[2009] Westin Kaanapali Maintenance Fee complaints -- see here [+contact info.]

If you'd like to contact your HOA board to complain about the maintenance fee increases, here is the contact information:

Westin Kaanapali North

Johnathan Ho, President
Bruce McNish, Secretary
Steven Ward, Vice President
Teri Castleberry, Vice President
Craig McFarland, Treasurer

I've asked for their snail mail addresses and will post that as soon as I receive it.

If you'd like to complain to SVO's parent company, here is the address for the Starwood CEO:

Frits Van Paasschen
Starwood Hotels
1111 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, NY 10604
Phone (914) 640-8100
Fax (914) 640-8310

If you'd like to comment on the real estate tax increase:

Maui County
COUNTY OF MAUI
Real Property Tax Division
70 E. Kaahumanu Avenue, Ste. A16
Kahului, Hawaii 96732

Members of Real Property Tax Review Board:

Patrice Matsumoto (Kahului) 3/31/2010
Dean Frampton (Makawao) 3/31/2011
Matthew Driggers (Wailuku) 3/31/2012
Susanna Soto (Lahaina) 3/31/2013
Joshua Lindsey (Wailuku) 3/31/2014

***
Westin Kaanapali Maintenance fee complaints
Westin Kaanapali MFs
Westin Maui Maintenance fee complaints
Westin Timeshare complaints
Starwood complaints
Starwood timeshare complaints
Starwood maintenance fees
KOR maintenance fees
KOR-N maintenance fees

(I'm trying to spell out everything so that people who search it on Google can find this thread.)

Excellent work, Lisa!

I have requested the WKORV BOD info. and will post it as soon as I get it.

Here is the standard email format to send Starwood email:
[B]firstname.lastname@starwoodvo.com[/B]

Here are a couple more contact points:

Maui County Real Property Website - http://www.co.maui.hi.us/index.aspx?NID=576

Mr Sergio Rivera, President
Starwood Vacation Ownership
8803 Vistana Centre Dr
Orlando, FL 32821

***Does anyone want to volunteer to formulate a simple "template" that includes the key points one would want to include in a letter?

Thank you! I will be writing my own letter today. I'm so MAD I'm still steaming after receiving my bill yesterday...

copied from the hawaii thread -seems this TS won using overvaluation?? good to know if true

The generic Maui Schooner rates hardly moved up for 2010 in part because the board of directors sued the county, and won, for overvaluation of the property. We are facing a potential special assessment on the order of 2K/wk for upgrades if the owners approve.

$1300 is a fair price.

[It's not your fault, but this info. from ARDA is out of date - I have edited it. - DeniseM]

Email/Contact for SVO executives from the following link:

http://www.arda.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Starwood

[Raymond L. "Rip" Gellein, Jr., was President, Global Development Group of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. prior to his resignation in March of 2008.]

[Matt Avril transferred to the hotel side in 2008.]

Sergio Rivera, President [see address above}
Starwood Vacation Ownership
sergio.rivera@starwoodvo.com

Thorp Thomas
Senior Vice President,
Associations
thorp.thomas@starwoodvo.com

Our friends havent received their increase MF statement. What is the increase?

post-it said:

Our friends havent received their increase MF statement. What is the increase?

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Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas (2 bdm.) - $ 2,346.36
Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas (2 bdm. Dlx) - $3,076.69

If that is not their unit size, they can get their actual fees at www.mystarcentral.com

WKORV Board of Directors Contact Info.

Courtesy of Tugger, j4sharks - thanks!

