I purchased a resale WKORV 2BR EOYO at the end of 2019 for $3000. (I know, GREAT DEAL!) I purchased from SMTN and had a great experience with Ryan. In the beginning of Sept my wife and I went to The Westin Los Cabos Resort Villas & Spa and stayed for a week in a 2BR ocean view for 56k SO. While we were there we went to an owners updated where they tried to sell us Westin Adventures (which we declined.) The very last package of 44k points EOY for $10k to make our resale "authorized" we also declined. The salesman told us that unless we made our unit "authorized" we would not be able to take advantage of the additional 80+ properties in MVC. We declined and got our free excursion to swim with dolphins, which was fantastic! I spoke to another Vistana rep when I got back state side and she tried to sell me on Westin Flex and told me that with the merger that Vistana and MVC are going to a "Pure Point" system and the new dashboard will be launched in April 2022. Who knows if that's actually correct or not. Needless to say, playing the waiting game to see what actually happens.
Yeah I agree on the 50% trade in being stingy, but I think that may have been because I had already had traded in something else when I bought that in 2011 and hadn’t really paid that much. The 50% trade was pretty close to the actual dollars out of my pocket when I bought it. $14k net purchase price after my trade in (I got the unit I traded in for free) vs $11k offered for trade in.
I am just back from 12 days with family on Kauai - 7 nights at WOVR Princeville, then 5 night at Marriott's Kauai Beach Club Villas (on a marketing pkg purchased pre-Covid). Had the unique (??) experience of going through 2 sales presentations in 12 days, one on each side of the upcoming merger. As you can imagine, each side had stories to tell, and none of it was entirely known by either of them. One item seems to be agreed to on both sides - Hyatt is not going to be integrated. One projected the purchase of Welk Resorts will be added to Hyatt, then the combination sold off. Who knows?
For reference, I am 5 Star Elite.
The
Vistana salespeople leaned hard on selling me 4 night of Flex points use to extend my weekly stays on Maui.
Really not appealing at $14k
plus $1000 more MF annually.
Pushed hard that Mexico might not be part of the go forward group, but again, could not give me any facts.
They just wanted me to trade in the EOY Lagunamar unit for the "safer" choice of the 4 Flex nights.
They also pushed hard that 8-month reservations are going to be really difficult. Stated the 440,000 MVC owners were anxious to access the ownership inventory now shared solely among the 220,000 Vistana owners. I admit those numbers gave me pause, but I have Home Resort advantage at the Maui units (that I always use) and I know it isn't good math lately but I usually trade my Mexico units for either Cabo use or Bonvoy points anyway (flights and hotels). Plus I doubt that MVC wants to alienate top tier owners, so I decided the best strategy for me is to wait and see what actually gets announced.
Then I moved on to the
Marriott sales presentation, they basically repeated a lot of what you already read above - along with vague data and some thinly veiled scare tactics. They started out at $37,000 and by then end were pushing $14k so I could "get MVC DP's and systems access" 13 months ahead (sound familiar?). Pushed on Mexico vs Hawaii and buying Flex points instead. Again, familiar. Then they pulled out their price increase charts from the last decade and said how "it is likely to go up before the spring merger" at which point I worked hard not to roll my eyes. A number of owners sitting in these presentations must be taking the "wait and see" approach, as multiple incentives were piled on top too. No need for me to pay even *more* MFs before I see what the future holds. So no sale, but gained as much info as I could. Then came here to "read more". ;-).
Oh and the 5 nt, 6 day "Encore return visit" pkgs offered by each were both "Kauai only" and at exactly same price - $1,295 for studio, $1695 for 1/1.
The Marriott people offered to extend their use to 24 months vs the 18 months at Vistana. Just fyi.