Purchasing a resale SDO (Sheraton Desert Oasis) no StarOptions is it worth taking on

[CPNY]

I own a large 1 Bdm at SDO - they also have a small 1 Bdm which will have less trading power.

The primary reason for buying at this resort (besides using it) is that it is a cost effective Interval trader, because all Vistana/Sheraton/Westin resorts have first priority for other Vistana exchanges in II - but not in RCI.

It definitely has more trading power than your Mexico week.

You would have to join Interval.

You can expect to be able to trade for a 1 Bdm. Vistana Hawaii resort during the offseason - primarily fall and possibly spring. Westin Princeville is easier to get than Maui - I've traded for Princeville twice. The best way to get a Hawaii exchange is to put in a broad ongoing search.

If you are very flexible about when you travel, and can plan in advance, this should be a good deal for you. If you need high season dates and/or school holidays, it won't work for you.

You know a lot! Help me lol. So I bought my HRA years ago two years ago a SVV lockout in key west. Today I picked up another SVV KW lockout every other year usage. Do you think I should bother keeping the HRA? Is it better to trade into II for better resorts? I’m so new to using II. I never exchanged. Am not sure if the high MF is worth it. I’ll be using my SVV options to book back into harborside much more cost effectively.

 

[CPNY]

Hi, A friend of mine wants to give me their SDO, 1 bedroom, Gold, Annual floating, check in Sunday via a resale. I understand there are maintenance fees, closing costs and transfer fees. I am not new to timeshares as we currently have a week in Cabo San Lucas, MX and use RCI for trading. That runs out in 4-5 years as we have had it for so long and those are not deeded for life. I read that the StarOptions at this resort will not be transferred because this is considered a "Voluntary" resort and not the mandatory resort. If I understand it correctly StarOptions let you stay at at any of the Starwood Vacation Network Resorts (SVN) so I would not have that option to use. The only option would be to trade it through RCI or II if we wanted to go elsewhere correct? Since we are RCI weeks member what would this be considered? Would we have to pay for another membership with RCI as points or something? I read through the stickies and found the deed information. I haven't found what this is worth trading into Hawaii or other places. We have a horrible time trading our studio Cabo San Lucas, MX unit with RCI every time and are flexible with our dates. I don't want to take on another that is going to be a pain to trade. Is this worth taking on? We live 1/2 hour from SDO in Arizona and the contract states we can use the pool year round which is a nice benefit but I have never heard of this as something that is normally included and I don't know if it will transfer. Thank you!

I wouldn’t take on a timeshare with no star option usage. That’s just me. II is great im sure, but having the option to use star options is better. I’ll tell you this. I have harborside unit I’m looking to give away. My friend who travels with me wanted to take it. I didn’t want to burden her with a high maint fee knowing she would travel off peak times where picking up another mandatory unit with lower fees would be better for her. Moral of the story here is, unless you’re going back to that resort every year, get a unit that you can use options.

 

[liongate88]

I own a large 1 Bdm at SDO - they also have a small 1 Bdm which will have less trading power.

The primary reason for buying at this resort (besides using it) is that it is a cost effective Interval trader, because all Vistana/Sheraton/Westin resorts have first priority for other Vistana exchanges in II - but not in RCI.

It definitely has more trading power than your Mexico week.

You would have to join Interval.

You can expect to be able to trade for a 1 Bdm. Vistana Hawaii resort during the offseason - primarily fall and possibly spring. Westin Princeville is easier to get than Maui - I've traded for Princeville twice. The best way to get a Hawaii exchange is to put in a broad ongoing search.

If you are very flexible about when you travel, and can plan in advance, this should be a good deal for you. If you need high season dates and/or school holidays, it won't work for you.

hi;
How would you know if you are buying a large 1 bedroom vs a small one? most listings in resale does not mention anything other than 1 bedroom Thanks

 

[jabberwocky]

hi;
How would you know if you are buying a large 1 bedroom vs a small one? most listings in resale does not mention anything other than 1 bedroom Thanks

The Premium (larger) side has a full kitchen and higher MF.

The smaller side only has a kitchenette.

