Hi, I'm new here!

[K2Quick]

Hi All,

I'm 38 (for a couple more weeks), married to a lovely wife and have a one-year-old. I was born and raised in Spokane, WA, went to school at BYU, worked in Salt Lake for three years after graduation, then in Southern California for about seven years, and returned to Utah about five years ago after the skiing bug hit really hard (it's nice to be 30 minutes to the best skiing on the continent). Currently I work for a large credit card company in accounting.

I've never stayed in a timeshare before - bought the first one (SDO) this summer after researching here on TUG for a few months and traded into WKORV for this coming January. Our goal is to get into Maui or Kauai once a year. I've never attended a timeshare presentation in my life because I always felt my time was too valuable and I had heard they were very high-pressure and I didn't want to ruin good vacations with that. I realize I've signed on with Starwood at an interesting time. In spite of the pain, it makes for interesting theatre on TUG.

What this thread has really done for me is straightened out that DavidnRobin is really David, TomnRobin is really Tom, and I think RicknCindy is really Cindy. I don't know why that mattered.

[DeniseM]

Originally Posted by K2Quick

What this thread has really done for me is straightened out that DavidnRobin is really David, TomnRobin is really Tom, and I think RicknCindy is really Cindy. I don't know why that mattered.

Bingo! We have a winner!

[DavidnRobin]

Originally Posted by Troopers

Hi, I’m Troopers.

Despite the various issues with Starwood, we’re quite happy with our ownership. The issues are non-issues for me.

Hi - I am also happy with the vacation part of our TSs, but the issue of a MF increase (25% this year and 2x over the last 5 years) is a non-issue? Why is that?

[kcgriffin]

Hi,

I'm Ken and my wife of 33 years is Jan. We started going to St John when it was a Hyatt Resort, we loved it and when Starwood offered TS weeks we bought week 52 in one of the 2BR 3BA townhyome villas, although in retrospect I sould have bought directly from one of the original fractional ownership folks, who owned six weeks in each unit. Even so we got a real deal!

We have owned Marriott Sabal Palms since pre-construction, maybe 1985 or so. We also own a 1BR condo in Door County Wi. (all 52 weeks) the neat thing about it is we can trade each week as a timeshare, use them, give them to the resort to rent, or rent them ourselves (maximum flexibility!). This gives us an almost unlimited number of TS weeks from that one resort.

I retired from Bell Labs (Lucent) ten years ago, and Jan and I love to travel. We have been all over the world, between my work and vacationing. We love TUG, and have been members for years.

Thanks for all the postings, we appreciate all your help and guidance. You can never get enough information!

[Troopers]

Originally Posted by DavidnRobin

Hi - I am also happy with the vacation part of our TSs, but the issue of a MF increase (25% this year and 2x over the last 5 years) is a non-issue? Why is that?

Because life is good.

Added: Also, I didn't expect the MF to increase gently.

[DavidnRobin]

on second thought - nevermind... not worth the effort. Enjoy. Make sure you write to SVO to thank them for meeting your expecations. Perhaps next year the will exceed your expectations and make life even better.

[Maui_ed]

Originally Posted by K2Quick

Hi All,

I've never attended a timeshare presentation in my life because I always felt my time was too valuable and I had heard they were very high-pressure and I didn't want to ruin good vacations with that.

We have been to 3 presentations from Starwood - 2 at WKORV and one at WKV. None of them were high pressure, although the first one came close. Being new to timesharing, I initially thought it would be a way to find out about new properties that Starwood was developing - such as Aruba and Cabo - and other changes in the Starwood program - such as elite membership level requirements changes. It didn't take long to find out that the sales people generally knew very little about those things. Especially true of the sales people in Maui who are only allowed to sell Maui and Kauai, and don't really care to talk about the other properties too much. I have read stories here on TUG about some presentations that were contentious if not confrontational. I guess all you can say is YMMV.

[gregb]

Originally Posted by Maui_ed

We have been to 3 presentations from Starwood - 2 at WKORV and one at WKV. None of them were high pressure, although the first one came close. Being new to timesharing, I initially thought it would be a way to find out about new properties that Starwood was developing - such as Aruba and Cabo - and other changes in the Starwood program - such as elite membership level requirements changes. It didn't take long to find out that the sales people generally knew very little about those things. Especially true of the sales people in Maui who are only allowed to sell Maui and Kauai, and don't really care to talk about the other properties too much. I have read stories here on TUG about some presentations that were contentious if not confrontational. I guess all you can say is YMMV.

I have attended four TS presentations, three at WKORV and one at SVV. None were high pressure. I think part of it may depend on your attitude when you take the "Owners Update". For us, politely saying we are not interested in buying another unit, and saying it with assurance, seems to work.

I believe that Hawaii law prevents the Maui/Kaui teams from any selling time shares other than those in Hawaii. It may have to do with licensing or registering the other TS in Hawaii, which no one wants to do for any TS except those in Hawaii.

Greg

[Darwin]

Hello, I am really Darwin. I am married to Elaine for 12 years and have 4 children 10 and under. We are self employed and live in the country on a small farm.

We were interested in a timeshare because of the size of our family. Motel rooms were to small and Elaine and I would need a vacation from our hotel vacation.

We own at Marriott Canyon Villas in Phoenix and on Maui at WKORV. Both were pre construction purchased from developer. Found TUG to late. We've stayed, rented, and exchanged for points both locations. We are staying at WKORV over Christmas and New Years. We will not be spending any money in Hawaii ( because of the property tax issue) .

I have been on TUG for a few years. I post very little. Other people have more knowlege and expertise than I. TUG is a great resource. Now If only we can change the Maui Real Property Tax Division's illegal increase in valuation methology.

[krj9999]

New to timesharing and new to SVO. I've bought 3 timeshare weeks in the past 9 months; an August week at an older resort in DE, a week 52 Grandview in Vegas, and Platinum SDO week - all 1BRs and all via Ebay for a very good price.

I'm 41 and work for a consulting company in MD. My SO and I have no kids, so can travel off-season, and she likes Hawaii a lot. Mostly expect to trade, and spent a lot of time reading the boards before bidding on Ebay. Still toying with the idea of RCI points or SBP if I see a great deal, but will probably hold off for now.

Being new here and hitting in the middle of a lot of complaints about RCI and II/SVO, I guess I'm not sure how things used to be. So far, I'm pretty happy about my trading power in both II and RCI. Already made 1 trade via RCI to Waikiki (HGVC unit) with my DE week; I see the 2BR units at WKORV via my SDO deposit; and my Grandview deposit can see a good amount of Disney, even 2BRs (I'm guessing same trading power as Nodge's SDO Easter week).

Appreciate all the info I've gained here, and hope to contribute in the future.

Originally Posted by DeniseM

We suddenly have a lot of new posters who are posting regularly - WELCOME!

A lot of the regulars kind of "know each other," but there are so many new folks that I don't know. I thought it would be nice to do some introductions.