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Dropping off half reservation and timestamp?

DeniseM

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YYJSMP is a 5 Star Elite owners, and obviously has the time, money, and inclination to fully utilize his ownership. More power to him! :clap:

This is one case where is makes perfect sense to buy at least some of your timeshares from the developer - because there is no other way to do it. You can't buy exclusively resale, and reach 5 Star.

However, this is not a newbie strategy, and not everyone has what it takes to make it successful - in fact, it's not for your average Joe.

If one's goal is to become 5 Star Elite,, then you'd still want to buy a resale first, so that you can the, requalify it with a developer purchase.
 

LisaRex

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"Asking people not to find fault with Starwood illogical"
Not saying that there isn't fault but all to often that seems to be all that is concentrated on. There is also plenty of good or else you wouldn't be a SVO. SO BE HAPPY AND ENJOY!!!!!

Sometimes people have legitimate gripes with even the best run companies. It is both naïve and arrogant to advise someone who is clearly unhappy (and rightly so) that they should just shrug it off.

For instance, my bathroom at WSJ was mold-ridden. You can bet they'll be hearing from me. Does that mean that I didn't enjoy my vacation? No. Does that mean I'm embittered at Starwood because my MFs are so high? Um, no. It means that I, a loyal customer, expected them to deliver a quality product, which I pay a premium for, and they fell short. And by letting them know about it, I'm actually doing them a favor because it will give them an opportunity to do something about it.

For the record, Starwood, like all service industries, WANTS to hear from consumers, both the happy and unhappy ones. That is why they send post-experience surveys as well as the annual survey. If they don't keep their loyal customers happy, they will cease to be in business. It is far less damaging for Starwood to hear from YYJMSP about their failings, allowing them an opportunity to appease him, than to have him say nothing and let something like this shake his loyalty.

jabak5 said:
You are obviously unhappy that you purchased from the developer as others have and are also unhappy. However, some purchasers are happy the way they became owners and let's just leave it at that.

It isn't obvious to anyone except yourself that anyone is unhappy because they bought from the developer. That is complete projection on your part. To be perfectly clear, the OPer is unhappy because Starwood made an error by converting the wrong VOI to SPs, which in turn cancelled his all-important timestamp, which in turn, degraded his guest's view. He caught the erorr, Starwood fixed it, but their "fix" was subsequently disregarded by the front desk, which in turn made him unhappy.

Does that mean he is bitter? No. It means that he is, rightly, disappointed in Starwood.

BTW, timestamps may not be critical to those who don't own at resorts with a huge disparity in views. But it IS a big deal to some people, so much so that they're willing to pony up tens of thousands of dollars more, for the best view. They increase their chances for the best view by getting a good timestamp. This situation would certainly be a big disappointment to ME. So please don't lecture people on what they should be disappointed about. It's as off-putting as the "negativity" which you are complaining about.

YYJMSP, please keep us posted as to the outcome of your conversation.
 

YYJMSP

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If they don't keep their loyal customers happy, they will cease to be in business. It is far less damaging for Starwood to hear from YYJMSP about their failings, allowing them an opportunity to appease him, than to have him say nothing and let something like this shake his loyalty.

Darn tooting. For example, if the hotel I pay to stay at 50-75 nights for work every year started screwing up things enough to cause me grief, or lowered their standards on housekeeping, it would be fair to say that I would look at my alternatives. That would be lost business on their part, and more when I stop referring other people to stay there...
 

YYJMSP

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Closing off the story

So, we're here at WKORV this week, and everything with our booking came out as expected. We got the specific unit we hoped for -- the moral of that story is going to be book at exactly 12mos out for a Sat arrival for best chances in our particular case of owned view and villa type.

Had a chat with management about the booking we did for our guests earlier this year, and that appears to have been handled correctly by the property, though there appears to be some follow-up required with the comments the check-in agent made to our guests.

I think our guests' expectation of "ocean view" may have been a little high -- it appears that they got a room that unfortunately faced in to the top of a large tree, which I suspect obstructed most of their view. We've had the same issue if we got one of the dedicated 1BR's (like they did) and didn't get 5th or 6th floor, as the foliage appears to be at it's largest/highest in the middle of the buildings where these specific units are located.
 
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M&MsDad2008

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What Room Did You Get?

YY---we will be there in a few weeks (with a 12 month stamp)? What room should we look to get? I presume Building No. 2, but what Room No....

Thanks a lot for your thoughts...
 

YYJMSP

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YY---we will be there in a few weeks (with a 12 month stamp)? What room should we look to get? I presume Building No. 2, but what Room No....

Thanks a lot for your thoughts...

You're an owner at WKORV and booked at 8-12mos out? You'll get a villa of the type and view you own that would be allocated for your check in day. Too many variables to predict a room number. You can state a building preference and high/low floor preference but that's all...

My understanding is that they start giving out the matching rooms from highest to lowest floor in the order of reservation time stamps, all other things being equal (there are other factors that come in to play as well, such as multiple week owners, Elite members, owner vs exchange vs hotel rental, check in day of week, building requests, high/low floor preference, etc, which may affect the matching rooms)

In our particular combination of villa type and view and booked check in day, we know there are only a very small handful of rooms that meet the criteria, so we have a pretty reasonable guess as to which we're going to get. This is not normally the case.
 
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gregb

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One thing to consider is that when you choose your check-in day (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) you are also choosing which set of units you will be assigned to. The resort assigns each unit to one of the preferred check-in days, Fri, Sat. or Sun. About 1/3 of the units are assigned to each of the three preferred check-in days.

We like a Sunday check-in, so I asked to see what units are available for that day. They showed me the list and it seems to be pretty evenly spread across all floors. We like unit 8613/14 and that is on the Sunday check-in. If we schedule a Friday check-in, there is little of no chance of getting that room. But our normal Sunday check-in has snagged it a couple of times. :D

Greg
 

M&MsDad2008

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Thanks Greg!!!

That was actually the question that I was asking YY....what room did he get!!!! I have owned since 2003 (bought from the Develper :eek:), and I have dealt with the room assignment dance at check in for too many times!!!!

I was just wondering what room YY got....in any event, hopefully YY has enjoyed his stay......(We arrive on the 21st!!!)
 

YYJMSP

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That was actually the question that I was asking YY....what room did he get!!!! I have owned since 2003 (bought from the Develper :eek:), and I have dealt with the room assignment dance at check in for too many times!!!!

I was just wondering what room YY got....in any event, hopefully YY has enjoyed his stay......(We arrive on the 21st!!!)

4621 -- we are using an IslandView Deluxe unit on this booking so we are restricted to building #4 in one of 3 corners. Remember, what you own is what you'll get at 12-8mos out.

There are only 2 units worth getting out of the 18 in this particular unit size and view class. The 6th floor and 5th floor facing over the pool both have a much better unobstructed OV than a large number of the real OV units. The others face the parking lot in some form, or are too low down to see anything.

Experience shows that this particular unit is a Sat check-in, so we need to remember if we use this particular ownership that we have to book for a Sat arrival.
 

DavidnRobin

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Little known fact -- OFD and OFC at WKORV do not have a Friday checkin. This may be true for Deluxe IV as well due to the limited number.
 
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