Westin Maui resort Association cost

Did anyone get notified that the law suit was resolved for the Westin Maui location? I just had a conversation with the management company and they informed me that it was resolved and Westin won the case. The county will be returning the $$$$ which will go back into the Association (no refunds for owners). Although they don't know the exact $$$$ at this time, they expect our member cost will drop back down this next year. Any comments?

Debbie

I heard the same thing, but I don't know how much our association dues will be reduced. I also heard there were a lot of foreclosures because people aren't paying their dues. Also, it costs so much money in lawyer fees to process these foreclosures.

I already mentioned to Westin that I can almost rent a unit on Redweek for the same cost as my association dues and then I wouldn't have to buy the timeshare and be stuck with the association dues during recession times like we're in.

I hope they reduce our dues significantly, although I doubt they will. They're more interested in profits than the well being of us timeshare owners.

Disgruntled Owner

I said the same thing to the representative at the resort when they wanted to give me a tour to sell me ANOTHER one of these things....the resort is great, but the annual costs need to be controlled or capped so that we can see some benefit from the huge up-front costs. If we won this lawsuit and millions are returned to the Association, some that should off-set the fees.

I am also and owner......And to add salt to the wound, they upgraded this resort to a category 6 hotel in March. (same caliber as the St Regis brand) Now a free room night is 20,000 star points. They are making money on all the money we are spending in upkeeping this property

FYI when I asked why they upgraded the property they said it was because of "demand>"

Very unhappy with the Starwood brand

Just got off the phone with a representative. She said that the owners will NOT be compensated even though Westin won that lawsuit and received all that money back. All of the money was placed in a reserve account for the property.

If we have all that money in a reserve account, then why is our maintenance fee the same as last year? All of our maintenance fees should be enough to cover the expenses for the property.

And weren't the Maui property taxes reduced after the lawsuit was won? Westin had told us that our high fees were the result of the high property taxes. Now, what is their excuse?

The representative said that the property is expensive to maintain. Yes, and even more expensive if it's mismanaged!

Why do I feel scammed and this is just a bottomless money pit? !!

Just got my association bill $2500.00. Not $3000 like it was before but still pretty close. I think my dues started at $1500

Here is the response i got from Westin on making this property a category 6

"Thank you for your email regarding The Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas. Please be assured Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide strives to maintain the highest quality of customer service. I apologize that your experience has not been an example of this and would like to assure you your experience was the exception and not the rule. The Category of a hotel is influenced and determined by many factors. A hotel's location, the amenities provided at the hotel, average room rate, renovations, varying economic conditions, and other hotels in the surrounding area, all have some bearing on a hotel's Category. Our categories are evaluated annually as a regular part of our programs overall evaluation. Each year some hotels move to a higher categories and some move to lower ones. I am sorry that you feel that we are price gouging our guests. I have documented your below comments in a Customer Service file and have forwarded it the General Manager of the hotel for resolution. The hotel will contact you back directly within five days. Your reference number for your records is 201111166233. "

I wonder if we upset owners all get a petition together to get a refund of "our" fees that they are hoilding and gaining interest on in the bank. Shouldnt there have been a vote by the owners about that refunded monies?

Can a time share be sold if maintenance fees are still owed? I would really like to get out from under the exorbitant prices they are asking, yearly. This is not what I expected from the Westin Group

are the maintenance fees going up for 2bed 2bathrom going to $3,000 ? that seems very high, is about $156,000 per year?