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Westin St. John Owner Star Options

F

FrankJC

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Feb 27, 2017
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Resorts Owned
Westin St. John
Hi,
I just joined this forum. I recently purchased a 2BR Hillside timeshare resale at WSJ. (Still waiting to close) It is fixed week 2 with 176,700 StarOptions. How difficult might it be to trade the StarOptions for a smaller unit but longer stay in the same Platinum Plus season? Has anyone had experience using your StarOptions at your home resort? At Westin St. John? Or is it basically impossible to find open units during such a high demand season?
 
I think a studio or 1 BR is going to be hard to find once the 8 month mark hits in PP season. You might luck out, but I wouldn't count on it. I have seen the smaller units available in other seasons though. Also, because VGV is fixed your SO rez will probably be in the main resort, not the hillside. I did get a 12 night rez in the hillside, studio unit, but it was in November (low season).
 
Hi FrankJC - welcome to TUG - make sure you follow the WSJ thread. Please be aware that not only is your week and villa fixed, but also your check-in day is fixed (Fri, Sat, or Sun).

There is an Owner period (at 8-10 months) where you can switch (rare) into the same villa type within your season. At the 8 month point - you can attempt to use the SOs from your villa but are competing with everyone in VSN trying to get into any phase of WSJ. This is probably unwise as you will likely have issues with finding an adequate villa or time duration (unless in low low season) - especially for a 1Bd villa that only exist in VGV phase.

Also - you must reserve your villa before the 10 month point. If you release your villa you will not be able to get it back.
Tread carefully.
 
DavidnRobin said:
Hi FrankJC - welcome to TUG - make sure you follow the WSJ thread. Please be aware that not only is your week and villa fixed, but also your check-in day is fixed (Fri, Sat, or Sun).

There is an Owner period (at 8-10 months) where you can switch (rare) into the same villa type within your season. At the 8 month point - you can attempt to use the SOs from your villa but are competing with everyone in VSN trying to get into any phase of WSJ. This is probably unwise as you will likely have issues with finding an adequate villa or time duration (unless in low low season) - especially for a 1Bd villa that only exist in VGV phase.

Also - you must reserve your villa before the 10 month point. If you release your villa you will not be able to get it back.
Tread carefully.
Click to expand...

Thank you David and Sandy. It would seem that StarOptions are nice in theory but are actually Fools Gold. I already asked the seller to confirm my week before closing. Look forward to getting back to St. John.
 
Assume you bought a 2Bd TH and not 2Bd Prem.

Actually, since you have a Plat+ season - you are getting the best price for the MFs
176,700 SO for $2400. Not the best ratio in VSN, but not the worst.
I have a Gold 2Bd TH - and only get 95.7K SO (w/ same MF)

The SOs will allow you to exchange via VSN (at 8 month mark) - so you can try and get into other WSJ phases - as well as the rest of VSN. They are not useless.

Don't forget that VGV also comes with separate PropTax bills (ours is ~$150/wk) - so make sure those are up to date. Also, there is a mandatory VSN fee ($140 for 1st VOI)
 
DavidnRobin said:
Assume you bought a 2Bd TH and not 2Bd Prem.

Actually, since you have a Plat+ season - you are getting the best price for the MFs
176,700 SO for $2400. Not the best ratio in VSN, but not the worst.
I have a Gold 2Bd TH - and only get 95.7K SO (w/ same MF)

The SOs will allow you to exchange via VSN (at 8 month mark) - so you can try and get into other WSJ phases - as well as the rest of VSN. They are not useless.

Don't forget that VGV also comes with separate PropTax bills (ours is ~$150/wk) - so make sure those are up to date. Also, there is a mandatory VSN fee ($140 for 1st VOI)
Click to expand...

I'm sorry David. I was not trying to sound like I'm complaining. I'm happy with my week and my purchase. I was just coming to the understanding that if my wife and I had the opportunity to get away for more than a week next January and we tried to downsize to a 1BR or studio during the same start week as our fixed week, from what I read and you and Sandy have confirmed, it will be virtually impossible to find an available room unless we look to try to trade into the slow season.
 
I didn't take it as complaining. WSJ-VGV is often misunderstood. You may be able to find studio for longer period of time, but the issue is (beyond availability) that you will have to drop your villa in order to have the SOs to appropriately search/find inventory for a WSJ reservation at the 8 month mark.
 
So you can't search what might be available until you release your villa first? AND THEN once you release your villa you try to search for an available float but THEN there is nothing available AND THEN you can be left with nothing? Isn't there Somebody at Vistana you can call to ask if there is availability BEFORE releasing you fixed villa?
 
FrankJC said:
So you can't search what might be available until you release your villa first? AND THEN once you release your villa you try to search for an available float but THEN there is nothing available AND THEN you can be left with nothing? Isn't there Somebody at Vistana you can call to ask if there is availability BEFORE releasing you fixed villa?
Click to expand...

Correct - you risk ending up with SOs w/o the availability you want.

Not sure if you can discuss with Agent beforehand, I doubt it. I do know that 4*/5* can wait list, but not sure if ability to wait list will help in your case anyway.
One potential issue is that in order to discuss with an Agent, you would have to wait until 6am EST to call (at 8-month point) while others started to book online the night before. They are not going to search future inventory prior to 8-month point.
 
DavidnRobin said:
Correct - you risk ending up with SOs w/o the availability you want.

Not sure if you can discuss with Agent beforehand, I doubt it. I do know that 4*/5* can wait list, but not sure if ability to wait list will help in your case anyway.
One potential issue is that in order to discuss with an Agent, you would have to wait until 6am EST to call (at 8-month point) while others started to book online the night before. They are not going to search future inventory prior to 8-month point.
Click to expand...

Got it. Thanks David for your help and clarity.
 
From what I am seeing when doing some WSJ searches is that smaller units are hard to come across with StarOptions. Even in shoulder season. Big units seem to be more plentiful. So I think it would be tough to expect to be able to stay longer in a smaller unit using StarOptions. Best to just use your home resort week instead of possibly losing it.
 
Thanks Dioxide45, kinda bummed about that but that will be my plan. Just glad I didn't pay full price directly with the developer who made it seem like it was easy to use StarOptions even eight months out.
 
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