Vistana and ThirdHome

[Eric B]

I've noticed a number of Vistana resorts showing up with availability in the ThirdHome account I had established with a different resort (Vidanta), so figured I'd post some info on how things work with them. ThirdHome currently has an affiliation agreement with Marriott that allows upper tier (Ritz-Carlton) owners to exchange their weeks, but doesn't have any agreement with Vistana. That may change in the future, of course, though how it would isn't entirely clear. Given that there isn't currently any defined relationship between ThirdHome and Vistana, they have been allowing owners to establish their own accounts independently; when this happened with Vidanta and some other resorts, they continued to honor those accounts after they eventually signed affiliation agreements.

I have talked with ThirdHome about setting up accounts based on my WSJ ownership, but the exchange rate isn't very high; a 1 BR VGV week has a 2-key base with ThirdHome, which would result in getting between 2 and 6 keys in exchange for a week there. ThirdHome uses "keys" as their exchange currency and weeks typically go for between 1 and 15 keys depending on the quality of the resort/vacation home and the season, set as a base level between 1 and 5 keys and a multiple of 1 for normal season, 2 for peak season, and 3 for super peak season. I did wind up setting up my own account with them for my 2 BR SVV, which also has a 2-key base, but at a lot lower MF. I asked if they would also take 1 BR SVV, but they limit it to 2 BR or more for the Orlando area based on their perceived demand - there's only one other SVV account set up that I've noticed. I have seen a lot of the Westins and a few of the other Sheratons listed - happy to look up how they value other resorts to the extent I'm able to if desired.

The exchange fees are a bit on the high side at ThirdHome, scaled from $495 up to $1195 depending on the number of keys for a week, but there are some very high end places to stay available through there. So far, for me the 2 BR SVV seems to be at a sweet spot for exchange value if you reserve a super peak week and deposit with ThirdHome; the keys per MF ratio beats out what I get with my Grand Luxxe.

 

[CPNY]

I've noticed a number of Vistana resorts showing up with availability in the ThirdHome account I had established with a different resort (Vidanta), so figured I'd post some info on how things work with them. ThirdHome currently has an affiliation agreement with Marriott that allows upper tier (Ritz-Carlton) owners to exchange their weeks, but doesn't have any agreement with Vistana. That may change in the future, of course, though how it would isn't entirely clear. Given that there isn't currently any defined relationship between ThirdHome and Vistana, they have been allowing owners to establish their own accounts independently; when this happened with Vidanta and some other resorts, they continued to honor those accounts after they eventually signed affiliation agreements.

I have talked with ThirdHome about setting up accounts based on my WSJ ownership, but the exchange rate isn't very high; a 1 BR VGV week has a 2-key base with ThirdHome, which would result in getting between 2 and 6 keys in exchange for a week there. ThirdHome uses "keys" as their exchange currency and weeks typically go for between 1 and 15 keys depending on the quality of the resort/vacation home and the season, set as a base level between 1 and 5 keys and a multiple of 1 for normal season, 2 for peak season, and 3 for super peak season. I did wind up setting up my own account with them for my 2 BR SVV, which also has a 2-key base, but at a lot lower MF. I asked if they would also take 1 BR SVV, but they limit it to 2 BR or more for the Orlando area based on their perceived demand - there's only one other SVV account set up that I've noticed. I have seen a lot of the Westins and a few of the other Sheratons listed - happy to look up how they value other resorts to the extent I'm able to if desired.

The exchange fees are a bit on the high side at ThirdHome, scaled from $495 up to $1195 depending on the number of keys for a week, but there are some very high end places to stay available through there. So far, for me the 2 BR SVV seems to be at a sweet spot for exchange value if you reserve a super peak week and deposit with ThirdHome; the keys per MF ratio beats out what I get with my Grand Luxxe.

Thank you for this. I’m back and forth on depositing my two unit. I forgot to ask, what would happen if you decided to pull a week back? Is that something that is possible?

 

[Eric B]

ThirdHome's terms and conditions are here:

Membership Terms and Conditions

Updated on March 1, 2024 A. TERMS & CONDITIONS THIRDHOME is owned and operated by 3RD HOME Limited, (“THIRDHOME”, or...

www.thirdhome.com

The applicable one says the following:

(6) Once deposited, stays belong to the Club. If a THIRDHOME Member has not reserved a stay, Host Members can withdraw the stay for personal use or for conventional renting as long as they have enough Keys in their own account to return to the Club to cover the withdrawal. Under no circumstances can a Host Member withdraw a stay at any time that has been booked by another member. The withdrawal of a stay in these circumstances will be deemed a “Non-honored” booking and as such subject to the restitution process outlined below.

