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Starwood to Interval International

jay31

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If my boss has the following:

Westin Lagunamar Odd Year Float Week 27

Westin Princeville Annual Float Week 3

Westin Princeville Annual Float Week 16

Westin Princeville Annual Float Week 40

Westin Princeville Annual Float Week 12

Westin Princeville Even Year Float 46

They are all Platinum Plus, 2 bedroom Lock offs. He wants to try using Interval International for staying in Kelowna in the summer, is this a reasonable thing to do? Or would it still be difficult to trade? Or is there any way to see availability before joining or knowing if his would be "good" traders?

He doesn't know how the exchange program works, and didn't want to sign up for it, if it probably wouldn't work.

Thanks in advance.
 

VacationForever

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Did he buy from the developer? If so, he should already have a "free" II account. He can simply log on and search to see what is available (leftovers) but should be able to get a feel of what II inventory looks like.
 

DeniseM

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This is not a workable plan:

1. Those resorts are WAAAAY too expensive to use as exchangers. This would be a down trade - trading something with high value for something with much lower value.

2. Exchanging is like gambling: You make your bet (deposit) and spin the wheel (put in a request) and hope you get lucky. It's not like making a hotel reservation. Another owners has to deposit exactly what you want, and you have to beat everyone else to it.

3. Chances of getting multiple consecutive weeks is extremely low - maybe zero.

His best usage of the resorts that he owns is to use them, or trade the Staroptions in the SVN network. With very expensive resorts, using them in Interval is way over-kill, and is not likely to be successful.

(If he bought resale - he does not have Staroptions - if he bought from the developer - he does.)
 
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jay31

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Yes he bought all these straight from the developer and I think he is 5*'s if that helps. He was talking about trading them to StarPoints but I told him that's a waste and I would look into how this works.

He mentioned he might have a login, but never tried it.
 

jay31

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He just wants one week in kelowna in the summer in a 2 or 3 bedroom unit

Is there a lot of risk for renting them out? Right now he just keeps rolling over his options to the next year. But I think he has 600,000 that he has to use for 2016 that he already carried over. And another 740,000 for 2016
 

DeniseM

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Trading them for Starpoints is also a bad value. The exchange rate is really poor - it favors Starwood. In other words, the cost of his maintenance fees, is more than the value of the Starpoints he would get.

His Elite Status with Starwood does not apply in Interval at all.

He just wants one week in kelowna in the summer in a 2 or 3 bedroom unit

He might be able to deposit one week, and trade it for another week, but he should look at the cost. His maintenance fee is about $2,500 for ONE of his timeshares - how much does it cost to just rent at the destination he desires?

Is there a lot of risk for renting them out? Right now he just keeps rolling over his options to the next year. But I think he has 600,000 that he has to use for 2016 that he already carried over. And another 740,000 for 2016

I redacted the "renting" comment - unfortunately the resorts he owns are mediocre renters.

Why did he buy these timeshares? Does he know that after 2 years the Staroptions expire? This makes me cringe. ;)

*If he is going to use the 2016 Staroptions, he needs to make his reservations NOW. At this point in time, the top resorts are booked solid up to the end of July 2016. He is not managing his ownership well.
 
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jay31

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He bought them I think about 7 years ago. And was really using them a lot of the first five years. But now with his grand kids being young, the clan isn't traveling as much and traveling farther is a bit harder and he just doesn't feel like going to many places.

I think he realized he has no real resale. I did make a deal with him to pay him the MF on one use the 148,000 options per year instead of me buying a resale. But that still leaves him with a lot

And he is paying for a rental week in kelowna in the summer so I told him I would look into this for him.
 

jay31

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He knows they expire. But I got 9 days in Cancun coming in dec up for free cause they were going to waste! And he told me not to bother buying a resale and just use his, so that worked for both of us.

He said the kelowna one last year was about $8000 for the week.
 

DeniseM

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I am estimating that he is paying about $15,000 per year in maintenance fees, and I'm guessing that he paid at least $300,000 for these timeshares.

Yet, he is basically just wasting them. I know that's harsh - but it's a fact.

If he has family members that want them, he could sign them over, and the family members would get to keep all the original perks (Staroptions primarily.)

If he sells them on the resale market, he will be lucky to get 5% of what he paid, but at least he could get out from under the maintenance fees.

If he is not using them, they are just a money drain.

*Even though the resorts he owns are not strong renters, he could at least cover his maintenance fees by renting them, and that would be a lot better than just taking a $15,000 per year loss!
 
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jay31

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It's about 16k in MF fees. I don't think his kids want them. Well he unoffcially is letting me use one every year. He might start using them again. And he does use 2 weeks in keirland once a year.

