Summer 2016 harborside open! [Staroptions]

[tinawong]

Hello everyone,

I'm an owner of Harbourside for week 49 and have been trying really hard to swap for the summer of 2016.

As of right now, there are lots of [Staroption reservations] open for June and July 2016. Hope this helps anyone wanting to get to Atlantis this summer!'

Tina

 

[DeniseM]

There are usually a lot of rentals for Harborside, but many owners were looking for Staroption reservations.

 

[tinawong]

Sorry -- wrong terminology. If you have enough Starwood [Staroptions], you can use them for Harborsid for June and July 2016. These were not showing available until just recently.

 

[tschwa2]

Great sighting. It looks like everything except 4th of July week is available. Maybe it was summer owners who didn't pay their MF's on January 15 and their reservations were released.

 

[alwysonvac]

Woo Hoo !! Thank you

 

[alwysonvac]

I sent emails to Tuggers LobsterHunter and DanCali.
I remember their threads about the lack of summer availability. I hope they get one before they're all gone

Harborside Summer '16 availability - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232259
No Harborside Availability Till Late Aug? - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234052

 

[LobsterHunter]

Thanks Always!!! got a 2br L/O for late June! WooHoo

 

[DanCali]

I sent emails to Tuggers LobsterHunter and DanCali.
I remember their threads about the lack of summer availability. I hope they get one before they're all gone

Harborside Summer '16 availability - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232259
No Harborside Availability Till Late Aug? - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234052

Thanks so much for thinking of me. This is truly a great community! I'm trying to see if we can change our plans to still try and go in the summer (we already have plans + airfare for June for elsewhere). Either way, I appreciate the email so much!

(P.S. so my suspicions were right after all - somehow this was all being held back...)

 

[DeniseM]

Before you change your plans - take a close look at availability - it is going fast.

I'd sure like to know what is going on with this behind the scenes...

 

[alwysonvac]

LobsterHunter & DanCali, Thanks for the update.
I'm happy to hear that you both had the ability to book last night

This morning there is still lots of summer weeks available but mostly one bedrooms .

 

[Jodi0415]

Wowzers!

This gives me hope for next year!! Too bad we already have plans for June this year!

 

[tinawong]

I'm so glad that everyone can use StarOptions for Harbourside. I'd like some opinions from this forum.

Harbourside is my home resort as a 2BRLO and I've been checking almost daily from 12 months out to trade into the summer week. I've never had a problem with this until this year. NOTHING was available for summer!! By random, I was paying my maintenance fees and see that almost everything was open for Harbourside in the summer!! Does anyone know why Starwood held things back? Can they DO that? Why wouldn't these be available at the 8 month mark?

Thanks all for this forum! I've learned a great deal on how to trade/exchange by just being a reader here for many years.

Tina

 

[DeniseM]

I agree that this is very suspicious - for months there has been ZERO availability for summer Harborside reservations, and now a huge dump all at once.

Starwood has no transparency, so we have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, so yes, they basically do whatever they please.

*Some people have speculated that this is from unpaid maintenance fees - but I think it's too early for that, and if so, why hasn't their been a surge of Staroption availability at ALL the resorts.

-Was Starwood holding back the inventory for their own purposes, and if so - why?

-Was this a huge error, that was recently discovered? We know their computer system is a mess.

It's really hard to come up with an REASONABLE explanation.

 

[LauraTexan]

WooHoo!!!

I also was hoping to change my reservations to Harborside for this summer. I have been checking periodically only to see NO availability. I just happened to log on this morning and was able to get exactly what we wanted. I, too, am wondering what happened and why there is all of a sudden a surplus of inventory. Logged onto this forum to see if anyone had any insight. Just curious.... But excited to be going!!!

 

[Helios]

*Some people have speculated that this is from unpaid maintenance fees - but I think it's too early for that, and if so, why hasn't their been a surge of Staroption availability at ALL the resorts.

-Was this a huge error, that was recently discovered? We know their computer system is a mess.

I think it's too early too. I think it is an error in their system.

Their system is the worst, they should try to match their competitors as far as accuracy and reliability.

 

[blondietink]

Could it be that units or buildings were down for maintenance or refurbish?

 

[DeniseM]

Could it be that units or buildings were down for maintenance or refurbish?

This is for next summer - so I don't know how that would apply. Unless they schedule maintenance, and then cancelled it. That would be really dumb, because the resort is sold out during the summer - maintenance should be done in the fall.

 

[suzannesimon]

I feel sorry for the poor folks that rented my weeks for next summer because they couldn't get in with Star Options.

 

[mirish]

Thanks for the heads up . Just saw this post as I have been at Lagunamar since last week and hadn'T been checking TUG much while away. Saw this last night and thought I missed an opportunity for summer Harbourside- but went on last night and was able to make a July ressie- my son and his finance are very excited I was able to get them at bedroom in July!

 

[Sicnarf]

Is it possible that a bunch of owners cancelled their reservations due to the high airfares?

 

[DeniseM]

Is it possible that a bunch of owners cancelled their reservations due to the high airfares?

No - the inventory all showed up at the exact same time - this was a Starwood move.

 

[tschwa2]

Maybe it was to make it easier for Starwood to see the number of new rentals go up on places like Redweek with reservations from Staroptions. If Interval can figure out who is renting exchanges, it shouldn't be too hard for starwood to figure out who is renting non home resort/season reservations. Wouldn't it be interesting if they suspended starwood accounts the way interval does when members violate the rules.

 

[LisaRex]

Maybe it was to make it easier for Starwood to see the number of new rentals go up on places like Redweek with reservations from Staroptions. If Interval can figure out who is renting exchanges, it shouldn't be too hard for starwood to figure out who is renting non home resort/season reservations. Wouldn't it be interesting if they suspended starwood accounts the way interval does when members violate the rules.

First of all, that would be punishing everyone who participates in SVN in order to hunt down a few. As an honest person who does follow the rules, I'd be quite ticked that Starwood jacked us all around for some grand experiment.

Secondly, why would they take that indirect route when it would be far easier for them to filter for non-owners who routinely ask to put SO reservations into another person's name, and start investigating from there?

Finally,