You can (and should) ask for an estoppel which will provide details.

 

[liongate88]

The Premium (larger) side has a full kitchen and higher MF.

The smaller side only has a kitchenette.

You can (and should) ask for an estoppel which will provide details.

I see thanks!

 

[liongate88]

The Premium (larger) side has a full kitchen and higher MF.

The smaller side only has a kitchenette.

You can (and should) ask for an estoppel which will provide details.

Hi since you are really good at this LoL. I want to ask your opinion. I want to buy a resale TS for me to be able to trade in other resorts with IL, more like MVC, Wyndham since I own Vistana already. I am looking at the lowest MF per year. I have heard SDO will be a good trader in IL. My questions would be which would you think will be the best in my situation . An SDO 1 bedroom gold plus EY which you can get basically for free or Marriott shadow ridge 2 Bed EOY with more upfront fee. Both would have more or less the same MF per year (since 1 is EY and other is EOY). Or do you have any suggestion of other resorts? Other question would be if you are a member of IL with Vistana do you have to pay for another membership with MVC if you trade with IL? Would trading MVC to other MVC have trading fee? Thanks in advance!

 

[Sugarcubesea]

I loved my ownership of my 2 bedroom EOY-Odd unit I had, I was bummed that I gave it away but once I got to the point of owning more timeshares then weeks of vacation I have in a given year, I had to give one away...I bought my unit to trade into Hawaii and it served me well, but it's now difficult for me to get to AZ as our vacation plans changed and we now do our winter vacations in FL and our summer vacations in MI. I took Panina's advice a year ago and now only own where I go and this allows me not to use an exchange company and save money

 

[Ken555]

Hi since you are really good at this LoL. I want to ask your opinion. I want to buy a resale TS for me to be able to trade in other resorts with IL, more like MVC, Wyndham since I own Vistana already. I am looking at the lowest MF per year. I have heard SDO will be a good trader in IL. My questions would be which would you think will be the best in my situation . An SDO 1 bedroom gold plus EY which you can get basically for free or Marriott shadow ridge 2 Bed EOY with more upfront fee. Both would have more or less the same MF per year (since 1 is EY and other is EOY). Or do you have any suggestion of other resorts? Other question would be if you are a member of IL with Vistana do you have to pay for another membership with MVC if you trade with IL? Would trading MVC to other MVC have trading fee? Thanks in advance!

SDO is historically an excellent II trader. I've used mine (always as 1-bed units) to trade to:

WKOVN 1-bed
WKORV 1-bed
2x Westin Nanea 2-bed
Marriott's Grand Chateau 2-bed
Kona Coast Resort II 2-bed
2x Four Seasons Aviara 2-bed
Club Intrawest Whistler 2-bed
Grand Timber Lodge 2-bed
Marriott Custom House 1-bed
and more...

 

[liongate88]

SDO is historically an excellent II trader. I've used mine (always as 1-bed units) to trade to:

WKOVN 1-bed
WKORV 1-bed
2x Westin Nanea 2-bed
Marriott's Grand Chateau 2-bed
Kona Coast Resort II 2-bed
2x Four Seasons Aviara 2-bed
Club Intrawest Whistler 2-bed
Grand Timber Lodge 2-bed
Marriott Custom House 1-bed
and more...

Wow! That sounds great! Thanks

 

[liongate88]

SDO is historically an excellent II trader. I've used mine (always as 1-bed units) to trade to:

WKOVN 1-bed
WKORV 1-bed
2x Westin Nanea 2-bed
Marriott's Grand Chateau 2-bed
Kona Coast Resort II 2-bed
2x Four Seasons Aviara 2-bed
Club Intrawest Whistler 2-bed
Grand Timber Lodge 2-bed
Marriott Custom House 1-bed
and more...

