Sheraton Vistana, Starpoints and exchanging

Hi Everyone that owns a Sheraton property, I have a question that is maybe more general than just the Vistana. My husband and I are considering purchasing a Sheraton property. We aren't sure which one yet. The reason we are not sure is because we like to exchange and go to lots of different places. We are interested in Sheraton because they seem to have many locations that are different than where we have been and are where we would like to go next. We currently own Marriott in Orlando, the Grand Vista. We use it and exchange it and have been very happy with Marriott BUT there are places we would like to go that we can not get into that Sheraton has resorts at so we are thinking about adding a Sheraton to our ownership. Sorry that was long winded. Here are the questions: If we buy at Vistana in Orlando what is the likelihood of exchanging to Atlantis in the Bahamas or the Westin on St John's? Are the Starpoints worth buying from the developer? (Our Marriott ones were) How many (I get the "point" names mixed up) Star-- do we need to be able to exchange to the hard to get locations that I mentioned? Does Sheraton have an owner preference exchange system like Marriott? (Owners get first chance at exchange before going to the general exchange populace) Thanks for your help on this.

Best course of action, may be. Buy a Vistana Resort resale and trade in for a Newer Vistana Village week and you would have became a member of the Starwood Vacation club. it would be cheaper then the retail price of one. If you are real into this, buy two trade one in and keep the other one (be sure that the one you keep is in the lastest phase of Vistana Resort) and Starwood would proivde you star options to both weeks. You would save a lot of money this way, but trying to buy one from resale has it's own risks. Best wishes!

libby31 wrote:

Hi Everyone that owns a Sheraton property, I have a question that is maybe more general than just the Vistana. My husband and I are considering purchasing a Sheraton property. We aren't sure which one yet. The reason we are not sure is because we like to exchange and go to lots of different places. We are interested in Sheraton because they seem to have many locations that are different than where we have been and are where we would like to go next. We currently own Marriott in Orlando, the Grand Vista. We use it and exchange it and have been very happy with Marriott BUT there are places we would like to go that we can not get into that Sheraton has resorts at so we are thinking about adding a Sheraton to our ownership. Sorry that was long winded. Here are the questions: If we buy at Vistana in Orlando what is the likelihood of exchanging to Atlantis in the Bahamas or the Westin on St John's? Are the Starpoints worth buying from the developer? (Our Marriott ones were) How many (I get the "point" names mixed up) Star-- do we need to be able to exchange to the hard to get locations that I mentioned? Does Sheraton have an owner preference exchange system like Marriott? (Owners get first chance at exchange before going to the general exchange populace) Thanks for your help on this.

I am considering the new Vistana 1br premium carrying 44,000 Staroptions, but we will want to visit Paradise Island at 57,000 - how do we make up the difference? Thank you.

frankc109, what are the risks you mention about buying resales? are these eliminated by going through time share closing company? are only some sections of the vistana resort tied to starwood resorts or can any property be exchanged into a sheraton resort? can any property on the resort by tied to either interval or rci? lots of question, anybody with some or all the answers ??

alfredn1 wrote:

libby31 wrote:

Hi Everyone that owns a Sheraton property, I have a question that is maybe more general than just the Vistana. My husband and I are considering purchasing a Sheraton property. We aren't sure which one yet. The reason we are not sure is because we like to exchange and go to lots of different places. We are interested in Sheraton because they seem to have many locations that are different than where we have been and are where we would like to go next. We currently own Marriott in Orlando, the Grand Vista. We use it and exchange it and have been very happy with Marriott BUT there are places we would like to go that we can not get into that Sheraton has resorts at so we are thinking about adding a Sheraton to our ownership. Sorry that was long winded. Here are the questions: If we buy at Vistana in Orlando what is the likelihood of exchanging to Atlantis in the Bahamas or the Westin on St John's? Are the Starpoints worth buying from the developer? (Our Marriott ones were) How many (I get the "point" names mixed up) Star-- do we need to be able to exchange to the hard to get locations that I mentioned? Does Sheraton have an owner preference exchange system like Marriott? (Owners get first chance at exchange before going to the general exchange populace) Thanks for your help on this.

