Westin Kierland Villas Question

[RDCA73]

Hello! I am trying to purchase a 1 bedroom unit at WKV that says it is for 30,500 Starpoints. However, that point total seems to equal the Premium 1 bedroom, not the smaller, Deluxe 1 bedroom. The seller doesn't seem to know which one she is trying to sell me and I was hoping for confirmation that the 30,500 does indeed translate to the larger Premium 1 bedroom unit.

We are new to Westin(Vistana) but not new to TS in general. If any WKV owners can chime in, I'd certainly appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[wjarcher]

from the points chart, 30,500 is for the premium 1 bedroom (larger) in silver season (week 28-35).

https://vistana-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/vistana-web/assets/pdf/charts/staroptions_value_chart.pdf

 

[dioxide45]

Are you purchasing this to use or as a StarOption generator? If the latter, I wouldn't suggest doing that as it is a terible unit/week to buy for StarOptions only. In just about any case, you are better to buy a different unit. Home resort priority for those weeks isn't needed and you can buy a unit that comes with more StarOptions for the same maintenance fees and then use the StarOptions to book silver weeks and have points left over.

 

[VacationForever]

Unless you want to use it in 120 degrees weather in Scottsdale, you should not buy this. This is usually given away for free and still have no takers.

BTW, Starpoint is the old hotel point currency. Staroptions is what you need to validate, 81K Star Options will be for platinum season. Same maintenace fees for all 3 seasons, making the silver seaon cost way too high per Star Option. You can use it to trade in II but it will have lower trade poswer. 30500 Star Options will get you to almost nowhere in the Vistana system for a week.

 

[TravelTime]

I agree with others. You can’t get much with 30,500 SOs.

 

[RDCA73]

Thank to everyone who replied. I actually love the crazy heat (we love Vegas in summer) and would plan on using this in the summer and at this resort. The MF are very reasonable, and from what I understand we can bank points if we don't use them each year. Thus, we should be able to use 60k every other year, correct? That should allow us to use those points at other mandatory resorts if we were able to get a reservation, yes? For example, if we wanted Harborside at Atlantis, I should be able to bank my points and use them there for a one bedroom. Am I understanding this correctly?

PS - is it challenging to get stays of less than a week?

Thanks!

 

[VacationForever]

Thank to everyone who replied. I actually love the crazy heat (we love Vegas in summer) and would plan on using this in the summer and at this resort. The MF are very reasonable, and from what I understand we can bank points if we don't use them each year. Thus, we should be able to use 60k every other year, correct? That should allow us to use those points at other mandatory resorts if we were able to get a reservation, yes? For example, if we wanted Harborside at Atlantis, I should be able to bank my points and use them there for a one bedroom. Am I understanding this correctly?

PS - is it challenging to get stays of less than a week?

Thanks!

Scottsdale is 10 degrees hotter than Vegas in summer. People die from heatstroke every year in Phoenix area.

It is just so cost ineffective that you get so few SOs for the same MF. You can book fewer days than a week but why would you do that especially when you are flying to get to a resort.

Here is the SO requirements for 1 Br premium at Harbourside:
- Week 1-17, 50-52, 81K SOs
- Week 18-34, 47-49, 51.7K SOs
- Week 35-46, 44K SOs

Here is a chart. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...8QFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0HpdMHxOoILhVaKnJY8mE2

 

[RDCA73]

Scottsdale is 10 degrees hotter than Vegas in summer. People die from heatstroke every year in Phoenix area.

It is just so cost ineffective that you get so few SOs for the same MF. You can book fewer than a week but why would you do that especially when you are flying to get to a resort.

Here is the SO requirements for 1 Br premium at Harbourside:
- Week 1-17, 50-52, 81K SOs
- Week 18-34, 47-49, 51.7K SOs
- Week 35-46, 44K SOs

Thanks - so it stands that I "should" be able to bank enough points to to go to other resorts EOY, such as Harborside. We go for less than a week since that is sometimes all we can squeeze in. Due to the placement of Fed Holidays, I can get many 5 day vacations, but not many full weeks. So, having options where we can go for 4-5 days is important.

I appreciate the insight!

 

[VacationForever]

Thanks - so it stands that I "should" be able to bank enough points to to go to other resorts EOY, such as Harborside. We go for less than a week since that is sometimes all we can squeeze in. Due to the placement of Fed Holidays, I can get many 5 day vacations, but not many full weeks. So, having options where we can go for 4-5 days is important.

I appreciate the insight!

I have updated my post above to include the star option chart, so that you can see Star Option requirement across all resorts and weeks.