Ocean Resort Master Association BOD

Reg Billups Pres.
9002 San Marco Ct.
Orlando, FL 32189

Gerald Bodzy, VP
P.O. Box 980097
Houston, TX 77098-0097
or
1702 Cullen Blvd.
Houston, TX 77023

Johnathan Ho, Treas.
9002 San Marco Ct.
Orlando, FL 32189

Bruce McNish, Sec.
2155 Kalakaua Ave. Suite 300
Honolulu, Hi 96815

Ocean Resort Villas Owners Assoc. BOD

Gerald Bodzy, Sec.
P.O. Box 980097
Houston, TX 77098-0097
or
1702 Cullen Blvd.
Houston, TX 77023

William Logan, Pres.
6519 Kitsap Dr.
Spokane, [WA] 99208

Mark Watford, VP
8054 Eagle Trail
Dallas, TX 75238

Celia Kupersmith, VP
14 Burdell Ct.
Novato, CA 94949

Jonathan Ho, Treas.
9002 San Marco Ct.
Orlando, FL 32819

DeniseM said:

Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas (2 bdm.) - $ 2,346.36
Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas (2 bdm. Dlx) - $3,076.69

If that is not their unit size, they can get their actual fees at www.mystarcentral.com

Click to expand...

Oh my gosh! $3000 for OFD????

Katherine

Here is the 2010 WKORV-N budget, broken down into categories. Note that the numbers on the budget they included don't add up, which explains why my numbers aren't exactly what was billed:

The first colum in the Ocean Resort Master Association Fee.
The second column is the Ocean Resorts Villas North Vacation Owner's Assn
The third column is the Association of Apartment Owners of Ocean Resorts Villas North
The fourth column is for SVN/ARDA fees.
The fifth column is the total.

(My first question to the board is why all the different associations!)

I categorized them as:

(M) - Management fees - directly billed management fees or expenses that a normal business (including the Westin hotel down the street) would INCLUDE in a management fee.
(R) - "Running the Place" - fees directly associated with running the place
(T) - Taxes
(X) - Extraordinary expenses which in a good economy we hopefully wouldn't see.

M - Admin $51.03 $80.54 $12.21 $0.00 $143.78
M - Annual Audit $0.28 $0.62 $0.61 $0.00 $1.51
M - ARDA $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $5.00 $5.00
M - Financial Services $0.35 $23.68 $0.36 $0.00 $24.39
M - Kaanapali North Beach Master Assn $0.00 $0.00 $5.29 $0.00 $5.29
M - Management Fee $15.08 $113.75 $52.89 $0.00 $181.72
M - Owner Services $0.00 $35.79 $0.00 $0.00 $35.79
M - SVN Fee $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $113.53 $113.53
M - Technology Services $0.00 $3.91 $0.00 $0.00 $3.91
Total Management Fees $66.74 $258.29 $71.36 $118.53 $514.92

R - Activities $0.51 $0.00 $38.72 $0.00 $39.23
R - Cable Television $0.00 $0.00 $6.43 $0.00 $6.43
R - Housekeeping & Rooms $0.00 $411.27 $35.90 $0.00 $447.17
R - Insurance $11.81 $32.84 $93.52 $0.00 $138.17
R - Internet $0.00 $0.00 $3.31 $0.00 $3.31
R - Licenses & Permits $0.00 $0.00 $0.08 $0.00 $0.08
R - Repairs $51.43 $121.61 $22.59 $0.00 $195.63
R - Utilities $35.06 $0.00 $174.33 $0.00 $209.39
Total to Run the Place $98.81 $565.72 $374.88 $0.00 $1,039.41

T - AV (Real Estate) tax $0.08 $480.81 $0.00 $0.00 $480.89
T - Excise Tax $0.47 $68.38 $0.00 $0.00 $68.85
T - West Maui Benefit Fund $0.00 $10.30 $0.00 $0.00 $10.30
Total Taxes $0.55 $559.49 $0.00 $0.00 $560.04

X - Uncollectible Accounts $6.52 $149.29 $80.42 $0.00 $236.23
X- Prior Year Deficit $17.29 $62.84 $19.34 $0.00 $99.47
X - Total Extraordinary $23.81 $212.13 $99.76 $0.00 $335.70

