Vistana Mandatory resort policy

[runtrack80]

I was wondering if anyone had a copy of the policy that states that a resale bought at a Mandatory resort was able to use the StarOptions inside the Vistana program. Dealing with vistana they will not admit that when I talked to them. thanks for your help.

Brett

 

[Bill4728]

Since this is a starwood TS question I'm moving this to the Starwood board

 

[LisaRex]

There is no policy per se. It's implied by reading the Owner's Agreements of the resorts. Some have language that MANDATES participation in the "Club" and others do not. We called the former "Mandatory" because if you mandate participation in the club by all owners, then resale owners are also included. We called the latter "voluntary" because even though participation in the club wasn't mandated, they are still free to open up enrollment to the Club for resale owners they so desire.

I believe that the terms "Voluntary" and "Mandatory" are terms coined here at Tug. Vistana reps probably don't use that vernacular, though they should know that there are some resorts where participation in the Club is mandatory.

 

[DeniseM]

Hi Brett - I am unclear on your situation. Who exactly are you dealing with at Vistana? What is your objective?

 

[DavidnRobin]

There is no policy per se. It's implied by reading the Owner's Agreements of the resorts. Some have language that MANDATES participation in the "Club" and others do not. We called the former "Mandatory" because if you mandate participation in the club by all owners, then resale owners are also included. We called the latter "voluntary" because even though participation in the club wasn't mandated, they are still free to open up enrollment to the Club for resale owners they so desire.

I believe that the terms "Voluntary" and "Mandatory" are terms coined here at Tug. Vistana reps probably don't use that vernacular, though they should know that there are some resorts where participation in the Club is mandatory.

The Mandatory/Voluntary designation is on the Owner sheet that VSE (SVO) produces at Owner Updates - I have a photo of this.

To the OP - it is a fact that StarOptions can be used within VSN for resale Mandatory VOIs.
100s of people here on TUG use these resale SOs for VSN reservations.

It is not stated succinctly in the CCRs (Owners Manual) - the terms Voluntary and Mandatory are not in the Owners Manual.

 

[runtrack80]

Thanks everyone for the assistance. We just purchased our first room. We did not research first and I was trying to figure out how to get more options a cheaper way. Thanks again.

 

[DeniseM]

So it appears that you are asking someone that works for Vistana for advice about buying resale - they are not interested in helping you buy resale.

Here is the TUG Vistana FAQ, and it's a good place to start: http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?...-to-timesharing-or-starwood-start-here.63224/

Also - Are you past the recession deadline for your timeshare?

 

[runtrack80]

Yes, we ended up past the recession time due to the 10 days passing waiting for an answer to a question then my wife foIns this forum. A small mistake that we can live with just looking to maximize the benefit without spending the crazy price.

 

[DeniseM]

You know that they didn't answer your question within 10 days so that you couldn't rescind, right?

 

[runtrack80]

Yes, I mentioned that to the head office but of course they responded with "the time has expired and there is nothing we can do". That's why I am looking into making this work on our own without their help. So if a resale that gets the options we need without killing the bank both upfront and MF then that is how we will do it. I do appreciate all the help you guys have here. It has made this an interesting learning experience.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Yes, I mentioned that to the head office but of course they responded with "the time has expired and there is nothing we can do". That's why I am looking into making this work on our own without their help. So if a resale that gets the options we need without killing the bank both upfront and MF then that is how we will do it. I do appreciate all the help you guys have here. It has made this an interesting learning experience.

@runtrack80 - Would you mind sharing more details? There is no reason to be secretive here, most have made error of buying their 1st Timeshare (and more) from VSE (SVO). Great thing about TUG-VSE is the free and diverse opinion on how best to use your timeshare regardless if bought from VSE or resale.

It looks like you own WKV from your profile? You bought a WKV from VSE? And it is beyond your rescind date (?) - how much longer? There is a small window beyond 10 days, but you need to act quickly (!). Or, did you finance? (hopefully not...). WKV has been out of the selling phase for >10 years - so any WKV week (VOI) being sold by VSE-WKV was obtained after-market.

What size, season? How much? Did you get incentives?

