Westin Desert Willow....

http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4027992.html

Desert Willow

Starwood Vacation Ownership Acquires Land from Intrawest Corporation for a New Resort in Palm Desert, California

ORLANDO, Fla. | Starwood Vacation Ownership (SVO), a division of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT), today announced it has finalized the acquisition of 28.7 acres in the established Desert Willow development from Intrawest Corporation (NYSE:IDR). Starwood Vacation Ownership will build a Westin-branded vacation ownership resort within the upscale Palm Desert, California development.

"We are excited to extend our presence in southern California with our second Westin-branded vacation ownership resort in the area. Desert Willow is a tremendous location in an important market which is a proven winner for high-end vacation ownership resorts," said Raymond L. "Rip" Gellein, Jr., chief executive officer of Starwood Vacation Ownership.

Centrally located within Palm Desert, Desert Willow Golf Resort offers spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and has won numerous accolades for its course design and commitment to protect the environment. Owned by the city of Palm Desert, the two championship courses are among the best public golf courses in the country. The Westin Vacation Ownership resort will include luxury villas, a clubhouse and reception building, a lavish swimming pool and expansive grounds, a game room, a fitness center and a sales center. Construction is scheduled to begin on the new villas in 2007 with preconstruction sales to begin later this year. The design of the villas and sales center will complement the existing architecture and style of Desert Willow. Starwood Vacation Ownership sold out its first vacation ownership resort in the region, the Westin Mission Hills Resort & Villas, in 2005 and continues to operate that property.

This will be the eighth Westin Vacation Ownership resort either completed or in development including resorts in Maui; Kauai; California; Arizona; Cancun; St. John, USVI; and Aruba. In addition to Westin, SVO is developing vacation ownership resorts under the Sheraton brand and high-end fractional residences under the St. Regis brand.

Intrawest currently has a high-end vacation ownership resort, Club Intrawest, on the adjoining property and has retained land to complete an expansion planned for doubling the number of Luxury Vacation Homes at Desert Willow.

Does anyone have an update on when they will start selling Desert Willow in Palm Desert, CA? Anyone at Westin Mission Hills now? Can you ask?

Also any guesses on what purchase price and MF would be at desert willow? We are thinking this would be a good place to do a requal (as MF will probably be a lot less)

I wonder if this resort will be a mandatory resort with the way Starwood seems to be moving away from mandatory resorts currently.

I wonder if this resort will be a mandatory resort

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It would be nice if we could ask Starwood, but until the resort is in sales and someone can go over the contract with a fine tooth comb, we will not know.

Some have speculated that tehre will not be any more "mandatory resorts". The consensus here on tug has been that that is a bad thing, and I totally understand that thinking. Let me give the other perspective. As somebody who bought a "voluntary resort" ignorant of any difference until after I had bought it. It might be nice for them to have an across the board strategy from now on as to eliminate "2 classes" of ownerships. Granted it would be nice if they went all madatory from now on, but if there plan is to go all voluntary and allow requalifications this is not that bad either-if it is at least consistent. and it will reward the folks who bought early on and were lucky enought to have bought mandatory resorts, much the same way worldmark rewarded the early purchasers with the no housekeeping accounts.

Bill4728 said:

It would be nice if we could ask Starwood, but until the resort is in sales and someone can go over the contract with a fine tooth comb, we will not know.

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Any idea when this resort will be selling?

duke said:

Any idea when this resort will be selling?

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We're in the desert visiting my in-laws for the weekend, so I took the opportunity to stop by Westin Mission Hills to get an update on Westin Desert Willow. They are not yet selling this resort. The salesperson suggested I check back next May or June--so it doesn't seem like they'll be getting this one off the ground soon! They are still selling Cancun and Hawaii at this location. She gave me folder with a price sheet on Cancun, but not Hawaii. The prices for Cancun are still the same as those listed on Denise's webpage:

http://www.freewebs.com/denisetravels/starwoodnews.htm

For the Gold season, they currently only have 2 bedrooms listed, no 1 bedrooms or studios. Given that the prices haven't changed since 8/05, I think sales must be slow.

Glorian

I am new to the process and very interested in buying a Starwood timeshare (my first timeshare)...mainly because of the flexibility aspect. I attended my first presentation this weekend and was told that DW will probably go on sale March 07 and there is also another prop slated for Poipu, HI in the next 12-18 months.

I didn't know better at the time to ask if DW is going to be mandatory or not...

Any general advice is much appreciated

Thanks!

longboarder37 said:

I am new to the process and very interested in buying a Starwood timeshare (my first timeshare)...mainly because of the flexibility aspect. I attended my first presentation this weekend and was told that DW will probably go on sale March 07 and there is also another prop slated for Poipu, HI in the next 12-18 months.

I didn't know better at the time to ask if DW is going to be mandatory or not...

Any general advice is much appreciated

Thanks!

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Welcome to TUG. First of all, if by flexibility you mean it is easy to trade into places like St. John, Harborside (Atlantis) and Maui...those can actually be tough trades, especially the first two. So if you are buying primarily to exchange - don't. Common wisdom says buy where you want to go.

If you mean the flexibility of converting your timeshare to hotel points, many of us do not feel it's a good value. For instance, if I convert my 2 bdm. Maui timeshare into hotel points, I would only get enough points for about a week in a standard hotel room. I don't think trading a week in a 2 bdm. condo for a week in a standard hotel room is a good deal at all!

