Starwood Vacation Ownership
 

I recently attended a presentation at the Westin Kierland in Arizona (10,000 points).

Program seemed somewhat interesting.

Has anyone out there purchased? How did you do your analysis?

Thanks

we bought preconstruction Westin Maui. Cost was well worth it for comfortable family vacations both in Maui and to trade for other localities. The condos are beautiful and comfortable, we had 6 there including the grandkids who loved it. Much nicer than being in hotel rooms. Probably could rent a condo for about the same prices now, but who knows how costs will increase in the future. Trust in Starwood name, also like the new Marriott time shares

Questions
 

Is Starwood Vacation Ownership part of either RCI or II exchnage programs allowing you to use your timeshare to exchange to places other than starwood properties? Are your ownership time limited, i.e. 40 years ? or is it a Deed piece of property... ?

Thanks

-Vincent

This is what I learned from a presentation in St. John:
1. SVO uses II (Interval International) for timeshare exchange
2. It is deeded, at least for timeshares at the Westin St. John
3. You get lifetime Gold/Plat/Plat+ depending on which week you buy (low season=gold, shoulder=plat, high=plat+)
4. The Westin St. John is a "red" or highest ranked property in II, no matter which week you own there.

Just out curiosity
 

About how much does "high" season run?

AFAIK the highest SPG level one can get with SVO ownership is Gold. At least that's what I was told when I attended a presentation last October. More here.

I've seen the term "deeded" used often when referring to timeshares. What exactly does it mean? As opposed to what? "Undeeded"?

They didn't tell me when I was there (they only showed the price for the season you're there), but I saw one that was being sold through a realtor asking for 19,995 for a studio suite in January.

With regards to the comp SPG level, that is what I was told at the Westin St. John. I suppose if one was really interested, they can contact SVO and find out for sure :) I just wanted the buffet breakfast and a free massage at the spa (didn't take the 4k points).

Also, by buying a timeshare at the time of the presentation, they offered a bonus of 50,000k points as well, for making a quick decision :)

Deeded means that you can put in your will, sell it, whatever you want.

We also bought at the Westin Ka'anapali. So far, SVO is great. We received a good number of Starpoints as incentive for purchasing (130K), and look forward to vacationing every year in a 2-bedroom villa. I've heard a lot of great things about other SVO properties as well, Kierland included. As an owner, you also get referral Starpoints for others who purchase.

Our analysis was simple. We wanted spacious accommodations with a kitchen for annual vacations in an area that we love. We own in Maui, but we could someday trade into Harborside at Atlantis, St. John, and other locations. Starwood is also going to build on Kauai and the Big Island some day. Resales on timeshares can be low..as low as 25% of your original purchase price, but Starwood so far is holding its value and we can recover close to what we paid last year if we sold today.

Ok
 

Assuming the worst (not that I am) what does it break out to a per night cost?

The analysis we used had us breaking even at 9 years of vacations in a 1400 sq. foot villa with kitchen. Equivalent five-star accommodations on Maui at rack rate are $1400/night + 11% tax. Ours ended up at about $650-700 night for the first 9 years, and then less after that.

However, in making our decision, we decided that if we needed to sell in five years at 50% of our cost (considered low for a Starwood), we would have spent the same amount of money and had five fantastic vacations. So it turns out to be great for us. If we have to sell in five years, we come out okay, and if we hold onto it for longer, we do even better.

You can purchase at other less expensive SVO properties and trade into other more expensive properties, you just don't get first priority or a guaranteed spot there.

Interesting
 

Thank you....one more question...can you transfer to other more or less expensive properties without additional cost? Is it just that you might not get the transfer if you are "upgrading?"

I'm a newbie to SVOs, so pardon this naive question: if resales are at 25% of original price, then how come prices of new SVOs don't drop (why would anyone buy new SVOs at such a premium when they can get them used for a much better price... is there not enough supply of used SVOs)?

Thanks for any insight.

Owners can use StarOptions to trade into more or less expensive properties with no additional cost. StarOptions are assigned to each week you own based on size of the unit and season. You can use these StarOptions to trade into other properties. Sometimes you can get two weeks for your one week, or trade a studio or one-bedroom week for a two-bedroom week. Check out www.starwoodvo.com for the list of current resorts and StarOptions charts.

If you buy from the developer, you are part of the Starwood Vacation Network (SVN) and you get StarOptions. If you buy resale at a mandatory SVN resort (Westin Ka'anapali, Westin Kierland, Westin St. John, Harborside at Atlantis, Vistana Villages), you also get StarOptions. If you buy resale at a voluntary SVN resort, you don't get StarOptions and therefore are not allowed to trade internally for another resort.

If you buy from the developer, you are allowed to trade your week for StarPoints every other use year. StarPoints vary per unit and season. Ours trades for 80K if we want to.

Good questions. I'm a newbie to flyertalk...

I mentioned that timeshare resales can be as low as 25% of the original developer price, but this is not generally the case with Starwood and other high-end hotel-based timeshare systems (Marriott, Hyatt, for example).

Prices of the new Starwoods continue to rise because the price is driven by the developer and Starwood is offering a great product. People are buying because the properties are wonderful and the developer often kicks in incentives to buy, like 100K Starpoints, SPG Gold card for life, etc. There are currently not a lot of resales at SVN mandatory resorts, and they are often hard to find. We looked for about 6 weeks for a resale and then bought from the developer. A week later, we saw a resale for less, but we are still glad we bought from the developer. So you can get resales at a better price if you can find them, but it might be 20% less, not 75% less. And as Starwood builds more resorts, the prices will probably go up (Kauai will start higher than Maui, for example).