Starwood WKORV-N new owner with Questions

I am a new owner of OF WKORV-N. Although I do go until 2008, after reading this board I have lots of questions and would love advice form any Starwood SVN / SVO Experts.

I would like to go for Thanksgiving 2008 and know that I must get on the phone a year to the date in advance to make my reservation at 8am EST (5am PST yikes!). My question is, if I don't get the Thanksgiving week I want I've now waited the whole year 2007 and only have 3 weeks left to book in 2007 for 2008 to get my home resort advance reservation! So, it seems like I'm stuck in a bad situation. What happens next? What if alot of people have waited like me and we are all scrambling to get OF for the next 3 weeks? Any tips for making sure to get my Thanksgiving reservation? I was curious if a good stragergy would be to call for a Friday before Thanksgiving reservation since I would then have the Thanksgiving week and if I waited for a Sat. Check-in it might already be gone to everyone who called for a Fri. check-in.

Also, if I wanted to stay one extra day since I've now made a Friday reservation but don't want to leave until Sat. is it worth paying the rate to stay and extra day at the TS or is it better to just check out and go to a hotel using SPG points?

Any other tips or tricks would be great to know.

If you can go at a time before Thanksgiving, you could always make a reservation for say the summer of 2008 and cancel it to make your Thanksgiving reservation when it becomes available. You could reserve say July 4th week, and if for some reason Thanksgiving doesn't work out and you can't go in the summer, you could rent out your week.

Regarding Friday vs. Saturday arrival, you could reserve 12 months out from the Friday and then call the next day to change your reservation to Saturday if there's still room available.

This summer I'm going to KOR but my frequent flyer tickets don't quite match up with the timeshare reservations. I chose to stay at the Sheraton with Starpoints (reserved before the number of Starpoints needed went up!) when my KOR time is over. Of course a paid stay at your resort would also work and is a lot less hassle.

You could use some StarOptions from the following year to stay a couple of extra days, but you spend a lot of options for Friday and Saturday stays and you can only reserve single days within 60 or 90 days of arrival. Before that you have to reserve whole weeks. Thus, you won't know if you can get the extra days until very close to your trip.

emuyshondt said:

If you can go at a time before Thanksgiving, you could always make a reservation for say the summer of 2008 and cancel it to make your Thanksgiving reservation when it becomes available. You could reserve say July 4th week, and if for some reason Thanksgiving doesn't work out and you can't go in the summer, you could rent out your week.

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I am a newbie owner also (Kierland) but just want to pass along one point to ginja. If you do decide to reserve for summer with the idea of changing to Thanksgiving later, your chances for actually getting the Thanksksgiving week would be much lower. The reason being is that you will lose your "home resort preference period rights" after making the initial reservation.

From mystarcentral.com: "B. Cancellations or changes in reservations made more than 60 days prior to the check-in day will result in unrestricted restoration of the related StarOptions to your account for further use during that Use Year, although your related Home Resort Preference Period rights will not be restored."

I think the best strategy would be to make the Thanksgiving reservation for Friday check-in & then call back the next day if you want to push back one day. I really don't think there is much chance at all of not getting that week if you are calling when the phones open at 12 months out.

ginja said:

...My question is, if I don't get the Thanksgiving week...

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You're not going to have a problem getting exactly what you want. You already know the secret... "get on the phone a year to the date in advance to make my reservation at 8am EST (5am PST yikes!)."

I suggest you call in the afternoon the day before, tell the associate of your concerns and ask what information will be needed the following day to make your reservation go as smoothly as possible. You DON"T want to be calling back changing things. (see my comments about time stamp below)

As for Friday versus Saturday, the days have reserved rooms associated with them. I believe it's something like 60 rooms are designated Saturday check-in. They simply aren't made avaiable the day before.

So rest assured... as long as you wake up early the year before, you'll get exactly what you want.

Reserve exactly what you think you'll use. If you change it later, you won't lose your ability to go, but you WILL lose your time stamp and location request.

For example, let's say you own a 2BRLO and think you'll only use one side, but reserve both sides because you may bring a guest (who knows a year in advance?). If you decide or realize nobody will be joining you and you drop one side from you reservation at a later date, your initial reservation gets canceled and a new reservation is made. You still have your week, but now your are at the bottom of the time stamps. The likelyhood of getting your location request went from "shoe-in" to "you gotta be kidding me".

