Vistana, Westin & Sheraton Deedback program

[TUGBrian]

According to ARDA, vistana resorts (including sheraton and westin) have an official deedback/surrender program with info available here:

https://www.vistana.com/exit

**Note since this link is apparently a blank page now (way to go marriott)...here is the phone number and contact details for the deedback department directly:

800-226-9150

resale.operations@mvwc.com



adding this as a sticky for this forum for those who might be in these situations (and hope to funnel away some from upfront fee scammers)

the most recent update to this program for folks that dont want to read thru 8 pages of replies!) However the summary is that Marriott is indeed working towards taking back any US based Vistana ownership that is both paid off and not delinquent in fees. However as they work thru the migration/merger, there are some expected growing pains!

https://www.tugbbs.com/forums/index...n-deedback-program.291395/page-7#post-2335398

 

[DavidnRobin]

Interesting... thanks for posting.
Notice that there is no mention of the biggest reason for exiting your VSE Timeshare — what SVO/VSE sold for top dollar now has little to no value.


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[blondietink]

I think this is good news for those of us who are aging and have difficulty traveling any more and/or don't want to burden our children/grandchildren with yearly fees.

 

[ocdb8r]

Can someone clarify - this thread is labeled as "deedback" but the link only talks about using Vistana to help "sell" your timeshare.

 

[DeniseM]

I don't believe ARDA - I have never heard of someone deeding back their Vistana TS.

 

[sb2313]

I don't believe ARDA - I have never heard of someone deeding back their Vistana TS.

It’s legit. It’s same program Marriott has had for year with brokering a sale or accepting a deed back for most- but not all- weeks.

 

[tschwa2]

I contacted them today after seeing this. The email is to the same place you inquire about Marriott resales or deed backs. I listed what I owned and said I would be interested in learning about their exit programs. They contacted me back within an hour and said currently they have no buy back programs but would like my information and would contact me if such a program becomes available. I wrote back that although a buy back would be nice I would also be interested in a straight deed back without compensation or any other exit programs and gave them my info. Again I was contacted within an hour or so saying no deedback program currently exists but they will put me on the list of owners interested if such a program becomes available.

 

[DeniseM]

That's what I figured. I don't think ARDA is reliable.

 

[DavidnRobin]

That's what I figured. I don't think ARDA is reliable.

Agree - but the fine print uses this as a Vistana program.
I may write SC and ask what is up?

Or maybe a Sales ploy to get Owners to turn in valuable VOIs


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[Ken555]

I’m really surprised this thread was even created, given what we know re how they conduct business. This is almost certainly primarily intended to increase the likelihood of a sale (“when you’re no longer able to use your week, we will help you deed it back”, etc). I highly doubt it was ever intended to actually allow many, if any, to deed back their weeks.


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[tschwa2]

I’m really surprised this thread was even created, given what we know re how they conduct business. This is almost certainly primarily intended to increase the likelihood of a sale (“when you’re no longer able to use your week, we will help you deed it back”, etc). I highly doubt it was ever intended to actually allow many, if any, to deed back their weeks.


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I don't know about that. Marriott had a good 2 years of taking back (deed back without compensation) of a good 90-95% of Marriott inventory. For a while they were offering a buy back program that while not great offered 2-3 times the market value for properties that had a market value of $500-2000 or so. Even though they had ROFR for most of their properties, they used this to greatly increase their trust inventory.

 

[TUGBrian]

well thats a bit ridiculous given they created an entire page to promote an option for owners to exit their vistana/westin/sheraton timeshares.

I went ahead and fired off a few emails to try to get some answers for this.

did the OP who contacted them and was rejected mention that fact? what is the point of advertising a program if one doesnt actually exist?

 

[Ken555]

well thats a bit ridiculous given they created an entire page to promote an option for owners to exit their vistana/westin/sheraton timeshares.

did the OP who contacted them and was rejected mention that fact? what is the point of advertising a program if one doesnt actually exist?

It seems others here have more faith in the company than I do. And that’s actually surprising.