-----

(9) Host Members are not permitted to cancel any booked stays in their property for any reason. If a Host Member chooses not to honor a booking, a refund of all Keys will be made to the Guest Member. In this instance, by way of restitution, the Host Member is responsible for the refund of the exchange fee to the Guest Member via THIRDHOME, as well as for any costs incurred by the Guest Member in relation to the booking. Failure to pay such costs, upon demand, shall subject a Host Member to forfeiture of their Membership and any Keys earned. Member agrees to be financially responsible for all consequential damages sustained by a Guest Member resulting from the failure or refusal of a Member to make available a home to a Guest Member following the completion of a confirmed reservation. Such costs explicitly include, but are not limited to air travel cancellation fees or change fees, and/or the cost to secure alternate equivalent accommodations at the destination on those dates. In connection herewith, the Member consents to the entry of a judgment in an amount equal to the damages, costs and expenses set forth above and that the appropriate venue for the entry of the aforementioned consent judgment will be the Chancery Court for Williamson County, Tennessee, in Franklin. In connection with the enforcement of such consent judgment, the Member also agrees to be responsible for THIRDHOME‘s litigation costs and expenses, including but not limited to attorneys’ fees. In connection with the aforementioned litigation, the Member waives any objection to the jurisdiction, or venue, of the State Courts of Tennessee, and consents to said courts for the adjudication of the claims set forth herein.

 

[RNCollins]

Does ThirdHome have anything like Getaways, Extra Vacations or Last Calls?

I’m eligible for ThirdHome with my Tradewinds membership.

 

[Eric B]

There is; if you have made a deposit with them within the last year, they put you at the President's Club tier, which gives you access to "keyless stays." Those are a type of last call that allows you to book a week within 30 days for just the exchange fee, not using the keys you get for depositing whatever you did with them.

You could also upgrade to the Chairman's Club for a fee of $1,995 (plus a week deposit) per year, which makes the keyless stay duration 60 days in advance. There might be occasions when that would be worth doing (i.e., if there's a week you want to exchange into at the 31-60 day range that would cost more in keys that $1,995), but I couldn't see doing that myself on a regular basis.

 

[maizeandblue]

I signed up for an account, it looks like they value all 2bed Timeshares the same at 2-6 keys depending on season. I found Hyatt Sunset Harbor, Vistana Villages, Marriott Ocean Pointe and Westin Kierland all available for 2 keys.

I also noticed some of the owners were charging optional fees to cover the cost of guest certificates, cleaning fees etc.. So its incredibly expensive when you factor in fees plus a $750 exchange fee.

 

[chemteach]

I signed up for an account, it looks like they value all 2bed Timeshares the same at 2-6 keys depending on season. I found Hyatt Sunset Harbor, Vistana Villages, Marriott Ocean Pointe and Westin Kierland all available for 2 keys.

I also noticed some of the owners were charging optional fees to cover the cost of guest certificates, cleaning fees etc.. So its incredibly expensive when you factor in fees plus a $750 exchange fee.

I would agree that the exchange costs are quite high. But you don' really have any thing to lose by trying it. I think we are going to take a big family gathering vacation in a 5 bedroom house this summer. I couldn't do anything like that with timeshare exchanges. If we do it, it will cost around $800 plus 6 keys. (about $1200 in maintenance fees.) I view Third Home as another way to think about travelling.

(Plus I'm really hoping to go to Solaz in Cabo someday, and they don't trade in II or RCI. )

If you do join, give them Eric B's name. He gets a referral bonus.

 

[Eric B]

I would agree that the exchange costs are quite high. But you don' really have any thing to lose by trying it. I think we are going to take a big family gathering vacation in a 5 bedroom house this summer. I couldn't do anything like that with timeshare exchanges. If we do it, it will cost around $800 plus 6 keys. (about $1200 in maintenance fees.) I view Third Home as another way to think about travelling.

(Plus I'm really hoping to go to Solaz in Cabo someday, and they don't trade in II or RCI. )

If you do join, give them Eric B's name. He gets a referral bonus.

Thanks for the shout out, @chemteach! For full disclosure, Solaz does trade in RCI on the weeks side occasionally with the Resort ID DC01. There was actually a week there next year in a 1 BR when I looked this morning - I put it on hold and will PM you the details shortly. Solar is one of the weird ones I've seen that trades only on the RCI weeks side, never on the points side. I also get periodic emails from SFX touting that they will rent out extra vacations there; I'm not sure if they would do exchanges into there, though. (That's pretty much how they treat Ocho Cascadas, too.)

 

[TravelTime]

I noticed two of my timeshares are listed. One is a Westin Kaanapali and the other is Four Seasons Aviara. The Four Seasons says it is a Thirdhome Affiliate. Do you know what the difference is when the TS is an affiliate? Do you know how many keys I would get for these units and would I need to deposit a 2BR?

