Westin Owners Beware: ARDA Fee Lack of Transparency

[mjm1]

This may apply to Sheraton and Marriott owners as well, but I am posting it as a Westin owner.

We received our maintenance fee invoice for our Westin Flex ownership. Upon review I noticed that the voluntary ARDA fee wasn't listed as it had been in prior years. Once I clicked on the link to make payment they had a note indicating that you can deduct the ARDA fee if you don't want to pay it. However, they didn't provide the amount. I clicked on the link for more information and in the description they noted that the ARDA fee is $5.

I called the Westin/Sheraton desk for clarification and was informed that the ARDA fee is actually $10 ($20 for Hawaii properties). I also lodged a complaint regarding the lack of transparency and told the supervisor that a lot of owners haven't been pleased with the way the voluntary fee was presented in prior years, so I imagine they really won't be happy with the approach for 2025. He suggested I send a complaint to ownerres@mvwc.com, which I did. Hopefully they will at least be more transparent.

Please make sure you read your maintenance fee statement carefully before submitting payment. If you experience the same thing when you receive your statement(s), please consider sending a complaint to them as well. Otherwise, unsuspecting owners may pay for something they don't want.

 

[TUGBrian]

wow has this regressed back? I thought vistana had changed to making this fee truly optional....vs mandatory.

Are you contributing to a timeshare developer lobbying organization [ARDA-ROC] without knowing it? [MERGED]

American Resort Development Association–Resort Owners’ Coalition (ARDA–ROC) is an organization that does lobbying to benefit timeshare developers. Sometimes their lobbying also benefits timeshare owners, but it's the developers that help fund ARDA–ROC. How do they fund it? Check the statement...

tugbbs.com

 

[rickandcindy23]

I don't see a regression. We will know soon, as the statements start showing on Vistana's website.

Marriott does this by the book and requires one to add the fee, which I never do. I dislike hidden fees with a passion.

 

[iowaguy09]

When I paid my Westin and Sheraton MF’s a few days ago the ARDA fee was shown as $10 each, but the fee was shown broken out, and if I had wanted to pay it I would have had to select it as an option to do so. It was very easy to choose just the MF’s less the ARDA fees.

 

[mjm1]

When I paid my Westin and Sheraton MF’s a few days ago the ARDA fee was shown as $10 each, but the fee was shown broken out, and if I had wanted to pay it I would have had to select it as an option to do so. It was very easy to choose just the MF’s less the ARDA fees.

That's good to hear. I am not sure why ours didn't reflect it, but given the history of the overall IT issues, I am not surprised.

 

[Ski-Dad]

I will check my SDO fee when it comes due. As a Canadian this is always interesting as we are not supposed to be permitted to contribute to ARDA.