Starwood point and star options

We are thinking of purchasing at the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando, a Starwood Property. The property is worth 81,000 star options points and around 40,000 starpoints. If we buy resale, will we never be able to use the star points because we did not purchase from the developer. We would like to have the option to use the points for hotels if possible. I have been reading multiple forums but cannot get a 100% for sure answer on this question. Thank you for your help!

100% You can not convert your timeshare to Starpoints if you buy resale.

Even if you buy retail, Your MF's would be $1001. You would be required to pay a $135 SVN fee annually plus another $49fee to convert, so $1185 for 42,000 starpoints. You would be looking at a minimum purchase price of $25,000 to buy from Starwood.

You unit would be worth under $1500 if you bought in a mandatory phase like Bella or Key West and it would be worth under $500 if you bought any of the other phases.

Thank you Tracey. It is confusing because people are listing the starpoints value on the ads. So even if you purchase in a mandatory phase like Bella, you do not get the starpoints, only staroptions. Do you have to pay the SVN fee since it is a mandatory phase? If you purchase multiple resale timeshares, I have also heard that you can trade them in for a retail purchase. Do you know how many you would need to do this? Can they be any Sheraton properties? Thank you for all your help! We are new to this and are trying to figure it all out.

Even if they list Starpoints in their ad they are incorrect no starpoints with resale. All Starwood properties that have Staroptions (all retail and mandatory resale) have to pay the SVN fee. Buying just to trade for starpoints doesn't make a lot of sense. A person can buy 20,000 starpoints directly from starwood each year for $700. If you are married you can each purchase 20,000 and then transfer to the other. So for $1400 you get the same 40,000 starpoints- no ongoing obligation just buy if you need to and no upfront fee. So you would be looking at spending $20,000 out of pocket to save $300 a year?

Trading in works but generally you still need to spend $10,000-$30000 or more out of pocket to Starwood. And there is always a little risk. You can only trade in one timeshare towards another. They really don't want your timeshare they want your money but are willing to give you somewhat of a break for turning in one they think they can sell fairly easily. You have to already own a week before you can make a deal and it is possible that they won't want the week you have.

Tracey, Thank you so much for all your input today. It seems like Starwood doesn't really have a lot of properties to choose from and may not be right for us. We are researching Hilton now. You have been so helpful. We are trying to become educated before making this commitment!

Hilton is much friendlier toward resale owners and allows resale owners to convert to hotel points (which still is not a great use of your ts week). The only limitation is your points won't count toward elite status and the perks that go along with it.

Hilton affiliates are sometimes hard to book in platinum season so the overall availability of hilton ts resorts is concentrated in Orlando, Vegas, and Hawaii.

This article is very old. There have been many changes since 2014. I am interested in knowing the exact cash value of a star option and a star point. My villa is worth 148,000 per week so what is the cash value of that week? For instance. Marriott Bonvoy points have replaced star points at this point. But the star options have remained. Curious about their value. For purposes of renting out or just asking guests to share in the cost. Thank you to anyone who can clarify.

Patricia. We have had our Westin Kaanapali villas for about 16 years (before it was Marriot). It was actually pretty darn good until Marriot took over. The level of service went down and the star points you receive for your timeshare "options" week or what ever you are trading in have stayed the same, but the number of points you need to book a room have not stayed the same. we could pretty much get a week for a week. for example: westin Paris Vendome was 35,000 a night and is now about 75,000 a night, the westin excelsior in Florence was also 35,000 a night is now 104,000. For 1 week of our timeshare in Maui we would now get 2 nights in a hotel. Basically, it now sucks.

There really is no specific cash value to a StarOption (SO). As for the cash value of a week, it depends on how you look at it. One way is to see how much your Maintenance Fees (MFs) are. But some weeks worth 148,000 SOs have higher or lower MFs than weeks at other resorts, even with the same amount of SOs. Another way to look at it is how much you can rent the week for. But just as with MFs, some weeks worth 148,000 SOs rent for more than others with the same amount of SOs, even at the same resort.