Westin St John [Master Thread] - Part 2 (June 2014 and forward)

[ekinggill]

Marriott pleaded with the port officials to be allowed to take the ~35 non-guests. The non-guests were denied access because they were not on the manifest.

Marriott spent a lot of money on this rescue...including giving guests $200 cash to help them get home. I hate seeing them being trashed by only half of the story.

Hope Marriott gets much more bad PR from this (ala United's passenger dragging incident) than any liability from accepting extra passengers on the ship.

 

[okwiater]

Marriott pleaded with the port officials to be allowed to take the ~35 non-guests. The non-guests were denied access because they were not on the manifest.

Marriott spent a lot of money on this rescue...including giving guests $200 cash to help them get home. I hate seeing them being trashed by only half of the story.

I agree there are far too many hazy or missing details to make a judgment here.

 

[LisaRex]

So upset to see what's happened to St. John but looking forward to returning. Since BV is not a mandatory resort and we bought a # of years ago via resale, I wonder if there are any options that are available to us if the resort is closed for our upcoming arrival dates or if we just lose out since we aren't allowed in the Vistana exchange program. Would love any insights.

I really don't know. I'd hope that being denied use of your unit due to (renovations, emergency repairs, or Acts of God) would be addressed in your Owner's Guide, so if you don't have one yet, I'd ask for it. (You might want to ask for an e-copy to be sent, if possible; Otherwise, they'll send you a 500 page unbound paper copy.)

Below is a link to a 2011 article re hurricanes and timeshares. It's somewhat relevant, however they don't have concrete information for VSE specifically. If I owned a voluntary resort and was locked out of my resort for any reason beyond my control, and there were no weeks left in my season, I'd call and ask what my options were. You paid for your week, but were denied use of that week through no fault of yours or theirs. Since you are still on the hook for MFs and SAs to repair the damage, one would hope that they'd make a reasonable effort to "make it right" even if it meant booking outside of your season, outside of your home resort, and possibly even outside of VSE. (I mean, they ARE a huge timeshare conglomeration.)

At the end of the day, there may be no recourse for you. Take heart that you only out one week. Tens of thousands of people are on the hook to pay mortgages for homes that were destroyed last week. And many St. Johnians have no paycheck now because they relied on you to come and spend money there. Sometimes life just isn't fair.

Good luck to you.

http://www.thetimeshareauthority.com/2011/08/26/hurricane-irene-and-your-timeshare-vacation/

 

[LisaRex]

Sobering article re USVI recovery. Governor is saying that it may be months before electricity is even restored to the islands.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/8cf2a5...762153a/ss_u.s.-virgin-islands-governor:.html

 

[Carolyn]

Sobering article re USVI recovery. Governor is saying that it may be months before electricity is even restored to the islands.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/8cf2a565-29b2-3c24-a9f3-2b975762153a/ss_u.s.-virgin-islands-governor:.html

Date has been extended to December 31, 2017. I'm sure Vistana will keep moving this date out. On Vistana website this morning:

Update from Hurricane Irma: September 13, 2017
We are pleased to confirm that there were no injuries or loss of life to guests or staff. However, The Westin St. John Resort Villas sustained significant damage, and we are in the process of assessing the extent of it. We appreciate your patience while we gather information and make decisions about when the resort and the island will be ready to welcome Owners and Guests back to St. John. As a result, we are currently waiving all cancellation fees for Owners who wish to cancel their reservations through December 31. Contact Owner Services to make alternate plans for your 2017 usage. Please continue to check back here for the latest resort updates.

 

[OCsun]

As a WSJ villa owner I hope the powers to be will communicate with owners soon regarding what the future might look like. Even if they only tell us that they need a month or two to make any good decision regarding the resort opening in the next 12-18 months.
Member services told me that I would not be informed regarding cancellations of accommodations until 60 days prior to a reserved stay, even if the stay is many months out.
A 60 day plan is understandable for a tropical storm or a Cat 1 or 2 hurricane. St. John has long term damage and Vistanna needs to be realistic and informative to their owners

Sorry! They just posted this update when I posted my concerns.

 

[SandyPGravel]

But they are not saying the resort is closed. You can call and cancel if you wish. Seriously, do they really want tourists to show up? Caneel stated they are closed through the end of the year. Plus an email from owner services would be nice. Not everyone checks the dashboard or has TUG to keep them up to date.

 

[lizap]

I would recommend the Community Foundation of the USVI.

