All 2008 Starwood Maintenance Fee Threads/merged (2/27)

TimC · Dec 15, 2007

LisaRex said:
FYI, voluntary resale owners aren't supposed to be allowed to trade/join SVN -- that's the key difference between mandatory and voluntary resorts. However, neither voluntary nor mandatory resale owners are supposed to be able to convert to StarPoints.

This quote from seenett seems to indicate that they occassionally make exceptions to that rule:

"On occasion, SVO will offer SVN membership to the current owners of these weeks in order to get more weeks from that resort to be available within SVN."

Does anyone have futher information about these exceptions?

DeniseM · Dec 15, 2007

TimC said:
This quote from seenett seems to indicate that they occassionally make exceptions to that rule:

"On occasion, SVO will offer SVN membership to the current owners of these weeks in order to get more weeks from that resort to be available within SVN."

Does anyone have futher information about these exceptions?

A number of Tuggers that own at voluntary resorts have tried, and so far, no one that I know of has been successful. (I tried at SDO, myself.)

If you are willing to buy a 2nd week from the developer, it is possible to requalify a voluntary week to a mandatory week that way, but the cost far outweighs the benefits, IMNSHO.

If you want a mandatory week, it would be far more cost effective to buy a 2nd week resale, at a mandatory resort, rather than buying another week from the developer.

DavidnRobin · Dec 18, 2007

I copied this from another thread I started before I saw this thread.

WKV (Kierland) MFs/Taxes for 2008 have just been posted.
$643.44 MF (for a 1Bd Premium unit)
$30.97 Taxes

The MFs went up by 7.824% for this unit. The taxes dropped by $1.63.

WKORV and WSJ are not yet listed.

Pedro · Dec 20, 2007

Lakeside Terrace MF $ 771.40

Just saw my bill for Lakeside Terrace's MF. If you calculate the MF cost ($771.40) per the corresponding staroption value (129,600), it is one of the best deals around.

Current Year Charges

Maintenance Fee(s)

$ 771.40

Tax - If Applicable $ 0.00
Membership Fee - If Applicable $ 0.00
Other* $ 0.00
Interest $ 0.00
Late Fees $ 0.00

Pedro · Dec 20, 2007

WKORV (OV) MFs: $ 1599.29

The MFs for WKORV are now posted and due on January 21st. For a 2-br OV unit, I was billed the following:

Current Year Charges

Maintenance Fee(s)

$ 1,599.29

Tax - If Applicable $ 0.00
Membership Fee - If Applicable $ 0.00
Other* $ 0.00
Interest $ 0.00
Late Fees $ 0.00

My SVN membership fee was billed to one of my WMH units, so it shows as zero for WKORV.

gcole · Dec 20, 2007

RLG said:
Wow.

I had no idea that there was such a large difference between the maintenance of the regular 2 bedroom and the 2 bedroom lockoffs at SBP.

25% higher maintenance seems like a big premium for the lockoff.

Remeber that a lockoff is 2 units and can be traded as such. I often get 2 bedroom trades with 1/2 of my lockoff. A 2 bedroom can only be traded as a single unit.

RLG · Dec 20, 2007

Sheraton Mountain Vista Huge Maintenance Increase

Sheraton Mountain Vista maintenance fees finally up on MyStarcentral.

2 bedroom lockoff went from 847.35 to 1050.17. (All numbers include taxes but exclude ARDA and SVN fees.)

The fees excluding taxes are 976.34 for 2008 versus 765.85 for 2007. That represents a 27% increase.

grgs · Dec 20, 2007

RLG said:
Sheraton Mountain Vista maintenance fees finally up on MyStarcentral.

2 bedroom lockoff went from 847.35 to 1050.17. (All numbers include taxes but exclude ARDA and SVN fees.)

The fees excluding taxes are 976.34 for 2008 versus 765.85 for 2007. That represents a 27% increase.

Ouch! Did they give any reason?

Glorian

DavidnRobin · Dec 21, 2007

Pedro said:
The MFs for WKORV are now posted and due on January 21st. For a 2-br OV unit, I was billed the following:

Current Year Charges

Maintenance Fee(s)

$ 1,599.29

Tax - If Applicable $ 0.00
Membership Fee - If Applicable $ 0.00
Other* $ 0.00
Interest $ 0.00
Late Fees $ 0.00

My SVN membership fee was billed to one of my WMH units, so it shows as zero for WKORV.

What was the MF (w/o SVN fee and ARDA) for the 2Bd LO Premium layout in2007? I was curious as the %increase.

btw, the MFs are based on unit layout (size) and not the view type.

Pedro · Dec 21, 2007

DavidnRobin said:
What was the MF (w/o SVN fee and ARDA) for the 2Bd LO Premium layout in2007? I was curious as the %increase.
.

Here are the MF for WKORV 2BR LO Premium:
2006 $ 1,315.84
2007 $ 1,418.27 (7.8% increase)
2008 $ 1,599.29 (12.7% increase)

DavidnRobin · Dec 22, 2007

Here are the MFs (w/o SVN fee and ARDA) for WKORV 2Bd LO Deluxe for the last 4 years:

2005 $1623.77
2006 $1813.16 (11.7%)
2007 $1954.27 (7.8%)
2008 $2203.79 (12.8%)

That is ~36% over 3 years! Yikes! Have costs really increased this much???!!!