 

[dioxide45]

Thank to everyone who replied. I actually love the crazy heat (we love Vegas in summer) and would plan on using this in the summer and at this resort. The MF are very reasonable, and from what I understand we can bank points if we don't use them each year. Thus, we should be able to use 60k every other year, correct? That should allow us to use those points at other mandatory resorts if we were able to get a reservation, yes? For example, if we wanted Harborside at Atlantis, I should be able to bank my points and use them there for a one bedroom. Am I understanding this correctly?

PS - is it challenging to get stays of less than a week?

Thanks!

I fully understand you would prefer to use the home resort, but silver season WKV certainly doesn't require 12 month booking. 8 month booking is fine. Even if you got a gold plus season, you would get about 50% more StarOptions for the same annual meintenance fee. You should be able to pick up a gold plus week for about the same cost as silver. If not, then only for a few hundred dollars on resale.

Also, if you are trying to "purchase" a silver WKV, I hope you really mean you are trying to take one on for no cost to you. These weeks should be close to free on the resale market. Perhaps at most paying closing costs.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Thank to everyone who replied. I actually love the crazy heat (we love Vegas in summer) and would plan on using this in the summer and at this resort. The MF are very reasonable, and from what I understand we can bank points if we don't use them each year. Thus, we should be able to use 60k every other year, correct? That should allow us to use those points at other mandatory resorts if we were able to get a reservation, yes? For example, if we wanted Harborside at Atlantis, I should be able to bank my points and use them there for a one bedroom. Am I understanding this correctly?

PS - is it challenging to get stays of less than a week?

Thanks!

You are missing an important aspect. The MFs per SO for a low season WKV is not a good value. You are paying same MFs for similar villa as compared to Plat+ season. Don’t forget about VSN fee (~$150/yr if this your only week).
WKV in summer is an easy exchange and can be easily gotten using SOs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RDCA73]

I fully understand you would prefer to use the home resort, but silver season WKV certainly doesn't require 12 month booking. 8 month booking is fine. Even if you got a gold plus season, you would get about 50% more StarOptions for the same annual meintenance fee. You should be able to pick up a gold plus week for about the same cost as silver. If not, then only for a few hundred dollars on resale.

Also, if you are trying to "purchase" a silver WKV, I hope you really mean you are trying to take one on for no cost to you. These weeks should be close to free on the resale market. Perhaps at most paying closing costs.

Correct, it is being given away. I saw it as a great way to "buy in" at a rate I was happy with.

 

[dioxide45]

Correct, it is being given away. I saw it as a great way to "buy in" at a rate I was happy with.

But with patience you can probably find a Gold Plus week for the same price and get 50% more StarOptions every year for the same annual fee.

 

[RDCA73]

You are missing an important aspect. The MFs per SO for a low season WKV is not a good value. You are paying same MFs for similar villa as compared to Plat+ season. Don’t forget about VSN fee (~$150/yr if this your only week).
WKV in summer is an easy exchange and can be easily gotten using SOs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I definitely see your point, however, if I saw another available purchase opportunity at similar rates for Platinum season I would naturally grab it. As it is right now, if I were to go to WKV using cash, I would be saving about 1k vs using the SO. So, that's what I am comparing the value against. Right now, we don't have any SO to use to exchange and was hoping this could be an easy way to get some to use at WKV or elsewhere. I don't see much else on the resale market that's being given away, but perhaps I should be patient and wait for a better opportunity.

 

[daviator]

There are several WKV weeks for sale on Redweek now, including an EY premium (large) 1BR in Gold season for $1500.

 

[5finny]

This is not a good deal and you should not do it.
If you do do it then your future problem will be trying to get rid of it and that will be much more difficult than buying it

That said if you absolutely can't wait and must buy you will survive
I an assuming your purchase price is $0
Your mistake will be smaller than the one I made when I first bought (and smaller than the mistake that many others in this group made when they first bought)

Having patience and learning first is the best way to go
If you do not do that you will not be the first who just could not wait

 

[Ski-Dad]

OP: you asked for advice and received a pretty sound consensus that you should hold out for a better season. Even if you have to pay a bit up front, you will get more points/use for you dollars. Purchase price is once - MF are forever unless you can get someone to take it off your hands. The crowd here are telling you they would not take it for free.

If you are buying a timeshare to save money, you need an exit strategy. Build that into your metrics.

 

[vacationtime1]

The better deal would be to buy a Kierland gold+ small side unit (weeks 22-27 & 36-49). It comes with 37000 transferable SO's.

The cost is minimal (I got mine for free, although they are probably about $1,000 now) but the MF's are substantially lower ($661/yr vs. $1,065/yr for the large side unit you are looking at).

You can use those SO's to get 8-9 summer days in the large unit by reserving at the eight month mark (which is an easy reservation).

It is essential to get an estoppel from Vistana (which they call a "Resale Information Sheet") while in escrow to verify that the unit is as described.

Added: this unit is also a very cost/effective Interval trader.

 

[Westnick]

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[goaliedave]

Don't marry the first person who smiles at you.