starwoodvillarentals.com

Hey Gang,

Lookie what I found (with a little help from Google) . . . ..

http://www.starwoodvillarentals.com/index.jsp

Check-out the "preferred partner " rates.

It would appear that our good friends at SVO Management, Inc. have elected to essentially give surplus inventory to its "preferred partners" rather than allow us owners a chance to upgrade our villas, and/or offer this same deal to us. It's interesting that the published booking window for these deals (30 days out) is the exact same window that use to exist for SVN 3* elite members to request upgrades . . . .

I'm feeling the love.

-nodge

Who are the preferred partners???

Also, it looks like the aren't offering the big dogs, but still, why aren't they offering this to OWNERS!!!
(I feel the love too!)

We appreciate your ongoing support and hope you enjoy the unique comforts
of our villas at these special prices. Prices not valid during holidays or Event Weeks:

Orlando, Florida
Sheraton Vistana Resort,
Lake Buena Vista
One-bedroom villa $89
Two-bedroom villa $129

Sheraton Vistana Villages,
International Drive
One-bedroom villa $99
Two-bedroom villa $139
Port St. Lucie, Florida

Sheraton PGA Vacation Resort
One-bedroom villa $89
Two-bedroom villa $119
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Sheraton Broadway Plantation
One-bedroom villa $89
Two-bedroom villa $119

Avon/Vail, Colorado
Sheraton Mountain Vista
One-bedroom villa $89

Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona
Sheraton Desert Oasis
One-bedroom villa $109

The Westin Kierland Villas
One-bedroom villa $129
Palm Desert, California

The Westin Mission Hills
Resort & Villas
One-bedroom villa $119

are those rates per night or week?

I am at Westin Mission Hills NOW and going to Owner Update in two hours -- boy am I going to ask where this money goes!!! Will report back if I get answers and not blank stares

Cathyb said:

I am at Westin Mission Hills NOW and going to Owner Update in two hours -- boy am I going to ask where this money goes!!! Will report back if I get answers and not blank stares

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Uh oh, theres gonna be some trouble in California! Go get'em Cathy!

If possible, see if they’ll answer any of these questions:

1. Who are the “preferred partners” under this deal?

2. When did this deal for “preferred partners” start?

3. Why did SVN give these “preferred partners” this deal, instead of offering this apparent surplus inventory to us owners at the same discounted rate?

4. What is the status of the SVN elite upgrade benefit? (Why not give surplus inventory to us owners in the form of an upgrade like SVN promised when we bought?)

5. What resources does SVN use to book this “preferred partner” benefit?

6. Who pays for those resources used to book this “preferred partner” benefit? (If it’s us owners, what payment is SVN making to us for allowing SVN to do this?)

7. If starwoodvillarental.com is aimed primarily at inducing 3rd party rentals of villas, why does it only list the “preferred partner” discount pricing? (Isn’t SVN villa rental handled through Starwood’s regular hotel on-line booking system anyway?)

8. If I give my villa to Starwood to rent, is there a chance Starwood will essentially give my villa to these “preferred partners” at the discounted rate and thereby leave me with virtually no income from the rental, rather than just giving me back my unrented week 30 days out? (If so, why would anyone ever list their rental with SVN?)

9. Why does SVN have an “owner services” department when it doesn’t provide any owner services, other than remove promised services used to induce the owner to buy? (Shouldn't its real name be either the "Owner Services Removal" Department or "Owner Leveraging Services?")

-nodge

I'd be interested in knowing if Starwood has ever provided an upgrade to a preferred partner (2bdr lo instead of 2bdr, newer phase, etc.) while denying an upgrade to an owner. It really is getting to a point that owners need to organize and help Starwood come to the realization that ownership should have it's privileges - other than to pay more for less!

"Preferred Partners" of SVN must not be very close to SVN. Starwoodvillarentals.com feels the need to have a "what is a villa" section.

It seems to me that if you are such a close partner of SVN so as to qualify for these great deals at the expense of owners who are actually footing the bill for them, you would at least know what a "villa" is.

Where do I sign-up to take on these dorks?

-nodge

I contacted them through the starwoodvillarentals.com website with a request to explain why these rates were not available to owners and why we are not considered preferred partners. Here is the response:

Good morning Mr. Slaunwhite:

Thanks for your inquiry regarding our preferred partner rates. The purpose of that website and the rates posted is to inform our travel industry partners (that market and sell our hotels for us) of information on our resorts and to provide them with the most current sales collateral and rates that they can pass on to their employees to come experience our resorts so that they may sell them better. As the management company for the SVO resorts we must ensure available rooms are occupied just as they would be in a traditional hotel and these partners help us to do that.

The rates you see on the flyer are strictly limited to our top partners so that their employees may become more familiar with the product they are selling. Those rates are not made available to the public and are also on a strict "space available" basis to our partners. In other words, they aren't given out often.

Hopefully this answers your question however if not I will be more than happy to assist your further. Thanks again and have a great day!

Sincerely,

Richard Dunbar
SVO Management, Inc.
(E) richard.dunbar@starwoodvo.com

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Notice he didn't address why owners in SVN aren't considered partners. I am amazed though at how quickly I received a response - Starwood must really be courting people who visit that website versus mystarcentral.

calgarygary said:

I am amazed though at how quickly I received a response - Starwood must really be courting people who visit that website versus mystarcentral.

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They probably already had their response canned for just this purpose.

So those rates are only for travel agents?

arlene22 said:

So those rates are only for travel agents?

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No travel partners and their employees - could be a secretary, janitor who knows? Only certain thing, not available to us!

I just love it when SVO Management Inc. attempts to explain its crazy, "screw you the owner” policies in writing. Let's analyze what SVO said . . . ..