 

[Eric B]

ThirdHome labels the resorts as affiliates when there is a contractual agreement between the resort and ThirdHome regarding the terms and conditions for making deposits/exchanges using those resorts. The ones you see without the affiliate label are ones where the owner of a week has established an account directly with ThirdHome that doesn't rely on the terms and conditions of an affiliation agreement. The latter is the case with the Vistana resorts in general.

The way ThirdHome assigns values to a resort is by using a base key amount. That base is generally about one key per bedroom, although there are variations. If you look at the listing for Four Seasons Aviara in ThirdHome, you'll see that it shows 2-8 keys for a 2 BR week. That indicates that there is a 2-key base for the unit; that base amount is multiplied by 1, 2, 3, or 4 depending on the season and demand, yielding the 2-8 key final value. As a specific example, my SVV 2 BR has a 2-key base. I made a home reservation for it for the week that includes 7/4/2021, which is a popular week that is designated in ThirdHome as a "super peak" week and gets a multiple of 3, so I got 6 keys for the deposit.

The dirty little secret about establishing your own account with ThirdHome when they don't have an affiliation agreement with the resort is that you can, and in fact have to, reserve the week of your choice to deposit with them. That gives you a bit more control over how many keys you get for a deposit, which you don't get with II, though it means you're competing with other owners for making the reservation to deposit for an exchange. In addition, they seem to continue to honor those "rogue" accounts after signing an affiliation agreement with a resort. There also might be instances where they affiliate at the resort location level rather than the resort chain level - there are a fair number of other Four Seasons locations listed that aren't labeled as affiliates.

 

[TravelTime]

ThirdHome labels the resorts as affiliates when there is a contractual agreement between the resort and ThirdHome regarding the terms and conditions for making deposits/exchanges using those resorts. The ones you see without the affiliate label are ones where the owner of a week has established an account directly with ThirdHome that doesn't rely on the terms and conditions of an affiliation agreement. The latter is the case with the Vistana resorts in general.

The way ThirdHome assigns values to a resort is by using a base key amount. That base is generally about one key per bedroom, although there are variations. If you look at the listing for Four Seasons Aviara in ThirdHome, you'll see that it shows 2-8 keys for a 2 BR week. That indicates that there is a 2-key base for the unit; that base amount is multiplied by 1, 2, 3, or 4 depending on the season and demand, yielding the 2-8 key final value. As a specific example, my SVV 2 BR has a 2-key base. I made a home reservation for it for the week that includes 7/4/2021, which is a popular week that is designated in ThirdHome as a "super peak" week and gets a multiple of 3, so I got 6 keys for the deposit.

The dirty little secret about establishing your own account with ThirdHome when they don't have an affiliation agreement with the resort is that you can, and in fact have to, reserve the week of your choice to deposit with them. That gives you a bit more control over how many keys you get for a deposit, which you don't get with II, though it means you're competing with other owners for making the reservation to deposit for an exchange. In addition, they seem to continue to honor those "rogue" accounts after signing an affiliation agreement with a resort. There also might be instances where they affiliate at the resort location level rather than the resort chain level - there are a fair number of other Four Seasons locations listed that aren't labeled as affiliates.

With an affiliate agreement, do you have to deposit a week of your choice or are the restrictions different?

 

[Eric B]

I'm not really sure that there's a universal rule on that. It likely depends on the terms of the agreement as well as how you own the week. I would guess that as a general rule, if you own a fixed week you can deposit that week.

With Vidanta, you have to go through their customer service line to make a deposit in ThirdHome. The Vida sales folks were trying to upsell the ability to deposit a peak or super peak week instead of a run-of-the-mill week for an upgrade. I've only deposited a Grand Luxxe week in ThirdHome using a rogue account, so I'm not sure what the restrictions really are with that affiliation agreement. Bottom line for me on that, though, is that I get the same or better keys/$ with my SVV, so I'm using that in ThirdHome instead of Vidanta anyway.

 

[TravelTime]

I'm not really sure that there's a universal rule on that. It likely depends on the terms of the agreement as well as how you own the week. I would guess that as a general rule, if you own a fixed week you can deposit that week.

With Vidanta, you have to go through their customer service line to make a deposit in ThirdHome. The Vida sales folks were trying to upsell the ability to deposit a peak or super peak week instead of a run-of-the-mill week for an upgrade. I've only deposited a Grand Luxxe week in ThirdHome using a rogue account, so I'm not sure what the restrictions really are with that affiliation agreement. Bottom line for me on that, though, is that I get the same or better keys/$ with my SVV, so I'm using that in ThirdHome instead of Vidanta anyway.