That's why we were just hoping to try trading a week or two for kelowna. I told him there's only so many of his weeks I can use it a year!!:rofl:
 

jay31

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Anyways getting back to the original topic would there be any use in trading any of these for 1 week in the summer in kelowna? With interval
 

tschwa2

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Honestly I didn't know where Kelowna was so I looked it up. There are zero timeshares for rent in Kelowna on Redweek for any week during any year. There are a total of 2 for sale.

All his deposits have sufficient power. I just don't think there are a lot of summer deposits. I see a 2 br up to May 28, 2016 and then again starting September 3, 2016. A few studios in early summer. That's at a non rated resort. For the 2 that are listed as premium you have to go out to April and late September to find availability.

It wouldn't hurt to try for an exchange. He could use a 2017 week starting Jan 1 2016 to start an ongoing search and then cancel it and make a reservation at any time.
 

jay31

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The whole thing that started this trading thing was because he is actually paying for a week here in 2016.

https://www.intervalworld.com/web/cs?a=1503&resortCode=MNB&parentResortCode=MNB#.VldsqjZdGUk

And I said I would look into trading for him. He is coming in to the office tomorrow so we are going to try find his login and log into Interval and see what there is. Interval lists a few places in Kelowna.

He's not trying to get rid of his timeshares, and is fine paying the MF. I just want to try and save him the $6000 to $8000 or so he will pay for the 2016 Kelowna trip if he can use what he already is paying for.

If we do try to "Trade" one of his weeks, is that one of his weeks to trade vs another? Just on the mystarcentral, it asks you to enter the contract # you wish to trade. and which location would be best?
 

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Princeville will have much better trading value than Lagunamar.

The Princeville weeks will all trade the same.

Interval lists a lot of places that they are "affiliated" with. However, that doesn't mean that an owner will ever deposit their week with Interval.

It absolutely doesn't hurt to try for an exchange, but there is no way to know if you will get it.

Since he is depositing a 2 bdm., he can only request a 2 bdm.

He will have to pay the exchange fee (Approx. $150) to put in a request.
 

jay31

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Thanks for all the advice and help!! We will play around tomorrow and see what there is. He is just looking for a 2 bedroom. So that would by fine.

One last question. If he doesn't know his login for II, would he call Svn for it?
 

sue1947

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I don't know the Starwood part, but can offer some suggestions on the resorts.
For your situation, I think you have the right idea. If these weeks are going to waste, you might as well go somewhere even if it isn't as nice of a resort. With exchanging, he can open up all the resorts that he can drive to instead of needing to fly.

I was able to trade into the Manteo Beach Club in early May with a low trader. The first full weekend in May was when traffic spiked up as the weather got warm. If he can expand his parameters beyond summer to include May and Sept, there are some weeks there now. The same is true for weeks in Canmore for the Canadian Rockies or Whistler. In Kelowna, the best quality resorts are the Grand Okanagan and Manteo and then the resorts down in Osooyoos. I would avoid the ones across the lake. If you are a tug member, you can access the resort reviews to get a good idea of what is acceptable. The easiest trade in W Canada is into Eastern BC with a large number of timeshares. Bighorn in Radium Hot Springs is the newest but I like Fairmont Mtnside which is older, but well maintained and a really good golf spot.

Once you are in II, select search by map, and then W Canada. Enter your date parameters and you can see your options. That may prompt some ideas of other places to go.
I checked with a strong trader and didn't see any summer weeks. The bulk of those are probably already gone. When trading, you need to get into line about a year in advance. They fill ongoing searches first and then the leftovers are what you see in the online inventory. As a result, you don't see summer weeks; those have all been snatched up. If one is cancelled or an owner decides to do a late deposit, they will go to an ongoing search.

As a result, it is best to set up an ongoing search. You will pay the exchange fee, but if you cancel the search for any reason, you get that exchange fee back. Put in your search parameters: you need at least 3 combinations of date/resorts. You can put in a request for anything in a geographic location or list the specific resorts. I always enter the resorts which gives me more control. There are a couple of resorts in that area that I would not accept so I take those out of the mix by listing the ones that I do want. Provide as wide a net as possible for dates, especially for summer. Once you set up the search, you can always go back in and revise it. So if you don't get anything by this spring, you can go in and put in 2017 dates which you have a good chance of getting.

The MF cost of the resorts he has may be high, but so is the cost of travel to use them. Trading into someplace closer to home that will actually get used is a good use of those weeks especially if you want to keep it simple and avoid renting.

Sue
 
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