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Westin Flex Resale Limitations

Helios

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Does anyone know what are the limitations when buying Westin Flex Resale?

Are the booking window timelines kept by the resale buyer?

Can previous Westin Flex SOs be combined with the new resale SOs (are they called SOs)?
 

dioxide45

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Westin Flex resale doesn't have StarOptions. You can't combine them with StarOptions at 8 months because they can't book StarOption availability. They could only be used to book inventory from inside the Westin Flex trust between 12 and 0 months. You should be able to combine them with previous retail Home Options to book trust inventory. I don't know what happens though at 8 months since developer purchased home options work like StarOptions.
 

Helios

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Thanks. Very informative.
 

alwysonvac

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Does anyone know what are the limitations when buying Westin Flex Resale?

Are the booking window timelines kept by the resale buyer?

Can previous Westin Flex SOs be combined with the new resale SOs (are they called SOs)?

Here’s a link to the Updated Flex FAQ


Westin Flex resale doesn't have StarOptions. You can't combine them with StarOptions at 8 months because they can't book StarOption availability. They could only be used to book inventory from inside the Westin Flex trust between 12 and 0 months. You should be able to combine them with previous retail Home Options to book trust inventory. I don't know what happens though at 8 months since developer purchased home options work like StarOptions.

From the Flex FAQ...

What are the differences between HomeOptions and StarOptions?
Frequently, people overcomplicate their understanding of HomeOptions by thinking of them as completely distinct from StarOptions. However, it is easiest to understand HomeOptions by thinking of them simply as a special type of StarOption, with the following single difference:
HomeOptions can be used to make home resort reservations at Flex resorts in their Flex group during the home resort preference period.
Note that for a developer or requalified resale package, the home resort preference period is 12 months to 8 months prior to arrival. For resale Flex ownerships, which have not been requalified, an owner can continue making home resort reservations eight months or less prior to arrival. For other Flex ownerships bought from the developer, reservations made eight months or less prior to arrival would be VSN reservations.
 

sfcolliejr

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Thank you for this very informative Q&A on Westin Flex. We are new Westin Flex owners. We have made some owner mistakes but these forums are very helpful.
 

grrrah

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Since the OPs question was answered, let me ask another since I would consider buying a flex resale if cheap.

Presumably if you bought from developer, and get SOs at 8 months, and your inventory opens up to anyone else with SOs, correct?

If you have a resale flex and are only limited to your flex resorts at 0-8 months, isn't demand for your supply pool drastically increased and thus your availability unfairly reduced? Unless they have a separate inventory pool for resale owners (doubtful), doesn't seem fair..
 

dioxide45

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Since the OPs question was answered, let me ask another since I would consider buying a flex resale if cheap.

Presumably if you bought from developer, and get SOs at 8 months, and your inventory opens up to anyone else with SOs, correct?

If you have a resale flex and are only limited to your flex resorts at 0-8 months, isn't demand for your supply pool drastically increased and thus your availability unfairly reduced? Unless they have a separate inventory pool for resale owners (doubtful), doesn't seem fair..
I would think that VIstana has to hold back some inventory for voluntary Flex ownerships inside of the 0-8 month window. We don't know how they do that.
 

alexadeparis

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Since the OPs question was answered, let me ask another since I would consider buying a flex resale if cheap.

Presumably if you bought from developer, and get SOs at 8 months, and your inventory opens up to anyone else with SOs, correct?

If you have a resale flex and are only limited to your flex resorts at 0-8 months, isn't demand for your supply pool drastically increased and thus your availability unfairly reduced? Unless they have a separate inventory pool for resale owners (doubtful), doesn't seem fair..

yes,depending on how many of these get sold over the years, it does reduce the availability of the flex resorts to the general SVN, based on the resale restriction.

The second class treatment of resale owners is not only short sighted but down right stupid. Imagine if the original buyers were told in presentations they would have a hard time selling at a good price due to resale restrictions. Personally I would think twice, if I wanted to sell or at least have the option to sell, and knew right off the bat the next person to own would be mistreated.
 

Venter

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I own some resale Sheraton Flex points. I recently toyed with the idea of trying to get Vistana to buy them back and sell me Westin Flex but decided against it. I thought about it because we will be going for an encore presentation at the Westin Riverfront soon. My family seem to enjoy the higher end feel of Westin. I figured out the Caribbean resorts are not in the system and therefore the places we would like to visit within the system would be limited to us - I know it is not as upscale but there is a Hawaiian option within Sheraton Flex.

Here is what my thoughts were when I acquired them.