Before you take the plunge, I hope you will hang around and do your homework here on TUG. Please consider buying resale at a mandatory resort. The only thing you lose is the ability to change into hotel points, and as I said above, that's no great loss. For example: someone who is at the Starwood resort on Maui right now just posted that the developer is still selling Island View (no view) weeks for $48,900, but, you can walk into any real estate office on Maui and buy a 2 bdm. OCEAN View unit for $35K, resale. And, if you take your time and search for a good deal, you might find one for even less.

Good hunting!

DeniseM said:

Welcome to TUG. First of all, if by flexibility you mean it is easy to trade into places like St. John, Harborside (Atlantis) and Maui...those can actually be tough trades, especially the first two. So if you are buying primarily to exchange - don't. Common wisdom says buy where you want to go

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Thanks for the warm welcome and info!!

It was my understanding that if I buy a Mandatory property I can use the StarOptions 8 months out to make a reservation at any location and at any time as long as I have enough options. Was I miss informed....or do you you mean there is a very small chance that 8 months out, I'll be able to get the time frame I'm shooting for in a place like HI?

Thanks again,
Scott

longboarder37 said:

It was my understanding that if I buy a Mandatory property I can use the StarOptions 8 months out to make a reservation at any location and at any time as long as I have enough options. Was I miss informed....or do you you mean there is a very small chance that 8 months out, I'll be able to get the time frame I'm shooting for in a place like HI?

Thanks again,
Scott

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It all depends on how flexible you are. If you're tied to the school calendar (i.e. peak season), then it may be difficult to reserve Harborside and St. John. Maui is a bit easier, but still not guaranteed during peak times. If you're not tied to the school calendar and are flexible, then using StarOptions becomes much easier.

Best of luck!

Glorian

Thanks!! Right now it's just my wife and I and we're very flexible. Who knows what 5-6 years down the road will bring...but we'll cross that bridge then.

Scott

longboarder37 said:

It was my understanding that if I buy a Mandatory property I can use the StarOptions 8 months out to make a reservation at any location and at any time as long as I have enough options. Was I miss informed....or do you you mean there is a very small chance that 8 months out, I'll be able to get the time frame I'm shooting for in a place like HI?

Thanks again,
Scott

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Scott - The problem is that currently there are about 12 resorts in the Starwood System and three of them: St. John, Harborside, and Maui are in very high demand. There is just no way that all the owners from the other 9 resorts are going to be able to exchange into the "Big 3" every year. Yes, if you are persistant, lucky, and flexible, it's possible, but it certainly isn't easy or guaranteed.

Obviously, all the owners at all the other resorts don't try to exchange into one of those 3 resorts every year, but for a week to even be available, an owner at the resort has to put it back in the pool and not use it themselves. Especially at St. John, owner occupancy is very high, and owners who can't use their own week can rent them for big bucks, so they are less likely to depost them with Starwood.

If you are buying with the idea of exchanging 1 out of 4 years and are very flexible, you should be OK. But if you are buying with the idea of exchanging into one of the more popular resorts most of the time, I think you will be disappointed. Making those exchanges from the West Coast means making a 5 a.m. phone call, starting at exactly 8 mos. out, and that can get tiresome after awhile, because you have to keep calling back every day at 5 a.m. until something opens up, or you give up.

This summer, I started trying at 8 mos. out for a St. John week in March and I was calling day after day at 5 a.m. (8 am in Florida where Owner Services is.) Finally, one of the Owner Services Reps. took pity on me and told me that the resort was already completely booked up for the whole month of March and there was already a waiting list of St. John owners waiting for any openings...

You mentioned Hawaii - if Hawaii is where you really want to go, you should buy a resale in Hawaii and then you will get the owner's preference for location. As an exchanger, you are likely to end up with a highway or construction view, because right now, at least 1/3 of the units have a highway or construction view. Owners, however, are guaranteed the view they purchase, if they make their resv. 12 - 8 mos. out.

I do think that with the additional units at St John, the opening of Cancun and Eventually Aruba will open up access to the top three resorts.

tomandrobin said:

I do think that with the additional units at St John, the opening of Cancun and Eventually Aruba will open up access to the top three resorts.

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I agree, but DeniseM makes very valid points especially for WSJ. Recall that the new WSJ BayView units will be operated as a separate resort so you will need to check for availibity for both resorts separately. Also, in the short run I don't see the new WSJ BV owners given up or exchanging their weeks anytime soon for the same reason as us WSJ Hillside (HS) owners. (lousy SO exchange value, rental value, or... just LOVE St John and have no plans to go anywhere else)

You do see more studios and 1 Bd HS units available at WSJ, but good luck finding 2 or 3 Bd. All of the new BV units are 2 and 3 Bd, but the WSJ SOs are still way out of whack with other SVN resorts. One good thing for future potential exchanges into WSJ is that SVO is limiting the number of fixed-week BV villas. The HS are all fixed and this makes exchanging within a season next to impossible.

As a 1st SVO TS purchase - many would recommend (including me) to first buy where you want to go. And some (at least me...) would recommend buying Mandatory resale, and then in the future either buy resale, or from the Developer if you want to 're-qualify' your first resale purchase to get into the SPG 'elite' program - if those benefits appeal to you. The SO to SP conversion that you give-up buying resale is not a good deal.