Date has been extended to December 31, 2017. I'm sure Vistana will keep moving this date out. On Vistana website this morning:

Update from Hurricane Irma: September 13, 2017
We are pleased to confirm that there were no injuries or loss of life to guests or staff. However, The Westin St. John Resort Villas sustained significant damage, and we are in the process of assessing the extent of it. We appreciate your patience while we gather information and make decisions about when the resort and the island will be ready to welcome Owners and Guests back to St. John. As a result, we are currently waiving all cancellation fees for Owners who wish to cancel their reservations through December 31. Contact Owner Services to make alternate plans for your 2017 usage. Please continue to check back here for the latest resort updates.

Wouldn't be surprised to see this extended through May or June 2018 and maybe longer..

 

[klpca]

Wouldn't be surprised to see this extended through May or June 2018 and maybe longer..

The areas hit hard by Odile took over a year to reopen. It seems that the resorts have to have the insurance people out first, then they can figure out a timeline.

 

[SandyPGravel]

Just received an email from Islands magazine:

http://www.islands.com/everything-w...1121694541&spReportId=MTEyMTY5NDU0MQS2#page-8

The Westin St. John Resort Villas: The resort and the surrounding areas experienced some damage. As of September 11, Marriott International has advised the resort is closed until further notice.

Can Marriott International release a statement about this resort?

 

[lizap]

Just received an email from Islands magazine:

http://www.islands.com/everything-w...1121694541&spReportId=MTEyMTY5NDU0MQS2#page-8

The Westin St. John Resort Villas: The resort and the surrounding areas experienced some damage. As of September 11, Marriott International has advised the resort is closed until further notice.

Can Marriott International release a statement about this resort?

Sounds like someone is thinking Marriott owns WSJ TS since they now own Starwood hotels..

 

[letsgomets]

I just spoke with Vistana about an hour ago and the representative told me that they were advised today to cancel all reservations through December 31.

 

[LisaRex]

But they are not saying the resort is closed. You can call and cancel if you wish. Seriously, do they really want tourists to show up?

I think that it's an acknowledgement that for some people (e.g. fall week voluntary owners), there may be no point in cancelling. I mean, if you had dinner reservations for Saturday, and the restaurant closed today because they had a major fire, would you bother to call and cancel your reservation? Mandatory owners have the option of converting to SOs, but I'm not sure if voluntary owners will have any options. (And I hope I'm not sounding flippant there; I do feel really bad for voluntary owners.)

 

[dsmrp]

Marriott pleaded with the port officials to be allowed to take the ~35 non-guests. The non-guests were denied access because they were not on the manifest.

Marriott spent a lot of money on this rescue...including giving guests $200 cash to help them get home. I hate seeing them being trashed by only half of the story.

I agree there are far too many hazy or missing details to make a judgment here.

Would you feel the same way if you were one of the 35?
True Marriott spent money, minimum $100K, to get their guests out of St Thomas, and they will get loyal-for-life Marriott customers and good PR from it.
Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever get the full story; St Thomas Port and Marriott are saying the other was the reason for denying those 35+ people
access to the ship. And St Thomas officials are busy handling a disaster situation for a long time to come...
IMO in this situation, port officials would be more concerned with who is disembarking from a ship rather than who is getting on.
And would want to get the non-locals out of there, so they can concentrate help on the resident population.
In a disaster, humanitarian common sense should (occasionally) overrule bureaucratic red tape and regulations. But in stressful situations, people
do fall back on their rules in order to have some sense of control and normalcy.

 

[GrayFal]

On hold now

Dear Westin St. John Owner,

We wanted to provide you with an update of the post-Hurricane Irma recovery effort for The Westin St. John Resort Villas.

The resort and surrounding areas experienced significant damage and we currently have construction, restoration, risk management and security personnel at the resort assessing the overall impact. As a result, all inbound arrivals through December 31, 2017, are being suspended.

Owner Services has begun outbound communications in an effort to process cancellations and assist Owners with rebooking reservations, StarOptions Banking, SPG conversion, or assigning Vacation Ownership Interests with Interval International. Cancellation, StarOptions Banking, SPG conversion fees associated with scheduled 2017 Owner reservations for The Westin St. John Resort Villas (from September 1–December 31, 2017) will be waived. Additionally, any such fees previously collected during this time will be refunded within 10 to 14 business days.

Many of you have reached out to ask what you can do to help. While we appreciate your willingness to contribute, at this time we are providing our full support to ensure the well-being of our staff and their families as well as working diligently to reopen as quickly and safely as possible.

