SVO/SPG Question

grgs · Mar 8, 2006

When my husband and I bought at Westin Kierland at the end of 2004, we were both enrolled as SPG Gold members and received Gold cards. Last month my husband received his new SPG Gold card, but I did not. I just looked online and saw that my account has been downgraded to the preferred business guest level. I sent an e-mail to the SPG rep asking about this, and she said:

"The Starwood Vacation Ownership can be linked to only one Starwood Preferred Guest account, and only one account will receive the Gold Status. The Starwood Vacation Ownership is linked to your husbands account, therefore his account is Gold. As you did not meet the requirements of ten stays or twenty-five nights, your account has been downgraded to The Preferred Plus status."

I thought when we bought both my husband and I would be Gold for as long as we owned the timeshare, but maybe I misunderstood. Anyway, I just wanted to check with those of you Starwood owners who have joint ownerships: does only one of you have the Gold account?

Thanks!

Glorian

temerson · Mar 8, 2006

We just attended a timeshare presentation for WKORVN and the salesman said both of us would be given the SPG Gold status if we purchased. Apparently that is not the fact given your experience. It wouldn't be the first time a salesperson muddied the facts.

Both of your names are on the deed therefore I would assume both would be linked to the SVO account and get the SPG Gold. If one name gets preference over the other, I'm listing my name first if we ever buy from the developer

.

It will be interesting to see what other owners have.

short · Mar 8, 2006

Joint card

Ask if you can get a joint card. My husband and I have a joint Hilton. That way both persons stays get posted to the same account.

Short

seenett · Mar 8, 2006

short said:
Ask if you can get a joint card. My husband and I have a joint Hilton. That way both persons stays get posted to the same account.

I am pretty sure Starwood will only allow one name per account. However, both my wife and I have been able to earn points on the same account (with Starwood and Marriott). Just make a hotel reservation online and use the SPG (or MR) account number. It doesn't seem to matter whose name is actually on the reservation - I have always received points even no matter who checked in with the reservation.

nell · Mar 8, 2006

The salesperson misled you. Only one name (the first listed on the deed) from a joint ownership is linked with the SPG account. Also when transferring to airlines miles they will only tranfer to the ff account whose name is on the SPG account. I found that out this year and had to do a lot of tranferring miles between ff accounts as we put all of our points on one SPG acct.

grgs · Mar 8, 2006

nell said:
The salesperson misled you.

Thanks everyone for the replies!

It wouldn't particularly surprise me that the salesperson got it wrong (intentionally or not). However, what perplexes me is that we were both issued Gold cards and were both Gold for over a year--until last month when I guess SPG redoes all the accounts for the coming year. In any event, I would like to get the Gold status shifted from my account to his, since I do a little more business-related travel than he does.

Glorian

formerhater · Mar 8, 2006

We bought a few months back and I was already SPG, but we added my wife and she now also has a gold card. I'll be curious to see what happens when it expires. I wonder if we will both be able to stay gold since we own at two props? We'll see.

EileenSRN · Mar 10, 2006

My name appears first on the deed, so the gold card account is linked to me. Every year or 2? we get new cards. One account number, one in each of our names. My husband has never had a problem using "A" card regardless of whose name it was in. He often travels without me. It shouldn't matter which of you is the "Primary". We book online and charge everything to the room, they hardly look at the card at check in. Hope this helps.

rubbernyc · Mar 10, 2006

This is an interesting post for me. My partner and I just purchased in Princeville. I was already SPG gold and he was only preferred. Both our names are on the deed but mine is the primary. Looking online his account just got upgraded to Gold this past week. We have not received our cards yet. It will be interesting to see how this will shape out for us as our situation is a bit murkier ( not legally married ) The salesperson said that we would each be Gold/owner for life, but as been noted here they don't always get the facts straight.

damorgan · Mar 11, 2006

My wife and I bought two weeks at WMH. Both weeks were joint purchases but one has her name first on the deed, the other has mine. Interestingly (?) my status has now been reduced from Gold to Preferred. I'm awaiting a reply from SPG as to why this has happened.