They were free....
I live within a couple of hours drive from three of the resorts.
I have multiple resorts to choose from, from 12 months out and can book from one night making use of booking the cheaper days - people with SO have to wait till 8 months.
I can exchange into II if I wanted.
It is flexible - go a night or two and any season or even longer and in different size units.
Oh, I had to do an edit to add this one - I pay no VSN fees. However, see II fees under negatives.

I followed the Tugg mantra - acquire where you want to go. I did and feel I can use where I want to go.

I guess the way I see it is that even though SO can book 8 months out the pool of resorts are bigger than if I only owned at one voluntary resort and I can still use it up to a day within my use year or deposit in II if I have enough points left over. If I want to try and rent out I can rent at multiple resorts choosing the best place and time to maximize the opportunity as my Home options give me this ability and again at twelve months out.

Negatives are I do not have access within the whole system except if I trade into II and try and exchange for a week. I cannot bank or borrow left over or unused points unless you look at II as a bank. Resale may be difficult unless I incentivise someone with fees paid and MF paid. I have to pay for II membership.

Unfortunately the last negative is that my family is spoiled wit Marriott vacations and do not prefer staying where I like to go when using the Home options - even in ski time. But they are slowly coming round seeing the benefits as I do and as we explore the system.
 
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dioxide45

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I live within a couple of hours drive from three of the resorts.
What three Sheraton Vacation Club properties are within a couple hour drive of Cincinnati?
 

Venter

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What three Sheraton Vacation Club properties are within a couple hour drive of Cincinnati?
Haha....
I have not changed my profile yet. Oops. I now live in Denver.
 

grrrah

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Here is what my thoughts were when I acquired them.

They were free....
I live within a couple of hours drive from three of the resorts.
I have multiple resorts to choose from, from 12 months out and can book from one night making use of booking the cheaper days - people with SO have to wait till 8 months.
I can exchange into II if I wanted.
It is flexible - go a night or two and any season or even longer and in different size units.
Oh, I had to do an edit to add this one - I pay no VSN fees. However, see II fees under negatives.

I followed the Tugg mantra - acquire where you want to go. I did and feel I can use where I want to go.

Yup, these were all the reasons for me to consider a resale (cheap) flex plan. My only concern really is the even more reduced availability on 8-0 month window (open to others without more inventory open to us).

I unfortunately found TUG too late and way overpaid for Nanea from the developer, but the flexible booking has made it somewhat palatable. Being able to book a 12-night, 1-bed stay with a Monday check-in, when I bought (the points for) a 2-bed. is a nice benefit. Then being able to change it to a 5-night stay at 8mos+6 days (I was able to rebook first 7 nights using leftover SOs) was nice. Now I'll have enough rollover for another HI week in a studio.
 

dioxide45

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I think another negative/con to Sheraton Flex is the high maintenance fees. You can by mandatory SVV with a lower maintenance fee per point than Flex carries. I considered buying a bunch of small flex contracts to give me both, a bunch of housekeeping credits as well as more points to use in Orlando. When I ran the numbers, even with the HK fee savings, the higher maintenance fees on Sheraton Flex negated it.
 

Eric B

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Since the OPs question was answered, let me ask another since I would consider buying a flex resale if cheap.

Presumably if you bought from developer, and get SOs at 8 months, and your inventory opens up to anyone else with SOs, correct?

If you have a resale flex and are only limited to your flex resorts at 0-8 months, isn't demand for your supply pool drastically increased and thus your availability unfairly reduced? Unless they have a separate inventory pool for resale owners (doubtful), doesn't seem fair..

There's a 50,000 Westin Flex contract available for free from Timeshare Nation right now that includes free use of the home options in 2021. They have it listed on their website under the Sheraton Flex grouping:

 

LJT

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The ad doesn’t look correct to me - it says Sheraton Flex but is advertising the Westin properties. Something isn’t correct there - buyer beware.
 

Eric B

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The ad doesn’t look correct to me - it says Sheraton Flex but is advertising the Westin properties. Something isn’t correct there - buyer beware.

No doubt good advice with respect to resale timeshares anywhere. TSN has a very poor interface and frequently puts ownerships in odd groupings like this one, likely because they aren't familiar with the underlying resort systems and they don't do the closings or listings themselves. It's essentially a front-end website for timeshare brokers from exit companies, etc., to list ones they weren't able to sell by other means (e.g., eBay) and have already been paid by the owners to dispose of, so they are willing to transfer the ownership free of charge to anyone that is willing to take it. I've seen them confuse SVV with SVR in the listings in the past. I believe I'd seen this Westin Flex contract on eBay previously. If anyone is actually interested in it, best bet is to check the estoppel, as is always the case.
 
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