“As the management company for the SVO resorts we must ensure available rooms are occupied just as they would be in a traditional hotel and these partners help us to do that.” SVO Management, Inc. 1/14/2007

Since when does a sustaining sold-out timeshare, which collects what money it needs to run the place in the form of annual fees paid by its owners so it doesn't make any darned difference whether anyone actually uses the place or not, ever need to “ensure available rooms are occupied just as they would be in a traditional hotel . . ..?”

(Moreover, even if SVO’s position were true, wouldn’t the same logic apply to big dog SVN properties (WSJ, Maui, Kauai, Harborside) too, yet SVO has excluded them from this deal)

Most of the properties on the list have been sold-out for years. Accordingly, the need to “ensure available rooms are occupied” stems from SVO’s own personal need to fill seats in the SVO sales offices, not any need we owners have. SVO is just saying that it prefers new, fresh meat at its sales presentation instead of us owners, and when faced with essentially giving excess inventory away, it would rather give it to this fresh meat rather than honor its pre-existing obligations to us.

For the record, SVO Management, Inc.’s travel agent deal violates at least the following two pre-existing SVO obligations to us owners:

1. Sheraton Desert Oasis CCR’s (and maybe others) expressly set forth owner rights to “bonus time,” whereby we can rent excess inventory at heavily discounted rates; and,

2. As an incentive to induce us to purchase additional SVO timeshares, SVO promised us elite owners IN WRITING no less that excess inventory would be offered to us in the form of upgrades when available.

To promise us owners these things (in CCR’s and in written sales contract documents) and then turn around and offer this excess inventory to travel agent janitors and secretaries instead is just plain vindictive.

SVO Management Inc. appears to recognize that it has squandered virtually all good-will it had with us owners, and I certainly can’t dispute that conclusion. Hey Starwood’s parent company!!! Do you think that maybe a big part of the reason that SVO had a $150 million short-fall last year could have something to do with the fact that you have an utterly incompetent upper management team at SVO that makes boneheaded decisions like this?

Nevertheless, despite SVO Management Inc.’s contempt for us owners, it still has a fiduciary duty to look out for our best interests. Filling up our timeshares with travel agency employed janitors and secretaries on our nickel all while ignoring its earlier promises to us owners certainly falls far short of that duty.

Are any of those RCI class action attorneys out there reading this? We’ve got another case for you . . ..

-nodge

I don't have a copy of my resort's operating budget handy. Does anyone know if there is a revenue line for these type of rentals or does it go straight to Starwood? If there isn't a revenue line, that would be deserving of a followup with Mr. Dunbar.

Sorry, I didn't see your request until after the meeting -- which they gave a flimsy answer. See my other post on the Owner Update.

i do not think the revenue for the renting out of TS will be going into the budget we see. it will be part of the starwood hotel system.

when we convert our units to starpoints ,the revenue they get from those units at the TS goes into the hotel revenue.

the only revenue for the TS is from our maintenance fees.i am not sure of the revenue that comes in if we give starwood our units to rent through them, the 50, 50 deal. i bet their portion still goes under the hotel umbrella.

so the sales of these timeshare units at such a low rate has nothing to do with our inventory, it is the units they have left from unsold TS weeks, the conversion to starpoints and the ones they own to use for their own perks.

don't like it but it is what it is. they have their butts covered.

pointsjunkie said:

they have their butts covered.

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I don’t think they do on this one.

I agree that some of this excess inventory is either Starwood owned or something it is otherwise entitled to (i.e. an owner exchanged it for StarPoints, etc.), but some of it is also stuff that owners just plain didn’t use. (Yes, I know its unconscionable for us Tuggers to think such things happen, but they do).

Given the fact that SVN Management, Inc.’s computer systems can’t even reliably send out confirming emails for reservations, I highly doubt SVN is able to figure out which inventory in any given week is true SVN-entitled inventory vs. just plain owner forfeited weeks. Rather, SVN Management Inc, puts its grubby mitts on ALL excess inventory in any given week by both limiting our access to it 30 days out (after SVN “rents” it to the travel agency secretary, we can no longer even book it using StarOptions, etc.,) and by preventing us from even obtaining the same heavily discounted rental rate.

Sheraton Desert Oasis’ CCR’s have express terms requiring unused owner weeks to be made available to owners for a nominal fee in the form of “bonus time.” Have any SDO owners had any luck actually obtaining “bonus time” since SVO Management, Inc. implemented this travel agency deal? I know I’ve been skunked at least twice over the last year, with one agent even telling me that the SDO “bonus time” program had been “discontinued.”

This, combined with SVN Management, Inc.’s abrupt cancellation of the elite upgrade benefit, all seems really fishy to me.

-nodge

good point. either way we can't win.

nodge said:

This, combined with SVN Management, Inc.’s abrupt cancellation of the elite upgrade benefit, all seems really fishy to me.

-nodge

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So really, it's our butts they have covered. Ouch.

Travel Industry Partners

I assume by this they mean Travel Agencies or other Travel Brokers. Hospitality companies have always given "Agent Rates" out to the Travel Industry in general. The villas are offered on the website and appear to be commissionable to the agents. As such, I would expect that they would offer agent rates to them.

Hi Gravitar! Welcome to TUG!

I see that you are a Starwood owner - I hope you will vote on the two polls at the top of the board, and check out the other resources up there too.

Again - Welcome!

DeniseM said:

Hi Gravitar! Welcome to TUG!

I see that you are a Starwood owner - I hope you will vote on the two polls at the top of the board, and check out the other resources up there too.

Again - Welcome!

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Thanks, voted already! Been lurking here for a few weeks. Been on FT for almost 10 years...

Looking forward to participating here