Kierland Explorer Package return visit - Outlandish price?

[jessyoo]

Good morning, I just returned from a stay at the Westin Kierland Villas (II getaway). Last Sept, I attended the presentation purchased an Explorer Package. Luckily I found TUG since then and decided not to buy retail (unfortunately I made that mistake before).

Interestingly, they offered a "deal" that seemed pretty expensive (after tugging). Thoughts?

Sep 07 offer: Lagunamar - Platinum Studio $19,100 and maintenance fees for $478 with no SP gift.

Dec 08 offer: Langunamar - Platinum EOY studio $14900 with no SP gift. However they would "apply" the $2k explorer package as a downpayment, MF would start in 2010 and Starwood would allow me to purchase 80k SP for $1550 in 2008 and 2009. They said that the incentive to buy extra SP has been fueling sales. This sounds counter intuitive that someone would pay more in the sale price just to get 160k sp? :rofl:

Thanks for all the knowledge sharing...keep up the good work.

 

[clsmit]

Those prices still seem high. And the price per starpoint doesn't seem too good, either. Keep trading and not buying! Think of the Explorer package as a vaction somewhere.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I love the fuzzy math when they try and sell StarPoints - that comes out to 2 cents per SP and while better that the 3.5 cents per SP that is the standard offer. I put the actual price at lower than this (for example - compare to the SP flight cost that is being offered) - more like 1 - 1.3 cents per SP. {excuse me in advance if I have the math incorrect}

Of course - I like to get >4 cents per SP when I am using them (e.g. European Hotel)

While it is a good feeling to have the spent cost of the ExpPkg put to use - I would pass. If you ever buy something from SVO (lots of caveats here) - buy resale first and then retro - and make sure you buy something with enough SOs that will allow for a good SVN exchange (e.g. 81K SOs for a 1Bd in HI)and get as many SPs out of them as you can squeeze.