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Westin St John villas are a dump

kcgriffin

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:mad: My wife and I just rteturned from our annual visit, We own a 2BR villa week 52. I'm getting sick of being told lies about updates and improvements. Yes, we have a new sofa, chair and drapes in the living room. Other than that nothing has changed. The condition of the pools and grounds at the villas is terrible, the clenaliness of the villas is awful, and no one with Starwood seems to care. I spoke with several owners, all of whom have grown discusted with the unfilled promises.

The shocking part is that these weeks are now being sold for $126,000.00. Yep, that is not a misprint. :confused:

RCI and Interval should visit this place, I dont think it should retain gold crown or any other status. With some of the highest maintenance fees in the world, where is all that money going?
 

LisaRex

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Used to own: WKORV-N; SVV - Bella
Bummer. Did you take pictures? If so, I'd send them to the SVO CEO along with a letter detailing your complaint. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
 

DeniseM

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If you will email them to me, I will host them on my webpage as well!

I hope you will write a TUG review!
 

DavidnRobin

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I must have missed this thread - amazing... lol

This was not our experience last June - except for the furnishings (which I have wrote about and complained to SVO repeatedly), but nothing wrong with pools, grounds, etc. Perhaps Jimmy Dalmida (Dir of Operations) is not doing a good job...

SVO uses first_name.last_name@starwoodvo.com. We need to start a email campaign.

I am going to follow-upon this...
 

Loriannf

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I'll join the email campaign

Does anyone have any idea how many WSJ owners are on TUG? Or a way to get SVO or the HOA to let us have owner info? I'd be happy to help accumulate data and draft emails as soon as Girl Scout Cookie season is over.

By the way, has anyone received or seen their maintenance fee bill for WSJ?

Lori
 

tomandrobin

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Sorry to read that. Last time we went was 3 1/2 years ago. I thought some of the units and buildings were dated, but not run down. We did see some renovated units.

Are the owners still resisting the assement for renovations?
 

Loriannf

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The Owners are in favor of renovations

and the majority of the owners who voted so indicated. The problem is the way SVO handled the voting. Ballots were sent out with very short notice to vote. SVO claimed that not enough owners voted to constitute the majority needed to pursue the renovations. I think the final tally was something like 57% of owners voted (60% needed, I think), and of the 57%, approximately 80% voted in favor of the assessment. So you see, most of the owners would gladly pay increased assessments in order to keep this property in the "premier" category.

Lori
 

Steel5Rings

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Who cares.....you should be spending your time at Maho, Cinnamon and Trunk Bays...not sitting around in a hotel room/villa.
 

DeniseM

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Who cares.....you should be spending your time at Maho, Cinnamon and Trunk Bays...not sitting around in a hotel room/villa.

Obviously, the owners, who have made a large financial investment in their TS at this resort, care...
 
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kcgriffin

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Westin

When you stick to the floor because of all the ??? on it it is hard to concentrate on the beach. That plus the over 1K in "maintenance" that we pay makes you wonder why you are paying. Don't get me wrong, I think St. John is the most incredible place in the world, and we love the island. We are just fed up with the Westin and their promises of "it will get better". Bugs on the beach are one thing, bugs in your expensive villa are another.
 

DavidnRobin

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Who cares.....you should be spending your time at Maho, Cinnamon and Trunk Bays...not sitting around in a hotel room/villa.

Really... you are telling people that they shouldn't care about the condition of their unit or the resort as a non-WSJ owner??? Are you friggin' serious???

Please do not impose what your vacation criteria upon others - ESPECIALLY when you don't pay the purchase price and the MFs...

heck - let's get rid of the Heavenly beds and sleep on the floor...
 

mariawolf

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Just got back from Harborside with friends who own 6 weeks in St John--I posted about what I considered the lack at maintenance last year when we were there--their 3 BR pool villa (one of the renovated ones) had a microwave on the counter and hadn't been fixed since the year before--furniture was all scratched, hot tub didn't work and quite frankly the unit wasn't very clean either. Our friends who came with us this year couldn't stop commenting on how well Harborside was maintained along with all of Atlantis. After the mid week clean they couldn't believe that they cleaned the whole place--they said at St John that they basically came in and all you could tell they did was change sheets/towels.
I have to say that having been to both resorts at least yearly for the last 5 years that I think St John looks very aged and not well maintained and you don't ever see anyone really working on the grounds--our friend went to the gym every morning before 7 and said every day there were groundskeepers out who appeared to have been there for hours.
I think owners need to get on this because you can't live on your reputation forever--and yes the beaches there are gorgeous but they aren't on the resort.
 