Again, relax. You'll get exactly what you want.... and probably exactly where you want it... or very close... as long as you're one of the first callers.

KOR5Star said:

For example, let's say you own a 2BRLO and think you'll only use one side, but reserve both sides because you may bring a guest (who knows a year in advance?). If you decide or realize nobody will be joining you and you drop one side from you reservation at a later date, your initial reservation gets canceled and a new reservation is made. You still have your week, but now your are at the bottom of the time stamps. The likelyhood of getting your location request went from "shoe-in" to "you gotta be kidding me".

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I thought they could tell you on the phone whether the new reservation is available or not, before you cancel your old one. Your time stamp can change for the purposes of determining upgrades or what unit you get assigned, but you still get the location and dates you want. I haven't been in this position, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

In your example, if I book the 2BR say in Maui, and then drop the lockoff from the reservation, I would still have my reservation for the 1BR in Maui for the original dates and there is no question that I will be able to go there when I want, is there? The timestamp doesn't matter. Where it does matter is if I'm put on a waiting list for some other place. Those with the earlier timestamp have priority. You don't want to give up your reservation to be on a list. However if the room is available when I call and I take it, the timestamp is not important (except perhaps if they are handing out upgrades when you arrive because some nicer room is available at the last minute).

This is one good benefit of 5 Star Elite. You can have a reservation at one place and you don't have to give it up to be on the list for another reservation at a different time and place.

emuyshondt said:

I thought they could tell you on the phone whether the new reservation is available or not, before you cancel your old one.

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Yes, they can tell you before you cancel the existing reservation.

emuyshondt said:

In your example, if I book the 2BR say in Maui, and then drop the lockoff from the reservation, I would still have my reservation for the 1BR in Maui for the original dates and there is no question that I will be able to go there when I want, is there?

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I don't know this for sure, but I would guess that you would need to cancel the 2 bedroom reservation, and then make a new reservation for the 1 bedroom. I would imagine this would then give you a new time stamp. If you're uncertain about whether you'll use both sides, it would probably be better to book two separate reservations at 12 mos. out--one for the 1 bedroom and one for the studio. Once you're sure you will use both halves, then I'd call and ask them to put together. Hopefully, someone who has first hand experience with this situation will respond.

Glorian

You do not lose your timestamp ifyou are only shifting the lockout usage and keeping the same dates. I have confirmed this with a few different sources including WKORV management. The catch is that ths SVN reservation people are so useless that they often do go ahead and create a new set of reservations so you have ot be careful that you are clear about asking htem to simply drop the lockoff from your existing reservation without touching the original reservation/datestamp. They accidently did this to me (after I made is very clear that I didn't want to touch the original reservation and they seemed to understand) and after three supervisors confirmed to me that they had corrected the problem, it still was showing as unconfirmed view so I had enough and contacted WKORV and they fixed it right off and indicated this is an ongoing issue with SVN which indicated once again to me that there is a real education/training need at the call center.

dss said:

... it still was showing as unconfirmed view so ...

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What does this mean? Whether they make a new reservation or keep the old one, don't you have a confirmed reservation before you hang up the phone (assuming there was a room available when you call)?

emuyshondt said:

What does this mean? Whether they make a new reservation or keep the old one, don't you have a confirmed reservation before you hang up the phone (assuming there was a room available when you call)?

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The location you get at the resort is based on the date the Resv. was made. If they changed her original Resv. date when she called the 2nd time, she would lose her priority.

Her reservation is confirmed, but the view apparently isn't. You aren't guaranteed the view on your contract after the owner's priority period is over (8 - 12 mos.)

Exactly. It's actually even a little more black and white than that, my original reservation was made using my week (OF Lockoff) at the approx 12 months mark. When they dropped the studio side and initiated a new reservation, since I was under the 8 month window, the new reservation showed I was using my options which mean you lose all guaranteeed owner benefits including view category, etc... It's amazing how SVN has so many subtle rules that their own staff can't even keep track of how they impact their owners.

Thanks for the clarification, Denise. I understand about the priority for room assignments based on when you make the reservation and what was meant by "location request" before - a particular room location within WKORV.

