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How do Home options differ from Staroptions?

DeniseM

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How do Home options differ from Staroptions?

Good question - I will start a list (if you are going to add to it, please copy the list and add on).

1. At a resort where they are selling HomeOptions (WKORV-NN & WSJ) you buy HomeOptions, instead of a deeded week.

2. You can use HomeOptions at your home resort to make reservations 12-8 mos. before check-in.

3. At 8-0 mos., you can use HomeOptions to make Staroption reservations - as usual.

4. Homeoptions cannot be banked or borrowed - [THIS IS APPARENTLY INCORRECT]

5. Homeoptions are voluntary.
 
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SMHarman

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3 only applies to the first owner.

MF for HO is the blended value of the Underlying weeks MF. There is no allocation by square footage of unit or similar.

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk
 

DeniseM

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vacationtime1

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2. You can use HomeOptions at your home resort to make reservations 12-8 mos. before check-in.

Can you use HomeOptions to make a reservation at another HomeOption resort 12-8 months before check-in (such as Sheraton Kauai, WKORV/N to the extent units are owned by the new entity, etc.)?

If yes, how can Starwood guarantee that someone who bought 176700 HomeOptions at Nanea ("the 2bd OF package") can actually reserve a 2bd OF at Nanea?

If no, what is the real difference between the new HomeOptions and a voluntary SVN resort such as Princeville? In each case, an owner can reserve at his home resort (only) at 12-8 months and anywhere within the SVN at 8-0 months (obviously there could be differences in MF's, banking, etc., but I am focusing on differences in actual usage).
 

DeniseM

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Can you use HomeOptions to make a reservation at another HomeOption resort 12-8 months before check-in (such as Sheraton Kauai, WKORV/N to the extent units are owned by the new entity, etc.)?

You can't make reservations at WKORV-N/S - until the 8 mo. mark with Staroptions. But I wonder if this will occur in the future. Sheraton Kauai is still in the future.

If yes, how can Starwood guarantee that someone who bought 176700 HomeOptions at Nanea ("the 2bd OF package") can actually reserve a 2bd OF at Nanea?

I am guessing they can't sell more points than weeks. But reservations are always first come - first served. Ocean front owners with deeded weeks at deeded resorts get shut out too - especially major holidays.

If no, what is the real difference between the new HomeOptions and a voluntary SVN resort such as Princeville? In each case, an owner can reserve at his home resort (only) at 12-8 months and anywhere within the SVN at 8-0 months (obviously there could be differences in MF's, banking, etc., but I am focusing on differences in actual usage).

My guess is that as they add the other 2 Hawaii resorts, they are going to create a home resort Hawaii group, like they did with Florida/SBP/SDO.
 
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okwiater

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5. Homeoptions are voluntary.
Not exactly. HomeOptions DO transfer upon resale -- they are representative of your inherent usage rights. It's the SVN membership that is voluntary, which means that your HomeOptions DO NOT convert to StarOptions.
 

DeniseM

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Not exactly. HomeOptions DO transfer upon resale -- they are representative of your inherent usage rights. It's the SVN membership that is voluntary, which means that your HomeOptions DO NOT convert to StarOptions.

Yes - that is the definition of "voluntary" - you still have your HomeOptions, but no Staroptions.

Just like traditional voluntary resorts - home usage - no Staroptions.
 
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lizap

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Based on what David learned last week, I do not believe owners of the new resort will be allowed to exchange into WKORV N/S at 12-8 months. I see the new resort as similar to WPORV, except with no deeded weeks.
 

DeniseM

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Based on what David learned last week, I do not believe owners of the new resort will be allowed to exchange into WKORV N/S at 12-8 months. I see the new resort as similar to WPORV, except with no deeded weeks.

I would bet that the 2 future resorts they have planned for Hawaii will be placed in a Home Resort Group with WKORV-NN.
 

lizap

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I think it will be paired with Sheraton-Kauai, if anything. Certainly would be less disruptive for existing WKORV N/S owners as well as other mandatory owners this way. Time will tell...


