Starwood Vacation Ownership

We have owned a Starwood timeshare for 5 years now and we absolutely love it. Our home resort is Sheraton Vistanna Villages. The resorts are outstanding and the internal Starwood exchange programs is excellent. Also the American Express Starwood Card is the best rewards card on the market.

Rick Spencer

I just bought a timeshare from Orlando Sheraton Vistana. I own 67,100 points or 22000 starpoints. Is it hard to exchange with other Starwood resorts like Atlantis or Hawaii?

donnae74 wrote:

I just bought a timeshare from Orlando Sheraton Vistana. I own 67,100 points or 22000 starpoints. Is it hard to exchange with other Starwood resorts like Atlantis or Hawaii?

I don't claim to know a thing about Starwood, but in any and all other systems with which I'm personally familiar, the odds of using Orlando to exchange into the Bahamas or Hawaii are just about the same as the odds for winning the lottery. I'd love to be dead wrong on this observation, but generally speaking "iron pipe" can rarely be realistically expected to get "gold bars" in an "exchange".

Yes I have a Starwood Property, I was just in Scottsdale but I own in Rancho Mirage, Ca. I was offered Cancun and the good thing is it has the lowest maintainence fee so to buy there would be wise if you want more. I love that company, it's first class all the way, and I have used points in hotels without one glitch. I would have bought more If I had the $$ but I think I have enough. I own other timeshares and they are the best in my opinion because it is so flexible. If you have a Starwood AE you can really rack up the points too.

ken1193 wrote:

donnae74 wrote:

I just bought a timeshare from Orlando Sheraton Vistana. I own 67,100 points or 22000 starpoints. Is it hard to exchange with other Starwood resorts like Atlantis or Hawaii?

I don't claim to know a thing about Starwood, but in any and all other systems with which I'm personally familiar, the odds of using Orlando to exchange into the Bahamas or Hawaii are just about the same as the odds for winning the lottery. I'd love to be dead wrong on this observation, but generally speaking "iron pipe" can rarely be realistically expected to get "gold bars" in an "exchange".

Being the typical poster boy for bad luck in the timeshare world, I was actually able to reserve a 2 br week at Atlantis in exchange for our "lead pipe" Cascades week last year. Since Vistana drained my vacation resources for their extravagant refurb project, I rented it out rather quickly via RW to ease some of the pain.

Not true in Starwood properties. All Starwood owners, regardless where they own, have the same priority when reserving other Starwood properties since you actually do not "exchange". As Starwood owner, you get "options" that you can use to reserve other Starwood properties up to 8 months in advance BUT up to 1 year when reserving your home resort. Hence, the difficulty in reserving other Starwood resorts is determined solely by the availability of the resort itself driven by the number of owners utilizing their units. Based on my experience as long time owner of several weeks in Orlando, it is not difficult to utilize Bahamas or Hawaii as long as you have some flexibility in your schedule.

you can exchange for lower season weks. october would be fine. if you need high season and holidays youll have to own. that is also for the summer weeks.

no there's not. To get all of the benefits you must buy from Starwood, NOT on the secondary market.

This is the biggest ripoff in the world!!! They do nothing but LIE, LIE, LIE!!! I tried to use my staroptions for 2012 today. NOTHING available when or where I want to go. Also, in the sales presentation they told us the maintenance fee was much less than it actually is, They also told us there was no fee to exchange through interval international. And oh yeah, those "Unlimited 199.00 getaways, they are non-existent, period! Anyone out there been successful in suing this company for fraud??

There is no fraud in Starwood. Listen to the presentation, read your documents which were clearly explained at the time of purchase and all is clear. Value is determined by how you travel and at what level of luxury you're used to. If you imagine it'll do things you 'd like it to do, you are a fool.

It sounds like you work for Starwood, as you were NOT at our presentation you have no basis to conclude your experience was the same as ours. We will attempt to sue this company and we can PROVE fraud in our case.

I too own Starwood and I agree it is top notch. It is so easy to use and it is always first class service and that AE Starwood card is amazing you really rack up pts. and they can get you a hotel room @ last minute notice if they have the availabily. LOVE Starwood. I wish all my timeshares were with them.