Would 1 bedroom gold plus matter in trading? The only thing it is not platinum and it is difficult to find platinum at SDO. Thanks

 

[liongate88]

I loved my ownership of my 2 bedroom EOY-Odd unit I had, I was bummed that I gave it away but once I got to the point of owning more timeshares then weeks of vacation I have in a given year, I had to give one away...I bought my unit to trade into Hawaii and it served me well, but it's now difficult for me to get to AZ as our vacation plans changed and we now do our winter vacations in FL and our summer vacations in MI. I took Panina's advice a year ago and now only own where I go and this allows me not to use an exchange company and save money

This is what I am afraid off, owning too many TS that you can handle LoL. For this same reason, I am looking for the best option above to limit the number of TS and MF!

 

[Ken555]

Would 1 bedroom gold plus matter in trading? The only thing it is not platinum and it is difficult to find platinum at SDO. Thanks

Mine are Gold+ (1-52) weeks. From what has been reported over the years here, there is very little practical difference between any of the SDO weeks for II trading. Platinum is desired if you plan on paying $$$ to retro it so it would then be worth 148,100 SOs in the network.

 

[liongate88]

Mine are Gold+ (1-52) weeks. From what has been reported over the years here, there is very little practical difference between any of the SDO weeks for II trading. Platinum is desired if you plan on paying $$$ to retro it so it would then be worth 148,100 SOs in the network.

Thanks for the info!

 

[jabberwocky]

Hi since you are really good at this LoL. I want to ask your opinion. I want to buy a resale TS for me to be able to trade in other resorts with IL, more like MVC, Wyndham since I own Vistana already. I am looking at the lowest MF per year. I have heard SDO will be a good trader in IL. My questions would be which would you think will be the best in my situation . An SDO 1 bedroom gold plus EY which you can get basically for free or Marriott shadow ridge 2 Bed EOY with more upfront fee. Both would have more or less the same MF per year (since 1 is EY and other is EOY). Or do you have any suggestion of other resorts? Other question would be if you are a member of IL with Vistana do you have to pay for another membership with MVC if you trade with IL? Would trading MVC to other MVC have trading fee? Thanks in advance!

You’ve got quite a few questions in here. I’m not a expert trader in II (truth be told I’ve never traded through II - always used SO or home resort week). But I’d like to think I know a fair bit about the Vistana system.

Shadow Ridge is a great resort - but the fees are a bit heavier (a 2BR SDO EOY is about $200 cheaper per year in MF compared to Shadow Ridge). As a side note - my BIL was about to buy a Shadow Ridge week but ended up with the SDO unit that @Sugarcubesea so generously gave away.

As to adding weeks to your current Vistana II account - this will depend on whether your current Vistana ownership is in SVN or not (ie does it have SO). With SVN your membership in II is paid for, but you can’t put other weeks into that same account.

If you have a voluntary resale in an II account you pay for, you can combine different resorts in the same II account. So you could put a resale Marriott week in with a resale SDO for example.
You should be able to find out about the MVC to MVC trading fees in the Marriott forum. I believe for weeks traders there is a reduced fee for trading (but not for points holders).

 

[liongate88]

You’ve got quite a few questions in here. I’m not a expert trader in II (truth be told I’ve never traded through II - always used SO or home resort week). But I’d like to think I know a fair bit about the Vistana system.

Shadow Ridge is a great resort - but the fees are a bit heavier (a 2BR SDO EOY is about $200 cheaper per year in MF compared to Shadow Ridge). As a side note - my BIL was about to buy a Shadow Ridge week but ended up with the SDO unit that @Sugarcubesea so generously gave away.

As to adding weeks to your current Vistana II account - this will depend on whether your current Vistana ownership is in SVN or not (ie does it have SO). With SVN your membership in II is paid for, but you can’t put other weeks into that same account.

If you have a voluntary resale in an II account you pay for, you can combine different resorts in the same II account. So you could put a resale Marriott week in with a resale SDO for example.
You should be able to find out about the MVC to MVC trading fees in the Marriott forum. I believe for weeks traders there is a reduced fee for trading (but not for points holders).

Thanks for answering all the questions!

 

[wjarcher]

You can open a personal ii account where you can add both vistana non-svn units (eg SDO) and resale Marriott units. The trade fee between vistana and Marriott (or between vistana units) is $154 before any size upgrade fee.

