Westin St. John Bay Vista Weeks

Hey St. Johners!
I have been speaking with Jim Johnson at Starwood VC sales. He's sent me the new pricing on the Bay Vista units. I am shopping for a week (or two at WSJ) and here's what I can tell you about the "new" Bay Vista units:

Negatives:

1. View? Although they are called "Bay Vista", a better title for them should be perhaps "roof vista". Starwood states that you may or may not get a view of the bay in these units.

2. Size. The 3 bedroom units are about half the size of the hillside units. Also there is no pool. The 2 bedroom loft unit is larger than the bay vista
3 bedroom.

3. Pricey! It's obvious Westin knows what they have in the St. John property. Because it is so difficult to trade into this property and because of the fixed week format, Westin has chosen to propose a tiered rate structure. You can Reserve fixed weeks in the Ultra Premium Prime, or the
Platinum Plus levels, or for a great deal less you can choose to purchase a floating week. A floating week in Platinum Plus (weeks 1 - 18, 51, 52) go for
3bdrm: $88k, 2br Loft: $80k, 2bdrm: $63k. Fixed weeks go for $116k, $70k and $51k respectively. You can currently get a 3 bedroom villa in Platinum Winter for about $55k. Furthermore, the seasons have been tweeked. Platinum Winter used to go until week 15, now it has been expanded through week 18! I wonder if that changes Star Option for the Hillside owners that have weeks 16, 17 and 18?????

The Positive:
1. Closer to the pool.
2. All new amenities
3. I imagine more flexibility for hillside owners who need to trade weeks?

Oh well...I think I prefer a Hillside villa...

My 2 bits.

The three bedroom units are not located on the hillside and do not have a view. Of course, they have a wonderful private courtyard with a small pool.

Hillside units are the studio, one bedroom lofts and two bedrooms. Pam

Pam...The NEW UNITS are on the Hillside

They are builing 96 or so new Bay Vista units. The new 3bedrooms won't have the pools....thus I believe will make the Pool Villas even more expensive.

The Star Options are what confuses me...

The new Bay Vista Villas will offer the following

3 bedrooms =
Weeks 1- 18, 51 & 52 = 148,100 SO

The Old 3 Bedroom Pool Villas offer the following:
Weeks 1 - 15 51, 52 = 148,100 SO

So by extending the Platinum Plus season to week 18 for the new Bay Vista units, are the old villa owners owning weeks 16, 17, and 18 getting screwed???? Or, will they change how each season is calculated for all the villas both old and new??

SVO/SVN does the right to alter the SOs - keep in mind that WSJ HS and BV will be run as two seperate entities (sp?) - I own week 24 (Hillside, 2Bd TH) which is in a different season if it was BayView and only has 67.1 SOs associated with it.

I love the HS pool - eventhough the resort pool is fun - I love being able to BBQ and swim just a few steps away.

Interesting that SVO/SVN haven't included the BV villas in the SO chart - yet they have for Princeville - and WSJ BV villas will open sooner.