For me, the advantage would be the ability to travel to more destinations and get higher quality exchanges even if the value is the same or slightly higher.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Very interesting discussion. Getting 2 keys for an SVV (or potentially 6 if event week) vs. 2 keys for a Maui OF is a big difference in MF cost. Might be worth picking up a Vistana Trader to get access.

Have you seen any HGVC deposits in Third Home? I am interested in Aviara. Also can exchangers bring pets to Aviara?

 

[Eric B]

Elara is one I've seen, although I don't know if the ownership is HGVC. Happy to check for others if there are any specific ones you want to know about.

As far as using a Vistana trader for it, part of the reason I mentioned the utility of an SVV 2 BR is that there has been a lot of discussion of an SVV 1 BR KW being a more optimal SO generator because the cost per SO is lower than a 2 BR. I have both a 1 BR KW and a 2 BR Bella (non-LO) myself - ThirdHome won't take any 1 BR units in Orlando because their perception of the value of resorts there is for family travel going to the parks. Taking into account the added versatility of being able to use an SVV 2 BR in ThirdHome as well as in VSN might tip the scales on what someone might prefer owning as an additional trading week. If you just want to use it in ThirdHome, there are probably other resorts that would work as well with a lower cost per key, e.g., non-mandatory Vistana 2 BRs in that area, etc.

Here's what it says about pets on one of the Aviara listings:

Additional Fees
Well behaved pets to 75 lbs are welcome with advance notice. Total of one pet per bedroom. A pet cleaning fee of $195 per stay (not per pet.)

Source (in the Property Details section just above the map):

Four Seasons Residence Club Aviara - 2 Bedroom | Carlsbad, California

THIRDHOME luxury home exchange details for Four Seasons Residence Club Aviara - 2 Bedroom in Carlsbad, California

exchange.thirdhome.com

 

[chemteach]

Also, Third Home now has the option of offering places for a different number of keys than the alloted amount. Hawaii properties cost more keys than most other places. Third Home is definitely more expensive than other places, though. They had a last minute offer for no keys in a 2 bedroom San Francisco downtown unit starting 10/30, but the original "key cost" was 9 keys, so the exchange fee is $1195.That's a great cost for a 2 bedroom unit in downtown san francisco at the Ritz Carlton, but expensive for a last minute exchange.

 

[maizeandblue]

The keys value per bedroom seems to cap around 3 bed. For example on Hilton Head Island there is a non coastal home with 5 bedrooms/loft for 3 keys peak. Meanwhile on the Marriott Forum somebody got 9 keys for depositing a 3bd Grand Chateau (Roughly 1600mf) during a peak season. The same number of keys are allotted at the Ritz Carlton on St. Thomas for a 2bed. It's almost like the hotel branded timeshare trade at a premium due to resort amenities. There is no way financially that a peak week in Vegas is comparable to a peak Ritz Carlton week in the USVI.

My point is that it may be smart to deposit some desert weeks now as this appears to be a good arbitrage opportunity to trade into some crazy good locations although at a high exchange fee. I know for certain that a 2bd Orlando unit isn't going to pull a 2bed Ritz Carlton in peak season with Interval.

 

[Eric B]

They offered me a 2-key base for my 1 BR WSJ and a 1-key base for a studio there. Not quite as good as SVV 2 BR as far as $/key given the difference in the MF.

 

[zentraveler]

I noticed two of my timeshares are listed. One is a Westin Kaanapali and the other is Four Seasons Aviara. The Four Seasons says it is a Thirdhome Affiliate. Do you know what the difference is when the TS is an affiliate? Do you know how many keys I would get for these units and would I need to deposit a 2BR?

Appreciated this question and Eric B's answer about Four Seasons Aviara. We own there as well and have looked into Third Home a bit and I was just about to ask that. Probably not worth the time, trouble and expense for us as most all of our traveling is just for the two of us and most of those properties are quite large.

 

[CPNY]

They offered me a 2-key base for my 1 BR WSJ and a 1-key base for a studio there. Not quite as good as SVV 2 BR as far as $/key given the difference in the MF.

I still need to deposit and get my keys. With the vistana restricted SO issue currently going on, I’m hesitant to deposit in third home yet. It seems that VSE restricted 80K SO from 120 Days back to 60 days. I canceled WLR yesterday and check in was 12/27. I may need the SVV SO in 2021

 

[echino]

(Plus I'm really hoping to go to Solaz in Cabo someday, and they don't trade in II or RCI. )

SFX has promos for Solaz all the time:

Resort Spotlight - The Club at Solaz | SFX Preferred Resorts

www.sfxresorts.com