DavidnRobin

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Does anyone have any idea how many WSJ owners are on TUG? Or a way to get SVO or the HOA to let us have owner info? I'd be happy to help accumulate data and draft emails as soon as Girl Scout Cookie season is over.

By the way, has anyone received or seen their maintenance fee bill for WSJ?

Lori

Unfortunately - there a very few WSJ owners here on TUG. I tell owners that I run into while at WSJ about TUG, but I do not think any have ever made their way here (this is true of other resorts as well). Generally the owners I meet just want to use their week and go back to their jobs - and not worry about such things.

I have issues with my unit, but as I said I haven't had any issue with the resorts or services from our visit last June. Again, we keep our expecations low - don't need/want housekeeping - and don't really spend much time at the main resort. However, when I hear more people complain - it worries me.

However, it may be wise to start compiling a list, and starting a network of getting more. Some people have their addresses listed on their titles which are listed on the USVI deed site. Unfortunately, WSJ will not give up this info.

If you can get to the right people at SVO and WSJ - you can get their ear. I have had some good success with WSJ contact up until the new Dir of Ops took over (Jimmy Delmida) - which I would personally like to bring to WSJ's and SVO's attention.

I think that even we get 20 owners to start - and write a compelling email that resonates on their level - we could get some action.

When does Girl Scout cookie season end... :hysterical:
 
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DavidnRobin

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There are only 20 owners who have the search term 'john' or 'WSJ' in their resorts owned field. I know 2 non-tuggers who own, and I am sure we may be able to come up with a few more.

So - if we can find 20 people to start - and then try and get more to join - we could try and get thru SVO/WSJ's first line of defense (beyond the standard "thanks for contacting SVO.... blah,blah, blah").

We need to get the first and last names of the key members both at WSJ and SVO who deal with resort conditions. What are their titles and where do they fit in the organization.

Anyone up to it?

building a list of key SVO/WSJ corporate list from searches....

Raymond L. "Rip" Gellein, Jr., chief executive officer of Starwood Vacation Ownership
Graeme Davis, area managing director, South Florida and Caribbean
David N. Matheson, ????, Phone: 407-239-3595, David.Matheson@starwoodvo.com
Jennifer York, Manager, Lead Qualification, New Business Development Phoenix, AZ 602-852-3301 jennifer.york@starwoodhotels.com
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/corporate/profile_overview.html
Bill Thompson, area director of sales and marketing for Starwood Caribbean
 
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mariawolf

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I am posting again just to get this close to top again--I can't believe WSJ owners aren't upset about it!!!!!!! Especially after reading the poster above!
 

DavidnRobin

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I am compiling a list - and trying to find out who is specifically in-charge over at WSJ. Not really easy to find. If anyone knows how to get this info - let me know.

Once I get the key players - I am going to send an email that speaks to their 'Mission' statement and the continuing deterioration of the resort and units - along with a note that emails to JimmyD have gone without response.

If others want to join me fine - but, likely I will receive a computer genetrated response at first anyway - to which I plan to respond even more loudly, and pointedly.
 

kcgriffin

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I just got the message below from Kim Chappell the interim general manager. It gives me some hope! I had sent him my original TUG posting.



I have received the posting and do wish to let you know that someone cares.

I have been here for over 2 months and since arriving have hired a Director of Operations, formerly the Director of Operations from Caneel Bay, have a new Director of Housekeeping and will be replacing the Chief Engineer position for the Villas this week. We are acutely aware of the existing conditions of cleanliness and maintenance of the villas as well as the villa grounds and are focused on improving these conditions immediately. All of these changes and focus of management is to return this property to pristine condition and offer a guest experience that is at least meeting, if not exceeding, your expectations.



We are planning additional FF&E replacement in the villa units in 08. Once approved, each owner will receive the details of the improvements within their villa. We are anticipating this communiqué will occur within the 1st quarter.



Please know that we take your comments very seriously and are working diligently to make you proud of your investment







kim chappell interim general manager

westin resort and villas st john usvi

340.714.6096 (ph)

340.693.8888 (fax)
 

DavidnRobin

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Unfortunately - we have been hearing (no action) about our unit concerns (couch) since 2006 - and all of the responses have had the same tone.

