Frustrated with Starwood Vacation Ownership?

I am creating this thread in the hope of connecting with Starwood owners, especially Westin who feel trapped and frustrated by their ownership interest in the company. This is sort of a call to all the owners who felt that they were misled or were sold something that was sugar coated. I take the blame for signing a contract without reading it but somewhere this company has to feel ethically responsible for entrapping the owners who wish to leave or who are willing to even donate their ownership just to get rid of it. I have tried my best to make management aware of my grievance against them. I have met with so many road blocks and feel annoyed. I have no loyalty to this company anymore who would rather have me feel betrayed than to provide a solution. I didn't even ask for my money back, all i wanted was out of contract so i don't have to keep paying the annual maintenance fees for something that I won't use as it does not meet the needs of my family. I feel stuck and I just want to let off the hook. I am hoping to know if there are other people like me and would be interested in taking part in initiating Class Action Litigation against the company. I know many people who have grievances but thought it would be good idea to contact an attorney after knowing who else agrees with me.

Welcome to TUG!

I feel your pain, but you have zero chances of winning a class action lawsuit against a big company like Starwood - you would just be throwing good money after bad.

In general, these are the only resorts that have resale value:

* Harborside at Atlantis
* Vistana Villages (Bella and Key West phases only)
* Westin St. John (Virgin Grand - Hillside only)
* Westin Ka'anapali & Westin Ka'anapali-North
* Westin Kierland Villas

If you own a high season week at one of these resorts, you can probably sell it for at least some money, but not nearly what you paid.

If you own at one of the other Starwood resorts, you will probably have to give it away, but you don't need to PAY someone to do that.

How can I give my timeshare away on TUG: http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132509

You are right. I do not want to throw more money into this sinkhole. But it depends upon the case, how many plaintiffs and the attorney. There are some attorneys who would not take money from plaintiffs if there is enough interest and try to get compensate by the company after settlement. I am sure it depends upon how many people feel like i do that company is ethically responsible to its consumer. You just cant say that its your problem now. I do not want to give up with trying, social media is a powerful tool. We can always create a page on Facebook against SVO. Something should get their attention, it might get an attention of some lawyer who would love to make money out of our misery. I want nothing, I just want out.

For the record, I have ownership interest in Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort in Cancun.

Starwood is no different than the rest of the big timeshare developers. No better no worse. They have a lot of smart lawyers that get paid big bucks to write airtight contracts - you have no chance. Trust me.

Here is a suggestion - list your main issues here - we may be able to give you some advice about how to get more out of your timeshare.






Note to Tuggers - OMG! I sound like jarta! :rofl:

You will probably get more benefits out of spending your energy to give your timeshare away, rather than chasing after a lawsuit with almost no likelihood of succeeding. There are probably a couple of TUGgers that wouldn't mind owning WLR.

how about some hope?

I am not saying that you all are wrong to suggest that its a lame idea. It probably is very lame and have bleak to no chance of even becoming a litigation. We all are for ourselves but why can't we all get together on something that has impacted us negatively. I am sure there are owners who are happy with their interests but some are not. But whatever the case may be, it shouldn't feel like entrapment. If we raise a voice together, there is still a small chance or hope. I am not crazy, I am desperate. I also have not ruled out the option of giving it away or selling it (if i am lucky) but 52000 dollars loss is hard to grasp which only gets bad and bad as i continue to pay 2000 dollars in annual fees and maintenance. I do not think I will achieve anything out of it but I wish that people like me can come together and at least try than just giving up entirely and let the company continue to torture us for the rest of our lives. I just paid my dues because i was threatened that i will incur late fees and penalties and eventually a legal action. It suffocates me.

Sorry - but we participate in TUG because we like timesharing. I don't think you will find anyone interested in a lawsuit.

Don't get me wrong - Starwood has it's faults, and we gripe about it, but overall, most of the people here want to be owners.

You still haven't told use what your issues are?

I sympathize with your situation. Like you, I spent over $100K with Starwood. I was in the bad situation 3 years ago but Starwood took back one of my unit when I was behind in my mortgage payment.

Yes, I'm upset with Starwood with almost doubling my MF over the past 10 years BUT I was able to get passed it. Using some of the strategies I learned from TUG, I now have no problem paying almost $17,000 in annual MFs. In fact, my Starwood ownership now actually pays for 2-4 weeks of my vacations yearly.

As Denise said tell us what your issues are and we may be able to suggest some solutions.