Maybe it is time to get some Tuggers on HOA boards for accountability... perhaps we could start by getting Owners to come to this forum by starting a pyramid campaign were Tuggers reached out to other Owners and have them reach out to others, etc. every resort visit? Has this ever been discussed?

j4sharks · Dec 23, 2007

Yikes. So much for TS being any sort of hedge against inflation rate of hotel room prices. We just flew home this morning from our glorious first week ever at WKORV, and we loved it. But the MF inflation rate is a disturbing trend. I have a feeling Starwood could not care less how popular the MF increases are with existing owners.

DavidnRobin · Dec 26, 2007

MFs for WKORV (2008)

MFs from the WKORV 2008 Annual Billing Newsletter:

1 Bd: $1,349.36
2 Bd LO Prem: $1,599.31
2 Bd LO Dlx: $2,203.79

The newsletter states the increase as 12.3%, but by my math has it as 12.8% (what's 0.5% between friends...) - perhaps they will need to upgrade their abacus for 2009? :wall:

Denise L · Dec 27, 2007

MFs, ouch!

WKORV 2BD OV EOY: $ 933.18
WKORV 2BD OV EOY: $ 854.02

Total: $1787.20

The breakdown for each interval is:

Master Association Assessment 54.12
Apartment Ownership Assessment 189.97
Vacation Ownership Assessment 575.56
SVN fee 113.53 (and 34.38 for the second)

I remember when most of us could rent our studio out and pay for the MFs. Those days are gone

!

I wish all the MFs weren't due in January. It's painful.

DeniseM · Dec 27, 2007

I noticed on mystarcentral.com that you can make monthly MF payments if you want to. That would be a good way to spread out the cost without incurring any credit card interest. So my 2 bdm. would be around $150 a mo. and you could still use the AMEX for double points.

Pedro · Dec 27, 2007

DeniseM said:
I noticed on mystarcentral.com that you can make monthly MF payments if you want to. That would be a good way to spread out the cost without incurring any credit card interest. So my 2 bdm. would be around $150 a mo. and you could still use the AMEX for double points.

Denise,

I searched mystarcentral.com and couldn't find the reference to the monthly MF payments. Could you tell me where you found it? Thanks.

Denise L · Dec 27, 2007

DeniseM said:
I noticed on mystarcentral.com that you can make monthly MF payments if you want to. That would be a good way to spread out the cost without incurring any credit card interest. So my 2 bdm. would be around $150 a mo. and you could still use the AMEX for double points.

Did we get double points last year for using the AMEX for MFs? Does it say somewhere that this is true? I can't remember from last year, but almost 3600 Starpoints sounds better than 1800 Mileage Plus points.

Pedro · Dec 27, 2007

Denise L said:
Did we get double points last year for using the AMEX for MFs? Does it say somewhere that this is true? I can't remember from last year, but almost 3600 Starpoints sounds better than 1800 Mileage Plus points.

I got double starpoints for using AMEX to pay my MFs this year, and I believe I also got them last year.

DeniseM · Dec 27, 2007

Pedro said:
Denise,

I searched mystarcentral.com and couldn't find the reference to the monthly MF payments. Could you tell me where you found it? Thanks.

Actually I shouldn't have said "monthly payments," as it appears that you can make advance payments in any amount/frequency that you want. If you go clear to the final payment page that shows the breakdown of your fees, it says this at the bottom of the page:

Ways To Pay Your Fees
For your convenience, you may make additional payments to build a credit balance that will be applied to next year's assessment. Payments will be reflected in the Maintenance Fee Detail section above.

Sir Newf · Dec 27, 2007

Westin Kierland- 1 Bedroom Platnium, Deluxe:
Maint fee $401.14
Tax - If Applicable $ 22.63
Membership Fee - If Applicable $ 109.00
2008 Year Charges $ 535.77

2007 Charges were $494.95, looks like 8% increase for 2008.
I am very happy with my smaller unit and find the fees very managable, but really feel bad for the huge increases and fees that others are facing, it's not good for SVN as a whole.

GrayFal · Dec 31, 2007

Sheraton PGA & Broadway Plantation "Shotgun"

Sheraton PGA Vacation Resort 2BR L/O
operating assess 710.51
replace reserve 234.57
Real Estate tax 218.17
Total = $1,163.25

Sheraton Broadway Plantation 1BR 'shotgun'
operating assess 329.51
replacement reserve 56.03
Total = $ 385.54

MON2REY · Jan 7, 2008

MF for WKORV-N?

Has anyone received his bill for the MFs at WKORV-N yet? I don't necessarily want to pay them but then again I want to make sure nothing has gotten screwed up with my account. Thanks.

DeniseM · Jan 7, 2008

Have you checked www.mystarcentral.com? It should be listed there under your Acct. Info.

MON2REY · Jan 7, 2008

Thanks Denise. I have been checking there and it lists all zeros and then a "projected amount for next year" of $1,537.86.

Jim

LisaRex · Jan 7, 2008

If you purchased in '07, your '08 MF fees were pre-paid at the time of purchase. I purchased resale and the prior owner paid them, so I have nothing due at this time.

All 2008 Starwood Maintenance Fee Threads/merged (2/27)

TimC

DeniseM

DavidnRobin

Pedro

Pedro

gcole

RLG

grgs

TUG Review Crew

DavidnRobin

Pedro

DavidnRobin

j4sharks

DavidnRobin

Denise L

Tug Review Crew: Veteran

DeniseM

Pedro

Denise L

Tug Review Crew: Veteran

Pedro

DeniseM

Sir Newf

GrayFal

TUG Review Crew: Expert

MON2REY

DeniseM

MON2REY

LisaRex

TUG Review Crew