Hi, My wife and I currently own a Lock-Off and 2 1-BedRoom units at Sheraton's Vistana Resort.These units all have different values that translate into StarOptions (another point system).The 2-BedRoom Lock-off = 81,000,each of the 1-BedRooms = 37,000.For a total of 155,000 StarOptions.Inthe past we have exchanged our Lock-Off(81,000) for a 1-BedRoom Premium at their Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort in Maui. We have also exchanged one of our 1-BedRoom units(37,000)for a 1-BedRoom at Atlantis Harborside (weeks 35-46).We found those exchanges to be well worth it!When we recently inquired about redeeming our 1-BedRoom unit for StarPoints,we were informed that it was worth ONLY 22,000 StarPoints!So,as a result,we will NEVER USE THE UNITS AS EXCHANGE FOR STARPOINTS.Oh, by the way, StarPoints can ONLY be used at their HOTELS.The StarOptions are for resort to resort.We hope that this information is helpful to you.

anands5 wrote:

frankc109, what are the risks you mention about buying resales? are these eliminated by going through time share closing company? are only some sections of the vistana resort tied to starwood resorts or can any property be exchanged into a sheraton resort? can any property on the resort by tied to either interval or rci? lots of question, anybody with some or all the answers ??

anands5 The buying of the timeshare is fairly easy, but you have to give yourself 90 lead time, so the closing companies can do their thing, the real problem is the seller, you never know who you dealing with, on ebay you may have some feedback data, but most sellers are new to ebay when they selling their own week, if they are brokers, the prices are higher. As for the trading power, RCI is bigger, but Sheraton's newer projects are trade through II, part of your purchase directly from Sheraton comes with the Starwood membership for $99 paid first year by Sharaton and that covers II membership. This membership fee would be forever, if you stop there is a $599 reentrance fee. If you buy in Vistana Village, the entire project is II and very few unit weeks would make itself to RCI. Buy Vistana Village is a Starwood member, so the staroptions are transferable. Do buy into Vistana Resort directly from Sheraton, since your purchase price is almost the same as the Village and you are not lockin as a starwood member due to the resort was partially built by Sheraton. Best cause of action is to buy a cheap resale and trade it in at your next visit to the resort and go directly to Vistana Village and trade it in for double the money with a Vistana Village purchase, you can save $3k to $5k for a one bedroom and close to 5k to $8k for a 2 bedroom.

frankc109 wrote:

anands5 wrote:

frankc109, what are the risks you mention about buying resales? are these eliminated by going through time share closing company? are only some sections of the vistana resort tied to starwood resorts or can any property be exchanged into a sheraton resort? can any property on the resort by tied to either interval or rci? lots of question, anybody with some or all the answers ??

anands5 The buying of the timeshare is fairly easy, but you have to give yourself 90 lead time, so the closing companies can do their thing, the real problem is the seller, you never know who you dealing with, on ebay you may have some feedback data, but most sellers are new to ebay when they selling their own week, if they are brokers, the prices are higher. As for the trading power, RCI is bigger, but Sheraton's newer projects are trade through II, part of your purchase directly from Sheraton comes with the Starwood membership for $99 paid first year by Sharaton and that covers II membership. This membership fee would be forever, if you stop there is a $599 reentrance fee. If you buy in Vistana Village, the entire project is II and very few unit weeks would make itself to RCI. Buy Vistana Village is a Starwood member, so the staroptions are transferable. Do buy into Vistana Resort directly from Sheraton, since your purchase price is almost the same as the Village and you are not lockin as a starwood member due to the resort was partially built by Sheraton. Best cause of action is to buy a cheap resale and trade it in at your next visit to the resort and go directly to Vistana Village and trade it in for double the money with a Vistana Village purchase, you can save $3k to $5k for a one bedroom and close to 5k to $8k for a 2 bedroom.

