• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Looking for advice

MauiMitch

newbie
Joined
Dec 30, 2008
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
I am new to the website, and relatively new to SVO. I have a 2BLO OF at WKORVN every year. In 2010 I am trying to figure the best way to get my whole family to Maui. To do this I will need (2) 2BLO, (one in addition to my own) or enough starpoints to put them up in two hotel rooms at the Sheraton or Westin.
Any body have any good angles to do this? One possibility would be to try and trade my week in '11 for a week in '10. Is this a possibility?

Thanks for any help.
 

DeniseM

Moderator
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
57,668
Reaction score
9,088
Points
1,849
Resorts Owned
WKORV, WKV, 2-SDO, 4-Kauai Beach Villas, Island Park Village (Yellowstone), Hyatt High Sierra, Dolphin's Cove (Anaheim)
Welcome to TUG! :hi:

You can borrow your Staroptions from 2011 to make a reservation in 2010, but you can only do it at 90 days out from arrival. If you are going off-season, that will probably work, but it's not as likely for holiday or summer weeks, when there may be no availability at 90 days. Be aware that you have to pay the MF in advance to borrow your Staroptions from the next year. However, if you convert your 2011 OF week to Staroptions, you lose your owner's priority for view, so you would have no priority to reserve an OF unit with your Staroptions. Staroptions are not linked to any particular view.

If you plan to try that, you should have a back-up hotel reservation in case there is no availability at WKORV/N.

Since you own OF, which rents well, you might want to rent your 2011 week and use the funds to rent a 2010 week. (Or pay yourself back.)

Two hotel rooms for a week would probably cost you in the neighborhood of 140,000 Starpoints. Do you have a Starwood AMEX card? Many owners use one to earn "free" Starpoints. Of course they are only free if you pay off your credit card every month. We charge everything on our card and earn a fair number of Starpoints this way.

Starwood runs specials sometimes where you can get a discount on a 2nd unit at the resort, so I would also watch for those carefully. Starwood sends them out to owners via email and they are also sometimes posted on www.mystarcentral.com. Sometimes they offer Star[points] + cash deals, too.

Another option is to rent from an owner. A 2 bdm. OV unit goes for about $3,500 a week from an owner - a non-view unit even less. With the economy the way it is, those prices may come down. See the TUG classifieds and www.redweek.com for WKORV and WKORVN weeks for rent.

One more idea - since you have a highly desirable OF unit, you could probably do a private trade with another owner. You would trade your 2011 week for their 2010 week, thereby guaranteeing that you would get the exact week you wanted, because the owner could make the Resv. for you at 12 mos. out. You are unlikely to get another OF week this way, but you might find another OF owner in the same situation who would like 2 weeks in 2011. You are more likely to find an OV owner who would love to trade their OV unit for your OF unit. This can all be done through Starwood with the reservation placed in each other's names.
 
Last edited:

LisaRex

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2007
Messages
6,792
Reaction score
317
Points
518
Location
'burbs of Cincinnati, OH
Resorts Owned
Used to own: WKORV-N; SVV - Bella
Hey, Maui Mitch. I'm from Cincinnati and own an OF at WKORV-N, too. Small world!

Unfortunately, when you own OF it doesn't really make sense to borrow from the next year because you lose that view you paid a pretty penny for.

I, too, would like to take a family vacation and bring my brothers and sisters out. FYI, There are tons of affordable non-Starwood options nearby if you aren't insistent on staying at the same location. For instance, The Mahana has incredible views, is affordable, and within walking distance. Ditto for Kaanapali Shores. Both have many villas for rent by owner at VRBO. I rented a private 2 bdrm OF condo at Kaanapali Shores via VRBO in '06 and wouldn't hesitate to book it again. When another couple and I split the cost, it only cost us $1200 or so each, so it was pretty affordable.

If you want to use StarOptions or StarPoints, then Denise's suggestions are good, but the cash and points and StarPoint options are usually only available during shoulder seasons. I doubt you'll get them in the summer. If you want to gamble, you could wait until 90 days out and then check the Wotif.com site.

http://www.wizardpub.com/maui/mauwestmap.html
 

MauiMitch

newbie
Joined
Dec 30, 2008
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
DeniseM and LisaRex; Thanks for the replies. I think I will try to explore the possibliities [specific info. deleted-DeniseM] I'm assuming the place to do that is in the classifieds area.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeniseM

Moderator
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
57,668
Reaction score
9,088
Points
1,849
Resorts Owned
WKORV, WKV, 2-SDO, 4-Kauai Beach Villas, Island Park Village (Yellowstone), Hyatt High Sierra, Dolphin's Cove (Anaheim)
Yep - the classified Ads is the right place! TUG rules don't allow us to buy, sell, or trade in the forums.

GOOD LUCK!
Denise
 
Top