Vistana Direct Sales

[Letnes]

Has anyone else received calls and email from a Vistana Direct Sales person wanting talk about the resale purchases I made and how he is "pleased to announce that MARRIOTT VACATION WORLDWIDE has recently announced that we can NOW, for the first time ever, enroll your ownership into the NETWORK with FULL CLUB BENEFITS, with a minimum purchase."

I know it could be a third party company pretending to be Vistana, so I wanted to check if anyone else has been contacted. I have not spoken with the caller (I let it go to voicemail) or replied to the email. I'm sure they want to sell me one of there Flex plans.

 

[dioxide45]

This could actually be legit from Vistana. They do have a new (pricing) program where they will retro your resale weeks for $10K for one week and $5K for every week efter that. This isn't a new program as they have offered it in different forms over the years. The plan is to sell you flex points with the new money you put up. This usually is not a good deal if your current weeks are mandatory already.

 

[jabberwocky]

It is probably a legitimate call. They called me this past summer. Most likely they want you to bring your resale units into the system.

 

[VacationForever]

Just remember... the reference of NETWORK here refers to Vistana Network... not Marriott Vacation Club system.

 

[Letnes]

Just remember... the reference of NETWORK here refers to Vistana Network... not Marriott Vacation Club system.

Can I retro without buying Flex? From my understanding Flex has no resale value. I have 2 SDO Platinum weeks.

 

[DannyTS]

Can I retro without buying Flex? From my understanding Flex has no resale value. I have 2 SDO Platinum weeks.

When I asked few months ago I was told it was not possible. I am not sure now but I assume it did not change

 

[VacationForever]

Can I retro without buying Flex? From my understanding Flex has no resale value. I have 2 SDO Platinum weeks.

No... are you thinking of buying a week instead of Flex?

 

[jabberwocky]

No... are you thinking of buying a week instead of Flex?

If you have two SDO plats (2BR?) you can retro them with a 81k EOY *Westin* Flex purchase for around $16k. MF would run about $800 per year. To me this would be well worth it and cheaper than what they would have required with a weeks purchase pre-flex.

The resale value would not be high but I think Westin Flex would get some takers resale as you get booking priority in Hawaii 8-12 months out and that transfers on resale. It would be a lot like having an EOY 1BR Princeville unit.

 

[Letnes]

No I was just wondering what the low cost offer might be. I am not looking for anymore weeks, but I would like to have a week with Staroptions. I know that buying a 2BD Platinum at WKV is one of the cheapest ways to get Staroptions so any deal they offered to enroll in the network with full benefits would have to be better than buying at WKV.

 

[DavidnRobin]

What is the 2020 MFs for 81K Westin Flex?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jabberwocky]

What is the 2020 MFs for 81K Westin Flex?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They are slightly over $0.02/FlexOption (for some reason $0.02022 sticks in my mind but don’t quote me.) That would put it at just over $1600/year for an annual.

 

[jabberwocky]

No I was just wondering what the low cost offer might be. I am not looking for anymore weeks, but I would like to have a week with Staroptions. I know that buying a 2BD Platinum at WKV is one of the cheapest ways to get Staroptions so any deal they offered to enroll in the network with full benefits would have to be better than buying at WKV.

are your SDO units 2BR worth 148,100 if in network?

 

[DavidnRobin]

They are slightly over $0.02/FlexOption (for some reason $0.02022 sticks in my mind but don’t quote me.) That would put it at just over $1600/year for an annual.

What is the current cost from Vistana for 81K Westin Flex?
(Approx is fine)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letnes]

are your SDO units 2BR worth 148,190 if in network?

I believe so. The chart says 2BD Lockoff for a week is 148,100.

 

[jabberwocky]

What is the current cost from Vistana for 81K Westin Flex?
(Approx is fine)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In August I was quoted $0.4/option for annual. I wanted EOY and there is a 10% premium on those so it came out to $0.44/2 =$0.22 before discounts (you should be able to get at least 10-15%).

For an annual 81k it would be $32k and an EOY would be $17.8k before discount. With a 10% discount the EOY would be just over $16k which is enough to hit the minimum new money required to retro two units in. Plus you have lower annual flex MF with an EOY.

 

[jabberwocky]

I believe so. The chart says 2BD Lockoff for a week is 148,100.

Expect to pay $14k for a 2BR WKV plat which would give you 148,100 SO with an incremental $1600 per year in MF.
Retro you would get an incremental 336,700 SO annualized (148,100*2 for SDO + 81,000/2 Flex Options) with an incremental $800 MF if 81k EOY is chosen.

