Starwood Vacation Ownership - Does it really matter WHAT you buy?

[MarkAndLeah]

I was recently at a Starwood Vacation Ownership presentation, where I bought a timeshare. I then came to this post and realized that while the timeshare might be a great concept, that paying full price from the developer is a bad idea. Thus, I cancelled the contract and am trying to buy resale at a resort that I would most likely want to go back to every now and then. I am interested in getting 81,000 StarOptions when I buy, so that I can have a lot of flexibilty to trade for other SVO properties. Here is my question:

Does it matter if I buy a two bedroom, one bedroom, 2 bedroom lock-off as long as I get my 81000 StarOptions? I know that when you want to book your room, if it's your home resort, you get 12 months to book (versus 8 months for non-home-resort owners). So, are you equally entitled AT 12 MONTHS (at your home resort) to any room equal to the StarOptions that you want to use, or are you only allowed at 12 months to select your original purchase (i.e. 2 bdrm lock-off or 2 bdrm or 1 bedroom, etc)?

 

[Transit]

At 12 months out you can book your type of unit in your season at your resort .At 8 months out you can book any SVN resort /unit/season using your staroptions.

 

[Bill4728]

Mark,

The first thing you need to do is read the Starwood advice article here on TUG. It will give you a good background on Starwood. LINK

Next you need to know about mandatory vs voluntary resorts. There are only five Starwood resort which you can buy which allow you to be a member of the Starwood Vacation Network (SVN) and get staroptions. You must buy at one of these resorts. If you buy at one of these resorts, you can use your staroptions to do internal reservations to stay at any of the many starwood resorts (if there is room). Because there are only five mandatory resorts they are more expensive but they are the only easy way to get into SVN.

Good Luck and welcome to TUG

 

[DavidnRobin]

I was recently at a Starwood Vacation Ownership presentation, where I bought a timeshare. I then came to this post and realized that while the timeshare might be a great concept, that paying full price from the developer is a bad idea. Thus, I cancelled the contract and am trying to buy resale at a resort that I would most likely want to go back to every now and then. I am interested in getting 81,000 StarOptions when I buy, so that I can have a lot of flexibilty to trade for other SVO properties. Here is my question:

Does it matter if I buy a two bedroom, one bedroom, 2 bedroom lock-off as long as I get my 81000 StarOptions? I know that when you want to book your room, if it's your home resort, you get 12 months to book (versus 8 months for non-home-resort owners). So, are you equally entitled AT 12
MONTHS (at your home resort) to any room equal to the StarOptions that you want to use, or are you only allowed at 12 months to select your original purchase (i.e. 2 bdrm lock-off or 2 bdrm or 1 bedroom, etc)?

First - congrats on finding TUG.
The first 'R' - Rescind (you did this...)
The second 'R' - Research (you need to do this)
The third 'R' - Resale (consider Mandatory...)

and then maybe some day - the 4th 'R' - Requal

If it were me - I would buy 81K SOs resale at Westin Kierland Villas (1Bd Premium in Platinum Season - MFs ~$620) - and, in fact, we did...

Unless - for some reason - you need Home Resort privledges in Hawaii (if you can only vacation during specific times that are hard to get) - then I would consider a 1Bd at WKORV.

 

[DeniseM]

or are you only allowed at 12 months to select your original purchase (i.e. 2 bdrm lock-off or 2 bdrm or 1 bedroom, etc)?

At 12 mos. you can reserve exactly what you own, or part of exactly what you own, at your home resort. So if you owned a 2 bdm. lock-off you could reserve any of the following at your home resort, at 12 mos. out:

the studio side of the lock-off
the 1 bdm. side of the lock-off
the entire 2 bdm. unit

At 8 mos., you can try for an exchange, and then you go simply by the Staroption value of the week you own. All Staroptions are equal, regardless of where they came from.

In addition to the points that other posters brought up, you should consider whether or not the view is important to you. If you are an owner at the Maui resort (WKORV) you have a deeded right to the view you own if you reserve 8-12 mos, out. (Ocean Front, Ocean View, or Island View.)

However, as an exchanger, you have no rights to a view and you are very likely to get an Island View (aka Highway View) a Construction view, the view of the back of another building, or a parking lot view. That might not bother some people, but if I go all the way to Hawaii, I wanna see the ocean!

Also, exchanging is not guaranteed, and during the most popular seasons, (when ever the kids are out of school) exchanging for exactly the week you want at the WKORV can be challenging. Harborside, and Westin St. John are even more difficult.

Right now, resales at the WKORV are at an all time low. I have seen 2 bdm. ocean view units on ebay lately for less than $30K and 1 bdms. for $18K. So if you want to go to Maui, I would consider a resale, rather then buying something at another resort, and hoping for an exchange.

Good luck! Please let us know how it goes!