Suggestions to get to 5*

I am going to link this in SDKath's thread also because this is basically what I am wondering in a current market, not from 2008.

I am interested in Harborside ownership either in Phase II so I can flex anytime or in Phase I in the mid June to Mid August time frame as this is when we do most of our travel with our kids out of school. We are mostly interested in the Caribbean area. We may even travel to Turks and Caicos to check out the Alexandra since there is no chance at all of trading in to it either with II or RCI.

I like the Starpoints system with being able to exchange SO points in to Starpoints that will get you more stays at hotels than the HGVC Hhonors points will and Hilton conversion is horrible. When buying resale you lose the Starpoints ability unless you re-qualify the resale purchase with a Developer purchase. We are elite owners at HGVC and I see absolutely no benefit of being elite there, but with Starwood they give you more Starpoints if converted and other perks that seem more useful.

I would like to know what the experienced Tuggers have to say on how to become a 5* as cheap as possible and still possible own at Harborside or at least have a VERY good chance of trading in to Harborside in the summer months for now. Initial purchase has some play in my decisions but ultimately the yearly maintenance fees is what it boils down to since we will keep the timeshares for so long.

We live in Iowa so resorts of any desire are a vacation travel. This is why I would like the hotel option if we don't use all of our SO points on vacations. I am mid 40's and plan on keeping the vacations we own for at least 20+ years and even deeding them to our 3 kids if they have any interest at that time. I own my own businesses so resorts work well for me to do business away from home and we are able to take many long weekend trips and at least 2 - 3 week vacations in the summer after baseball season for the boys.

Any insight on if I am even thinking on the right path here is appreciated and if there is a current way to reach 5* reasonably. I am in no hurry so waiting for titles to clear is not a problem.

Here is the link I am referencing http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138581

Suggestions please from the Starwood gurus!

Kevin

Basically - for the upfront cost - you need to pickup resale SVO that have the most SOs associated with it, and then buy from SVO for as cheap as possible (at least $20K per resale).
It is the backside costs and personal vacation needs (incl desposible income) that are far more complicated, and the topic of many a thread (and diverse opinion).
Including, many of the opinion that 5* is rarely worth it for upfront and long-term costs (and unknowns/risks).

Sounds like you should figure out what the Starpoints are worth to you and how many of them you would typically use. You should know that many ownerships convert to fewer Starpoints per maintenance-fee-dollar than you can get by purchasing the points for 3.5 cents each directly from Starwood. (They also regularly go on sale for 2.8 cents).

Think of how much money you will spend in maintenance fees and opportunity cost to achieve 5*, and then determine if it's worth it.

I PM'd you - from Minnesota - just became 5* with combo of resale and developer purchases. I saved about 50% doing it in combination - took about 50% of the investment to get to 5* versus all from developer.

This topic has been discussed a lot. Definitely read the old threads.

Here are some very good threads I found using Google Search:
- Elite status 4 and 5 (2013)
- Expanding my Starwood Portfolio (2012)
- Elite Status - Need Help (2010)
- 4* and 5*Elite - What are your annual MFs? (2011)

Good Luck

okwiater said:

Sounds like you should figure out what the Starpoints are worth to you and how many of them you would typically use. You should know that many ownerships convert to fewer Starpoints per maintenance-fee-dollar than you can get by purchasing the points for 3.5 cents each directly from Starwood. (They also regularly go on sale for 2.8 cents).

Think of how much money you will spend in maintenance fees and opportunity cost to achieve 5*, and then determine if it's worth it.

Click to expand...

The conversion is only worth it (in my experience) if you're going to stay in an expensive Starwood hotel (i.e. SPG5/6/7 during high season), when the nightly costs at their highest.

We've found they made the most sense when we booked in to suites in Europe (we're half-way through our second month-long trip here right now), or Christmas/ski season in Whistler, Aspen, Vail, etc.

That's when the hotels are wanting $1000+/night to stay (some of these European hotels want to charge 2000EUR+/night to stay!), and the timeshares would be very difficult to get in to anyways...

Thank you for all the answers everyone!

I am interested in pursuing 5* status, just not 100% from the developer. I am looking for suggestions from people who have become 5* from a combination of requal, trade ins, and developer purchases. Is it mandatory that Starwood requal weeks if you ask them to when you purchase a week direct from them? Is it mandatory that they take a week you have bough resale in on trade for the amount that the original purchaser paid for the week?

These answers may help me in my search. I noticed most of the examples for doing what SDKath did for 5* and what I am looking at trying to do were from 2-4 years ago. I am just wanting to make sure that what was described that long ago is still in effect today.

I own 2 wks, 2 br platinum HGVC (14,000 pts total) bought direct from the developer and I am looking at adding another 4 weeks approx. from a different source and Starwood seems to be the best option for what I am looking for. If I can reach 5* with Starwood with a combo of requal, trade in and direct purchases and only end up spending close to what I did with HGVC (78k) then I am good with that. Even if it is a little more I am sill good with that. I am 45 and my life is stable so I plan on at least 20-30 years of use out of this before transferring to my kids if they desire.

Thanks again for the help everyone!

Kevin

I have found that requal is still happening consistently (in your words "mandatory"). Although there have been reports of requal happening for less than 20K when you buy some of the less desirable weeks (Orlando) from developer. For trade-in, it depends on the resort and sales rep. There is a wonderful TUGger whom I shall not name , got a fantastic deal with several trade ins to get her to 5*. I think it came out to less than a straight forward buy a resale true platinum SDO and buy another week from developer to requal. Her trade-ins were all platinum/red weeks. Trade-in offers are inconsistent as far as my experience goes.

So, assuming your reasons for getting to 5* are sound.
You will likely need two dev purchases maybe EOY.
And two 196k retro weeks. Three bedrooms in steamboat or Atlantis or a high point unit at StJohn.

You can definitely requal with only 2 dev purchases, but keep in mind that while an EOY ownership may meet the 20K threshold, you only get credit for half the StarOptions towards your 5* eligibility threshold of 649K SOs.

Buying 2 148K weeks resale and requal'ing with 148K developer weeks won't get you to 649K SOs, so you'll want to obtain some resale weeks with more SOs. If you can obtain 2 WSJ Plat+ 3brs, they're worth 257,700 SOs apiece and have a relatively low maintenance fee for the points. That would leave you only 133,600 SOs away from 5*, which could be obtained with a couple of 67,100 SO weeks or EOY 148,100 SO weeks.

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