Vistana Still Adding Weeks Inventory to Westin Flex

[dioxide45]

Email received yesterday regarding availability of the "Maintenance Billing Statement". Statement was accessible from the Vistana Dashboard. The included BOD letter confirms the 1.5% fee reduction is due in part to implementation of the 3% credit card fee. Letter and budget are attached.

I pulled this over from the payment options thread because I found this bit of information from the BOD letter to Westin Flex owners interesting;

We are also pleased to recognize that additional Westin Kierland Resort Villas inventory was included in the Trust in 2026, representing approximately 4 million points. These additional points provide expanded access to a highly desirable component site within the Westin Flex Collection.

I find it interesting they added more inventory to Westin Flex after the rollout of Abound and after they started adding Westin inventory to the Abound trust for Club Points. It seems, to an extent, they are keeping Westin Flex trust "funded". Might this mean they plan to continue selling Westin Flex, and even Sheraton Flex long term? I really thought they would have stopped adding inventory to the Flex trusts and just begun feeding it all into the Abound trust.

 

[Heddp]

That's great if you ask me. Wonder if they chose to add inventory in the awful summer months. If they added winter months inventory I'd be shocked (and happy).

 

[dioxide45]

That's great if you ask me. Wonder if they chose to add inventory in the awful summer months. If they added winter months inventory I'd be shocked (and happy).

I'm going to find this out.

Edited to add. Here is the filed notice where they added weeks. There are fall weeks in there but none of the prime early year winter weeks nor any spring training weeks. Absolutely no 148,100 StarOptions weeks were added.

This is also the only addition to Westin Flex since September 2022. There has also only been two additions to Sheraton Flex in that same time, both of which were Vistana's Beach Club. So this doesn't appear to be a broader trend to feed the Flex trusts. I suspect they just wanted a place to unload the lower value WKV weeks instead of adding them to the Abound Club Points trust and driving up fees there.

 

[mjm1]

Glad to see that they added more inventory to Westin Flex as we like to go to WKV in the fall. However, wouldn’t that increase MF’s for Flex owners, since they added units with less SO value while having the same MF as platinum weeks?

 

[dioxide45]

Glad to see that they added more inventory to Westin Flex as we like to go to WKV in the fall. However, wouldn’t that increase MF’s for Flex owners, since they added units with less SO value while having the same MF as platinum weeks?

It would, but I don't think the impact is all that much. It is only a little over 4 million points added. I don't know the total points in the trust, but this is probably a drop in the bucket. They also reduced the fees in 2027 due to the changes with Credit Card Fees being allocated to the association.

 

[sponger76]

I pulled this over from the payment options thread because I found this bit of information from the BOD letter to Westin Flex owners interesting;

We are also pleased to recognize that additional Westin Kierland Resort Villas inventory was included in the Trust in 2026, representing approximately 4 million points. These additional points provide expanded access to a highly desirable component site within the Westin Flex Collection.

I find it interesting they added more inventory to Westin Flex after the rollout of Abound and after they started adding Westin inventory to the Abound trust for Club Points. It seems, to an extent, they are keeping Westin Flex trust "funded". Might this mean they plan to continue selling Westin Flex, and even Sheraton Flex long term? I really thought they would have stopped adding inventory to the Flex trusts and just begun feeding it all into the Abound trust.

Does that mean any new Westin (or theoretically Sheraton although I'm not aware of any in the works) properties might still be added on the Vistana side via the Flex products?

 

[sponger76]

That's great if you ask me. Wonder if they chose to add inventory in the awful summer months. If they added winter months inventory I'd be shocked (and happy).

Prime weeks are exactly the ones that usually wouldn't be acquired by the developer via deedback/foreclosure, so probably the vast majority of the weeks added would be the less desirable ones.

 

[dioxide45]

Does that mean any new Westin (or theoretically Sheraton although I'm not aware of any in the works) properties might still be added on the Vistana side via the Flex products?

Possibly, but I don't see it happening. They've only done three conveyances to Westin or Sheraton Flex since the introduction of Abound when they merged the programs. They have added Vistana weeks to the Abound trust since then. I would expect them to add any new properties to the Abound trust. Now the main question would remain, are those new Westin and Sheraton properties part of VSN.

 

[sponger76]

I would expect them to add any new properties to the Abound trust. Now the main question would remain, are those new Westin and Sheraton properties part of VSN.

From a practical standpoint, would it matter if they were part of VSN if the actual inventory was only added to the Abound trust? If they're not sold as weeks and none of the inventory is added to Westin/Sheraton Flex, VSN members wouldn't be able to book them anyway without either exchanging via II or first converting to Club Points and utilizing Abound. But maybe they'll surprise us and put some inventory in Abound and some in the Flex trusts.

 

[dioxide45]

From a practical standpoint, would it matter if they were part of VSN if the actual inventory was only added to the Abound trust? If they're not sold as weeks and none of the inventory is added to Westin/Sheraton Flex, VSN members wouldn't be able to book them anyway without either exchanging via II or first converting to Club Points and utilizing Abound. But maybe they'll surprise us and put some inventory in Abound and some in the Flex trusts.

If they were part of VSN, then unreserved inventory would be available to VSN members to book with StarOptions at 8 months.

 

[sponger76]

If they were part of VSN, then unreserved inventory would be available to VSN members to book with StarOptions at 8 months.

As far as I know, inventory only moves in one direction, from VSN to Abound, due to weeks or Flex owners electing their VOIs for Club Points. I haven't heard of any inventory flowing backward from Abound to VSN, so if nobody owns weeks and all the inventory is held by the Abound trust, there wouldn't be anything in VSN for people to book using StarOptions in this hypothetical situation.

 

[rickandcindy23]

If all Kierland is Mandatory, why add it to the trust? I don't understand the reasoning for it. I am looking to acquire Kierland at some point, but only Mandatory. Rick is a big no on the idea of Kierland.

 

[dioxide45]

As far as I know, inventory only moves in one direction, from VSN to Abound, due to weeks or Flex owners electing their VOIs for Club Points. I haven't heard of any inventory flowing backward from Abound to VSN, so if nobody owns weeks and all the inventory is held by the Abound trust, there wouldn't be anything in VSN for people to book using StarOptions in this hypothetical situation.

That is maybe true, but the current interaction with Abound is through the Exchange company. We also don't know how inventory is allocated from Abound. If something gets deposited into Abound, what if something is still available at a Vistana resort 8 months out. That should still be available for VSN members to reserve. It's just that the same inventory is available for Abound Club Points to reserve too.

All it simply takes is for inventory to be enrolled in VSN to be available to reserve with StarOptions. The owner of those weeks is irrelevant.

 

[sponger76]

That is maybe true, but the current interaction with Abound is through the Exchange company. We also don't know how inventory is allocated from Abound. If something gets deposited into Abound, what if something is still available at a Vistana resort 8 months out. That should still be available for VSN members to reserve. It's just that the same inventory is available for Abound Club Points to reserve too.

All it simply takes is for inventory to be enrolled in VSN to be available to reserve with StarOptions. The owner of those weeks is irrelevant.

I have seen instances where inventory was available at Sheraton/Westin resorts in Abound that was not available to book using StarOptions. I really don't think they would allocate inventory to VSN that nobody in VSN (trusts or individual weeks owners) has corresponding ownership of. I understand it's hypothetical, but the math wouldn't math if you got anywhere near a 100% utilization rate in both systems.