Choice would depend on if you want the SO or if you are happy using the SDO as voluntary units for trading/staying.

 

[Letnes]

If I were to spend $16k on the retro and flex when I wanted to sell how much would the 2 SDO and flex be worth? If I spent $14k on WKV would it’s value hold up? I think I read somewhere that WKV has held its value well over the years.

I guess I have to take into account the difference in the lower MFs for flex over the years as well.

 

[VacationForever]

If I were to spend $16k on the retro and flex when I wanted to sell how much would the 2 SDO and flex be worth? If I spent $14k on WKV would it’s value hold up? I think I read somewhere that WKV has held its value well over the years.

I guess I have to take into account the difference in the lower MFs for flex over the years as well.

Your 2 SDO will still be worth the $1K or so when you resell because the SOs don't transfer on resale for voluntary resort.

 

[jabberwocky]

while I generally try to value all future timeshares at a disposal value of $0 I believe some of the SDO plat units have been going in the $1500-2000 range recently. They are pretty rare lately. I’m not sure if Vistana has been getting them turned in via trades but I haven’t seen too many recently.

I have no idea what the WKV will go for in the future. I think a few years ago the plat 2BR were being listed at $17-18k. Now you see them at $14-15k.

The Westin Flex I think will settle around the price that a Princeville equivalent unit would go for given the MF, the fact that they are also voluntary. WFlex is actually a bit better in the sense that you have a broader collection of resorts most SO owners want to trade into even though it is voluntary.

 

[bizaro86]

If you aren't looking for more vacation time but want access to star options, I wonder if they would take one of the sdo units in exchange for Westin flex?

If you could get $25k or so credit plus $10k new money you could get a 81k annual westin flex (or maybe a bit more?) Plus retro one sdo 148k. That doesn't add a bunch of MF, gives you star option booking, and doesn't hurt too bad on resale.

 

[jabberwocky]

If you aren't looking for more vacation time but want access to star options, I wonder if they would take one of the sdo units in exchange for Westin flex?

If you could get $25k or so credit plus $10k new money you could get a 81k annual westin flex (or maybe a bit more?) Plus retro one sdo 148k. That doesn't add a bunch of MF, gives you star option booking, and doesn't hurt too bad on resale.

The problem with this is that you are giving up one of the most cost effective SO generators in the system. An SDO plat will cost about $0.008/SO in MF per year (it's low enough that it might even make sense to convert to Bonvoy!). Westin Flex runs just over $0.02/option. For comparison purposes 2BR WKV Plat is $0.011/SO. The SDO plats also sold for much more originally and it would be a waste to turn them back into Vistana. The original owner of our SDO EOY 2 BR plat paid $32k from the developer - I imagine an annual would be almost double that.

Current MF's are just over $2400/year for the two SDO.

1 SDO 2BR Plat + 81k WFlex annual is a bit over $2800 MF/year and gives you 229,100 SO/year. Not quite enough for two weeks in Hawaii every year. Blended cost is $0.012/SO. WKV option is slightly lower per SO.

2 SDO 2BR Plat + 81k WFlex EOY would run about $3200 MF/year and give an average of 336,700 SO/year. Enough for at least two weeks every year and a bit. Blended cost is $0.0095/SO which is still better than WKV on a SO basis.

If the WFlex package would be too much to use keep in mind that you have 8 home resorts that you can rent out of. You could book a 1BR week in Maui using WFlex and I'm sure you could probably get $2k easily which would cover the MF (the one downside is there is no OF views in WFlex and event weeks in Hawaii are not possible).

If you are going to own this for any a long period of time MF costs will matter (I'm looking at a minimum of 25-40 years of vacation left - assuming I reach a normal retirement age so keep this in mind when reading my advice). The other thing to factor in is that with both SDO units being in the network you may not need a separate II account for trading.

Of course MVC could come along and blow up the whole VSN system...

 

[TravelTime]

I went to a presentation today and was told you cannot enroll Vistana weeks into Marriott Vacation Club. The rep said MVC has not released any info about whether MVC will create a new system or allow Vistana weeks to be enrollable in the future. He seemed pretty knowledgeable and honest and I did not catch any lies. He provided some new info and I was able to verify it online.

 

[Letnes]

That’s the x factor. Whatever MVC decides to do will affect the pricing of everything. The values will either go up or down. It looks like we are going to have to wait until late next year to find out.