Sheraton resale into abound

[Wanderlustgrl]

Were all Sheraton and Westin resales allowed to enroll in Abound without a purchase? If so what was the cut off date. And why do Marriott owners with resale have to buy something when they didn’t. If that’s the case

 

[DanCali]

Were all Sheraton and Westin resales allowed to enroll in Abound without a purchase? If so what was the cut off date. And why do Marriott owners with resale have to buy something when they didn’t. If that’s the case

Only the mandatory resorts like Vistana Villages (Bella and Key West) and the handful of mandatory Westin resorts


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[dioxide45]

Were all Sheraton and Westin resales allowed to enroll in Abound without a purchase? If so what was the cut off date. And why do Marriott owners with resale have to buy something when they didn’t. If that’s the case

If you owned a VSN enrolled VOI prior to August 2022, then it would have been automatically enrolled in Abound. If you bought a VSN mandatory VOI after August 2022 or you own a voluntary resale, regardless of when you purchased the voluntary, then you would need to use the retro process to get it enrolled into Abound.

 

[Hindsite]

The reason MVC unenrolled weeks, resale or bought direct, are treated differently from resale Sheraton and Westin is that the take-up rate of MVC weeks owners for enrolment was terrible, really, really terrible. It was a difficult "sell" to say to people that they should pay even a few thousand to enrol, or buy club points to enrol when you look at what your week will elect for and find it won't get you what you can currently get when booking your week. There's a lot more depth to the value proposition for enrolling and electing for club points, but the conversation quickly gets derailed by the basic "I can't get what I've got" problem unless the salesperson is better than any I encountered. Even after enrolment was available for no up-front cost, many owners were already in the "Its not worth it" camp. Each MVC ownership needed a contract revision to be enrolled, so each owner needs picking off to get them to move over. The "free" enrolment option was not offered to European owners, like it was for US owners, and fees or requirement to purchase points was required until recently. The website no longer states this and I haven't asked whether it can now be done without a fee or additional purchase now.

With the deployment of the MVC Destinations Club (aka Abound) to Sheraton and Westin owners they needed to find a way to avoid the terribly slow uptake rate that picking off owners one by one requires. So they went with an agreement between VSN and Abound, which then drew in all owners who had access to VSN as at Aug 2022, which included resale mandatory Sheraton and Westin owners.

 

[jabberwocky]

I think @Hindsite has it exactly correct. The thing about exchanges is they are network economies. The value of being part of the network increases exponentially as more people/units are added to the system.

The trouble is who should get those gains in value when there is a definite cost to becoming part of the network. For example, I could already trade StarOptions from SDO (bough resale and retroed) to go to Maui 2BR fo a week. The number of MVC points I get from that week when enrolled only covers about 1/4 of a Maui week, so why would I pay to enroll the week. Similarly, I get over 8k MVC points for my resale Maui week (Mandatory but not retroed), but this wouldn’t be enough to let me book back into the same resort with Abound. Why would I pay to enroll the week when there is no immediate benefit?

To make the acquisition of Vistana work, MVC benefits most by adding a mass of units to the Abound system, thus making them available.

 

[dioxide45]

The website no longer states this and I haven't asked whether it can now be done without a fee or additional purchase now.

Are you referring to the option to enroll an MVC US week as a US owner who bought prior to June 2010 in Abound with the webinar? If so, that option is still available complementary. It looks like they now have a new page for it. The website does still seem to indicate it is only open to US residents.

 

[Hindsite]

Are you referring to the option to enroll an MVC US week as a US owner who bought prior to June 2010 in Abound with the webinar? If so, that option is still available complementary. It looks like they now have a new page for it. The website does still seem to indicate it is only open to US residents.

I'm referring to enrolment of eligible weeks in Europe and the US by non-US resident owners. It has previously shown as being $1,450 (ish) on the website until recently, and owners in Europe have been told that they either have to pay or buy points to enrol eligible, pre 2010 developer bought weeks. That was the case until the last year or so, now the website mentions cost, but does not say how much and there is no mention of a free option. I only found out about the webinar option due to a particularly helpful receptionist at the Shadow ridge sales office in 2018, who persisted in telling me that I was eligible even though I'd been told that I wasn't. I made it absolutely clear before I set up the webinar where I was from etc and got the info from the Cork office etc, so it was done completely transparently and without issue.

Its just another example of a sales lie that is a disgrace, and really doesn't help either owners or MVC.

 

[kuruk333]

From what I remember, not all Sheraton and Westin resales were automatically eligible to join Abound. There was a window right after the Marriott acquisition where a few exceptions slipped through, but anything purchased after that cutoff usually required an enrollment fee or a direct purchase. The cutoff was somewhere around 2022, I think, when they finalized the integration.

 

[dioxide45]

From what I remember, not all Sheraton and Westin resales were automatically eligible to join Abound. There was a window right after the Marriott acquisition where a few exceptions slipped through, but anything purchased after that cutoff usually required an enrollment fee or a direct purchase. The cutoff was somewhere around 2022, I think, when they finalized the integration.

I think there were two resorts that were not initially eligible. Harborside Resort at Atlantis and Westin Riverfront. Being mandatory Harborside became automatically enrolled when they brought it in. If one had a week at Riverfront that was in VSN, then it too would have been enrolled in Abound. If it was voluntary, then it would still be unenrolled unless one bought in to retro.