Total Regular Expenses $189.91 $1,595.63 $546.00 $118.53 $2,450.07

Replacement Reserves $5.50 $153.30 $35.87 $0.00 $194.67


Grand Total $195.41 $1,748.93 $581.87 $118.53 $2,644.74
Amount Billed 165.83 1732 581.77 118.53 2598.13
Difference $29.58 $16.93 $0.10 $0.00 -$46.61

A few things strike me as things we should demand answers from our board on:

1) Housekeeping: We're paying $450 per owner for housekeeping. We get housekeeping 1 time a week, plus a change of towels once a week. By comparison, when I rented a larger 2 bdrm condo from a private owner at Kaanapali Shores, he charged me $190 for a one-time cleaning fee. And he contracted a housekeeper privately instead of using a service!

I realize that this amount may include upkeep of the property, including trimming the trees, leaf-blowing the pool, etc. Once again, looking around at other places, you can rent a room at the Westin for $225/night, which includes daily housekeeping AND upkeep of the grounds. And they are a FOR PROFIT organization.

2) Management fees - Too many associations, too many salaries, too little to show for it. We need to pare down the number of hands in our pocket.

Taxes - Maui County says in their literature that they needed to increase timeshare owners' taxes because we weren't paying our fair share. I wonder if they think $80/day is fair enough.

Basically, we're paying $1000 in management fees and taxes before we ever set foot on Maui.

3) Financial services - We're forking out (collectively) $327,216 for "Financial Services." What services does that firm or entity provide that is costing us 1/3 of a million bucks?

4) I note that our "interest revenue" for all units annually is $181k. By my account, we have $6M in our collective reserve funds. Please tell me that we're not paying some firm $327k in order to advise us to put our $6M reserve fund in a 3% interest bearing CD...

I'm going to contact SVO Board Relations and request information on how to get a topic on the next board meeting.

With MFs doubling in 5 years, I think "How do you intend to contain these double digit increases" might be a good topic.

Our HOA Board has a legal responsibility to represent us. They have a fiduciary responsbility as well. I realize that they probably took on the role only as a figurehead, but I think it's time we owners forced them to do their jobs.

LisaRex,

As I understand it, they really do need the three associations. From my WKORVN owners manual I see that:

The Ocean Resort Master Association is responsible for the pools, water falls, etc. of both WKORV and WKORVN. It is setup this way so that owners of both resorts can use any of the pools and share the costs of operating them all.

The Assoc. of Appt. Owners is responsible for the common elements and overall operation of the condominium.

The Vacation Ownership Plan is responsible for running the TimeShare. It pays the taxes, pays for housekeeping for most of the resort and many other costs.

I believe the housekeeping costs are for more than just the room. I believe they also include the expenses to keep up the rest of the resort, like mowing the lawn, raking the leaves and keeping the public areas clean. $446 seems high, but costs in Maui are high.

Greg

gregb said:

$446 seems high, but costs in Maui are high.

Click to expand...

Even if costs on maui are high relative to the mainland, most of the costs associated with upkeep should be pretty stable over time at a given resort. The argument that $446 is reasonable would be strengthened if the housekeeping costs were similar 5 years ago. Given that total MFs were less than $1500 then, I am not sure that is the case...

Does anone have the 2005 housekeeping costs for WKORV? Can anyone add any information on how the housekeeping budget line changed at other Maui resorts over time (e.g. Marriott, Maui Schooner)

LisaRex - that's great work!

I generally store these records - they are buried right now as we do a home remodeled, but I will ask Robin if they are accessable.

LisaRex said:

Westin Kaanapali Maintenance fee complaints
Westin Kaanapali MFs
Westin Maui Maintenance fee complaints
Westin Timeshare complaints
Starwood complaints
Starwood timeshare complaints
Starwood maintenance fees
KOR maintenance fees
KOR-N maintenance fees

(I'm trying to spell out everything so that people who search it on Google can find this thread.)

Click to expand...