Go to weblo.com and type in vistana resort, you will find other message access to me if I can help.

frank, if i buy a resale in sheraton vistana can i join both rci and ii with the same property ? if my main purpose is to exchange worldwide then this property gives me a good bargaining power with both ii and rci and joining both gives me access to both their properties. am i right?

anands5 wrote:

frankc109 wrote:

anands5 wrote:

frankc109, what are the risks you mention about buying resales? are these eliminated by going through time share closing company? are only some sections of the vistana resort tied to starwood resorts or can any property be exchanged into a sheraton resort? can any property on the resort by tied to either interval or rci? lots of question, anybody with some or all the answers ??

anands5 The buying of the timeshare is fairly easy, but you have to give yourself 90 lead time, so the closing companies can do their thing, the real problem is the seller, you never know who you dealing with, on ebay you may have some feedback data, but most sellers are new to ebay when they selling their own week, if they are brokers, the prices are higher. As for the trading power, RCI is bigger, but Sheraton's newer projects are trade through II, part of your purchase directly from Sheraton comes with the Starwood membership for $99 paid first year by Sharaton and that covers II membership. This membership fee would be forever, if you stop there is a $599 reentrance fee. If you buy in Vistana Village, the entire project is II and very few unit weeks would make itself to RCI. Buy Vistana Village is a Starwood member, so the staroptions are transferable. Do buy into Vistana Resort directly from Sheraton, since your purchase price is almost the same as the Village and you are not lockin as a starwood member due to the resort was partially built by Sheraton. Best cause of action is to buy a cheap resale and trade it in at your next visit to the resort and go directly to Vistana Village and trade it in for double the money with a Vistana Village purchase, you can save $3k to $5k for a one bedroom and close to 5k to $8k for a 2 bedroom.

Go to weblo.com and type in vistana resort, you will find other message access to me if I can help.

frank, if i buy a resale in sheraton vistana can i join both rci and ii with the same property ? if my main purpose is to exchange worldwide then this property gives me a good bargaining power with both ii and rci and joining both gives me access to both their properties. am i right?

anands5 Resale can always space bank with RCI or II or both as long as you don't offer the same use year, RCI is a bank first and seek later with a prepaid fee fo $154. II has a option of look first and bank as needed, I don't have a current II membership but able to visit/view with a friend that have the membership, so we can research any questions that you may have. II have a much smaller pool vs. RCI that have more coverage, you may find some resort in RCI may be dated as a resort so you do have to read the members review and do your own homework. Resale should only purchase if the timeshare in question meets your needs or that it is your worst case location. Which is what we purchased at Vistana Resort. we have two fixed week to search and one prime float week for Vistana Resort with Sheraton or village via RCI should be space bank the float which we have not done. Our reserved week is xmas week in 2007. The other real reason one should buy a resale is the fact that you are planning to buy into the newer resort projects and buy it at at or under 50% of the trade in value. hope this helps.

frank, thanks it helps. i can see the advantage of getting a week in fountains, fountains 2, cascades and lakes as they are exchangeable into sheraton resorts and also upgradeable into the newer resorts as you suggest. the units in courts, etc are older/cheaper but not tradeable into sheraton but exchangeable into rci or ii, is it worth buying thse for sole purpose of exchange ie these still have a good bargaining power in rci?

anands5 wrote:

frank, thanks it helps. i can see the advantage of getting a week in fountains, fountains 2, cascades and lakes as they are exchangeable into sheraton resorts and also upgradeable into the newer resorts as you suggest. the units in courts, etc are older/cheaper but not tradeable into sheraton but exchangeable into rci or ii, is it worth buying thse for sole purpose of exchange ie these still have a good bargaining power in rci?

anands5 Your understanding is correct about Fountains I & II Lakes and Cascades, but don't over pay. If the end of the day you are planning on trading it in for a direct purchase at Sheraton, (resales do not have access to SVO) don't let seller tell you the wrong story, they may be able to access SVO due to their purchase from Sheraton, it is not transferable. If it can, be sure you getting that directly from Sheraton (Starwood) The older units are very cheap, but they still mantain their trade in value at 90% of then purchase price, so if your seller purchased it at $10k Sheraton will credit you $9k for trading it in for Vistana Village week. So plan ahead, also if you are planning on buying two, buy a old one to trade in and buy the newer one to keep, once you purchased one Sheraton at retail sale (traded in your old one) the 2nd one in Vistana Resort will be issued Staroptions. So the story is, Sheraton is happy to hit you with one retail, you shouldn't never buy two retail units from them. But people do, because they can't trust the resale market, and it is true that there are many scams out there, plan ahead, ask a lot of questions. Confirm it if those data is what cause you to buy, don't let sales people pass on a topic unanswered, no matter how rush you are.