Are you stating that no mention was made of a maintenance fee and that you did NOT go to a verification Officer where all details are confirmed? Nonsense, and no, I do not work for Startwood but I own a lot of points and every presentation follows the same pattern. The program is explained, the maintenance fees are discussed, first visit incentives are offered and then a Verification officer confirms everything and gives you copies in black and white of everything. You'll waste any money you want to throw at a law suit as Starwood is as honest and as straight as you can get. Yoiu must have slept through the presentation and confirmation . . . .

carol444 wrote:

alex382 wrote:

larryb176 wrote:

I am also considering buying at Westin...

As resale purchasers, we do not get the Gold SPG card and we cannot exchange our unit for SPG points. We don't really care about this, since exchanging for SPG points is rarely a good deal (if ever).

SPG points can be a great deal. I am a Starwood owner. Last year I exchanged my Star Options for Star Points. I stayed at the Westin Paris for three nights and the Westin Berlin for five nights with my points. I figured if I was a normal paying customer, it would have cost me about $2000. My yearly maintenance fee + $99 exchange fee was much less than this.

As an owner you normally get an upgrade. I was upgraded to a junior suite in Paris (in July!). If you stay four nights, the fifth night is free (no points). Both hotels were in great locations.

Show me how you get the same respect for starpoints in Eu hotels as I used to get in US hotels, I had bad luck in London, even though I got 4 nights across the street from the Ritz Carlton, on Picadilly Circus for my week a few years ago, but my bed was two put together and they did not give me the paper, in essence they did not do the Gold SPG things at all. And they held a ton of cash on authorization when US hotels only hold 50$ and cancel it as soon as it is paid for, not like in the UK, where they hold it for days after leaving the hotel. :[

When you are on vacay and they hold your cash, that is no joke.

Teach me your strategies in the Eu hotels so I can get the most bang for my Starpoints/week.

No it is easy reserve 6 months ahead, I did and had 67K which gives you a studio, but air fare is hard to save up.

the system is not for the impatient, not saying you are, but you need to tweak those vacations across several weeks and call back until you get the ones you want and the places you like. It is a step by step process. Just reserve early and then tweak that week.

I have to admit, RCI IMHO was a better sister company than II and I wish we could go back.

Yes, you walk away thinking one thing and get another, it happened to me in a few details about my timeshares but truly, I don't think it is a rip off. It depends on what your needs are.

I wanted a place where I could go after saving all year for it and it was leaving me to focus on only the transportation and food of the trip. And that is what it has enabled me to do. For that I have to work within the system.

And that involves following their "rules" and I admit I don't like II and I don't like how I can change my week into starpoints every year but then I did not find out until late.

That is the trouble, there is so much to take in, it is truly unfair to say they lie when we can't grapple ALL of the details at once, so when you find out the few things that are different you can't blame them but oneself for not being more on top of things.

All in all I have had an excellent time with Starwood and have been late from time to time and they have worked with me. So I can't "damn" them here and say they suck.

My vacations have been super luxury and excellent quality, when I visit hotels, I demand the best and show them their shortcomings to keep the bar up there so our company sells the best in the business and I get rewards for that, in starpoints. I find them very generous. But in the EU I find they don't buy into the Starpoints system, and I have had to tell the company that that is a big part of the system, and they need to get on board with it or "false advertising" so if you want to improve the system then tell them point for point don't trash the place in public cause don't forget you "own" that and if you want to sell it one day, you won't be able to.

Support your investment, don't trash it, tell them what to improve so we all come out the winners)

Follow the rules, book 10 months out and you´ll have a good shot at Atlantis and Hawaii. St. John is the hardest because Owners there go back each year!

oh, and there are no iron or lead pipes in Starwood.

No, there really is no way to buy a resale, or rather, it wouldn't be worth it financially. We inquired about this when we purchased our ownership and were told that Starwood would require the new purchaser to pay them $35,000 to become part of the Starwood group- that would be in addition to the amount that the purchaser pays the seller. Ultimately, it only makes sense to buy through Starwood because you can buy into the new Cancun development for roughly $35K and you not only have it for life, but you can will it to your kids, or whoever.