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Vistana sales email re: Marriott merge

512damon

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I receive the below email last week, and I am considering taking the call to find out about any concrete merger plans. Obviously I know an upsell is going to be part of the pitch, but curious if anyone has more information they can share to help me prepare for the call. FYI I have a even year deeded 2BR Lockoff at Westin Desert Willow.

———————

Damon,

As we continue to move closer to a new product combined with Marriott, there is a very limited opportunity to own more priority time at your home resort to book at the 12 month booking mark. If this is important to you and you would like to explore options of adding and/ or modifying your ownership (such as moving to ocean front inventory) or would like to review some general information on your account and the upcoming merger, please let me know the best time to reach you. Please get back to me no later than 22nd before the option price is removed from your account !


[redacted]
Corporate Direct Sales
VISTANA DIRECT SALES
 
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tschwa2

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Sounds like a concrete invitation to buy with all of the current rules in place with zero indications or promises about potential changes.
 

dioxide45

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I receive the below email last week, and I am considering taking the call to find out about any concrete merger plans. Obviously I know an upsell is going to be part of the pitch, but curious if anyone has more information they can share to help me prepare for the call. FYI I have a even year deeded 2BR Lockoff at Westin Desert Willow.

———————

Damon,

As we continue to move closer to a new product combined with Marriott, there is a very limited opportunity to own more priority time at your home resort to book at the 12 month booking mark. If this is important to you and you would like to explore options of adding and/ or modifying your ownership (such as moving to ocean front inventory) or would like to review some general information on your account and the upcoming merger, please let me know the best time to reach you. Please get back to me no later than 22nd before the option price is removed from your account !


Thomas DeMarco
Corporate Direct Sales
VISTANA DIRECT SALES
There really isn't any more information than what your email already offers. We know there will be a combined product coming. They are working on it with an anticipated release date sometime in the first half of 2022. You can go back through the forum, there are already many threads on the topic. Any promises made for current sales apply to the program as it is now with no guranty anything you buy now won't require you to buy more later to get in on the new product.
 

cubigbird

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That email seems pretty desperate. I wonder how sales is doing in general.
 

michael13

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I was given the same information during a presentation last week. The sales said the merge will happen at 2022 Q2.
 

vacationtime1

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I was given the same information during a presentation last week. The sales said the merge will happen at 2022 Q2.
Ho hum. The merger has been imminent for years.
 

dioxide45

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That email seems pretty desperate. I wonder how sales is doing in general.
According to their 3rd quarter sales, they are only 3% below 2019 numbers with only 85% of sales staff. Sales seem to be pretty good.
 

Veritoalsol

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Hi - i went through my owners update today and was told the merger would be effective in April 2022
 

Ken555

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According to their 3rd quarter sales, they are only 3% below 2019 numbers with only 85% of sales staff. Sales seem to be pretty good.

Sales are *always* good. In general, it’s been excellent for decades.


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I was at the Sheraton Kauai recently, and I went to one of the sales presentations because they said that they would share info on the Marriott merger. They gave me the attached flyer on the Marriott properties that will be added to the collection. They said this would happen in August, but they had no information on how it would work, what the value of Star Options would be relative to Marriott points, and so on. Their sales pitch centered around the idea that if I bought another chunk of Star Options from them, they'd grant me amnesty for the points I bought on the resale market. They couldn't really explain why this was needed, but they kept saying that this was my only chance to do this before the Marriott properties entered the mix. Anyway, I thought I'd share this with the group--maybe someone else knows how this will work.
 

Attachments

  • Vistana + Marriott.pdf
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cubigbird

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That’s not a new file. It basically lists the Vistana resorts under the MVW umbrella.
 

rcv82

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I was at the Sheraton Kauai recently, and I went to one of the sales presentations because they said that they would share info on the Marriott merger. They gave me the attached flyer on the Marriott properties that will be added to the collection. They said this would happen in August, but they had no information on how it would work, what the value of Star Options would be relative to Marriott points, and so on. Their sales pitch centered around the idea that if I bought another chunk of Star Options from them, they'd grant me amnesty for the points I bought on the resale market. They couldn't really explain why this was needed, but they kept saying that this was my only chance to do this before the Marriott properties entered the mix. Anyway, I thought I'd share this with the group--maybe someone else knows how this will work.

