Starwood built some beautiful timeshares. However, they lured buyers in with reasonable MFs and then, the second they sold out, starting jacking up the MFs. My resort's MFs have doubled in 5 years. Now many of us are paying in MFs what it costs to rent, so there is no incentive to buy. Resale prices have plummeted.
Unlike Marriott, Starwood does not "skim" off a majority of its owners, where they give you fewer points to trade out than want to trade in. However, if you have sufficient points (aka StarOptions) to trade to the top 2 resorts (Westin St. John and Harborside in Atlantis), they are rarely available during prime season, so having sufficient points is a moot point. I've been calling since May to try to trade into WSJ and I've finally given up and will try to rent my unit this year.
Since the economy crashed, Starwood (like everyone else)quit building new resorts. We have a very limited number of resorts we can trade to, many of which are in the same location (e.g. Colorado, Orlando, and Maui). The disparity in MFs and demand between resorts is significant, which leads to a great imbalance in the system. Everyone wants to trade INTO the top 3 resorts (Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas in Maui being the third) but few of those owners want to trade out because there are few "equivalent" resorts to go. (The good news is that more owners are bypassing Starwood altogether and simply direct exchanging.) Those who want to trade into Hawaii have found that's it's far more economical to buy a cheaper Starwood TS and use II to trade into the same resort for far less $$ than they owners have to pay each year.
Many of us have lost faith in Starwood because they are out of touch with their owners. They promised an online reservation system years ago, yet we're still stuck calling to a central reservation center. They cancel benefits of owning and call them "enhancements." They give press releases announcing great new resorts, then cancel those projects without even bothering to tell their owners. They pass along MF increases that outpace inflation. They control the HOAs by hand-picking their successors for many of the resorts so that owners have no voice. They do little to manage delinquencies and simply pass along the shortfall to the remaining paying owners, for which the paying owners get zero benefit. And they do all that they can do to kill resale value, including creating a duel system where resale owners cannot join the "club" so custmers have a difficult time unloading their TSs.
Nope, sorry, as much as I love the resorts, I'd never advise anyone buy into the system that is so completely one-sided in favor of the developer.
Funny thing is that I used to recommend that people check out the Marriott system.