I would bet that the 2 future resorts they have planned for Hawaii will be placed in a Home Resort Group with WKORV-NN.
 
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vacationtime1

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You can't make reservations at WKORV-N/S - until the 8 mo. mark with Staroptions. But I wonder if this will occur in the future. Sheraton Kauai is still in the future.

We have been speculating for months that Starwood has been RORFing WKORV and WKORVN for its new trust. We now see the trust (or at least pieces of it). What will Starwood do with all of these WKORV/N units if not make them available to HomeOption owners at the 12-8 month mark?

I am guessing they can't sell more points than weeks. But reservations are always first come - first served. Ocean front owners with deeded weeks at deeded resorts get shut out too - especially major holidays.

Deeded OF owners are always guaranteed an OF week, just not necessarily the OF week of their choice. But if HomeOptions can be used at any resort within a network, owners are guaranteed only some week at a resort owned by the trust, not their "home" resort, not their expected view, and not any specific week.

My guess is that as they add the other 2 Hawaii resorts, they are going to create a home resort Hawaii group, like they did with Florida/SBP/SDO.

Perhaps. But flexibility at the 12-8 month mark means no guarantees. If they add resorts, then there will be more HomeOption owners having the right to Nanea reservations at the 12-8 month mark than there are units at Nanea (meaning other owners will have to reserve at other Hawaii resorts in the group).

My thoughts are interlineated above in red.
 

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bobpark56

It seems that home option can be banked...but once banked, they become no different from banked staroptions. At least that's my reading of this note received today from Starwood:

"Your Home Options can be banked, by October 1, every year <3-star elite>, for a fee of $79. The Banked Home/StarOptions would expire December 31, two years past the year banked and can be used to confirm nights in ownership resorts up to eight months prior to your desired date of arrival. Banked Home Options, like Banked StarOptions, cannot be used to confirm a reservation 12-8 months prior to the arrival date, even when returning to your home resort in the season purchased.

At eight months prior to your desired date of arrival, you may combine your Home Options with StarOptions from weeks packages to confirm reservations at SVN ownership resorts."
 

DeniseM

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Good catch, Bob - I was going by someone's post stating that they were told at their sales meeting that HomeOptions cannot be banked.
 

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Good question - I will start a list (if you are going to add to it, please copy the list and add on).

1. At a resort where they are selling HomeOptions (WKORV-NN & WSJ) you buy HomeOptions, instead of a deeded week.

2. You can use HomeOptions at your home resort to make reservations 12-8 mos. before check-in.

3. At 8-0 mos., you can use HomeOptions to make Staroption reservations - as usual.

4. Homeoptions cannot be banked or borrowed.

5. Homeoptions are voluntary.


I own WSJ-CV (from developer) and as far as I know I'm able to borrow or bank my homeoptions just like Staroptions. Statement #4 may be true for resale?
 

vacationtime1

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Perhaps true, but Starwood has certainly increased the frequency with which it exercises ROFR at WKORV/N in the past couple of years and it has also increased the price at which it exercises ROFR on these units.

What is Starwood doing with these units? Starwood didn't buy them to rent them out (it contradicts its "asset light" strategy) and it doesn't have to; Starwood picks up rental inventory cheaply, such as StarPoint exchanges.

Starwood also didn't acquire these weeks to sell them as weeks; it would compete with the HomeOptions it is selling at Nanea.

So how do we reconcile Starwood's ROFR activity with the new program it rolled out?
 

bizaro86

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It seems that home option can be banked...but once banked, they become no different from banked staroptions. At least that's my reading of this note received today from Starwood:

"Your Home Options can be banked, by October 1, every year <3-star elite>, for a fee of $79. The Banked Home/StarOptions would expire December 31, two years past the year banked and can be used to confirm nights in ownership resorts up to eight months prior to your desired date of arrival. Banked Home Options, like Banked StarOptions, cannot be used to confirm a reservation 12-8 months prior to the arrival date, even when returning to your home resort in the season purchased.