While not 100% confirmed, resale purchases, including those that come with StarOptions, are not likely to be able to convert to DC points and exchange into the Marriott properties (except via II). It sounds like they offered a deal that would “retro” your resale and make it like a developer purchase, probably allowing it full participation in its ability to exchange via Marriott DC points. Depending on your circumstances, this may be a good deal. They say it’s the last chance, but we don’t know. What we do know is that MVC charges more to do the same type of enrollment of resales, so maybe it is the last time at these prices. (But maybe not). But the fact is that they have NOT announced official details yet, so taking any action now is a bit speculative.


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PhylisD

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l also went through the presentation at the Sheraton Kaui. I can't remember all the details but it's some kind of shared program where you turn you points in and no longer own exclusively at the Westin which will allow you to book 12 months out. They try to scare you with there is going to be so much competition when the merger happens that you will have a hard time booking your home resort. The last words he said to me were don't let Westin convince you to keep your points there. It sounds like a disaster.
 

cubigbird

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They say that the ability to retro is going to go away but I find that hard to believe. Fear of missing out is a classic sales tactic. Those type of transactions bring in new sales from an existing owner. The minimum developer buy amounts to retro and rules may change but I can not imagine it being eliminated all together.
 

dioxide45

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They say that the ability to retro is going to go away but I find that hard to believe. Fear of missing out is a classic sales tactic. Those type of transactions bring in new sales from an existing owner. The minimum developer buy amounts to retro and rules may change but I can not imagine it being eliminated all together.
Marriott has a similar retro style program on their side, so I would agree. It won't go away. Keep in mind that Marriott's program cost about three times that of the current retro offering of $10K with Vistana. This really should be how Vistana sales sells retro, not simply saying it will go away.
 

rickandcindy23

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Vistana always has something new to sell. People are being asked to turn in mandatory options for flex options. That is the newest spiel. Don't fall for it. Keep what you own and don't fall for the sales' spiel.
 

TravelTime

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Marriott has a similar retro style program on their side, so I would agree. It won't go away. Keep in mind that Marriott's program cost about three times that of the current retro offering of $10K with Vistana. This really should be how Vistana sales sells retro, not simply saying it will go away.

What do you get with the current retro program for $10,000? Do you get both star options and they let you enroll your week? If so, do you know how many SOs you get in this deal? It it one of their flex programs?
 

cubigbird

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What do you get with the current retro program for $10,000? Do you get both star options and they let you enroll your week? If so, do you know how many SOs you get in this deal? It it one of their flex programs?

Depends on what you buy and where you buy. Some sales centers can sell everything. Others can not and will sell only Flex. They often have deeded weeks that they’ve acquired via foreclosure, ROFR (if applicable) or trade in, but you’ll have to proactively ask what they have. For example, WKORV OF deeded view would be resold because those don’t go in Flex and they sell those for $100k+.
 
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DanCali

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Vistana always has something new to sell. People are being asked to turn in mandatory options for flex options. That is the newest spiel. Don't fall for it. Keep what you own and don't fall for the sales' spiel.


We got that angle at an Orlando sales pitch. After bragging about what a great salesperson he was and all the awards he won, he looked at our portfolio and said it was "perfect - exactly what I would have done, but with one minor exception". Then he suggested we should trade in one of our WKV deeds for Westin Flex (get credit for the WKV retail price). He proceeded to list a bunch of benefits of Flex and why booking at 8 months was unreliable and will only get worse over time. When I said that I would never do that because our maintenance fees for those 148.1K SOs would almost double, he said I was totally wrong and that MFs would actually go down. Then he left to "get the paperwork" to show us that great deal, (presumably had a coffee and chatted with his friends), an came back after 45 minutes and said I was actually right... :rolleyes:
 

rcv82

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They may try to get you to trade in, but my experience is that any purchase for $10k or more can do a retro without trading in. Trading in is a good way to get rid of a mistake, but a bad idea for a good week. If you want to make a minimum investment to retro, buying $10k of Flex points is about the only option as any deeded week will be more. The Flex points make a nice way to extend a week a few days.


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TravelTime

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They may try to get you to trade in, but my experience is that any purchase for $10k or more can do a retro without trading in. Trading in is a good way to get rid of a mistake, but a bad idea for a good week. If you want to make a minimum investment to retro, buying $10k of Flex points is about the only option as any deeded week will be more. The Flex points make a nice way to extend a week a few days.


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How many flex points do you get for $10,000 if you retro your week?
 

TravelTime

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That might depend on which flex program you purchase. I was offered a retro that was 44000 options EOY for $10000

I was told SOs convert at a 23:1 ratio (I think that is what I heard). So 44,000 options would be about 1900 DPs EOY. So if we assume 950 DPs annualized, it is about $10 pp. What is the maintenance fee on 44,000 options?
 
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