Buyer beware... not all Starwood resorts transfer the Star Options on a re-sale within the Starwood System. It goes according to the by-laws of the resort association. I don't know about Vistana but Vistana Villages does not currently have this in their by-laws. I own at 2 Starwood resorts, Vistana Villages and Desert Oasis (both purchased through resale). The Villages came with Star Options the Oasis property did not. I was deeply disapoointed since I had planned on using the Oasis property to boost my trading power. If you buy at the Oasis you only get the float time you purchased at that resort. And you have no way of knowing that unless you are an owner and have access to the by-laws. And you cannot buy Star Option from the resort. I tried and was turned down.

But if you have Star Options it is a great thing. You can trade to any resort within the Starwood system and not pay an exchange fee. I love it! Every resort has there own Star Option value. It goes by the time of year and type of unit you own. Vistana Villages is expanding and has two more phases to complete. The have also added 3 bedroom lock-offs into the mix now.

Also Starwood resorts no longer deal with RCI. I was informed that there contract with them ended 12/06. They went with II hoping their resort owners would have better trading power then they did with RCI. I have never dealt with II so I don't know much about them.

If anyone has can you tell me what kind of trading power have you received with them?

gingers20 wrote:

Buyer beware... not all Starwood resorts transfer the Star Options on a re-sale within the Starwood System. It goes according to the by-laws of the resort association. I don't know about Vistana but Vistana Villages does not currently have this in their by-laws. I own at 2 Starwood resorts, Vistana Villages and Desert Oasis (both purchased through resale). The Villages came with Star Options the Oasis property did not. I was deeply disapoointed since I had planned on using the Oasis property to boost my trading power. If you buy at the Oasis you only get the float time you purchased at that resort. And you have no way of knowing that unless you are an owner and have access to the by-laws. And you cannot buy Star Option from the resort. I tried and was turned down.

But if you have Star Options it is a great thing. You can trade to any resort within the Starwood system and not pay an exchange fee. I love it! Every resort has there own Star Option value. It goes by the time of year and type of unit you own. Vistana Villages is expanding and has two more phases to complete. The have also added 3 bedroom lock-offs into the mix now.

Also Starwood resorts no longer deal with RCI. I was informed that there contract with them ended 12/06. They went with II hoping their resort owners would have better trading power then they did with RCI. I have never dealt with II so I don't know much about them.

If anyone has can you tell me what kind of trading power have you received with them?

gingers20 I am just wondering, when you purchased a float week at Oasis did the seller have Staroption and you just can't transfer? The reason I asked that question, I have two weeks in older Courts section and will be trading up to a week this summer for a Vistana Village, since Courts at Vistana Resort didn't ever had Staroption since it was pre-Sheraton. But once I purchased a Vistana Village, I would become a SVN member and I was informed that my Cascades week would be offered Staroptions, since I now have paid my due (so to speak) retail buyer at Sheration/starwood. Did you purchased Oasis at a good price? so that you can trade up to another Village week? They will offer you 90% of the earlier retail price for your Oasis week. Another words, if you paid a buck for your Oasis, they would trade it against a new resort week and give you 90% of what your prior owner paid. Hope this helps.

gingers20 wrote:

Buyer beware... not all Starwood resorts transfer the Star Options on a re-sale within the Starwood System. It goes according to the by-laws of the resort association. I don't know about Vistana but Vistana Villages does not currently have this in their by-laws. I own at 2 Starwood resorts, Vistana Villages and Desert Oasis (both purchased through resale). The Villages came with Star Options the Oasis property did not. I was deeply disapoointed since I had planned on using the Oasis property to boost my trading power. If you buy at the Oasis you only get the float time you purchased at that resort. And you have no way of knowing that unless you are an owner and have access to the by-laws. And you cannot buy Star Option from the resort. I tried and was turned down.

But if you have Star Options it is a great thing. You can trade to any resort within the Starwood system and not pay an exchange fee. I love it! Every resort has there own Star Option value. It goes by the time of year and type of unit you own. Vistana Villages is expanding and has two more phases to complete. The have also added 3 bedroom lock-offs into the mix now.