 

[runtrack80]

We were told that no matter when you bought it didn't matter as a week is a week and you can trade that week throughout VSE for any week at any other resort. We ended up with a summer week in a 1 bedroom. We did end up financing only because we were down there and are from Canada and didn't have access to the money at the time. We have since obtained the money and are going to pay it off before the interest starts accuring. They did give us 40,000 starpoints with our membership. Our 10 days was up as of 22nd of February when we were finally given access to the vistana website to see the fact that none of this worked for us. We have since been working with them to try and make it work but they want $16,000 more dollars to bring us to a total of 67,100 staroptions. Needless to say that is not going to happen since we have since learned we can buy resale much cheaper then that and have over 90,000 options. Sometimes you end up learning the hard way. We don't feel it was too big of a mistake expecially if in the end we can get enough points to make it work.

 

[DavidnRobin]

We were told that no matter when you bought it didn't matter as a week is a week and you can trade that week throughout VSE for any week at any other resort. We ended up with a summer week in a 1 bedroom. We did end up financing only because we were down there and are from Canada and didn't have access to the money at the time. We have since obtained the money and are going to pay it off before the interest starts accuring. They did give us 40,000 starpoints with our membership. Our 10 days was up as of 22nd of February when we were finally given access to the vistana website to see the fact that none of this worked for us. We have since been working with them to try and make it work but they want $16,000 more dollars to bring us to a total of 67,100 staroptions. Needless to say that is not going to happen since we have since learned we can buy resale much cheaper then that and have over 90,000 options. Sometimes you end up learning the hard way. We don't feel it was too big of a mistake expecially if in the end we can get enough points to make it work.

btw - welcome to TUG

They would be more than happy to have you throw more money at them - do not do this until you have researched every aspect of VSE Ownership and how VSN works. And still do not do this w/o buying resale first... there are many (many) more reasons to buy resale VSE than purchasing from VSE. As you have just discovered.

Many have found TUG too late. As you wrote - now it is important to maximize your ownership, and put the regret behind you. They are professionals at sales and getting people to buy without doing adequate research (seems like timeshares are somewhat unique to this) - however, the product is good.

You didn't say if it was the large (premium) or small (deluxe) 1Bd - they have different SO assignments and MFs (Maintenance fees). btw - there is a acronym list in the 'stickies' at the top of this forum.

As you have probably discovered by now - your low season WKV has little resale value (you could pick this up cheap on resale market and the only thing you really lose is the ability to convert the SOs to StarPoints (SP). The amount of SOs that you have will not get you much via VSN. One upside, is the advantage of WKV the MFs are low (relative to the rest of VSE).

After you have researched more - and depending on how many SOs you have (and tolerance for additional MFs) - you could pick up more resale SOs (from a Mandatory resort), and combine with what you have, to open up inventory available to you via VSN (e.g. WKORV/N, WPORV, etc.).

 

[dioxide45]

The mandatory provision is written in to the underlying CC&R documents for the resort. This is why they can't easily take it away. Voluntary resorts are missing the language in their CC&Rs documents. As long as you buy resale at one of the listed mandatory resort that is available in the stickies, those StarOptions will transfer and can be mixed and mingled for reservations with other StarOptions you have.

On the Resale Information Sheet (estoppel), Vistana actually mentions "Voluntary Resorts", however for mandatory they reference them as "Club Resorts". So if you see Club Resorts checked on the Resale Information Sheet, you are good to go if you are buying a mandatory property. However, errors happen so it is always best to know the list of mandatory resorts and phases.

 

[maddog497]

The mandatory provision is written in to the underlying CC&R documents for the resort. This is why they can't easily take it away. Voluntary resorts are missing the language in their CC&Rs documents. As long as you buy resale at one of the listed mandatory resort that is available in the stickies, those StarOptions will transfer and can be mixed and mingled for reservations with other StarOptions you have.

On the Resale Information Sheet (estoppel), Vistana actually mentions "Voluntary Resorts", however for mandatory they reference them as "Club Resorts". So if you see Club Resorts checked on the Resale Information Sheet, you are good to go if you are buying a mandatory property. However, errors happen so it is always best to know the list of mandatory resorts and phases.

This is exactly what is listed on our documents that we are working on right now.


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