Our round-the-clock post-hurricane efforts will continue and we will provide updates as they become available. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

If you have questions concerning an upcoming reservation, please contact Owner Services at 888-986-9637 or 407-903-4635, Monday–Friday, 9AM–9PM Saturday and Sunday, 9AM–6PM Eastern time.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Clark
Vice President, Owner Services

You have received this transactional message as part of your vacation ownership. Please do not reply directly to this system-generated e-mail. Contact Vistana Management, Inc. at 9002 San Marco Court, Orlando, FL 32819 or click here.

©2017 Vistana Signature Experiences, Inc. ("Vistana") and Marriott International, Inc. ("Marriott"). All Rights Reserved. Vistana, its logo, and StarOptions are the trademarks of Vistana or its affiliates. SPG, Preferred Guest, Sheraton, Westin and their logos are the trademarks of Marriott or its affiliates and are used by Vistana, an authorized partner of the SPG program, under license from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, LLC, a subsidiary of Marriott. Vistana and the programs and products it provides are not owned, developed or sold by Marriott or its affiliates. Vistana is solely responsible for its advertising, marketing, privacy and data collection practices.

Privacy Statement | Terms & Conditions | 4820 | 20A | 17-OOC-1275-H-VSN

 

[OCsun]

Thanks for posting this notice to Westin St John Owners. I have been an owner since 2003 and did not receive it. Maybe it did not include the Virgin Grand Villa owners.

 

[SandyPGravel]

Thanks for posting this notice to Westin St John Owners. I have been an owner since 2003 and did not receive it. Maybe it did not include the Virgin Grand Villa owners.

I haven't received the email either. But the email that went out last Friday, about owner services closing, to some people at one in the afternoon. I didn't receive until almost 9 PM So it may still come. I also own VGV.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[canesfan]

I haven't received it and I own Bay Vista.
I don't have a reservation that is affected though. I have one for early May 2018 and wonder if they will be ready by then. It isn't looking good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GrayFal]

Very very very disappointed with Vistana.
Yes, I am a resale owner for this one particular week.
I have FOUR weeks in the Vistana Signature Network and one that is not


They are not allowing me to put this week into VSN for 95,700 StarOptions.
My choice is II.
Big Woop!
2 K in maintainence fees for a two bedroom II exchange into a $800 week p,us a $139 exchange fee.

Thanks a LOT VSN.

And I know I am not alone. There are many Bay Vista and Coral Vista resale owners. Very disappointing.

 

[okwiater]

I rented a Christmas week in my Bay Vista this year. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. The rental contract specified that it is non-refundable.

I haven't seen an e-mail from Vistana yet, though.

 

[GrayFal]

I rented a Christmas week in my Bay Vista this year. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. The rental contract specified that it is non-refundable.

I haven't seen an e-mail from Vistana yet, though.

Surprised you did not get the email. Many on Facebook have gotten it


At the suggestion of a Facebook poster I am now working with someone from the resolution department that will allow me to use My HomeOptions elsewhere in the network this year. I will keep you posted.

My WSJ week 7 that I have rented (no refund) is in the VSE Network. It is in my contracts that I recommend travel insurance and give a link to a travel insurance company. Will see what happens

 

[dewdrops]

Is the reason for not allowing voluntary weeks to convert to SO because it will cause an imbalance in the system? Vistana owns enough weeks to pull their own SO out so that there could be a balance.
Seems even giving people option to book within last 60 days is better than no choices for the voluntary weeks owners. So many weeks go unused!

 

[Helios]

Good luck to @okwiater and @GrayFal with the rentals. Hopefully your renters don't bother you knowing your agreement cannot be cancelled.

 

[LisaRex]

Egads, I hadn't thought of the impact of renters. I think that at the very least, Okwiater may have the duty to notify his guest that the resort will be closed through 12/31/17, which might open up an unpleasant dialogue and quite possibly a chargeback from Paypal/credit card company if you accepted these for payment, as these companies are notorious for siding with consumers.

Personally, although I said "no refunds for any reason," I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable making a big profit. After speaking with a lawyer, I'd certainly consider refunding all but the cost of the MFs as a good will gesture, and/or offering up the same remedy that VSE provided, such as depositing the week in II and offering to search for another location, or trying to book another location with SOs, assuming your unit came with SOs. I'd also add language in future contracts that covered hurricanes and unforeseen resort closures.

What a mess.

 

[GrayFal]

How sad for all involved. And this is May 2018!