Also Starwood resorts no longer deal with RCI. I was informed that there contract with them ended 12/06. They went with II hoping their resort owners would have better trading power then they did with RCI. I have never dealt with II so I don't know much about them.

If anyone has can you tell me what kind of trading power have you received with them?

I was told two different stories on two different days when I called Owner Services regarding RCI & II. One person said they had not renewed their contract with RCI. When I called again the very next day I was told they still dealt with both companies. I'm easily confused as it is already...

We traded our Fountains II unit in '05 for Cascades to be able to access the points system. Our Cascades contract lists II as our exchange company.

I messed up and didn't convert our week for points before the deadline this year. Since we're not able to use this year's week, we can only rent it or bank w/ II.

If we wanted to rejoin RCI (at our additional expense)we could still bank it w/ RCI, or pay $99 to II to bank it, according to the rep...

We've never used II before, but had problems finding available weeks w/ RCI in the past. The lady in owner services (who told me they honor both exchange companies) said that most owners she spoke to still preferred to use RCI...

Of course I've owned Fords and Chevys, and that yielded similar results... ;-]

Of all the Sheraton properties utilizing Star Options, please share your favorite resort experiences, preferences, disasters, etc. I am a new Starwood owner, after trading up two of my fixed weeks at Sheraton Vistana. (Please convince me that I have done the right thing). I was getting the feeling that Sheraton Vistana Resort owners were getting phased out, although I have always enjoyed great exchanges thru RCI. Also, feel free to discuss exp with Sheraton hotels, flights, etc using Starpoints. Thanks,

maryt110 wrote:

Of all the Sheraton properties utilizing Star Options, please share your favorite resort experiences, preferences, disasters, etc. I am a new Starwood owner, after trading up two of my fixed weeks at Sheraton Vistana. (Please convince me that I have done the right thing). I was getting the feeling that Sheraton Vistana Resort owners were getting phased out, although I have always enjoyed great exchanges thru RCI. Also, feel free to discuss exp with Sheraton hotels, flights, etc using Starpoints. Thanks,

Why would redweek remove your messages? There doesn't seem to be anything in them that is wrong or against the rules. Or are the two that were removed different? I did not get to see them.

libby31 wrote:

Why would redweek remove your messages? There doesn't seem to be anything in them that is wrong or against the rules. Or are the two that were removed different? I did not get to see them.

Ads or requests for rentals, sales, or exchanges in the forums are not permitted and the messages that were removed were such that one person wanted to sell their timeshare another wanted to buy it. If someone wants to sell their timeshare they would need to create a posting on RedWeek.com and if you are looking to purchase a timeshare you need to contact the owner through their posting page as a paid member.

Thanks, Marty

marty8084 wrote:

libby31 wrote:

Why would redweek remove your messages? There doesn't seem to be anything in them that is wrong or against the rules. Or are the two that were removed different? I did not get to see them.

Ads or requests for rentals, sales, or exchanges in the forums are not permitted and the messages that were removed were such that one person wanted to sell their timeshare another wanted to buy it. If someone wants to sell their timeshare they would need to create a posting on RedWeek.com and if you are looking to purchase a timeshare you need to contact the owner through their posting page as a paid member.

Thanks, Marty

frankc109 wrote:

marty8084 wrote:

libby31 wrote:

Why would redweek remove your messages? There doesn't seem to be anything in them that is wrong or against the rules. Or are the two that were removed different? I did not get to see them.

Ads or requests for rentals, sales, or exchanges in the forums are not permitted and the messages that were removed were such that one person wanted to sell their timeshare another wanted to buy it. If someone wants to sell their timeshare they would need to create a posting on RedWeek.com and if you are looking to purchase a timeshare you need to contact the owner through their posting page as a paid member.

Thanks, Marty

Thank ou Marty for clearing it up, didn't mean to break the rules. Kind of roll along with what cross my mind at the time. Won't happen again, you have to be paid for services that your forum provides, and it is been great.

If we have an active listing "for rent" that's not generating many inquiries can we "plug it" in the forums? I have received three inquiries to my ad and have dropped the price twice...