It works! I just Googled "starwood maintenance fees" and this thread was the third hit

Another route that may be more successful is to file a complaint with Hawaii’s Department of Consumer Affairs Regulated Industries Complaints Office (RICO). Please note that RICO’s jurisdiction is limited to Hawaii’s Revised Statutes Chapter 514E and Hawaii’s Administration Rules Chapter 106. I skimmed over the two chapters and found there are possibily several items that Starwood may be in violation of.

See here for past and current filed complaints against Starwood.

Also interesting is past and current filed complaints against Marriott. See here.

DeniseM said:

Courtesy of Tugger, j4sharks - thanks!

Ocean Resort Master Association BOD

Reg Billups Pres.
9002 San Marco Ct.
Orlando, FL 32189

Gerald Bodzy, VP
P.O. Box 980097
Houston, TX 77098-0097
or
1702 Cullen Blvd.
Houston, TX 77023

Johnathan Ho, Treas.
9002 San Marco Ct.
Orlando, FL 32189

Bruce McNish, Sec.
2155 Kalakaua Ave. Suite 300
Honolulu, Hi 96815

Ocean Resort Villas Owners Assoc. BOD

Gerald Bodzy, Sec.
P.O. Box 980097
Houston, TX 77098-0097
or
1702 Cullen Blvd.
Houston, TX 77023

William Logan, Pres.
6519 Kitsap Dr.
Spokane, [WA] 99208

Mark Watford, VP
8054 Eagle Trail
Dallas, TX 75238

Celia Kupersmith, VP
14 Burdell Ct.
Novato, CA 94949

Jonathan Ho, Treas.
9002 San Marco Ct.
Orlando, FL 32819

Click to expand...

Do any of these people have e-mail addresses?

ciscogizmo1 said:

Do any of these people have e-mail addresses?

Click to expand...

I'm sure they do. Starwood will not divulge them.

DeniseM said:

Courtesy of Tugger, j4sharks - thanks!
William Logan, Pres.
6519 Kitsap Dr.
Spokane, CA 99208

Click to expand...

As an originally native Spokanite, I should probably point out that Spokane is in Washington, not California (though I did hear someone once refer to Spokane as Spokangeles).

K2Quick said:

As an originally native Spokanite, I should probably point out that Spokane is in Washington, not California (though I did hear someone once refer to Spokane as Spokangeles).

Click to expand...

Sorry - my fingers apparently type "CA" automatically!

Is Washington "WA"?

DeniseM said:

Sorry - my fingers apparently type "CA" automatically!

Is Washington "WA"?

Click to expand...

Yep. No worries on the typo. With 14,000+ posts, you're bound to make at least one.

With these high maintenance fees you would think every thing would be mantained. We have been here, Maui, since the 14th. In our first Building, #2 South, One elevator didn't work the entire week. It was finaly fixed this Tue. In Building #8 North, one of the elevators hasn't worked since Saturday. I also noticed an elevator out in the main building yesterday. I'm tired of waiting for the one working elevator and sharing it with cleaning or maintenance carts.

Sick over this SVO mess

I feel so stupid for having bought into the SVO program since just about everything they told us at the time of the sale was a lie. I just sent a bunch of registered / certified letters to all the top brass and then some. I don't expect that they will do anything but send a standard letter in return. What are owner supposed to do? If Starwood decides tomorrow that MF will be $10,000 a week are we just supposed to pay it. I understand what the Madoff victims must feel like - the SVO system is a fraud. Bought Maui in 2006 and a big selling point was knowing that we could trade and stay at St. John 3 bdrm, I called to make the trade and they told me they raised the SVO point needed and I can no longer go there in the winter! Additionally from reading this board it appears that even if they hadn't raised the points there wouldn't be a chance in hell that I would get a trade. So maybe one lucky person gets a trade they want for WSJ so that Starwood can turn around as say "see it is possible" but really it's like those crooked games at a carnival they make you think you have a chance but your just end up being a sucker for their con.