• Have you successfully escalated a case like this with Vistana or Marriott?

We want to make the most of this gift, but right now it feels like we’ve been handed a financial burden we can’t use. If you have insight, suggestions, or even cautionary tales—we’d love to hear them.

Please comment below—we’re all ears!

Keep checking. People cancel all of the time. I’ve often not booked a year in advance and got the ocean front that I wanted when I booked later. If you can travel without much notice if people can’t use their villas they have to cancel at least 60 days in advance so that availability opens up. Good luck

 

[HudsHut]

Welcome to TUG, @drewdangerous
What dates are you looking for?

It's not surprising that the Interval agent didn't see any availability when you called. The inventory in Interval is different. It comes and goes. Vistana deposits weeks into Interval periodically. At this moment, there is only 1 week at Nanea (WNA) in Interval but there are several weeks of Studios at Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas (KAA)

You can search Interval without depositing your week. You can also set up an Ongoing Search for other Westin/Marriott resorts. It costs $164 Exchange fee. The upside is, there is the possibility of getting a 2 br unit by exchanging your 1 br (something that isn't possible within Vistana.)

 

[HudsHut]

the nights of Sept 3 and 10 are currently not available, but keep checking.

 

[rcv82]

Resale Nanea has value, so... this maybe a rare (rare) instance where buying the minimum necessary to Requal may be worth it (and even then perhaps not).
Using II for Nanea is a downward exchange.

Requal is probably worth it if you want to go places other than Nanea, either via StarOptions or Abound. Nanea gets good value in Abound. That’s about the most cost effective way you could get into Abound given you already own Nanea.

Note that while Nanea has resale value, requalifying it makes no difference for resale value as that doesn’t pass to the buyer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[siesta]

Query whether since it was gifted, and since Nanea has some resale value, are you better off selling it and putting the money towards a mandatory resort resale purchase. That might be a better value proposition than requal route depending on your needs.