Ordinarily the rules seem pretty clear, that the Gold status will only apply to one name 'per interest'. In my view, my wife and I have an interest each, let's see what SPG has to say about it!

seenett · Mar 11, 2006

damorgan said:
My wife and I bought two weeks at WMH. Both weeks were joint purchases but one has her name first on the deed, the other has mine. Interestingly (?) my status has now been reduced from Gold to Preferred. I'm awaiting a reply from SPG as to why this has happened.

Ordinarily the rules seem pretty clear, that the Gold status will only apply to one name 'per interest'. In my view, my wife and I have an interest each, let's see what SPG has to say about it!

That's good thinking - In that case, Starwood wouldn't have a leg to stand on for not giving you both SPG gold - you would each be considered to have seperate Starwood ownerships.

HOWEVER - this is a double edged sword. If this is the way they end up interpreting your ownership, then by rule you and your wife won't be able to combine StarOptions to trade in the network. StarOptions can not be pooled or transfered between different members!

vic714 · Mar 11, 2006

seenett said:
HOWEVER - this is a double edged sword. If this is the way they end up interpreting your ownership, then by rule you and your wife won't be able to combine StarOptions to trade in the network. StarOptions can not be pooled or transfered between different members!

Good point. You would also have a harder time being able to use those staroptions to count towards gaining elite status. Assuming that the purchase was made from Starwood.

Victor

damorgan · Mar 12, 2006

seenett said:
That's good thinking - In that case, Starwood wouldn't have a leg to stand on for not giving you both SPG gold - you would each be considered to have seperate Starwood ownerships.

HOWEVER - this is a double edged sword. If this is the way they end up interpreting your ownership, then by rule you and your wife won't be able to combine StarOptions to trade in the network. StarOptions can not be pooled or transfered between different members!

I expect I'm going to lose out one way or the other. In fact, our two weeks are counted together for trading and Elite status purposes (because they are husband and wife joint purchase/ownership). I've just been informed by SPG that my Gold status should continue for "as long as fees for purchase are in good standing" and they suggest I contact SVO. There's no way my fees are in default so let's see what SVO says now!

grgs · Mar 12, 2006

damorgan said:
I expect I'm going to lose out one way or the other. In fact, our two weeks are counted together for trading and Elite status purposes (because they are husband and wife joint purchase/ownership). I've just been informed by SPG that my Gold status should continue for "as long as fees for purchase are in good standing" and they suggest I contact SVO. There's no way my fees are in default so let's see what SVO says now!

I just dug this out of the SPG terms and conditions:

Starwood Vacation Ownership Share Owners who are members of the Starwood Vacation Network and/or Vistana Plus program will automatically receive Gold Preferred status. One owner will be enrolled per interval(s) purchased.

It seems to me that if you and your wife own more than one interval, you both should be able to have Gold status. It also seems pretty clear that with one interval only one of the couple is entitled to Gold. However, from this thread it's clear that SVO sales people either don't know this or are willfully glossing over this detail. And the fact remains that both my husband and I were Gold for over a year until last month.

Anyway, damorgan, let us know SVO says. I've sent them two e-mails about this, but they have not responded back to me yet.

Glorian

damorgan · Mar 14, 2006

Well the reply from SVO says '...we have asked our Starpoints team to review your account at SPG and make the necessary adjustments....' In other words, I presume I'll be put back to Gold status with SPG.

Just to recap, my wife and I have joint ownership of two weeks at WMH. My name is first on the deed for one week, my wife's name is first on the deed for the other. We both qualify for SPG Gold status and our joint ownership is combined for Elite status and trading.

