WSJ Coral Vista StarOption Values

[Eric B]

Not sure if anyone else noticed or if it was intentional, but the StarOption values for 2 BR and studio units in the Gold Plus and Platinum seasons have been adjusted so that they now actually add up to the proper amount for the 3 BR Lockoff they make up. The StarOption chart doesn't reflect this, instead showing, for instance, values of 95,700 and 44,000 respectively in the Gold Plus season, which would add up to 139,700 instead of the 125,000 cost in the chart. I just booked a 2 BR CV in week 49 for 85,711 instead of 95,700 in the chart; a random sampling showed that they've been adjusted down proportionally so they add up correctly. Not sure when they did this as I don't look in those seasons all that often; I just wanted to add a week to an RCC week 50 and VGV week 51 I had already planned.

From a random sampling:
For the 2 BR Villa Platinum, the values are 13,508 Monday-Wednesday, 20,245 Thursday/Sunday, and 26,999 for Friday-Saturday, totaling 135,012.
For the 2 BR Villa Gold Plus, the values are 8,571 Monday-Wednesday, 12,857 Thursday/Sunday, and 17,142 for Friday-Saturday, totaling 85,711.

For studios it is:
Platinum 6,192 Monday-Wednesday, 9,280 Thursday/Sunday, and 12,376 Friday-Saturday, totaling 61,888.
Gold Plus 3,929 Monday-Wednesday, 5,893 Thursday/Sunday, and 7,858 Friday-Saturday, totaling 39,289.

 

[Eric B]

The same disparity occurred in Sunset Bay for Platinum and Gold Plus 2 BR and studios not adding up to a 3 BR Lockoff for Platinum and Gold Plus. It doesn't look like the costs for those have been adjusted. Hopefully they do that there as well; it seems quite odd to maintain the difference.

 

[bizaro86]

The same disparity occurred in Sunset Bay for Platinum and Gold Plus 2 BR and studios not adding up to a 3 BR Lockoff for Platinum and Gold Plus. It doesn't look like the costs for those have been adjusted. Hopefully they do that there as well; it seems quite odd to maintain the difference.

It's one thing to keep the skim (and plenty of MVC precedent for that) and another to remove it. But I agree it seems strange to keep for one and remove for another phase of the same resort.

 

[Eric B]

Response I got to an inquiry about this reservation:

Thank you for contacting Marriott Vacation Club regarding your recent StarOptions reservation at The Westin St. John Resort Villas. We appreciate your patience as we investigate the matter.

After reviewing your reservation for the 2-Bedroom Villa from December 6th through December 13th, 2025, we have confirmed that the reservation is valid. However, there appears to be a technical issue with the StarOptions cost. The correct cost for this reservation should be 95,700 StarOptions, as indicated in the StarOption value chart for weeks 34-50.

Our Business Analysts are currently working to resolve this technical issue. While the reservation is intact and you do not need to worry about it being canceled, the correct amount of StarOptions will eventually be applied to your account. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Seems like they'll be restoring the skim for Coral Vista. I had a back up reservation in a 1 BR VGV, which is all I really needed anyway - just figured I'd try out the 2 BR since it was only 4,711 more StarOptions. If they do ultimately apply the correction to 95,700 StarOptions, I'll just cancel the reservation - you would think they would honor the current reservation cost since their "error" covers 32 weeks of the year for two of the unit types in this phase. I would hate to be the folks there at Marriott that have to notify everyone with a reservation in a 2 BR or studio villa between week 19 and week 50 that their StarOptions cost for those reservations was going up about 10% - that will be a lot of pissed off customers. IMHO, the more appropriate customer focused response would be to honor the reservations made at that rate and correct it on a going forward basis (or not since the lower rates more accurately represent the breakdown of the 3 BR LOs).

 

[Eric B]

Further follow up - I complained by email to John Geller, amongst others re: penalizing me for asking about the change and alerting them to the error. A customer advocacy manager reached out to me to smooth things over and added an extra 10,000 StarOptions to my account to cover the adjustment when it comes. I had found his email by a Google search for Marriot Vacation customer advocate - good to know it works.

I would suggest that anyone that had a reservation in those room types during Gold Plus or Platinum reach out if the charges for the reservation are changed. IMHO they should honor the original charged amount without needing to be asked but if they don't they are likely to honor it anyway by restoring the StarOptions as extra ones in your account in order to write it off properly as an error.

 

[klpenny]

Interesting. I have a reservation coming up there (see below). The chart now says 148,100 if I am reading this right.

Check-In: 05/10/2025
Check-Out: 05/17/2025
Length of Stay: 7 Night(s)
Villa Type: 2 Bedroom Villa, Coral Vista
StarOptions: 135,012

 

[Eric B]

The chart actually said 148,100 all along for a 2 BR villa in week 19; the studio that came from the 3 BR Lockoff on the other side is listed in the chart at 67,100 for that week. Added up the two components total 215,200 but the 3 BR Lockoff is only 196,900 in week 19, meaning there was a disparity of 18,300 between the two different methods of booking the same real estate. Currently the studio side is valued in the system at 61,888 in that season, which makes the numbers add up properly to 196,900. The issue is that during some update the reservation system somehow got changed to omit the phantom 18,300 StarOptions, typically referred to as a "skim" by those subject to this sort of thing on the Marriott side.

I had made a similar reservation on the late end of the Gold season for just 85,711 StarOptions instead of the listed 95,700 and asked about it so I could be sure it was a real reservation before wasting my time making flight arrangements out there and finding out that there was no place to stay. They confirmed that the reservation was valid and said they'd be correcting the charges for me at some point. It's not really obvious how they will do that for everyone that is in the same sort of situation - this covers 32 weeks of the year for all of the 3 BR LOs in Coral Vista and there's not a lot of vacancies in that period. I know because I did a bit of sampling to figure out what the revised StarOptions would be, hoping it was really a correction to what they should have been all along. I'm not sure how many units of that type there are, but it seems like a fairly large mistake that will impact a lot of people; it would ultimately be an extra 12,988 StarOptions for your week. They don't seem to have come up with a coherent way of addressing the problem yet - for me it's far enough in advance that I could have easily worked around it with remaining StarOptions in my account but there are no doubt some folks without as much flexibility.

The good news is that it seems to be a case where the reservations are valid rather than just being shadow inventory - I've heard of that happening in some other systems. If they come to the conclusion that it's not worth generating upset customers to recapture the extra StarOptions they might decide not to adjust existing reservation costs, which is what I would do if I were making the decisions about this. I figured the best approach for me would be to ask about it through the Customer Advocacy program and it worked out well. Just wanted to share that with my fellow tuggers so they can decide what to do in advance of hearing about a potential readjustment in where they have spent their StarOptions.

 

[klpenny]

Interesting. Thanks for the clarification. I think they would be legally bound to honor my reservation at the Staroptions they gave it to me for since they confirmed the reservation at that amount of Staroptions. I made this reservation quite some time ago and have not heard anything from them. The reservation is about a month away. If they charge me the additional Star Options at this late point,, it is a little late and I would fight it.