I'm very sorry that you are in this situation and feel the way you do. Many here have purchased from the developer and paid developer prices before discovering TUG. Starwood was selling a TS at a given price and you decided to purchase it. I don't see anything illegal about this transaction. I would spend my energy trying to sell it for whatever you can get, or if you decide to keep it, trying to make it work for you. As usual, Denise is right, you're not going to get a lot of sympathy here as most of us are very happy with our TSs.

This sounds like a typical developer purchaser who didn't do any research before paying a lot of money for a week. I think most, if not all, of us would be in favor of a longer cancelation period when purchasing timeshares. That would at least offer buyers more time to reconsider their purchase prior to losing potentially a tremendous amount in market value of their purchased week.


Sent from my iPad

I actually bought at WLR, rescinded and turned around and bought 2 weeks of Marriott resale weeks from Marriott and it still saved me money.

You have zero chance of succeeding in a class action lawsuit if there is ever a lawyer who wants to waste their time on this. Based on my memory, on page one of WLR contract, it stated very clearly along the line that majority of the money that they are charging is to fund their marketing group and that you will not get anywhere close to what you paid for if you were to sell.

From your above post you gripe about 2K in maintenance but that is cheap compared to what you would pay in rack rate from Starwood if you were to book WLR through their website.

So... just move on and figure out whether you want to sell your weeks, trade or use them.

Having had a roller coaster ride with SVN for the past 14 years I have never thought of taking such action. Complained yes;argued yes,written yes, etc etc.

Timeshare isnt a financial investment; its an investment in life experiences.

You may well have to simply give it away to someone who will use it and put it down to experience.

The contracts are complicated for a reason as they have evolved over time to close off any loopholes. I suspect you may find a lawyer who will grab the fees and take it on BUT I wont be joining you.

Sorry to pile on with the negativity about the class action suit but....

If you signed your contract while visiting the resort in Mexico there is no way any attorney will ever take the case on a contingency basis. You've got multiple jurisdictions and they've probably intentionally designed it so that you have limited standing in each of the jurisdictions.

Undoubtedly they spent hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in legal fees insuring that it would be almost impossible for anyone to successfully suing them.

You will just end up wasting your time, money, resources and emotional well being - why give them more of yourself when they've already got $52,000 of your money.

Find a way to happily enjoy what you've bought (many do) and its going to be the best outcome you can hope for.

Just curious. 52,000 and 2,000 sounds like multiple purchases.

BLUE AYES said:

Just curious. 52,000 and 2,000 sounds like multiple purchases.

Click to expand...

That's what I thought, too. WLR's 2015 MF's were $1,390.98 (+SVN fees).

Neeson,

The Marriott board had followed a gentlemen on the east coast who filed a class action lawsuit. We suspect it was a contingency case and we speculated if it would go anywhere.

It was recently dismissed by the judge. Like others, I do not believe there is much redemption for us through the legal system. I hope that you can find ways to maximize your ownership.

Best,

Greg

Back in 2009 when Starwood changed rules regarding ownerships, myself and some other owners got together to try to fight them. I personally spoke to several class action attorneys about the issues. In order for the attorneys to take the case on a contingency basis and attempt to certify as a class action there had to be clear cut consumer fraud.

The attorneys were in agreement that while we might win a reversal of the changes, it was not fraud and therefore they couldnt take the case on a contingency basis. Because of that we would have had to pay thousands out of pocket to fight Starwood which wasnt going to happen.

Your complaint seems more related to the actual ownership. Unless you can prove without a doubt that Starwood violated your contract I dont think there is much you can do.

Neeson7981, your post is venting frustration at Starwood - and a lot of us share your pain. We weren't happy finding out that developer purchases were many tens of thousands of dollars more than buying the same unit resale. We don't like watching MF's increase at rates much higher than inflation over the years. We discovered it's not as easy to book the weeks we want as the salesperson told us - especially if we can't plan vacations a year out. If you take time to read through the TUG Starwood forum, you'll see we have lots of issues with Starwood, BUT we try to make the system work for us, because we still want those great vacations we dreamed about when we bought. And with shared knowledge - particularly here on TUG - we're able to make it work.

It's not that we don't want to help you, it's about priorities. You can spend your time and money fighting Starwood, but to what end? It sounds like you desperately just want to stop paying the annual MF's on your Lagunamar unit. There are much easier ways to do that. If it is causing you so much stress that you really feel suffocated every time you think about it, perhaps it's best to let it go. Why go full-on battle mode with Starwood to take the unit back vs selling it or giving it away? Giving it back to Starwood only lets them sell it again at full price to someone else. If you sell it, you can get a little of your money back, and someone else will hopefully make it work for them.

