Sheraton Flex Vistana new owner, questions

[sendit]

Hi all,

New owner here. Probably dumb guy BUT I wanted to share my experience and ask some questions for the vets here. My wife and myself (no kids, yet) do a fair amount of travel both international and domestic. Weve done quite a few timeshare presentations, but we were at Sheraton Orlando and everything clicked for abound to make sense for us (I think.) We bought like 44,000 star options for like 20k or something and $1k yearly maintenance fees. Clearly, I diddnt look all the way into the program but it looks like it was worth it just to be able to use interval international to buy getaways for super cheap in the future.

For booking the star options - it looks like 44k is pretty low for international travel. I see some good places in bahamas and virgin island and hawaii which is nice.

I was told to never trade staroptions, as the value tanks. Which sucks, because then I dont think i can take advantage of marriott abound properties? Whats the best way to use/utilize our timeshare, and can I buy more points? Or just suck it up and use it every 2 years for 88k points?

 

[kozykritter]

Hi, Welcome to the Sheraton Flex family! You definitely have the moving pieces and parts kind of jumbled up in there but the sales people aren't really the best educators on the truth of how it all fits together so that is understandable.

You bought 44K Sheraton Flex home options. You have 12-8 month out priority booking for the nine properties in Vistana that make up the Sheraton Flex trust ( 3 in FL & CO, 1 in AZ, SC & HI) https://www.vistana.com/sheraton-flex/1000. Once you get to 8 months out before check in, you can then use your options to book any other Vistana property in the system (your home options used automatically turn into StarOptions when you make the booking). You are correct that off shore locations and many onshore Westins have higher StarOption requirements to book so your 44K won't likely get you the same unit size or number of days that it would at the Sheraton Flex properties by and large. There is no way to rent StarOptions from other owners to add to the ones you have so the only two ways to get more for a reservation within Vistana is to buy more ownership or borrow from your next year's usage by prepaying the maintenance fees ahead of time. You can also decided to bank your current 44K options into the next use year and then combine them with that year's options to make a reservation in that next year.

You automatically have access to Abound since you bought from Vistana directly and your Sheraton Flex home options could be elected for up to 1,285 Club Points annually...you can either elect the entire amount or in chunks of 20,000 home options. Because you have Abound access, you are also eligible to rent Club Points from other Club Points owners (Marriott is light years ahead of Vistana on this feature) so without buying any new ownership in either program or electing Club Points, you can still rent up to 20,000 Club Points per year. There is an owner-run website vacationpointexchange.com with many listings.

You can also put your Sheraton Flex into Interval International in any amount and do exchanges there. Exchanges done to other Vistana or Marriott properties are free and can be retraded for free as well. You also have the option to convert your Sheraton Flex home options into Marriott Bonvoy hotel points but that is generally regarded as a poor value unless you have a very specific reason for doing it.

So much more to learn and TUG is a great place to do it so I encourage you to scroll back here and read many, many threads. Have fun!

 

[LeslieDet]

Just FYI - you can probably purchase Sheraton FlexOptions resale for almost nothing or even free. You should consider looking at Redweek. If you were to acquire resale, you can only use the Flex to book within the Sheraton FlexOptions program, and you won't have any StarOptions to exchange for other locations, and you won't have Abound access, but you'll pay the same MF. And, while you'll have to pay your own II membership, you can probably save $20k. That quantity of StarOptions isn't going to get you much for "international travel" within the Abound program or within the VSN using StarOptions. If those 44k FlexOptions are only worth 1285 Club Points, you'll be able to go to Branson or HHI in the winter. If your goal is really only to get access to II, there are much cheaper ways to do it. Personally, I think you are setting yourself up for a major disappointment that will cost you $20k.

 

[dioxide45]

When did you purchase? Was it within the past 10 days?

 

[sendit]

Thanks for the info guys! Ill go through your suggestions when I have a free moment. Nah, I bought months ago.

 

[bankr63]

Just FYI - you can probably purchase Sheraton FlexOptions resale for almost nothing or even free. You should consider looking at Redweek. If you were to acquire resale, you can only use the Flex to book within the Sheraton FlexOptions program, and you won't have any StarOptions to exchange for other locations, and you won't have Abound access, but you'll pay the same MF. And, while you'll have to pay your own II membership, you can probably save $20k. That quantity of StarOptions isn't going to get you much for "international travel" within the Abound program or within the VSN using StarOptions. If those 44k FlexOptions are only worth 1285 Club Points, you'll be able to go to Branson or HHI in the winter. If your goal is really only to get access to II, there are much cheaper ways to do it. Personally, I think you are setting yourself up for a major disappointment that will cost you $20k.

Curious if @sendit can purchase resale options and combine with the developer purchased options? Assuming if they can be retro'd that there is a fee for that? Don't know Flex at all; personally avoid those presentations because we are happy with what we own and how we use it now.

 

[grrrah]

Hi, Welcome to the Sheraton Flex family!
....
you can either elect the entire amount or in chunks of 20,000 home options. Because you have Abound access, you are also eligible to rent Club Points from other Club Points owners (Marriott is light years ahead of Vistana on this feature) so without buying any new ownership in either program or electing Club Points, you can still rent up to 20,000 Club Points per year. There is an owner-run website vacationpointexchange.com with many listings.

in my opinion, this is the best way to go to Abound properties. Usually the pricing is right around the maintenance fee cost so no need to buy extra.

Your 44k Home/Staroptions will get you to any of the Vistana properties but will have to do shorter stays. I've done 4-5 night stays in smaller units in Hawaii and added a 3 night hotel stay using Bonvoy/cash. Sounds like a studio or 1-bedroom is fine for you for several years.

If after a while, you like the Vistana options, I'd recommend picking up a Mandatory resale you can use as staroptions combined with your 44k. Buying more for abound will likely cost $20-30k plus maintenance fees which are about the price to rent them like Kozykritter mentioned.

 

[grrrah]

Curious if @sendit can purchase resale options and combine with the developer purchased options? Assuming if they can be retro'd that there is a fee for that? Don't know Flex at all; personally avoid those presentations because we are happy with what we own and how we use it now.

resale flex homeoptions can be combined with his 44k for Sheraton Flex trust reservations. These would be non-mandatory so cant be used as staroptions like what he purchased direct.

A mandatory resale can be used as staroptions and staroptions can be combined with his 44k used as staroptions. It won't allow him to make longer Flex/Trust reservations.

These are without requalifying the purchase.. Someone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[jabberwocky]

resale flex homeoptions can be combined with his 44k for Sheraton Flex trust reservations. These would be non-mandatory so cant be used as staroptions like what he purchased direct.

A mandatory resale can be used as staroptions and staroptions can be combined with his 44k used as staroptions. It won't allow him to make longer Flex/Trust reservations.

These are without requalifying the purchase.. Someone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

In principle I think you’re correct that they can be combined; however, you may have trouble convincing MVC to put the resale options in the same account as your developer unless you did a retro.