At eight months prior to your desired date of arrival, you may combine your Home Options with StarOptions from weeks packages to confirm reservations at SVN ownership resorts."

I wonder if this will be true for resale owners of these weeks. If so, it - sort of- converts them to SVN mandatory resorts, albeit with a year delay. As if you weren't using it this year, you could bank and use the staroptions the next year.
 

lizap

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At this point, we can't reconcile it. We have to wait... but, I suspect the ROFR that Starwood has been doing has to do with them wanting to keep prices at a certain level, given the new resort going up (this agrees with what the salesman told David), but again speculation.


Perhaps true, but Starwood has certainly increased the frequency with which it exercises ROFR at WKORV/N in the past couple of years and it has also increased the price at which it exercises ROFR on these units.

What is Starwood doing with these units? Starwood didn't buy them to rent them out (it contradicts its "asset light" strategy) and it doesn't have to; Starwood picks up rental inventory cheaply, such as StarPoint exchanges.

Starwood also didn't acquire these weeks to sell them as weeks; it would compete with the HomeOptions it is selling at Nanea.

So how do we reconcile Starwood's ROFR activity with the new program it rolled out?
 

tschwa2

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I don't see it working that way. If you aren't a member of SVN your only banking opportunity would likely be to bank the points with II which would probably use a crossover grid where a 1 br with a tdi of 135-150 would cost y # of points.
 

SMHarman

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How do Home options differ from Staroptions?

Good question - I will start a list (if you are going to add to it, please copy the list and add on).

1. At a resort where they are selling HomeOptions (WKORV-NN & WSJ) you buy HomeOptions, instead of a deeded week.

2. You can use HomeOptions at your home resort to make reservations 12-8 mos. before check-in.

3. At 8-0 mos., you can use HomeOptions to make Staroption reservations - as usual.

4. Homeoptions cannot be banked or borrowed - [THIS IS APPARENTLY INCORRECT]

5. Homeoptions are voluntary.
Isn't this a 2 part answer?

For developer purchases they look a lot like a mandatory resort but allow check in and out on any day.

For resale buyers they look a lot like a voluntary resort (or do they - what happens to the svn fee?) and they can be used to book home resort view in home resort time priority period12-8 months (more relevant for WSJ which is not 1-52) and home resort view for the 7-0 or used to create a banked week wot II or another exchange co.

Resale buyers cannot bank or borrow and will not see them covert to so/ho at 8 month's (or will they)?

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DeniseM

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Isn't this a 2 part answer?

I don't think we have the specific details about resale/voluntary usage yet, but it will be interesting to find out.
 

SMHarman

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Can you use HomeOptions to make a reservation at another HomeOption resort 12-8 months before check-in (such as Sheraton Kauai, WKORV/N to the extent units are owned by the new entity, etc.)?

If yes, how can Starwood guarantee that someone who bought 176700 HomeOptions at Nanea ("the 2bd OF package") can actually reserve a 2bd OF at Nanea?

If no, what is the real difference between the new HomeOptions and a voluntary SVN resort such as Princeville? In each case, an owner can reserve at his home resort (only) at 12-8 months and anywhere within the SVN at 8-0 months (obviously there could be differences in MF's, banking, etc., but I am focusing on differences in actual usage).
Only those with OF Home Options can book OF at 12-8 month's. Of course the any day check in makes a bit of a mockery of how all of them book their week. If two one week owners book a m-m and a th-th stay that leaves m-th and th-m for the other owner.

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VacationForever

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Only those with OF Home Options can book OF at 12-8 month's. Of course the any day check in makes a bit of a mockery of how all of them book their week. If two one week owners book a m-m and a th-th stay that leaves m-th and th-m for the other owner.

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...and if no one books them, Starwood will rent them out. ;)
 

DavidnRobin

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Met a few people here at WPORV that rented studies thru Expedia/Priceline/etc for pretty good rates. Not ending in prime villas (but most do not care IME).
 
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