Newbie looking at buying into Starwood - question about SVN exchanges

[ajp]

Hi,

I have been following these boards off an on for a while and my wife and I are now looking at buying a Starwood property. Here is what we want to do - I would love to get your advice on this and whether this makes any sense:

- Buy resale - an annual 2 BR lock off unit
- Buy at Westin Kierland (we wanted a mandatory resort with 148,100 Staroptions to trade for other timeshares in the Starwood system).
- We likely would not stay at Westin Kierland very often. We love Maui. And we have family with condos/houses in Scottsdale that we can stay at.
- We'd move around a bit to other Starwood properties, but likely do Maui 80+% of the time.
- We don't want to buy in Maui (WKORV/WKORV North) due to the high MF's. But this is where we want to primarily go.
- We would not retro/requalify a Kierland purchase.
- We go to Hawaii every year right now - typically somewhere in Jan-March but are flexible (no interest in going in June/July/Aug/Sept.)
- We stayed at WKORV North last year for 1 week and loved it.

My question (or fear!) is this - I realize alot of people probably do this to get lower MF's. Is there a very strong likelihood you can get WKORV most every year if you book at the earliest possible time (8 months out, right)? Or are you going to have a harder time (esp. during peak travel periods) due to owners at WKORV (both resale and direct from Westin) and others who are Elite 3/4/5 etc.? I'd love to do this, but would be very disappointed if we had little luck of getting in (or if we got stuck having to book Maui somewhere from June-Sept. every year!).

Would love any insight on this,
Thanks!
Tony

 

[sjsharkie]

My question (or fear!) is this - I realize alot of people probably do this to get lower MF's. Is there a very strong likelihood you can get WKORV most every year if you book at the earliest possible time? Or are you going to have a harder time (esp. during peak travel periods) due to owners at WKORV (both resale and direct from Westin) and others who are Elite 3/4/5 etc.? I'd love to do this, but would be very disappointed if we had little luck of getting in (or if we got stuck having to book Maui somewhere from June-Sept. every year!).

Would love any insight on this,
Thanks!
Tony

Sounds like you have done research -- I'll throw in a few thoughts:

1. Historically, it has been fairly easy to trade into WKORV during shoulder and low season periods. Because all of the Hawaii properties have only one season, you often have owners competing for the summer weeks. You might get lucky to snag late August with SOs, but prime summer weeks are hard to come by even in SVN. Since you are shooting for Jan to March, your chances are a lot better although there is some competition for rooms during whale watching season and spring break.
2. SVO has changed the rules during the last few years. People can now bank and borrow SOs, and book single night reservations within the 8 month window. It is unknown how/if this might impact future reservations, but my guess is that it will only make long-term (1 week) stays harder since people can now pick off specific dates for trading.
3. As you probably know, WKV will cost you a lot up front, in exchange for a better SO/mf ratio. There is also no reason to requal/retro the property since it is mandatory -- if you are looking to go for 3/4/5/ star elite, there are better properties to choose to retro than WKV.


-ryan

 

[Ken555]

What you describe is pretty much what I've been doing since 2006. Given the obvious recent changes and unknown impact they may have on availability, I suspect this is still a good plan and likely quite reliable. SVN will continue to make changes over time, so expect changes and rumors...yet I doubt availability will be too difficult given your flexibility on schedule.


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