Many of us have made painful financial mistakes (let me tell you about an old house renovation I've been working on :ignore: ). Please don't let this one eat you up! Good luck to you.

BLUE AYES said:

Just curious. 52,000 and 2,000 sounds like multiple purchases.

Click to expand...

I agree - w/o clarity on this point 52K and 2K? - I am not sure this isn't trolling (for whatever reason?)

Regardless - WLR has value (more so w/ Plat ownership) - so you can easily give away - or get a little something...something

However... this has a 'RedFlag' feeling.

Frustrated with Starwood Ownership

Here is the details of what i purchased.

Week # 31 of every year
The Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort
2 Bedroom Lockoff Villa

Week # 21 every other year
The Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort
1 Bedroom Premium Villa.

I have paid total over 52,000 dollars including maintenance fees for last year and this year. My maintenance fee for each year is 1495 plus 525 for every other year.

Frustration with Starwood Ownership

My issues are that I was led to believe that how flexible this program is and the choices in resorts it offered. Over time I have realized that its not a flexible program and does not offer what was described. The StarOptions are best used when you travel among the listed 19 resorts. You have to exchange your starOptions to StarPoints to be able to have the choice in resorts that was described by salesperson who conveniently skipped to mention that the value of starpoints is like currency and most of the decent hotels can use upto 20,000 points a night and if you want to travel to a resort, you need atleast 30,000 to 35,000 points per night. I have 148100 staroptions every year, the conversion gives me 74000 starpoints. I also have additions 44000 staroptions every year, which gives me 18000 starpoints i believe. I have to have full week available to convert and then there is a transaction fees to convert. It feels like anything i do i have to dump more money into it. Yes, I am frustrated with this and I am accountable for buying something that i didnt research well or should have read the contract. But my issue with the company is offering no opening to the people who want out. I feel trapped with them and if i have traveled to their resort, it has left bad taste as I feel I am stuck with this.

I probably can't write in words and explain how i feel but company has to be accountable on moral grounds somewhere.

Any help in guiding how can i sell these units will be appreciated.

Thanks

So are you saying, that you thought Starwood would buy your timeshare back? Sorry, but that just doesn't happen.

Sadly, they have little or no resale value, but if you'd like to verify that for yourself, here is a list of reputable brokers (TUG members) that you can contact for a professional opinion: They will be honest with you about the resale value.

Fred Messreni (TUG user name FredM if you want to send him a pm)
www.timeshare-gallery.com

Seth Nock (TUG user name the same if you want to send him a pm)
www.sellingtimeshares.net

Judi Kozlowski (TUG user name the same if you want to send her a pm)
www.timeshareresalepros.com

If you can't sell them, giving them away is a bona fide option -

How to give your timeshare away on TUG:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132509

Frustrated with Starwood Ownership

Not to mention that out of 19 resorts, I cant afford the travel time and cost of airfare to the resorts on west coast even if i find availability. I am usually stuck with Florida since its hard to find availability at Harborside and St. John. Sheraton Vistana is all i get within the distance where i can afford a ticket price. I will go to cancun once, may be hawaii once, but i cant pay for airfare to hawaii every year. Cancun tix are cheap but I feel like 2000 dollars of MFs and air ticket cost and food will cost me more than what i will have to pay at all inclusive resort. I can book all inclusive to cancun for 4 people incl air tickets in little over 4000 dollars. I feel like I have to travel to same resort for the rest of my life which still costs me more than any other resort. II offers some great resorts but exchange process didnt work as i expected. Its complicated and I may not get what i want and then again not to mention the fees i have to pay to deposit my week. Its a total scam

The statements that you are making are true, but they aren't secrets - I'm thinking you simply did not understand what you bought?

Did you buy both deeds at the same time?

When you bought this timeshare, did you think you'd visit Lagunamar every year?

Is it no longer working for you, because your financial situation has changed?

Frustrated with Starwood Ownership

Yes both the deeds were purchased at the same time in 2013. I tried calling the timeshare contacts you provided. Its heartbreaking to know that i will get less than 3500 dollars if that after selling it. What a sham. I cant figure out the way how to best use it if i have to swallow the pill. I just wish they would take it back and give me some of my money back.
And Denise, I am sorry to ask but why do i feel that you are salesperson for Starwood. Do you have any association with the company?