Thanks for the contact - I will be writing them also.
 

mariawolf

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OK--not to sound stupid but what is FF & E?? which is mentioned above.
 

Carolyn

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Westin St John
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FYI, I am a new owner there so I don't now how legitimate it would be for me to complain (just yet) but then again I'm sure our new ownership would go unnoticed. However there are LOTS of rentals on www.redweek.com and www.vacationtimesharerentals.com Possibly an e-mail could be sent to these owners, asking them to join the bandwagon. We stayed at the hotel section this past November. We had a beautiful room with a flat screen TV-no problems there. The biggest thing I noticed were the pads for the pool lounges. They were spotted and dirty. I was given this information from my realtor on St. John that might help:

Gregory Gray
Director of Sales & Marketing Operations
Westin St. John Resort & Villas
PO Box 8339
St. John, US Virgin Islands 00831
Ph: 340-714-6086
Fx: 340-693-8878
greg.gray@starwoodvo.com

Carolyn
 
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DavidnRobin

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FYI, I am a new owner there so I don't now how legitimate it would be for me to complain (just yet) but then again I'm sure our new ownership would go unnoticed. However there are LOTS of rentals on www.redweek.com and www.vacationtimesharerentals.com Possibly an e-mail could be sent to these owners, asking them to join the bandwagon. We stayed at the hotel section this past November. We had a beautiful room with a flat screen TV-no problems there. The biggest thing I noticed were the pads for the pool lounges. They were spotted and dirty.
Carolyn

What a great idea! That's the spirit...

I can see the pads getting trashed - STJ has much tougher conditions than HI. I can see them going to the lounges like at WKORVs - of course it will take a year to ship...

I would like to know what FF&Es are also. From the tone it sounds like an accessment w/o a vote (reading between the lines). I just want the damn couch changed - we and the wk 23 owner even offered to pay. The rest is cool with us, but if the grounds and resort are going downhill -and not kept-up properly - then a proactive strike may help.

I have a Redweek account - so I can access.

I would like to get all the names of key WSJ people in charge and the related SVO management. anyone have these - please post.
 

Kazakie

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Context & another first-hand experience

A bit of history might be helpful for context: The base you're working off of: The Westin St John was built as a Hyatt Regency - which was the lowest class Hyatt. It was not designed, built or remodeled to be a high-end resort. The new villa units are supposed to be Westin built with Westin standards - which is why there's such a price discrepancy between the hillside (old) villas and the (new) bay villas - even when purchasing from Starwood. So without a large special assessment I wouldn't expect Westin standards within the villa.

Maintenance of villas: Even with "Hyatt Regency" expectations the unit was missing some basic maintenance (see Con's below)

Maintenance of grounds: We thought the maintenance of the grounds was rather poor to say the least. With several things having mold and mildew on them (not the worse thing in the world - but hardly a luxurious feel). We were told they have very high employee turnover and it's very hard to get employees to show up to work, much less do a good job.

Here's my pro's vs con's from my review (posted on TUG www.tug2.com/RnR/RatingsAndReviews.aspx?ResortGUID=7B685193-7BF3-40DE-B6B7-F93C4573D0E2)

===== Pro's vs Con's =====

This was built as a Hyatt Regency, and, is much more Regency (or old Sheraton) than Westin.

Pro's
*Checkin was smooth
*Staff very friendly and knowledgeable
*Backup generator/power
*Free internet (wired)
*Many free things to use in the bay (kayak, sails, trike, tennis courts) - although they are very particular with who they let sail.
*Mid-week tidy
*Free parking
*Soundproofing - we heard many other visitors complain about hearing frogs & birds all night and having problems sleeping - we could hear the frogs (but not birds) on the balcony, but had to listen for them to hear them in the room.

Con's
*Units & building not well maintained
->No less than 5 burnt out light bulbs
->Several electrical outlets that did not work
->The front door latch (the internal lock) is broken
->Lanai/balcony railing was broken
->No hot water in the second bathroom shower (there is hot water in master and main-room showers)
->Over 100 dead bees on the laying on the floor of the lanai/balcony
*The second bedroom has a window toward the skylight that can't be covered (no drapes), so the room is always lit up when it's light outside
*No newspaper - A New York Times summary was delivered Mon & Tues, but not the rest of the week.
 
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