No explanation from SVO as to why my Gold status was dropped in error, but it hasn't cost me anything. Overall, I think both SVO and SPG provide a great product.

grgs · Mar 19, 2006

Update

SVO emailed back to let me know that my Gold SPG status has been reinstated. I check my SPG account to confirm that this was the case, and I am now showing as Gold. A day or two ago I phoned SVO on another matter, and the rep indicated that this issue of the secondary owner getting demoted was a "known" problem they were working. This is interesting as the SPG terms and conditions indicate that only one owner per interval will be Gold. I'm starting to think that there may have been a misunderstanding between SVO and SPG. So perhaps the SVO salespersons who said that both owners would be Gold were acting in good faith. I hope so.

Glorian

BuckeyeAndy · Mar 28, 2006

My wife and I had this exact same situation (we own one EOY at WKORV North) and had been asking SVO about this as well. They left a message for us this week to confirm that they are fixing this issue for many other members and that the account that had reverted from Gold would be reinstated - they were true to their word as my account now says gold again. It's nice to know that customer service is still important as this could have been a really bad example of "bait and switch" selling tactics. It's also nice to know we weren't alone on this one either!

iluvwdw · Mar 30, 2006

Funny, I had the same problem this week. DH just got his new card and was downgraded to Preferred Plus. Meanwhile, he was GOLD with ELITE LEVEL on the card before! When I called to find out why, they said we hadn't met the required hotel stays for Gold membership. Then I went on to tell her we own SVO and she had to look into it...she came back on the line and reinstated his Gold membership, but advised me to call SVO for them to make a note on my account. Apparantly SVO is supposed to make some sort of notation on the account so SPG can see it. In DH's case, they did not. I have to contact SVO to clear it up. I called today and the hold time was longer than 10 minutes and I didn't have the time to hang on.

I never did get my card yet. BTW, we own 3 weeks (4 accounts). His name is first on two, my name is first on 2.

Will · Mar 31, 2006

I also received my new card and it was preferred plus instead of Gold, when I called I was told that they had received quite a few calls regarding this problem with SVO owners, but she immediately said that I would be issued a gold card to replace the preferred plus.

Btw, when I got my card last year I inquired as to why there was no elite designation since this is supposed to be one of the benefits of elite membership. I was told that it was designated elite in the SVO system and didn't need to be on the card, have other elite members received gold cards with the Elite designation and has this helped you at other Starwood properties besides SVO?

Will

formerhater · Mar 31, 2006

Mine says "SVN Elite" on it. My wife's card, which was issued last year before we attained SVN elite status, says "Starwood Vacation Owner" on it.

mesamirage · Oct 28, 2006

Changing Deed and Primary owner (for SPG Gold status)

Reviving an old post, I just purchased a Sheraton Desert Oasis (1 bedroom Premium EOY for under $1k) from a friend, do you think it is possible to just add my name to the deed and then somehow direct Starwood to change the "primary" on the account so that I could recieve the SPG Lifetime Gold card??

Steve

ccy · Oct 28, 2006

We purchased a VV resale about 4 weeks ago. 2 days ago my hubby received a SPG gold card (it says elite status on the brochure), the card says "Starwood Vacation Owner" on it. Could that mean that it has already passed the resort's ROFR? Thanks.

influential · Oct 28, 2006

Does the resort have ROFR?

Denise L · Oct 28, 2006

ccy said:
We purchased a VV resale about 4 weeks ago. 2 days ago my hubby received a SPG gold card (it says elite status on the brochure), the card says "Starwood Vacation Owner" on it. Could that mean that it has already passed the resort's ROFR? Thanks.

I have not heard of Starwood exercising its ROFR at this resort. It rarely exercises ROFR, as far as I know.

I'm surprised you are receiving a Gold card on a resale, and that this card has arrived before you have heard from your closing company about the deed being recorded?! Usually, you would buy, close, record, and then the resort would be notified.

Congrats on your purchase!

SVO/SPG Question

grgs

TUG Review Crew

temerson

short

seenett

nell

grgs

TUG Review Crew

formerhater

EileenSRN

rubbernyc

damorgan

seenett

vic714

damorgan

grgs

TUG Review Crew

damorgan

grgs

TUG Review Crew

BuckeyeAndy

iluvwdw

Will

formerhater

mesamirage

ccy

influential

Denise L

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