Westin Princeville buyback for Sheraton Flex

[Aubrey21]

Hi everyone,

We have been owners at Westin Princeville and Sheraton Myrtle Beach (SBP), and we just traded it back in and bought Sheraton Flex. Looking for your advice on whether this was smart or not-smart (ahem... rescind).

We've felt some pain from the Princeville MF rising for years. We have a full lockoff every year (148,100) and are on the hook for $3358 MF for next year. Myrtle beach was going to be 489 (we have EOY), so we were looking to pay $3847 total for maintenance fees for 2023.

They sold us 159000 Sheraton flex points EY, equating to an annual MF of $3020. So, we save $827 in MF per year for the "same amount" of options. And we elected to start in 2024, so we skip next year's MF.

They gave us full value back in equity for the 2 properties and it left us with a balance of $14375 which we dropped on our Bonvoy Amex. They also gave us 78000 options as an incentive, so we can still book a Vistana trip without paying MF in 2023.

I justified the $14375 by thinking that there is savings for 2023's Princeville + SBP MFs (3847), so it "kinda" costs me 10528. So I "break even" with the annual $827 MF savings on the 13th year.

Was anyone else offered anything like this? Any negatives with Sheraton Flex given the upcoming Abound? We haven't been back to Princeville in over a decade, so there's no attachment to the property.

Thanks!

 

[daviator]

You will get a variety of opinions on this. I was ready to offer one opinion until I realized that you owned at Princeville but didn't actually use that property often.

You own/owned at one of the highest MF properties in the network, yet you haven't been using that property. So if you've been using "cheaper" properties with StarOptions (and your home resort ownership at SBP) but paying for Princeville. In a sense you have been paying for caviar but you've been eating tuna. Or something like that!

It isn't clear where you plan to actually use your ownership. If you plan to use SBP, you should get equally good access to that property with Sheraton Flex. Same with the other Sheraton-branded Vistana properties. If you make reservations at 12 months, you should be able to get whatever you want to reserve with Flex, and you'll have a chance to reserve into the rest of Vistana at 8 months (which is doable but harder) just like today. So your math basically works, you will start saving money in year 13. But if you DID want to go back to Princeville, it might be a little tougher than under your old ownership. Still totally doable though.

BUT... if you think you will want to access Marriott Vacation Club properties via Abound, your 159,000 Sheraton Flex points won't get you nearly as many Abound "club points" as your Princeville ownership would have gotten you. I'm sure somebody else will do the math and give you the specific numbers, but the Princeville ownership is a lot more valuable in Abound. So whether this is a good deal for you or not really depends on where you think you will want to travel in the future.

Also, your "old" ownership might get you to a higher owner benefit level in the new program.

EDIT: I'm wrong, I think. Your Sheraton Flex will translate to more or less a similar amount of Abound Club Points as your previous ownership. So I think your calculations are basically right, it's a question of whether you want to spend money now for a payback that will take 13 years to arrive. If you plan to keep your ownership for the long term, then you'll save money.

 

[rcv82]

You got rid of a property you don’t use that is a very expensive source for either StarOptions or Abound points. In exchange you got something that is hopefully more useful to you. (Neither WPORV or Sheraton Flex have much resale value.)

I think one of the big questions is whether you want to actually use your home Sheraton Flex resorts where you have 12 month priority? If yes, this is probably an ok move. In the grand scheme of things this is not a huge purchase. But if the answer is no, then you may want to reconsider and try to buy where you want to vacation the most.


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[echino]

If you would have gotten Westin Flex instead of Sheraton Flex for the same price, it would have been an OK deal. I would rescind. If after you rescind, they try to get you to keep the deal, tell them to swap for the Westin Flex.

 

[EnglishmanAbroad]

You don't say what you have been doing with your 'unused' Princeville ownership? You could of course have just given them back what you own, saved yourself 3-4K/year in maintenance fees/network fees and kept $14+K in your pocket and put it all towards future vacations or whatever else you'd like to spend it on.

 

[daviator]

If you would have gotten Westin Flex instead of Sheraton Flex for the same price, it would have been an OK deal. I would rescind. If after you rescind, they try to get you to keep the deal, tell them to swap for the Westin Flex.

I'm guessing from what they said that they've been mainly using their ownership at SBP and other Sheraton resorts. In that case, Westin Flex might not be the right product for them, though they'd get more Abound Club Points out of Westin Flex. But maybe having more SOs usable at the Sheraton Flex "home resorts" will be more useful to them.

 

[Aubrey21]

If you would have gotten Westin Flex instead of Sheraton Flex for the same price, it would have been an OK deal. I would rescind. If after you rescind, they try to get you to keep the deal, tell them to swap for the Westin Flex.

What benefit would the Westin Flex give? The maintenance fee for Westin Flex is 14.5% higher. Is it worth it?

We've been using our Princeville to play in the Vistana network, and have had a lot of great vacations and memories. In the recent years we've mostly gone to Maui, Atlantis, Cabo, Cancun, Orlando, Scottsdale, St John. The SBP property has been valuable in Interval exchanges, or an extra boost of points when we add in days.

Vistana gave us a buyback offer in Cabo for aventuras back in June, but they would only take back Princeville.

Thanks for the input, everyone. I understand it's an odd trade and really a judgement call for us if we want to spend our money up front. We are in our early 40s with 3 kids and we expect to be using the Vistana/Abound for years to come. We also purchased princeville 15 years ago on our honeymoon and we split the purchase with my in-laws. They are around retirement age so we expect to take over more/all of the MF we share at some point, so looking to future proof ourselves.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I wouldn't do that deal. Sounds like a lot for nothing. You have voluntary options, I would keep them, I wouldn't care how much the fees are. They are good for trading into other resorts.

With Marriott currently giving people with the original options some status, you might find your options (that you already have) are going to be worthy of the Abound product. I would not do anything at all until we know what Marriott is going to do. Why would you, just to have your ownership completely worthless. At least now you have Princeville. I love that resort.

 

[RunCat]

If you would have gotten Westin Flex instead of Sheraton Flex for the same price, it would have been an OK deal. I would rescind. If after you rescind, they try to get you to keep the deal, tell them to swap for the Westin Flex.

I was about to make the same suggestion. IMO, Westin Flex is much better than Sheraton Flex. Not sure if the OP would see MF savings.

 

[RunCat]

What benefit would the Westin Flex give? The maintenance fee for Westin Flex is 14.5% higher. Is it worth it?

I think the value is based on which group of resorts you prefer to travel to. All resorts can be reserved at 8 months. But the home resorts, for each program, can be reserved at 12 months. The question is which home resorts do you want to travel to. And with young children, the vacation times may be limited be school breaks/summer. Thus having the 12 month window may matter when competing against other owner for the prime times.

 

[echino]

Advantages of Westin Flex over Sheraton Flex:

1. Better home resorts at 12 months, such as Maui.
2. Westin Flex has a resale value, while Sheraton Flex is zero. It may be difficult or impossible to give away Sheraton Flex when you decide to move on in the future.

 

[vacationtime1]

Advantages of Westin Flex over Sheraton Flex:

1. Better home resorts at 12 months, such as Maui.
2. Westin Flex has a resale value, while Sheraton Flex is zero. It may be difficult or impossible to give away Sheraton Flex when you decide to move on in the future.

Sheraton Flex currently has some resale value, at least per asking prices on Redweek (where multiple Sheraton Flex contracts were available for free a few months ago). I have no idea why and am interested in others' theories as to why this has happened.