dujvari

Only you can decide if this is right for you. That being said, if you're leaning toward canceling, you should cancel. Go with your gut. You should be happy with a purchase like this, not beating yourself up over it.

Buying timeshare will not save you money. Nor will it enhance your ability to travel the world. You should buy primarily with the intention to return regulary to your home property.

I'm a 5 Star Elite owner and am very happy, but I never second guessed. If I did, I would have canceled. I'm a big believer in going with my gut. This type of thing has a lot of emotion involved in it. If there's something in your gut saying "no", it's probably your common sense trying to be heard.

Get out now. Keep your options open. Think about it and discuss it without the pressure. I'm sure they will offer you an identical deal a month from now if you eventually decide you want in.

gregorygrady

Wrong!!!!

"We can offer you such a great deal as this only if you purchase your timeshare today".

dujvari

Well... technically they did purchase that day. ;-)

What you say would be true of the general timeshare market, but not of the major hotel chain based properties.

The "deal" at hotel chain properties usually consists of hotel points or a free vacation week. The price of the unit doesn't change just because you didn't buy that day.

IMHO, the most they'll lose by canceling now is their stress.

If they decide to buy in the future, they should call back the same salesperson and say "If we can get the same deal, you've got a sale that will stick." They'll probably get everything they were offered at first. Nobody wants to penalize a new owner because they second guessed.

DeniseM

We own at 2 Starwood resorts - bought one from the developer for big bucks and one for $2K on ebay. If you are willing to forgo the ability to convert your week to Starpoints, you can save thousands by buying resale at a mandatory resort.

Most people do not buy Starwood in order to exchange with II. The quality of your exchanges will be much more consistent, if you exchange within the SVN - Starwood Vacation Network. The nice thing about using the SVN is that you can reserve the week you want at your home resort 12 mos. out, and then at 8 mos. out, you can try for an exchange to another resort if you want to. If you can't get the exchange you want, you still have your Resv. at your home resort for the week you want. In other words, you don't have to deposit your home resort week (and lose it) to try and get an exchange, which you may or may not get.

Also - you don't have to use II. There are some good independent exchange companies that will allow you to do a "request first" exchange. That way, you don't lose your week, if you don't get the exchange you want. Direct exchanges between owners are also possible. In 2007 we are exchanging our 1 week/2 bdm. on Maui for 2 weeks/2 bdm. on the Big Island, with another owner.

Make sure you buy enough StarOptions to make the exchanges you want - every resort/season/unit size is different. For lots more info. on Starwood, see the Advice page, and the Hotel Based Timeshare board on www.tug2.net.

ghbbi

Thanks for the advice. We are still struggling about whether to cancel.
As nice as it is, I don't want to return to the Kierland every year at this point. So, I wish there were a way to know whether prime times will be available within the SVN network if I plan eight months out. I'm afraid that I'll try to make reservations and won't get what I want. By the time I find out how difficult it is to stay within SVN at high season times, it will be too late. Any other thoughts out there?? Thanks!

Seattlenerd

There is no way to know for sure. If that's critical for you to have this kind of guarantee of availability, then cancel. Otherwise, you'll be worrying about your purchase, not enjoying it. And that's not what a vacation is all about.

My wife and I didn't want to return to Maui every year, which is why we liked the option to convert to StarPoints (at KOV, it's a very high StarPoint value). In other years, we have used the other SVN properties with StarOptions. This year, we converted to StarPoints and are going to Paris this month for a week. But that's our vacation pattern, not yours.

Da5id

FWIW, we have a 1BR Premium at Kierland. I traded into Maui for April easily (did it at the 3 month advanced notice point). We had to cancel that so I traded into Harborside instead with short notice, again with no problems. I couldn't get into St. John at the time. That one seems harder than the others to get into. I only gave it one shot though.

ghbbi

ghbbi

When you did trade within SVN, did you get what you wanted easily? Was it in high demand season? Like you, I wouldn't mind converting to hotel points sometimes, but I do want to travel within the SVN often as well. Thanks for your help!

emuyshondt

I have been going to Hawaii the past several summers, right around the July 4th holiday, and I meet many owners from other SVN properties, especially from Mission Hills. This is probably the busiest time there so it seems if you plan early enough it is not that hard to exchange within the SVN network. All that matters is your number of StarOptions, not the location you bought in. This January, on a lark, I tried to reserve on a Wednesday for the following Sunday, knowing there was the Mercedes Golf championship going on. I had no problem getting a room on short notice and got upgraded from the studio to a 1 bedroom.

Starpoints for hotel stays are also nice but I wouldn't buy the property if that was going to be the main way of using it. The hotel stay is basically costing you your maintenance fee so the value depends a lot in the kind of hotel you stay in. It is much more valuable if you go to higher end properties, especially in Europe. However those are not the friendliest places for kids.