BTW, everytime you add a timeshare unit to the ii account, there is $39 fee, so add all of your units (if you have multiple) when you open the ii account.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Eric B]

You can open a personal ii account where you can add both vistana non-svn units (eg SDO) and resale Marriott units. The trade fee between vistana and Marriott (or between vistana units) is $154 before any size upgrade fee.

BTW, everytime you add a timeshare unit to the ii account, there is $39 fee, so add all of your units (if you have multiple) when you open the ii account.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

II will also waive the $39 fee if you add resorts to your account when renewing or upgrading.

 

[LovinTheTropics]

Hi, A friend of mine wants to give me their SDO, 1 bedroom, Gold, Annual floating, check in Sunday via a resale. I understand there are maintenance fees, closing costs and transfer fees. I am not new to timeshares as we currently have a week in Cabo San Lucas, MX and use RCI for trading. That runs out in 4-5 years as we have had it for so long and those are not deeded for life. I read that the StarOptions at this resort will not be transferred because this is considered a "Voluntary" resort and not the mandatory resort. If I understand it correctly StarOptions let you stay at at any of the Starwood Vacation Network Resorts (SVN) so I would not have that option to use. The only option would be to trade it through RCI or II if we wanted to go elsewhere correct? Since we are RCI weeks member what would this be considered? Would we have to pay for another membership with RCI as points or something? I read through the stickies and found the deed information. I haven't found what this is worth trading into Hawaii or other places. We have a horrible time trading our studio Cabo San Lucas, MX unit with RCI every time and are flexible with our dates. I don't want to take on another that is going to be a pain to trade. Is this worth taking on? We live 1/2 hour from SDO in Arizona and the contract states we can use the pool year round which is a nice benefit but I have never heard of this as something that is normally included and I don't know if it will transfer. Thank you!

we have owned a 1 bedroom (large) for about a decade with great trades.....
from 2 bedroom at Hyatt in Tahoe in Jan a few years back to 2 bedroom at Marriott Newport Coast this year....

 

[liongate88]

Hi how would you know if the SDO unit is a platinum plus if retroed by Vistana? The deed says E20-1013 & E20-1014. Week 20. Would this translate to platinum plus or Gold plus? There appears to be discrepancies because of the old owners prior to Vistana taking over. Thanks!

 

[Ken555]

Hi how would you know if the SDO unit is a platinum plus if retroed by Vistana? The deed says E20-1013 & E20-1014. Week 20. Would this translate to platinum plus or Gold plus? There appears to be discrepancies because of the old owners prior to Vistana taking over. Thanks!

Week 20 is mid/late May and is Plat Plus (which runs thru week 21).

 

[dioxide45]

Hi how would you know if the SDO unit is a platinum plus if retroed by Vistana? The deed says E20-1013 & E20-1014. Week 20. Would this translate to platinum plus or Gold plus? There appears to be discrepancies because of the old owners prior to Vistana taking over. Thanks!

The unit number is also important. Only Starwood (now Vistana sold units as Plati Plus), so only newer units sold are PP. The best way to know if a week is true PP is to review the Resale Information Sheet (estoppel).

 

[DeniseM]

To be a true Platinum week at Sheraton Desert Oasis the unit number must be in this range-

1064, 1072, 1081-1100, 2064, 2072, 2081- 2100, 3064-3072, and 3081-3100

AND - the deeded week must be in this range: 1-21, 50-52

 

[liongate88]

To be a true Platinum week at Sheraton Desert Oasis the unit number must be in this range-

1064, 1072, 1081-1100, 2064, 2072, 2081- 2100, 3064-3072, and 3081-3100

AND - the deeded week must be in this range: 1-21, 50-52

Hi,

So would this mean the units 20-1013 & 1014 if retroed with Vistana wont get 148k staroptions? Thanks

 

[DeniseM]

I don't think so - #1013 & 1014 do not fall into the proper range of unit numbers. 1013 and 1014 come before 1064.

1064, 1072, 1081-1100, 2064, 2072, 2081- 2100, 3064-3072, and 3081-3100

 

[alexadeparis]

No it’s not a plat plus unit that’s currently on ebay