However, if you own at WKORV and want to go to go for Thanksgiving but are concerned about getting it, couldn't you make your first reservation say for say July 4th week of 2008 in the summer of 2007? Come Thanksgiving 2007, you call to check on the availability of Thanksgiving 2008. If available, you change the reservation and your new timestamp is 12 months out from Thanksgiving. If not, you keep your summer reservation and original timestamp. You then either go in the summer or rent out the unit. IWhat would the drawbacks be?

emuyshondt said:

However, if you own at WKORV and want to go to go for Thanksgiving but are concerned about getting it, couldn't you make your first reservation say for say July 4th week of 2008 in the summer of 2007? Come Thanksgiving 2007, you call to check on the availability of Thanksgiving 2008. If available, you change the reservation and your new timestamp is 12 months out from Thanksgiving. If not, you keep your summer reservation and original timestamp. You then either go in the summer or rent out the unit. IWhat would the drawbacks be?

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I think you could do that no problem. The only negative might be the $39 charge for cancelling the first reservation.

Glorian

grgs said:

I think you could do that no problem. The only negative might be the $39 charge for cancelling the first reservation.

Glorian

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I'm just trying to get a handle on this so let me work with the specific example given. The owner of an ocean view unit want to go to the Maui Westin Thanksgiving 2007. There are two options:

1. Wait until one year before the use date (November 2006) to book, which should be OK since there will be home resort preference and availablility should be good one year out.

2. Book a July 2007 week this summer, then change this reservation to Thanksgiving week later. One poster says that you lose home preference (i.e. the ability to book one year out and your guaranteed ocean view), so would have to wait until April 2007 to try the switch, then pay the $39 fee. The units may have been grabbed by other owners inthe four month window, which is a negative, as is losing your view.

Seems like option 1 would be better unless I'm misunderstanding this.

My understanding is that if you have your summer reservation, you can call and change that reservation to Thanksgiving as long as you are 12 months or less out from the new time. Thus Thanksgiving 2006 (exactly 12 months out) you can call and check if the Thanksgiving week is available for 2007. They may or may not charge you a $39 change fee. I've moved a reservation by a few weeks before and didn't get charged, but it was relatively soon after I originally made it (more than 24 hours later, though).

I'd call to check on your exact scenario. However, you might actually get different opinions from different agents at SVO

I have never tried to go during Thanksgiving. This may all be an academic discussion if there's usually availability for that week. Does anyone know?

I know in the July timeframe it is sometimes difficult to find things even 11 to 12 months out but if you are a little flexible you will find something in June or July even if not necessarily July 4th week. Christmas is pretty close to impossible to get since it is an event week: people paid extra to be guaranteed availability then and tend to use it.

Concerning the fee, you only get charged a change fee if you are below the rolling eight month window and using your options. I believe that if you are just using your week and switching to anotehr week in the 8-12 month rolling wondow, you do not get charged the penatly.

As I wrote earlier in this thread, the rules indicate that once you have made a reservation you give up your "Home Resort Preference Period Rights". The only exception indicated is changing a reservation within 24 hours.

From mystarcentral.com: "B. Cancellations or changes in reservations made more than 60 days prior to the check-in day will result in unrestricted restoration of the related StarOptions to your account for further use during that Use Year, although your related Home Resort Preference Period rights will not be restored."

Thus, in the example being discussed, once the July 4th reservation is made, the owner would have to wait until 8 months out to try for Thanksgiving week.

I am a new owner & am only going by what I read. Am I missing something?

"Thus, in the example being discussed, once the July 4th reservation is made, the owner would have to wait until 8 months out to try for Thanksgiving week."


I'm not sure about this. It's my belief that you can call at 12 months out for the November reservation, pay the cancellation fee and change the reservation. Unless you change your reservation within the first 24 hours (an impossibility when changing July for November), you incur the charge. Otherwise it should be permissible.

Of course, I could be wrong. Nonetheless, it'd sure be nice to have someone from Starwood chime in once in awhile to clear these things up.

I guess there is a bit of an unresolved issue here based on your quoted text:

"B. Cancellations or changes in reservations made more than 60 days prior to the check-in day will result in unrestricted restoration of the related StarOptions to your account for further use during that Use Year, although your related Home Resort Preference Period rights will not be restored."

I am wondering if this is referring to a situaiton where an owner originally used options to book a week, since it refers to options being restored. If you are booking in the owner window (8-12 months), you are not using your options and as along as you continue to remain in that owner window, I see no reason why you should ever be using your options so the owner preferences would remain intact.

David

Here's another thread from people that have called and actually exchanged their weeks. If you are 8-12 months out from your new dates you do not have to pay a change fee and you do not lose your preference.