The program has worked for me so far, but I do travel every year somewhere and have actually used the SVO properties. I also bought where I was most likely to go even if other locations were cheaper. I like the treatment I've gotten so far and my vacations are a lot nicer than staying in a couple of hotel rooms. I also like that I know what I am getting at the various locations as opposed to looking at a small picture of unknown condos. When I look around in Maui, for example, I am always happy I'm staying at KOR instead of some of the local condo facilities. Of course I'm also paying more if I take into account the interest I'm not making on the price of the unit (the maintenance fee is less than staying say at the Whaler's in Ka'anapali).

This is a luxury purchase, as others have said. If it will put a crimp on your finances or otherwise make you uncomfortable, you're better off without it. You can always rent a room at one of the the properties if you will only visit occasionally. Look in SPG.com what the going rates are. You can also look in RedWeek.com to see what you can rent directly from other owners.

Seattlenerd

We never have had problems getting full or partial weeks within SVN. But our definition of "high demand season" may vary. We've traded for Orlando in February, Palm Springs in December and Avon in July (we hike instead of ski). All were SVN properties.

We also have never had a problem using our StarPoints for stays at hotels, in Paris, Berlin, Seville, Vienna and Salzburg.

wheresTWA

ghbbi-

My wife & I just went through the same agonizing that you are experiencing during our 7 day grace period after purchasing through Kierland. We, too, want to visit a variety of places - not just Kierland & not just SVO properties. We ultimately decided to go through with the developer (yes, developer!) purchase figuring that we can easily rent our 2BR Kierland unit out for years we want to do something else. Or, rent as a 1BR & use the other 1BR for an SVO trip or Starpoints.

Based on what I've read, it really sounds like II is something I don't personally want to mess with. There is an agency called sfx (http://www.sfx-resorts.com/) that sounds like a better option if you want to do an exchange. My thinking, though, is that Kierland would be quite easy to rent when you don't want to use your time there. Based on the rental prices on redweek, the rental rates are pretty attractive right now.

Worst case, my thinking is that I will be able to get into the other SVO properties with 8 month advance reservations (possibly requiring a little flexibility) when I don't want to go to Kierland. Otherwise, we'll rent our unit out if the rental rates stay high. I am also pretty confident that Starwood will continue to add quality properties to their portfolio allowing us to travel to great accomodations in desirable destinations. Using Kierland as an example, they are obviously doing things right.

Good luck with your decision.

chuckroby

We just bought in KOR (not KORN) in March during a promo tour at Mission Hills. We bought 2 EOY 1BR OV. The years are staggered so we have every year. The first one was $22,900 and the second one was $11,000. Got 100k SPG points, plus signed up for the AMEX card, 10k pts for first use and are paying the units on the AMEX card. 2 BR EOY were selling for $33,900, same as we paid but we wanted every year and don't need the huge space. If we want to go with family, we figured we can use pts and stay at the Westin or Shearaton. The units at KORN are smaller. Only a few units still for sale at KOR when we bought according to sales person (I know.....). Conde Nast Traveller said KOR was sold out.

Duke5150

Hey Chuck:

I think that you got a 1BR "Premium" 900 sq ft EOY and a 1BR 500 sq ft smaller unit EOY. Sounds like they just split the 2BR lockoff into 2 units and gave them to you EOY since the total of what you paid is equal to the 2BR LO price.

If this is so, then I hope you were told this. Your post seems to indicate that you think you got the same 1BR unit for each EOY.

This is still a "good deal" as they sell the EOY for much more each and I have not heard of Starwood splitting the LO.

Anyone ever hear of this?

Please advise.

Duke

dujvari

[QUOTE=ghbbi]Thanks for the advice. We are still struggling about whether to cancel.
As nice as it is, I don't want to return to the Kierland every year at this point. So, I wish there were a way to know whether prime times will be available within the SVN network if I plan eight months out. I'm afraid that I'll try to make reservations and won't get what I want. By the time I find out how difficult it is to stay within SVN at high season times, it will be too late. Any other thoughts out there?? Thanks![/QUOTE)

Prime times will probably NOT be available 8 months out. Out of curiosity, I just called SVN regarding availability of The Westin KORV on Maui for President's week 2007. It's gone. Friday to Friday is gone. Saturday to Saturday is gone. Sunday to Sunday is gone.

For what it's worth, there is plenty of availability the week before and the week after. If you want to go someplace during a high demand week, you need to own there. Don't listen to anyone telling you differently.

If you don't intend on regularly visiting The Westin Kierland Resort during high demand weeks, I suggest you cancel and save yourself some stress.

Or, you can do as others suggest and purchase the same type of week on the resale market. Plenty of people like yourself have purchased, then realized it is a lot more difficult to use than the salespeople suggest. So... they sell at a loss.

In either case, cancel your contract. Like I said before, you should be happy about this purchase. If you're uneasy about it, you need to cancel while you still can.