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[tschwa2]

well thats a bit ridiculous given they created an entire page to promote an option for owners to exit their vistana/westin/sheraton timeshares.

did the OP who contacted them and was rejected mention that fact? what is the point of advertising a program if one doesnt actually exist?

I did not. While they said they had no such program although not stated, I would imagine that my properties qualified for, I would imagine that if they were offered properties with actual resale value especially those with resale value of $5000+ they might have a modest buyback or at least offer deedback.

 

[TUGBrian]

while I certainly wouldnt have put faith in them having some super secret program to allow owners of clearly worthless vistana timeshares out like wyndyam/hicv do...

the fact that they took the time not only to create an entire department and website to advertise said department...and then promoted that page on the ARDA website specifically made for owners to use to exit their timeshares....made me believe that it was at least possible.

Was certainly my mistake no doubt, to put faith in much of anything in this industry that would purely benefit owners.

 

[tschwa2]

Reaching out and checking doesn't obligate an owner to anything. Maybe several owners of various properties can reach out and inquire and see if there are any buyback or deed back offers based on more desirable ownerships.

 

[DavidnRobin]

And - like many instances with SVO/VSE - things to come...

I agree that they will try and upsale, or take back deeds with SO value.


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[Ken555]

while I certainly wouldnt have put faith in them having some super secret program to allow owners of clearly worthless vistana timeshares out like wyndyam/hicv do...

the fact that they took the time not only to create an entire department and website to advertise said department...and then promoted that page on the ARDA website specifically made for owners to use to exit their timeshares....made me believe that it was at least possible.

Was certainly my mistake no doubt, to put faith in much of anything in this industry that would purely benefit owners.

It’s a step in the right direction, but I just have no faith that it will be meaningful to many. As far as creating “an entire department” goes...I suspect it’s just an email address and one of three dozen tasks one employee has to handle. This is probably paid for out of the marketing department.


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[ocdb8r]

I see one of two things likely happened here:

a) someone is duping all the general Marriott programs/pages into Vistana and this was just swept up in that plan. I note that the language on the page is virtually identical to that used by Marriott when they had their deedback programs.

b) this is in anticipation of launching a deedback program as part of the impending overlay. Perhaps they intend on a push to pump points into the Vistana programs.

Either way, much ado about nothing for the moment.

 

[DannyTS]

I will reserve positive judgement until there is real proof that this program helped at least 1 owner who wanted to exit and whose timeshare had no (or negative) value in the resale market. Until then I will just consider it a stunt designed for the developers to brag about the existence of the program.

 

[DeniseM]

Or a way to suck owners into trading in/upgrading.

 

[dioxide45]

I don't know about that. Marriott had a good 2 years of taking back (deed back without compensation) of a good 90-95% of Marriott inventory. For a while they were offering a buy back program that while not great offered 2-3 times the market value for properties that had a market value of $500-2000 or so. Even though they had ROFR for most of their properties, they used this to greatly increase their trust inventory.

I agree that this looks to just be an extension of Marriott's exit program. Though perhaps someone forgot to send the memo to the folks at Vistana? A program like this would be good for Vistana since they really don't have ROFR at most of their properties and it would give owners a way out. Though it might push up the MF on the Flex products if a lot of low season owners dump their weeks.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I am not a lawyer but creating a web page that offers deedbacks to owners and not following through on what is advertised constitutes false advertising and is an FCC violation. I am surprised that they would commit to something like this in writing without a bunch of fine print "exclusions" at the bottom e.g. "program excludes all Vistana properties!"

 

[Ken555]

I am not a lawyer but creating a web page that offers deedbacks to owners and not following through on what is advertised constitutes false advertising and is an FCC violation. I am surprised that they would commit to something like this in writing without a bunch of fine print "exclusions" at the bottom e.g. "program excludes all Vistana properties!"

Perhaps the page was posted on April 1st and someone forgot to take it down...since it really does seem like a joke.


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[dioxide45]

The issue I see is that the email address is an @vacationclub.com. That is a MVCI domain. Same address as found here.

https://www.marriottvacationclub.com/exit/